Travel / USA

Dallas, Texas – Day 4

By Veron Ang | Tags #Dallas

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Most of the day was spent working, as it would be for the next couple of days as well. When we finally took a breather, it was at a nice Tex-Mex restaurant. Ahhh… Mexican food again! I didn’t mind one bit. It was fun learning about the various terms used in Mexican food.

Quesadilla

My corn-based quesadilla (tortilla with cheese) was covered with melted monterey jack cheese. Loved it!

Over here, our friendly waiter can be seen preparing our food right in front of us. I love it when they do that. To me it’s an inkling of good food and good service.

Waiter preparing our food

One thing about restaurants in America is that the waiters regularly come by to ask if we’re doing fine. We rarely get such attention in Singapore. Even if they do ask about us, it’s during the time when they’re clearing our plates. Restaurants here focus more on getting high turnover rates rather than giving good customer service.

Tacos

Mexican dishes are a multitude of colors, aren’t they? And the food is good. Seems like you can’t go wrong with Mexican!

Ernesto's Special

For my main course I ordered ernesto’s special. I didn’t ask who ernesto was but if it was his special then it’s probably good. The dish was basically chicken breast topped with sour cream sauce and completely covered with a generous amount of melted cheese. I love melted cheese!!! It was served with pico de gallo (chopped tomato, onion, etc), guacamole (some form of vegetable paste) and rice. Don’t even ask me how to pronounce those!

Refried beans

This time round, the refried beans tasted slightly different from those at el fenix (from two days before). It was all good though.

Panna Cotta

For dessert, our waiter recommended their panna cotta, made from scratch by the house. It was slightly too sweet for my liking though.

Mia's Tex-Mex Restaurant

The elements that went into making this a wonderful meal wasn’t simply the awesome food or the great service. It was our seats. We snagged an outdoor table that was breezy and gave us a decent view of the streets. Loved it!

After dinner, we went to the mall again! The guys caught a movie but I decided to shop instead. It was to be my last go at the malls and I wasn’t about to waste it on a movie.

Delia's

Banana Republic

Juicy Couture

Again, it was another thrilling experience seeing all the familiar names like delia’s, banana republic, Juicy Couture and urban outfitters in front of me. I had been a fervent fan of these online malls so it was great being finally able to physically shop in them in real life!

Urban Outfitters

Decor of Urban Outfitters

Urban outfitters employed a rather interesting decor, with chairs hanging high from walls. Very innovative!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about this. I went into Starbucks to get a large cup of hot mocha to go. It was getting late and the weather was getting cold. For some reason the kind folks there decided to just give it to me and said it was on the house! Whoa!

Shopping bags

So at the end of the three shopping trips, here are some of the shopping bags. Awesome! I haven’t even unpacked most of them because I’ve been so busy. But I’m keeping those bags as souvenirs!

Also in this series

November 19, 2006: Dallas, Texas – Day 1
November 20, 2006: Dallas, Texas – Day 2
November 21, 2006: Dallas, Texas – Day 3
November 23, 2006: Dallas, Texas – Day 5
November 24, 2006: Dallas, Texas – Day 6
November 26, 2006: Dallas, Texas – Day 7

For more on Sparklette:

About the Author

Veron Ang is the founder and chief editor of Sparklette. She lives in Singapore and has dined and traveled across the world. She also runs Sparklette Studio, a web design and WordPress development firm. If you'd like to connect with her, head on over to the contact page or follow her personal updates on Twitter: @VeronSG.

Dallas, Texas – Day 3

Dallas, Texas – Day 5

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20 responses

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serene
November 23, 2006

omg.. those cheese!!! n i am still tinking abt the pizza in ur last posting! :p
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Veron
November 23, 2006

Oh! Now I am thinking of those pizzas too!
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Cobalt Paladin
November 23, 2006

The service tends to be better because the waiting staff depends a lot on the tips they received. If service is very good, they can get higher tips. If not, they don’t get tip.

Unlike Singapore, 10% service charge is always levied regardless of service!
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Veron
November 23, 2006

Good point! We should scrap that mandatory service charge altogether. Bad service deserves no charge at all! Most of the time there is little or next to no service anyway, unless you count bringing the food to the table a form of service.
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Cobalt Paladin
November 23, 2006

But the problem lies with Singaporean customers too. Many Singaporeans will not tip at home country!
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Veron
November 23, 2006

Hey I would! Eventually things would balance out, whenever Singaporeans leave crappy tips, they receive crappy service the next time they return to the same restaurant. It would take time for this tipping culture to mature but overtime it should.

But then again, maybe not. Come to think of it, the prevailing culture here seems to be that of getting the most out of others and screwing one another over. So in the end most people wouldn’t leave tips, would they?
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Cobalt Paladin
November 23, 2006

Exactly.

Noticed that tipping culture is more of a western concept. I can’t think of any Asian culture that has tipping as a norm. In fact, Japanese would find it an insult if you tip. :p
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Veron
November 23, 2006

Oh yeah, I should highlight that when I was at NorthPark Center, one of the folks at Starbucks gave me a Venti (large) Caffe Mocha on the house. No catch at all! Don’t think this would ever happen in Singapore, which serves to reiterate my point on the screwing-one-another-over culture that we have over here. Damn, I need to add this to my blog entry.

(Off-topic: This week’s Heroes episode was awesome!)
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serene
November 23, 2006

y shd i tip spore waiters when it appears to mi tat they seems to be rushin over to serve the caucasians so well once those caucasians step into the restaurant n treat other customers lk nth..
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Veron
November 23, 2006

Whoa that sounds pretty strong! But you are right. There have been incidents of Singaporeans being asked to leave posh restaurants when they come clad in berms. But the Caucasian man wearing berms at the next table is allowed to stay! Not very professional of our restaurants to have such double standards. But I guess it does lie in the Asian culture to look up to anyone that looks Caucasian (even if they aren’t).
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py
November 23, 2006

You are making me consider America as a possible venue for vacation.
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Veron
November 23, 2006

Don’t consider, just do it! The real question is where in America. I wanna go to New York City or one of those sunny places.
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Min
November 25, 2006

Wow, after reading all the comments, I learned something new! I didn’t know surcharge was automatically put on the bill in Singapore… Oh, and the main ingredient for guacamole is avocado. It’s delcious!
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py
November 25, 2006

Which part of America is not too crowded and noisy, and has a rich heritage that I can learn from?
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Veron
November 26, 2006

Min, thanks for the bit on guacamole! Is that a common thing in Mexican cuisine? And yes, we have that crappy 10% service charge over here which, ironically, drives down service standards since waiter/resses no longer can/have to work to earn their keep.
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Veron
November 26, 2006

Hey py, not too sure about that. I’m curious to find out too! Perhaps Min can answer that for us :)
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Aristocrat
November 29, 2006

Getting stress relief from exams: good thing you don’t have to go through that anymore.

Anyway, yes guacamole is usually found accompanying dishes such as fajitas. Basically it comes with almost every single dish I can think of. But if you are watching your waist-line, don’t take too much. It’s fattening.

And if you are interested in trying authentic Mexican cuisine, go to Cafe Iguana at Riverside Point beside Jumbo Seafood Restaurant. You should have a fairly good dining experience there. Plus the margaritas are half-priced during happy hours. That should keep you going.

And of course, it’s all because I work there ;) Go try out and do your foodie review on it ha!
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Veron
November 29, 2006

Authentic Mexican food? Really? Do they also have that spicy Mexican beer? Because for some weird reason, I am missing the taste of it now! Haha

I haven’t seen too many Mexican restaurants in Singapore (or maybe I haven’t been paying enough attention) so I gotta check this one out!

All the best for your exams!
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Aristocrat
November 30, 2006

Hmm, no spicy Mexican beer. Bottled beer only Corona and Sol. But we brew our own beer though. We also the biggest collection of tequilas in SE Asia. Over 80 different types. Or more, I donno…

Yep, thanks. All the best for your working career too ;)
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Willy
September 1, 2007

On your comment about Guacamole, yes its used like crazy in about every Mexican dish, as well as Pico De Gallo. When you live in CA you tend to eat so much Mexican food, it’s great!!
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