Friday, September 12, 2008

UPDATED: Best Bites: Dining out in Dallas-Fort Worth September 12

By Teresa Gubbins

Updated 02:05 a.m., September 15, 2008

Box of chocolates from Sublime

ALLEN — Sublime Chocolate is a new chocolatier in Allen, offering chocolates made by the hand of owner Troy Easton, who opened the small store in August with his wife Bliss.

Easton, an ex-lawyer with culinary training who studied with famed Connecticut chocolate-maker Fritz Knipschildt, had been making chocolates out of his home for more than a year when the couple decided to launch a store. Their original intent had been to open a chocolate-themed restaurant in the hot new Watters Creek complex, but the real estate situation didn't work out and so they went with Plan B and opened this chocolaterie.

Their selection includes chocolates, chocolate bars, and some bagged items such as clusters and chocolate-covered pretzels. The chocolates currently come in 14 flavors, including milk chocolate caramel, mango, dark chocolate caliente, coconut, and caramel with sea salt.

"I added three new flavors last week," Easton says. "Since it's Texas, my wife suggested one with a pecan pie filling. And my brother-in-law likes Turkish coffee, so I made a Turkish coffee truffle."

Many people use the word "truffle" inaccurately to identify any filled chocolate.

"In New York, any kind of molded chocolate, you'd call it a bonbon or a praline," he says. "Here, they use 'truffles' to mean a chocolate with a soft center. All those words have become semi-interchangeable."

Unlike a certain other chocolate-making couple who've been reluctant to discuss their manufacturing process, Easton is quick to divulge that he gets his chocolate mostly from Belcolade and Valrhona, supplemented by a 75% extra-bitter chocolate from Schokinag that he says adds "a little kick."

"I'm a chocolatier, like J. Dorian, I aspire to be like him, he's a good guy," Easton says. "The big thing is the flavors I make. People who know me know that one day I'll try to make my own chocolate from the beans."

ROCC on

ROCC is an oddly-named new Asian-fusion restaurant located in the Village on the Green center across from Galleria Dallas (the same Village on the Green that was home to the now-defunct BLT Steak).

ROCC is a family operation spearheaded by Mike Pham, who previously owned Thai Tango in Flower Mound (which he has since sold).

The version of fusion at ROCC runs pretty high-end in dishes such as crispy fried red snapper topped with ginger cream sauce with choice of fried rice with basil or jalapeno-fried rice. The "ROCC"en beef is a spin on shaken beef with sirloin steak sautéed in garlic brown sauce on a bed of watercress & tomato -- all from family recipes, says younger brother Jason.

"They've either been in our family for years, or else from our chefs' family recipes," he says. "We have chefs from Thailand, Vietnam, whatever dishes we create, we bring in a chef."

Sushi new

Pomegranate purchased at grocery on September 11, the first of the fall '08 season.

Sushi Irasshai is a new sushi place that sets up camp rather boldly, across Park Boulevard from Awaji,* one of the oldest and best sushi places in Plano. But Irasshai stands to give Awaji a run for its money; it comes from the former owner of Sushi Sapporo, who sold that Oak Lawn place earlier this year. Located in the space that used to be Moe's Southwest Grill, Irasshai will have the same reliable sushi as Sapporo, but will it have the trannie shows?

Autumn is here

Exhibit #1: Pomegranates have arrived at the grocery store.

Exhibit #2: Pumpkin spice latte has arrived at Starbucks.

*UPDATE: A second branch of Sushi Awaji has opened in Irving.

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Comments

Donna Chen Verified

Oh good, not all chocolate news this week has been bad news.

2 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )