Blue Bell cake batter ice cream

What's with cake? IE, why is "cake" a semi-popular ice cream flavor? Blue Bell is already heavily invested in cakey ice creams, yet here's one more, Cake Batter. what is the "flavor" of cake batter other than "sweet" and "fake"? this started out as a limited product, available at stores only, and maybe it shoulda stayed that way (and yet i bought the stuff. jeez).

btw: News You Can Eat is changing locations. (it sortof already has.) it's transitioning. for news on restaurants in dallas, go here. and for news on espresso drinks, ice cream, and other producty info, go here.

Sprinkles cupcakes

Remember when this blog used to be updated every day? and when it had original material? jeepers. big plans for this wk, tho (ice cream prods to share). but onto cupcakes, a trend that hasn't really hit dallas but maybe will w/ the March arrival of Sprinkles, a cupcake co. from bev hills. cupcakes seize some people's imaginations; there are numerous blogs devoted to cupcakes. it's a visual thing and a miniature thing. anyway Magnolia came first, in 1996 (and got the SATC mention) but Sprinkles is the one coming to D (specifically, to preston center).

4020 Villanova Drive no fone yet

It's a Grind

hell yeah it's a grind when you live in dallas and can't see driving all the way to frisco for a cup of joe. but if you live in frisco (and more & more people do), you'll welcome this new outlet of a small chain based in Long Beach CA, called It's a Grind. owner Marchand Froschheuser lived in cali and craved a change from the IT world in which she previously resided. the website claims that IaG's "upholstered wingback chairs, cozy fireplace, blues and jazz motif, and music" make it "an atmosphere unlike any other coffee house" which uh ok whatever. their main asset is that they are willing to bring the usual espresso-based drinks to the wilds of frisco, even as the paving of the nearby tollway continues apace

6959 Lebanon Rd. #100, Frisco 75034. (972) 782-2527. open 6 a.m. every day!

Coco Fresh Vietnamese*

in the thick of the asian-fest that is Walnut Street in Garland, Coco Fresh Vietnamese stands out: a streamlined spot whose unique mix of goodies embodies a multi-culti fusion: turkey sandwiches + banh mi, espresso + Vietnamese coffee, tapioca-pearl bevs + fruit smoothies (incl. durian & soursop flavors), and super-creamy homemade ice cream in flavors from coffee to avocado. Coco Fresh was opened by Duyet Truong, who lists his studies at the French Culinary School in NY and the San Francisco Bacon Institute (which has no website; you suppose he studied bacon?).

4425 w walnut st #301 (@ plano rd), garland, 866-417-6493

*website seems to be down

cocoa via

Cocoa Via is hardly new. It's so not-new, it's not worth listing all the Web sites who've mentioned it. The basic premise - "chocolate that's good for you" - never appealed. what's the point of that? but it showed up at SuperT and was thus easy to buy. anyway, made by Mars/Dove (and the color scheme is very similar to Dove), it brags about its "cocoapro process" (and they even ® it to let you know it's special). saying it retains flavanols "to help promote healthy circulation". hmf. take a look at the pic. there is 1. a cardboard box. and inside 2. a cardboard shelf. on which rest the five bars. over them lies 3. a piece of double-layered glued cardboard. MUCH packaging. and what do you actually get, chocolate-wise? 5 wee .71-oz bars. maybe the size of a single twix. a box of 5 costs $5.99. or $1.20 per stick. now, admittedly, this is no noka. but it's still a helluva lot of $$. as for the flavor - it's dark choc and not very sweet. but you have to wonder: what exactly ARE "soy sterol esters"?

Original Soupman/Crepe Maker at northpark

While most of the blah-blah re: the Glorious Makeover of NorthPark Center has centered on Barney’sBarney’sBarney’s, there's news that may interest those w/ a culinary bent. Namely, that HERE NOW* is the la-dee-da first-in-TX branch of The Original Soupman, the now-franchiseable chain launched by Seinfeld cameo-ite Al Yeganeh (w/ corporate partner types), paired w/ a FL concept called Crepe Maker ("home of the handheld crepe"). Crepes, OKfinewhatever, but thumbs up to good soups, rare in Dallas. Hope they'll execute their menu - soups, salads, cold sandwiches, toasted paninis - in a quality manner; nobody seems able to do that in dallas. Their website’s good, the best thing being a pull-down "rules" menu that includes rules for press (e.g., "only some of the questions emailed may be answered") and rules for customers offered in 11 languages. (Dutch for "Pick the soup you want!": Kies de soep die u wil!)

8687 N. Central Expwy. 214-363-1950

*thanks to mr & mrs bk!

Hershey's with Corn Bits

before posting this, i conducted the usual investigation to see if it really was news (it's not) and/or what other stuff might be out there. during this exhaustive search, i discovered an A+ blog, Candy for Dinner, w/ an admirably hardcore focus on breaking candy news (much more diligently than i have time for, altho said blog has such a plethora of hershey's scoops, one wonders about an inside hershey's connection). anyway C4D had this Hershey's with Corn Bits bar wks ago; but it's been foto'd here already and gets points for being weird. the corn bits are tiny, not sweet, and stick around on the teeth for a second or two. it's clever intellectually, in that it evokes nestles crunch but with a different grain. can't wait for the barley