EATS

This week, Restaurant Critic Bill Addison reviews Irving's El Tumi Latin Restaurant, which specializes in Peruvian cuisine.

Kim Harwell reviews Bengal Coast, a South Asian spot from a Pei Wei co-founder, and Sake Toro, a Frisco sushi bar that serves rolls with risqué names.

Share your own review of these restaurants. Leave a comment below.

Nancy Silverton stands behind the right front side of the counter in the middle of Osteria Mozza, at the place dubbed the "mozzarella bar." This is where Silverton - with her trademark shock of dark red, curly hair pulled tight behind her face - plants herself six nights a week, making antipasti.

She strikes a diminutive but unmistakably authoritative presence: This is a woman who's made a fortune on previous ventures but who still obviously wants genuinely to work with food. As she prepares one plate at a time, mostly combining one of several grades of mozzarella or other fresh cheeses with seasonally rotating accompaniments, she may look up and smile and chat briefly if someone addresses her. But her focus remains on the orders in front of her.

Nancy Silverton at Osteria Mozza's mozzarella bar. Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Times/Alex Gallardo.

If you live on the funky-but-fab south side of downtown Dallas -- or if you work there -- you'll be happy to know that you're about to get your very own Urban Market store. (The original store is also downtown, at 1500 Jackson St.)

A PR-ista of our acquaintance sends this scoop:

We just got confirmation that Urban Market will be opening a new location here at the South Side on Lamar Lofts. It will be located on the lower level with an entrance off Belleview. It will be a small replica of the [original] location, offering all the same services including delivering groceries right to your door. ...I don't have the exact date it will be opening, but it could be mid-May.

Schweet! And what safer location could you ask for? Dallas Police HQ is right across the street...

You already knew dairy products are costing you more at the store. But if you like your dairy to be organic, get ready for a price hike.

From Karen Robinson-Jacobs' story in the DMN's BizNews section:

"Prices are going to have to move up," Gregg Engles, chairman and chief executive of Dallas-based Dean Foods Co. told analysts. "It's under way, and it's industrywide."

No news -- I just loved this snap of chef John Tesar of the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, preparing to do battle with a king crab claw. David Woo shot it Saturday at the Dallas Wine and Food Festival.

Bacon. Shrimp. Grits. Yum.
This month the wine panel paired wines with a doozy of a shrimp and grits dish. Even if you don't drink wine, you will like the food.
The best pairing of the lot was the 2006 Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Pinot Noir, easy to find and priced at about $20.
Get the recipes and other wine suggestions here.

Photo by Evans Caglage

Kent Rathbun's award-winning, five-star Abacus restaurant has been closed for a few weeks for a major renovation. Now it's back, with some notable changes both in the decor and in the menu.

Carnival cauliflower-littleneck clam chowder with grilled spring ramps (pictured), salad nicoise and a classic hearts-of-romaine Caesar are among the soup-and-salad starters. But there also are small plates such as ancho honey-glazed quail, wood-roasted foie gras, lobster-scallion shooters, grilled hamachi sashimi, and jumbo lump crabcakes with apple-smoked bacon.

According to a catchphrase adopted by Spiral Diner & Bakery's early devotees: Vegans get plenty.

It's a motto that jabs at vegetarian stereotypes (granola, slightly nerdy) while winking at the pleasure potential of a plant-based diet. We can't vouch for the latter, but there's no denying Spiral's vegan cooking brings a fresh twist to down-home diner fare. And yes, that's vegan, as in "no animal products," owner Sara Tomerlin confirms. "No milk, eggs, cheese or even honey."

Six years after Fort Worth's original Spiral Diner began earning fans (we know Dallas devotees who regularly trekked over to stockpile their freezers), the eatery's second location is now open in Oak Cliff.

Keep reading about Spiral Diner ...

Photo by Carter Rose

Maria Halkias reports that Colorado-based Sunflower Farmers Market is coming to Plano later in the year. The new store will be at Preston and West Parker roads, in part of the old Albertsons space.
Sunflower sells organic and natural foods and touts its low prices.
Read more about Sunflower Farmers Market.

Three new and/or exclusive items caught my eye in the new Williams-Sonoma catalog:

• A kids' bright red plastic chef's-style knife and matching polypropylene cutting board. What a terrific way to get younger kids involved in cooking. $27.95 (catalog and internet only)
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• New from Microplane, a box grater (left) that looks kinda like SpongeBob Square Pants' techno alter-ego, complete with little runners to grip the work surface. It has three options: extra coarse, medium and fine. $34.95.
• And just in time for grill season and Father's Day next month, mesh grill pans modeled after those used by chefs in Spain's Basque country. 'Let's you grill and sear small items like cut vegetables without losing them through the grate. Pan with lid is $49.95; skillet is $29.95.

Robert Hutchins of Rehoboth Ranch reminds me that the same organic supplier who's sending the fabulous locally grown organic lettuces I wrote about here also is sending his fresh fruits and vegetables to the McKinney Farmers Market on Saturdays now, too. So this Saturday, Oak Ridge Valley Farms Organics in Grand Saline will have lettuces, spring onions, radishes and whatever else is ripe at the Dallas Farmers Market, Coppell Farmers Market, McKinney Farmers Market and Eden's Organic Garden Center.