This week in gluttony

These are the 11 best food and drink events in Dallas this week

It's going to be a good week for soup.

Photo courtesy of Uchiba

A new month brings a slew of new events along with the Lunar New Year, and there are plenty of ways to celebrate. Many restaurants are offering Year of the Tiger menu specials, and one, an Asian-themed high tea service. It’s also still Girl Scout Cookie season, and there’s a beer pairing event to go with that. Also on the long list this week is a five-course dinner featuring five local chefs, a cocktail class, two weekend brunches (one with bubbly and the other with beer), and a 14-course dessert tasting intended only for gal pals.

Tuesday, February 1

Lunar New Year at Nuri Grill
The upscale Asian-inspired steakhouse will celebrate Lunar New Year with a $29 special available Tuesday through Saturday. The multicourse meal includes rice cake soup, shrimp pancake, and braised short rib with white radish, pear, and green onion. Reservations recommended.

Lunar New Year at Wok Star Chinese
The festive downtown Dallas Chinese restaurant and bar will celebrate the Year of the Tiger with an extravagant performance by a local dance troupe, set to start at 6 pm. Start the party at 5 pm for specials on dumplings and cocktails, as well as giveaways.

Girl Scout Cookie & Beer Pairing at Lakewood Growler
The East Dallas neighborhood taproom will offer a brew tasting paired with Girl Scout Cookies. The pairings include Adventurefuls with 3 Nations Brewing Mexican Chocolate Stout, Trefoils with Odell Brewing Co. 90 Shilling Ale, S’mores with Karbach Brewing Co. Brewsanity, and Lemon Ups with Founders Brewing Co. All Day Haze. The entire ensemble is $13 while it lasts.

Wednesday, February 2

Lunar New Year High Tea at The Adolphus
Celebrate the Lunar New Year with high tea in The French Room at The Adolphus. Guests can enjoy a special themed tea service with a dim sum-inspired savory course and traditional pastries featuring East Asian flavors. Sandwiches include char sui pork in duck buns, primavera spring rolls, shrimp and pork steamed dumplings, and chicken and zucchini steamed dumplings. Tea cake and pastry menu highlights include honeyed caramel candy, red berry tart, and Mandarin orange ganache truffle. The experience is $65 for adults and $30 for children under 12, plus tax and gratuity. Reservations will be taken from 11 am-2:45 pm Wednesday through Sunday.

Thursday, February 3

Chef’s Night at Terra
Five local chefs will collaborate on a five-course dinner hosted by Eataly Dallas. The Italian food destination will welcome Tiffany Derry of Roots Southern Table, Brandon Pappalardo of Suburban Yacht Club, and Junior Borges of Meridian to work with Eataly chefs Jake Epstein and Michael Lawson. Menu items will be inspired by each of the chefs’ own specialties, and each course will be paired with Italian wines. The dinner is $150 per person and begins at 7 pm. A portion of the proceeds will benefit North Texas Food Bank.

Cocktail Class at Tricky Fish
Preston Hollow’s new Tricky Fish location will host its first cocktail class featuring Roxor Gin. Participants will be guided through creating two full-size gin cocktails to be enjoyed with lots of bar bites. The event is $25 per person, and two lucky guests will win either a $25 Tricky Fish gift card or a bottle of Roxor Gin. Class begins at 6 pm.

Saturday, February 5

Champagne Brunch at Trova Wine + Market
There’ll be champagne paired with every luscious course during this posh brunch event. Menu items include sourdough apple doughnuts, smoked salmon and caviar on bagels, truffled potato-mushroom frittata, brisket and parsnip hash, and citrus tea cake. Tickets are $94 per person, plus tax and gratuity, and brunch begins at 11 am.

La Cruda Hangover Brunch at Four Corners Brewing Co.
This once-a-month Saturday taproom brunch will feature cajeta-filled churro doughnuts, breakfast tacos, migas tacos, a loaded burrito called “Todo lo Imaginable,” and Four Corners' new “Buchalada” boozy kombucha seltzers. Visit from 12-3 pm, when a live DJ will be playing, too.

Galentine’s 14-Course Dessert Omakase & Tasting at Hall Arts Hotel
Get the gal-pals get together to celebrate friendships over food and drink. Girl groups can splurge on sweet desserts during this one-hour experience that comes with 14 indulgent courses. Seats are $135 per person and the event begins promptly at 3 pm.

Monday, February 7

Silverado Vineyards Wine Dinner at Sea Breeze Fish Market & Grill
The Plano seafood destination will transport diners to the West Coast with a five-course dinner featuring the Stags Leap District Silverado Vineyards. The seafood-centric menu will feature shrimp and scallop escabeche, jumbo lump crab arancini, escargot and caviar with linguini and black garlic, and red wine braised short rib for the meat eaters. Each course will be paired with wine, except dessert, which will pair red velvet cheesecake with a Black Cherry Bourbon Smash cocktail. Dinner is $125 per person, plus tax and gratuity, and cocktail hour begins at 6 pm.

Uncommon Ramen at Uchiba
The Japanese hideaway discreetly located above Uchi in Uptown Dallas will invite Matt Balke of Oak Cliff’s Encina to collaborate on some “uncommon ramen” for this monthly event. Balke’s a la carte bowls will include a vegetarian option with mushroom broth and green apple Chow Chow, and “Matt’s Bowl,” which comes with beef cheek pastrami. There’ll also be a crispy pork jowl bao. The menu will be available from 5-11 pm and reservations are encouraged.

dinner news-you-can-eat desserts holidays

Asian Food News

Taste of Malaysia restaurant brings rare Asian cuisine to Dallas area

Taste of Malaysia

A new restaurant has debuted in Coppell with a cuisine that's relatively rare in Dallas. Called Taste of Malaysia, it's now open at 3001 Olympus Blvd #130, at the Sound at Cypress Waters, between an Ari's Italian market and a Kilwin's ice cream shop, where it's serving authentic Malaysian dishes and flavors — adding another option to Dallas' burgeoning Asian restaurant scene.

A neighbor to Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia, Malaysia has been described as having some of the best street food in Southeast Asia, boasting a mix of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and indigenous flavors. Signature dishes include satays — skewered meats — plus vividly spiced soups and rice dishes.

The country's national dish is nasi lemak, a beloved comfort food originally devised as a breakfast staple, featuring fragrant rice cooked in coconut milk with pandan leaves, sometimes enhanced with boiled egg and sliced cucumber and ikan bilis, i.e. anchovies.

Coming in at a close second is laksa, a spicy noodle soup made with rice noodles or egg noodles in a broth flavored with aromatic spices, shrimp paste, and coconut milk or tamarind.

These are the dishes that natives of Malaysia and fans of Malaysian food crave, says Shiva Nair, part of the team, along with his wife, Vsruti "Vish" Nair, that opened Taste of Malaysia.

Shiva has more than 20 years in the hospitality business including managing hotels and running other restaurants.

"There are a lot of Malaysians here in Dallas-Fort Worth but not many Malaysian restaurants," Shiva says. "That's what gave us the idea to open this."

Their menu features seven varieties of nasi lemak — including vegetable curry, chicken curry, slow cooked beef, slow-cooked chicken, fried chicken, fish, and spicy shrimp — all made with coconut rice, peanuts, boiled egg, and cucumber.

They also have fried rice, noodle dishes, satay chicken skewers, spring rolls, a samosa-style pastry with potatoes and vegetables called karipap, and a chicken "kutlet" — a breaded patty with minced chicken enclosed in a crunchy crust.

All of their meat is halal, meaning that the animals are raised and butchered in accordance with Islamic guidelines — a growing trend in Dallas-Fort Worth.

There's a full bar and the ultimate lure for timid diners: a lunchtime buffet, $18 on weekdays and $20 on weekends, with 15 to 20 dishes, with chicken, shrimp, fish, and vegetarian and vegan options, which are plentiful in Malaysian cuisine.

"We serve the buffet only at lunch, so that those who are unfamiliar with the cuisine can sample every dish," Shiva says.

"We saw an opportunity to bring Malaysian flavors to North Texas, a region hungry for authentic, halal-certified Asian food with real spicing and real heritage," he says.

openings coppell asian cuisine