Hottest Plate

Like Chipotle but for North Texan Enchilada Lovers

By Rob Curran Mary Perez’s first act was to raise three sons single handedly in Fort Worth while working full-time in the nonprofit world. Her second act was to open her own restaurant. For her third act, she’s building the Chipotle of enchiladas. She’s off to a

Italian Beef: It's What's for Dinner in Denton.

By Rob Curran What's beef? Tony of Picone's lasagna sandwich, with that blood-red ragu sauce of his, topped with a dollop of lemon ricotta. That's beef. Bazinga! A closeup of Di Abruzzo's parsley-flecked meatball. That's also beef. Beef is part

Expert Certified Best Deal in Town

By Shea Scott Cheapskate, miser, skinflint, tightwad, penny-pincher, pinchpenny, and scrimper are some great contenders for words to go on my family crest, all rendered superfluous by the last name of Scott. If you're not familiar with the stereotype of the Scots as thrifty beyond what would be

El Taco H: Austin (and Mexico City) Quality on a Denton Budget

By Rob Curran Denton has some great Mexican restaurants; Denton has some great bars (Editor’s note: hyperlink to bar column to be added later, when bar correspondent sobers up). In this time of relentless inflation, when every time you come back from Kroger it feels like you’ve just

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Eclipse Fest/Puppy Safari in Ennis, Texas

Our Web Developer Went to a Benefit for Underprivileged Children and All We Got Was This Stupid Article

By Shea Scott Hopefully the tone of this article in no way diminishes the incredible work of the organizers, volunteers, and vendors of The Taste of North Texas. Read more about The Denton Noon Kiwanis Club and please consider making a donation to support their Children's Clinic. Although

Lanky: Champion of the (Denton Food) World

Dallas, you can keep your league-topping Stars and Mavericks teams; Arlington, you can choke on all your World Series baseball champion rings; Denton doesn’t need your sportsball baubles, cos we’ve got Lanky, undisputed champion of the gloriously weird Secret Chef reality-television competition on Hulu. Think of Secret Chef

Our Inaugural Class (everyone passed!)

By Rob Curran Hottestplate.com’s inaugural cooking class has not dragged the youthful publication into any serious Salmonella lawsuits, as of press time. A GoFundme site set up for a defense fund related to the March 20 Spanish tapas evening at Flour Power cooking school on East Hickory, Denton

Triptych – A Modern (Largely) Coffee Romance

By Rob Curran Betz Baker and Lois Robertson knew exactly how long the most momentous meeting of their business lives would last – 20 minutes…the time it took Lois to come up on an edible. Betz was working at Kimzey’s coffee shop in Argyle when they met Lois, who

Ten:One - The Godhead is in the Cheese

By Rob Curran There’s a cosmology developed in medieval times by an Italian miller named Menocchio which holds that human life burst forth from the earth itself in the same way that worms can spring from a fermenting cheese. I first met Justin Bonard 14 years ago. We were

Aglio Pizzeria

Founders and Lead Pizzaiole: Dave & Stacy Dockins By Lasamee Kettavong It’s impossible to deny the curiosity evoked when you see the Dockins’ van that once served as their tiny home as they traveled along the west coast and worked remotely. It’s sleek and shiny and has surfboards

Don't Confuse the Risotto

By Kenny Severson I’m excited. I met someone. Rosalyn. We knew each other from my last job at the university. She’s a poetry teacher. We flirted at the end-of-year potluck and over the summer when she stopped by the office with her dog, Odie. Our run-ins broke up

Viet Bites and the Future of North Texas Cuisine

By Rob Curran James Trinh is a salt-of-the-earth type of man, and I can almost hear him laughing at being dubbed a North Texas food hero. Bear with me. Trinh comes from a long line of Vietnamese heroes, and anyone who, like me, has lined out on an indoor soccer

L’Amitie — Ooh La La

By Rob Curran L'Amitie, the new cafe next door to Osteria il Muro on West Congress and Bolivar is an intriguing mix of French chic and Denton chill. Amitie and Stan Robbins met in Denton in the 90s while both attended the University of North Texas. They moved

Spiral Becomes Latest Victim of Spiraling Hipster Famine, Citing Lease

By Rob Curran Humans cannot live on woolen cardigans, antique leather boots and owl glasses alone, but the evisceration of Denton’s hipster eateries and drinkeries threatens to bring about that very prospect.   The latest uber-cool joint to evacuate is Spiral Diner, a vegan restaurant that opened 2017, and rode

Denton’s 20 Years Quest for the Golden Jesus Chili Cook-off

2024 anniversary celebration honors those here and gone By Dr. Shaun Treat Photography by Nite Davis Some things are so great you wonder, did that really happen? And so it is with the Golden Jesus Chili Cook-off. Part myth and fuzzy memories, this legendary underground showdown began as a booze-fueled

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Welcome to my Food Publication…Food is an Alien Concept to me (but I do Own an Instant Pot)

By Rob Curran Every nation and culture has its own special food flavors. The peerless juiciness of West African beef prepared in its own gravy; the endless subtleties of Asian noodle soups; the umami intrigue of native American corn soup and buffalo cuts. Every nation has its own flavors, that

essential-leaves

by Lasamee Kettavong I’ve loved khao poon for as long as I can remember. Khao poon is the shortened title I’ve given to one of my favorite Lao meals: it’s a red curry and coconut milk based soup that is served with rice vermicelli or somen noodles

Workers Walk Out on Tarnished Remains of Golden Boy

By Rob Curran Denton foodworkers continue to take the power back, leaving their customers in equal measures proud and sad. Golden Boy Coffee, the hippest joint in Denton's hipster scene for a half-decade, appears to have imploded as managers and staff walked off the job en masse early

Osteria il Muro: Fancy, but Denton Fancy

by Rob Curran My younger daughter went to Cotillion the other day. I still don’t really know what Cotillion is, and I was there with her. Google says it was popular in 18th century England, which suggests to me that things must have been kind of slow in 18th

Banana Bread Oatmeal

By Shea Scott First off, I took the photo above in April of 2020, divorced and alone in a dilapidated apartment in Austin about a month after the world shut down. If it bears some resemblance to Tom Hanks' volleyball buddy, Mr. Wilson, I was in a similar state

Tiny Italy, or Life After J&J’s Pizza

By Rob Curran Welcome to Tiny Italy…also known as Honey, I Shrunk Little Italy and Slapped it Smack Dab in the Middle of Denton, Texas.  Stroll onto the square heading north from Elm Street, where you will have parked in one of the spots outside the burnt-out husk of

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Sunday Roast

By Rob Curran Mention the Sunday Roast to an American and they will prolly envision a claret-quaffing Downton Abbey type with their thumbs in their smoking jacket and a hunting dog trotting along at their side. It’s a bit more complicated than that. The Sunday roast (classically a chicken

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The Nonna Diaries: Pasta Simple

By Rob Curran Nonna is one of the finest exponents of Venetian cooking you will ever meet, and Venice, of course, one of the finest exponents of Italian cuisine. When you taste a pasta sauce cooked by Nonna, your palate will cast about in vain for some reference point on

Holiday Gift Guide

By Shea Scott All killer, no filler kitchen gifts for the cook in your life (or yourself, we won't report you to Santa). All products guaranteed to have a longer shelf-life than the Bass-O-Matic. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. ie. we earn a small