EATS

Palomino in the Crescent is offering $20, three-course meals before Mavs, Stars and Desperados games at the American Airline Center. Dine in before the game – Mavs vs. Lakers tonight or Stars vs. the Mighty Ducks on Wednesday, for example – to get either soup or Caesar salad, a choice of entree (including pizzas, pastas, fish and chicken piccata) and, for dessert, either sorbet or tiramisu.

Diners can catch Palomino's shuttle to and from the game and forgo those AAC parking costs. And Palomino's lounge has happy hour specials before the games (3 p.m. to 6 p.m.) and afterward (10 p.m. to midnight).

The above picture depicts the fourth course of the unparalleled meal I experienced at Joël Robuchon two months ago. Called Les Crustacés, it's an apt encapsulation of Robuchon's one-of-a-kind viewpoint. In the lower right corner, in the glass bowl, is sea urchin atop a potato puree flavored with ... coffee. Coffee? I don't know how he dreamed that one up, but it was brilliant: The bitter, distinctive edge with the funky brine of the urchin was one of the most unlikely but ultimately successful marriages of flavors I've ever encountered.

Above the urchin is a chunk of lobster. That bed of pebbly stuff it rests on? Those are vegetables made to look like course semolina pasta.

And notice that triangular, multicolored design next to the lobster. One chef preps those plates with that mosaic, which is made entirely of different ground spices. That's mad luxury right there.

Leave it to the folks over at Page Six to pounce on Nigella Lawson's alleged weight gain, which they claim is causing videographers for her TV series to get creative.

The problem, in their words, is: "The sexy British chef famous for batting her eyelashes, jiggling seductively while grating Parmesan and licking a spoon the way Tina Turner handled a microphone --- has waaaay overeaten."

And we thought Britney Spears was under the microscope. Back-off, at least Lawson can cook.

Pick up the cuisine queen's latest book Nigella Express: 130 Recipes for Good Food, Fast (Hyperion, $35) at Sur La Table, 4527 Travis Street in Dallas

Maybe you're accustomed to selecting your beef by its rosy hue. Now comes an item from the Associated Press here that says that's a bunch of baloney.

Not only that, a Target exec told a congressional panel that Hormel Foods and Cargill are close to putting labels on their meat that say, in effect, it's gassed with carbon monoxide to make it look red and, by extension, fresher.

Tentative wording is "Color is not an accurate indicator of freshness. Refer to use or freeze by" date. So yuck.

The good news: Buried at the bottom of the story is a sentence that says a lot of supermarkets stopped doing this after the House panel raised the issue.

The British are coming! Cadbury Creme eggs, hot cross buns and other treats have arrived from across the pond. Check out the goodies at Grapevine's British Emporium, which will offer complimentary tea and Easter refreshments on Thursday (March 20) from 6 to 9 p.m.