I spent my Labor Day weekend visiting my parents in Denton. There were a couple highlights that deserve mentioning in this blog. First, I made the corn risotto that I promised I would post a few weeks ago. It turned out very well again, so I think the time has come for me to stop being lazy and give the recipe its proper write-up. Second, York Street in Dallas is a tremendous restaurant. I had asked my parents if they’d like to eat out in Dallas on Saturday night, and they said “sure” as long as I picked the place. We were going to try Stephan Pyles but couldn’t get a reservation. After doing a little research, I found out York Street is a small restaurant that focuses on fresh, seasonal ingredients.  I also remembered reading a blurb about it in GQ a few years back about it being an up-and-coming restaurant in Dallas.  The restaurant is tiny, with 42 seats crammed into a space that seemed like it once was a large one car garage.  I started with a prosciutto-cantaloupe salad that was a nice combination of salty and sweet.  For a main course, I had a pork loin on top of glazed endive.  My parents went with fish, which went better given the warm weather, but I couldn’t resist the pork.  I thought it was excellent, very juicy and moist, something that’s difficult to achieve at home using the ultra-lean cuts found in supermarkets these days.  For dessert, we ordered “The Pie,” which turned out to be one of the best blueberry pies I’ve ever had.  After we finished dessert, the chef, Sharon Hage, walked through the restaurant.  We chatted with her for a couple minutes and found out it’s possible to request a chef’s tasting of 5 or more courses.  My parents and I enjoyed the meal so much that we decided we’d be back over Christmas for the special tasting menu.

The other culinary adventure we had was roasting a whole fish.  I’d never done it myself, only had it before in a restaurant, most recently at Hungry Cat.  My dad and I stopped by Central Market, and I saw whole red snappers.  We thought it’d be a fun challenge to grill a whole fish, so we bought one weighing in at 3.5 pounds.  Grilling the fish couldn’t have been easier.  I looked up a recipe on Cook’s Illustrated for smaller whole fish, then made a minor adjustment for a larger one.  The original recipe called for grilling the fish over hot coals for 7 minutes on a side.  Since ours was larger, we grilled it for 7 minutes on each side, then let it cook off the coals with indirect heat for another 15 minutes.  We also made a few scores in the flesh and stuffed it with lemon and thyme wherever we could.  We served it with a wild rice pilaf and grilled corn.  Overall, I think it turned out to be one of the more memorable meals I’ve had at home.