EATS

This week, Restaurant Critic Bill Addison reviews Richardson's Chang Jing, a Korean restaurant that makes traditional Korean barbecue on tabletop grills.

Kim Harwell reviews Petra Essence of Mexico, a fast-casual Mexican restaurant in McKinney.

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

Photo of Chang Jing server Chae Kim demonstrating Korean barbecue by Rex C. Curry / Special to DMN

Last night, I was looking for just enough politically correct, uncured bacon to make a BLT with my tomatoes from the Hill Country. So I asked the butcher at the Lomo Alto Whole Foods Market for two slices. He picked out three, wrapped them and handed them to me.

There was no price, just WOW scribbled across the wrapper with a black felt pen. When I went to check out, the bacon was free. This isn't the first time something like this has happened to me at Whole Foods. And I assure you the butcher had no clue I was a food writer. What a nice gesture. 'Anyone else had this experience?

Christy Rost was motivated by a kitchen redo of a house in Colorado. She survived the renovation in fine culinary style -- so fine, in fact, that she rounded up her tips and recipes and wrote Where's My Spatula?.

Longtime local cooking teacher Karel Anne Tieszen of Duncanville also has a new book, this one compiling student favorites from her classes. Check out In Your Own Kitchen.

Here's an e-mail from a woman who proudly lists her age as 67. She eats out frequently, and far too often, she says, she winds up seated by the kitchen door. Even when there are plenty of other tables open. Read on, pile on.

Is there a rule with restaurants that single women of a certain age are to be seated in the least desirable location in any restaurant?

I'm 67; I look 67, and I eat out on a fairly regular basis. I'm betting that eight out of ten times, I am seated by the kitchen door. The probability of that happening increases dramatically if the person doing the seating is a young attractive woman. (Don't ask me to analyze the psychology of that; I just know that the minute I see a gorgeous hostess, it's kitchen door time.)

Now, understand, I'm not talking about those occasions on which the restaurant is crowded, there's a medium to long wait time, and you take whatever you can get. I'm talking about being walked across an empty restaurant to be parked at the kitchen door. On one occasion, at a restaurant near Northpark, my daughter and I were the only people in the restaurant. The ONLY customers. The hostess seated us beside the kitchen door, and much to my daughter's embarrassment, I objected and asked for a better seat. The hostess was hugely flustered; I guess nobody ever objected to her treatment, but she did give us the seat I asked for. Why not? Nobody else was waiting for it. (I heard that group went out of business. I cheered.)

Dallas superchef Stephan Pyles (right) has long been a stalwart supporter of Share Our Strength, an organization of food professionals working to eliminate childhood hunger in America.

Next on his agenda: "A Tasteful Pursuit," a dinner event at Stephan Pyles on Sunday, Aug. 24. For $175 per person (including tax and gratuity), guests will attend a cocktail reception followed by a multi-course seated dinner with wine pairings created by Mr. Pyles and his executive chef, Tim Byres; Zach Bell of Boulud in Palm Beach, Fla.; Dunia Borga of La Duni; Jason Robinson of the Inn at Dos Brisas in Washington, Texas; Scott Romano of Charlie Palmer at The Joule; Abraham Salum of Salum; and Bradford Thompson of Lever House in New York.

A silent auction will end the evening, which is sponsored by Lexus.

Go here for tickets, or call 214-580-7000.