Chef Omar Flores of Driftwood

Each week we track down a chef for a few burning questions. This week, Omar Flores at Driftwood shares some cookbook advice, spills on a few crazy requests and has a suggestion for a damn good margarita.

What are a few of your favorite cookbooks?
I love anything by Thomas Keller. Recently I've been reading Modernist Cuisine, which is just mind blowing considering the time, effort and money that went into producing that book.

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Damn pigs need to get a haircut and stop smoking weed.

High prices have lead many farmers across the country to look for cheaper feed sources. Now NPR reports that a Seattle butcher stumbled on an alternative that's doubled as a very successful marketing ploy.

William von Schneidau is feeding weed to his pigs. Now everyone's out to get some of his bacon.

If you're picturing a bunch of teenage pigs sitting around the pigsty eating pot brownies, you've got it all wrong. The growing medical marijuana industry is creating an excess byproduct of leaves, stems and root material. It turns out the surplus green makes for passable pig fodder. It also creates a lot of curious customers.

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Deep Ellum Brewing Co. will host its Third Annual Brew-B-Que this Sunday, an event that was a launch party of sorts back in 2011. It will a chance to pack the brewery and courtyard with hopheads, sip local beer and have Pecan Lodge barbecue, all while listening to tunes of Cody Foote (who hopefully covers Islands in the Stream again), Grant Jones, The Pistol Grip Lassos and The Vic Duncan Band.

Guest brewers at the event include Armadillo Ale Works, Rabbit Hole Brewing and Martin House from Fort Worth. Check out the specifics and ticket info here.

See also:
- Tracing the Hops in Deep Ellum Brewing Company's Newest Beer
- Texas Lawmakers Vote to Lift Restrictions on Craft Breweries

We tracked down Tait Lifto at DEBC to chat about the brewing business for our biweekly-ish "One Year Out" interview (although, it's been a year and a half since they started brewing). Lifto turned in his starched-button-down-shirt-job for this gig at the brewery, where he's the Brand Ninja and is charged with making sure beer drinkers far and wide know of DEBC.

Working at a brewery is just a big party, right?
Ha! I wish, although it truly is the perception of many people. I personally work about 60-70 hours a week, yet mostly people see me just at events. I may look relaxed, but most often my mind is going a billion directions; meeting everyone, talking about our beers, answering questions, staying on point, etc.

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We've all been there, hopefully: that moment in the adult world when we're invited to dinner by another grown-up. Specifically a grown-up we're not close enough with to have the understanding that grabbing a case of Shiner and showing up "whenever" is appropriate.

Societal custom dictates the invited guest brings a bottle of wine to the gathering, but figuring out how to choose a proper wine to go with a meal you have no input in preparing and will be sharing with people you don't know is like learning all the rules to chess in 15 minutes.

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Deep Eddy Vodka

Deep Eddy pool in Austin is the oldest man-made swimming pool in Texas. According to the Friends of Deep Eddy site, in the early 1900s locals flocked to this natural pool where a large boulder in the Colorado River created a natural eddy. Springs from the banks of the river pushed in fresh cool water. In 1915, it was concreted in and by 1920 it was a resort. More than 100 years later, Austinites still use the spring-fed watering hole to cool down. While it's not weird, it's a true Texan landmark.

When co-founder of Deep Eddy Vodka Clayton Christopher was trying to think of a name for his spirit brand in 2010, he wanted something that was truly Texan, and the swimming spot was eternally cool.

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If you happen to like pizza, which is pretty much everyone, and you like helping people, which should be everyone, then Cane Rosso is probably the restaurant you want to visit tonight. Jay Jerrier sent out an email earlier today announcing 100 percent of this evening's sales at the Deep Ellum location will be donated to the Red Cross for victims of the Oklahoma tornado.

Of course, we've got a squall line headed our way as we speak, so I checked in with Jay who confirms his special event is still on despite the inclement weather. Hopefully the storm will push through by 5:00 p.m. If it does brush the leaves and tree branches off your car and get to Cane Rosso tonight.

Gavin Cleaver

$20 of food, even in 1533

Regular readers may remember that I found it amusing to review cream teas and high teas around Dallas, comparing them to their British counterparts. While many of you didn't agree that this was in fact amusing, that's never stopped me before. For the third in a highly infrequent series, I am for some reason visiting Scarborough Renaissance Faire (fayre? Fair?) in Waxahachie, surely the least appropriately named place to ever host an approximation of 16th-century Britain.

See also: Dallas Does Cream Tea? Bad Mistake, Dallas.

At this salubrious location, nestled into a field by Ye Olde I-35, I am promised tea with the Queen. The actual Queen, you guys. As someone who grew up singing about her being saved, this is a pretty big deal for me. I take my wife, because even though she is Welsh and thus views the Queen as an instrument of oppression of her people, she loves tea and stuff, and there's no way Tea with the Queen at a Renaissance Fair could ever go wrong, right? Right?!

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Lucky Ducky Dog

Luck Ducky Dogs, the "silly truck with serious food," will be at the Dallas Arts District (2403 Flora) todayuntil 2 p.m. giving out 100 free "Hangover Part III" dogs, as an ode to the film that will be released Friday.

Make haste! That spreadsheet can wait.

Next is the character-based menu per the Lucky Ducky Facebook page:

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Mark Graham

If you can't get enough of blogger-turned-professional barbecue snob Daniel Vaughn, you might want to tune your radio dial (does anyone still do that?) to KERA 90.1 this afternoon at 1 p.m. The entire second hour of Krys Boyd's Think will be devoted to brisket, ribs, sausages and the endless debate of sauce versus no sauce.

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We recently spilled several pixels over the glut of food holidays vying for the month of May. You helped us sift through National Asparagus Month, National Gazpacho Month and National Chocolate Custard Month to determine that, from now on and for all time, May is National Barbecue Month.

But the calendar is still full of daily food holidays. Just this week, for example, National Quiche Lorraine Day is Monday, National Strawberries and Cream Day is Tuesday, and National Escargot Day is Friday. We're very excited about National Mint Julep Day on May 30, but still, this is a lot to take in.

Luckily there will be at least one fewer holiday starting in 2014: World Nutella Day, February 5, is dead.

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