Chef News

4 Dallas do-gooders get faces plastered on Lay's potato chips bags

Bola I., in person and on her Lay's bag.

Lay's

Four Dallas folks will be featured in a campaign by Lay's, in which their faces will appear on potato chips bags.

The four include a breast cancer survivor, a dentist, a mentor, and a chef.

They're part of a campaign by Plano-based Lay's to spotlight people who were nominated because they are "actively spreading joy." According to a release, 30 people in total were selected by Lay's to appear on millions of new potato chip bags that are dropping in store shelves this month – with up to $1 million in proceeds benefiting Operation Smile.

Actually, it's not really their faces so much as their teeth. The image includes the bottom half of their faces only, IE their smiles. So joyous.

The recipients are officially identified by first name and last initial only, as follows, but if you know your way around charitable endeavors, it's not hard to figure out who's who:

APRIL S., Dallas: April and her organization, Breast Cancer Can Stick It!, have raised awareness and nearly $300,000 in funds to fight breast cancer through music-minded events that were fueled by her experience as a breast cancer survivor and professional drummer.
CHAD H., Dallas: Chad is the founder and CEO of Momentum Advisory Co. and Café Momentum, an award-winning restaurant that also serves as a 12-month internship program for juvenile offenders, helping over 900 young men and women achieve their full potential.
DR. DANE, Dallas: Inspired by her own immigrant story, Dr. Dane has a passion for giving back. She is creating smiles in her community and abroad through local philanthropy and providing dental care for children around the world with Operation Smile.
BOLA I., Plano: A self-proclaimed “youth enthusiast,” Bola has turned her passion into action, encouraging the entrepreneurial spirits of 800 young women and providing over 150 underserved students with passports and travel grants to help them expand their horizons.

And now, the reveal:

"APRIL S." is April Samuels.
"CHAD H." is Chad Houser.
"DR. DANE" is Dr. Dane Hoang.
"BOLA I." is Bola Ibidapo.

They'll be featured in conjunction with the return of three fan-favorite limited-time-only Lay’s potato chip flavors:

Lay’s Fried Pickles with Ranch
Lay’s Hot Sauce (in partnership with Frank’s RedHot)
Lay’s Kettle Cooked Beer Cheese.

The chips are now on shelves.

This is the third year for the Lay's Smiles campaign, but for the first time, the designs were created using CGI technology, since COVID-19 put the kibosh on any in-person sessions. (They usually bring all the candidates to Dallas for a VIP photo and video shoot experience.)

Instead, the chip stars sent in self-portraits using their phones – and the resulting amateur photos were professionally enhanced before being transferred on to the Lay's bags.

chefs

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."

openings