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    Family-Style Vietnamese

    East Dallas favorite Mot Hai Ba takes the lid off new dinner menu

    Teresa Gubbins
    Apr 4, 2014 | 1:54 pm

    Having exposed us to the thrills of Hanoi-style street food, East Dallas Vietnamese restaurant Mot Hai Ba has launched a new dinner menu that focuses on the family side of dining, with shareable plates and sides. Chef-owners Colleen O'Hare and Jeana Johnson are still emphasizing the same authentic flavors and ingredients, but they have redefined their presentation.

     

    "We're exploring the realm of a Vietnamese family-style dinner," Johnson says. "We've recast our approach to doing entrees. Previously, we had everything in one bowl for you to eat. This becomes more about sharing a meal."

     
     

      "We're exploring the realm of a Vietnamese family-style dinner," says co-owner Jeana Johnson says.

     

     

    The shift comes as Mot Hai Ba celebrates its one-year anniversary. Johnson and O'Hare brought these unique Hanoi-style dishes to Dallas after studying the cuisine in Vietnam. Zagat rated the restaurant one of the 25 most important in the country in 2013, and it made D Magazine's 2013 top 10 list. Most important of all, Mot Hai Ba was voted best restaurant of 2013 by CultureMap readers.

     

    Observing that many tables were already sharing, Johnson and O'Hare decided to move toward a more authentic experience. "This gives you an opportunity to eat dinner the way you would if you were actually in Vietnam," Johnson says.

     

    New dishes include fried chicken with coconut-poached corn, bamboo spicy shrimp, whole fried fish, quail with yellow curry and "street-style" duck leg. And there's a new menu of sides, such as roasted mushrooms and jasmine rice, all big enough to share.

     

    The fried chicken is a half chicken, broken into parts that's steamed, dredged in potato starch, and fried until the outside gets thick and crunchy. The potato starch makes it gluten-free. "Gluten-intolerant people usually can't eat fried chicken," Johnson says.

     

    The whole fried fish is branzino, which is scored, fried until crispy, then topped with marinated julienned vegetables and fish sauce. The duck leg is marinated in fermented red and white bean paste and grilled until the skin crackles.

     

    They've replaced the whole crab in the shell — some customers found it too messy — with lump crab and black noodles in a dark seafood sauce that Johnson says "smells and tastes just like Vietnam."

     

    Sides are all new. Asparagus is tossed in a lime-fish sauce vinaigrette, then topped with carrot, bean sprout and six-minute egg. Roasted mushrooms — all Asian varieties such as enoki and maitake — are drizzled with sesame oil and soy, and slow-roasted. There's a green vegetable of the day that might be long beans, Chinese broccoli or baby bok choy.

     

    Garlic noodles are simple perfection: egg noodles made fresh — "close to here, and they're kick-ass to start with," Johnson says — blanched, then cloaked in a sauce of garlic, butter and chopped scallions.

     

    Tempura okra consists of whole pods, fried in a tempura batter until crisp, not slimy. It's a sweet throwback to the previous tenant, York Street, whose fried okra received many raves.

     

    Some items they kept, including the marinated grilled fish of the day with dill and yogurt, and the signature shaking beef. "We had to keep the shaking beef," Johnson says. "There's no getting rid of that dish. There would have been a cross burning. Every table gets the shaking beef and the grilled fish."

     

    And they haven't changed the lunch menu. "Not yet — but we will change the lunch menu," she says.

    New Mot Hai Ba dinner menu includes a whole fried fish.

    Mot Hai Ba whole fish
      
    Photo by Teresa Gubbins
    New Mot Hai Ba dinner menu includes a whole fried fish.
    chefs
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    Ice Cream News

    Brooklyn Italian ice & ice cream shop makes Texas debut in Richardson

    Teresa Gubbins
    Jul 7, 2025 | 5:05 pm
    Uncle Louie G's
    scontent-dfw5-3.xx.fbcdn.net
    Uncle Louie G's

    A small, artisan frozen dessert shop from Brooklyn has made its Texas debut: Called Uncle Louie G's Italian Ice & Ice Cream, it's now open in Richardson at 7522 Campbell Rd., where it's scooping up Italian ice, ice cream, and related frozen desserts with a real authentic East Coast vibe.

    Uncle Louie G's was founded by namesake Louie G. decades ago, then expanded by family members in the 2000s. It's now owned by brother-and-sister team Melissa and Ernie Aiello, and has 10 locations in the New York-New Jersey-Staten Island area. It's famous for its blue-striped awning, and flavors with tribute names like NYPD Blue, FDNY Cherry, Coney Island Cotton Candy, Holi Cannoli, and Soprano Spumoni.

    DFW is big on shaved ice, which differs from Italian ice both in texture and ingredients. Italian ice is smooth and creamy, like sorbet, and is made by churning ingredients — water, fruit, sugar — just as you churn ice cream. Shaved ice is a block of ice that's shaved, then flavored with syrup.

    Unlike the sugar and flavoring used by many shaved ice vendors, Uncle Louie G's The Italian ice is made with real fruit. And its ice cream is 14 percent butterfat (Haagen Dazs is 14 to 16 percent).

    They have nearly 50 flavors of ice and 34 flavors of ice cream, some with a Northeast slant like Spumoni, Maple Walnut, and Black Razzberry. There are novel fruit flaves like banana, cantaloupe, watermelon, and passion fruit; rich decadent flavors like pistachio, creamsicle, and chocolate peanut-butter cup; and quirky, inventive flavors like blue bubble gum, cake batter, chocolate jelly ring, cotton candy, and sweetish fish.

    Ice cream flavors range from rocky road to rum raisin to salted caramel to chocolate Nutella to butter pecan. Stores choose a smaller selection to feature daily.

    Milkshakes also have a Northeast vibe, with flavors such as blackout and old-fashioned black and white, featuring chocolate syrup with vanilla ice cream. There are also iced coffee drinks, sundaes, ice cream floats, old fashioned egg cream, and a frozen hot chocolate.

    The Richardson location is a franchise from Zabi Surti and her husband, who left their careers in healthcare and the aviation industry and moved here three years ago.

    "We previously lived in Savannah, Georgia, and would go get Italian ice," Surti says. "When we moved to Dallas, the Texas heat got to us, and we went looking for something sweet, light, and refreshing. But there were no Italian ice places here."

    They loved Uncle Louie because of the quality and the fact that the menu offers something for everyone — from avowed ice cream fans to dairy-free. The space has 4 to 5 tables inside and an outside patio.

    "We looked at many locations but we wanted to be part of a nice neighborhood with residents who would appreciate this kind of gourmet shop," Surti says. "The university is nearby, the neighborhood is great, and the area does not have anything like it — capturing the essence of classic Italian frozen desserts with a modern twist."

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