Dating 101

Order the right drink on a first date or you could die alone

This woman is drinking a beer on a date. Statistically, she is not desirable.

Courtesy photo

First dates are fraught with myriad speed bumps that could thwart a sequel to dinner and a movie. You can talk about yourself too much or bring up religion or even, god forbid, order the wrong drink.

According to a new nationwide study by Wist, an app that provides personalized food and drink recommendations, each sex has certain expectations about the other when ordering drinks. These are real numbers, so play the odds correctly.

The “dream woman” drinks wine according to 35 percent of fellas out there, while another 26 percent think that their date will drink a specialty cocktail like a mojito or margarita. From there, only 18 percent of guys see their date drinking a beer; 15 percent are down with a well drink like rum and Coke. Only 1 percent of guys think their dream woman does shots, but that’s because all of those guys listen to Toby Keith exclusively.

Only 1 percent of guys think their dream woman does shots, but that’s because all of those guys listen to Toby Keith exclusively.

As for the ladies, their “dream man” drinks a well drink like a gin and tonic 33 percent of the time and a beer 30 percent. It drops off after that to wine at just 19 percent and specialty cocktails at 12 percent. An impressive 4 percent of women are cool with their date knocking back shots.

Those numbers kind of back up the expected stereotypes about both sexes (real men drink beer! real women know things about wine!), but the survey of 1,000 Americans also looks at where the first date should take place and how the money should be split. Here, there men and women differ in their approach.

The ideal first-date location for 43 percent of dudes involves a fun and casual restaurant; 34 percent go for a fancy and expensive dinner, because those guys are suckers for overselling it. Only 22 percent were down with a home-cooked meal and staying in.

This is where things start to split. For women, 38 percent would prefer that home-cooked meal to 32 percent going out to that fun and casual restaurant that definitely isn’t Chili’s. Only 23 percent are up for going to a fancy restaurant with all those forks.

And when it comes time to pay, there’s also a chasm between the sexes on just how that ought to go down. About 57 percent of men think they should pay for the date, while only 36 percent of women agree. Ladies are just as much about allowing the person who initiated the date to pay (29 percent) or splitting it straight up (31 percent), while only 18 percent of guys think going Dutch is acceptable.

All of this proves, once again, that with all of the differences in expectations between men and women, it’s a freaking miracle that anyone ever makes it to a second date.

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Skewers News

Chinese restaurant Yang's Smokehouse in Plano has sensational skewers

Yang's Smokehouse

Crispy tofu balls at Yang's Smokehouse

A new family-owned Asian restaurant specializing in skewers has opened in Plano: Called Yang's Smokehouse, it's a Chinese place now open at the Mitsuya Marketplace center at 240 Legacy Dr #306, with a menu featuring dishes you won't find anywhere else in Dallas.

That includes skewers of all kinds: meats such as beef tongue, pork belly, lamb, sausage, mini pork ribs, pork skin, and duck gizzard; and veggie skewers including green beans, cabbage, eggplant, zucchini, and lotus slices.

These skewers have a history that dates back to the restaurant's roots in China, says Yang's founder Candice Cao.

"The legacy of Yang's Smokehouse began in 1980 with secret family recipes from my Grandma Yang, which were passed down through generations," Cao says.

After being widowed at the young age of 30, Grandma Yang launched a charcoal stall from which she served skewers, enhanced by her hand-crushed spice blends and cooked over live fire. She eventually built a small chain with six locations, each serving about 10,000 skewers per day, Candice says.

Candice's mother joined the business and now Candice, who came to Dallas more than a decade ago to attend Dallas Baptist University, represents the third generation.

"I'm proud to follow the family tradition of women owning their own business," Candice says.

While skewers are the star, Yang's also serves unique dishes that are native to the Guizhou province in southwestern China where Candice is from.

That includes spicy stir-fried clams in black bean sauce with garlic, ginger, scallion, and cilantro; and a dish called Spicy and Numbing Chicken Knee Cartilage featuring a delicacy taken from the small joint connecting the drumstick to the foot.

"Asians know about this dish — it has a really strong, spicy flavor that almost has a numbing effect," Candice says.

There are also crispy tofu balls, popular snacks in Guizhou featuring a crisp tofu skin wrapped around soft mashed tofu filling which is dressed up with radish and spices and fried.

"It's crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and we serve it with a spicy dipping sauce that has radish and cilantro," Candice says. "We recommend poking a little hole and adding some of the radish to make it juicy. It's one of our most popular items, equally loved by vegetarians and diners seeking truly authentic Chinese food."

Other menu items include egg fried rice, Korean kim chi egg rice, stir-fries, potato pancakes, potstickers, cucumber salad, and "Southern" cold noodles — featuring sweet potato noodles in a simple but satisfying sauce made with soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, and chili, topped with cucumber, perfect for summer.

They recently added an all-you-can-eat skewers offering at lunch, Monday-Friday, for $40 that'll last through the summer.

To guarantee a smooth and successful launch in the U.S., Candice brought in a secret weapon: Grandma Yang herself.

"Grandma traveled here to help get Yang's off the ground," Candice says. "That's her coaching the team in the kitchen."

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