Dallas Farmers Market Benefit

Put in on your calendar. Tell your friends. But most of all, COME HUNGRY!
This event is a great opportunity to see how satisfied you can be as a locavore!

Thursday November 6th
6pm til 9pm
Food & Fiber Pavillion at Fair Park

Each year, the Dallas Farmers Market Friends host a “Hoedown”. It is the largest annual fundraiser. In partnership with the Texas Department of Agriculture’s program “Go Texas” farmers from around the state donate ingredients that are used by local chefs to create unique and delicious samplings for event participants. In addition, local specialty food producers sample products from cheese to salsa to tapenades and dips. To round out the experience, local wineries contribute wine, and local artisans bring their products. The event will honor our rich heritage while anticipating a thriving future for the Market.

I'm just sayin'

I order a torta. Then menu says what is on the torta. Halfway through, I notice my sandwich is missing pickles. Pickles were a deciding factor in ordering this sandwich. I really love pickles (and most things involving salt and vinegar.) I ask for my pickles, patiently eating my salad while the server goes to get them. The kitchen is out of pickles, which is why they didn't put them on my sandwich. It was a Cuban torta, of which pickles are a key ingredient. If the kitchen is out of an ingredient listed on the menu as a component of the dish, the server, and then the patron, should be so advised. I would have picked something different. I'm just sayin'.
That was some good sangria though.

Soley!

Tonight CB and I dined at Soley! (pronounced sole A). It was lovely. The initial impression was great. The raw brick and painted yet rough ceiling beams were offset by super shiny dark tabletops formally set with white dishes and fancily upright napkins. There were several occupied tables, but it wasn't a "scene". That may not be good for them, but it certainly makes for a pleasant dining experience. Our reservation was a bit early - 7:30 pm - and the place was filling up when we left. Our server was a tiny bit dingy, but adorable and sweet. We enjoyed a South African sauvignon blanc, which was nice. (I always prefer a New Zealand SB to one from anywhere else.) Each of us chose the onion soup for our starter. Delish. CB and I both love French onion soup. It is described on the website as: Lemony onion soup, Oaxaca cheese en crouton, avocado. I don't recall a bit of avocado, but the soup has some bite from jalapenos. I think we were full after the soup! But we persevered. CB ordered the red snapper, which I sampled from her plate. It was served over a jalapeno cilantro risotto and an artichoke broth with two artichoke heart halves. I ordered the chile en nogado. So did a lot of other folks. We sat by the open kitchen, and I watched lots of these fantastically glorified chile rellenos go out. The poblano was perfectly cooked to tender crisp. The breading was light, yet had a very slightly chewy texture. It was reminiscent of breading on some fried pickles I have had. (Do NOT dis fried pickles. They are darn good.) The really amazing thing about the chile en nogado was the perfect balance. The textures were diverse and amazing. Each ingredient was perfectly cooked - denseness to the mushrooms, chewy depth to the duck, the crunch of thinly sliced almonds. When I say perfect, I mean perfect. I cannot imagine how it was done so well. The flavors were varied and diverse, yet not a single one overpowered the others. This dish was a really artfully crafted piece of work.
CB's dish also was tasty, though I must say that jalapeno is definitely not my favorite pepper.
The sorbets sounded amazing, but we were STUFFED. But then we went to Veritas and drank more wine. As earlier posts here reflect, I love that place.

Taco Joint

Stop by this place for some quick yummy chow in Old East Dallas. I am taking a break from the Little Rock hospital scene this weekend on the advice of my aunt and brother who are there. It was a good call to stay in Dallas and get some rest. I have had a great day. I went to the gym about 7 a.m. (seriously). Then treated myself to a Migas Plate at Taco Joint. Taco Joint is on Peak, just off Gaston. I have seen it when driving to work each day. Then I saw the Back Talk East Dallas post. So I wanted to try it.

Good and cheap - what a combo. First, I love that it is in East Dallas. Second, I really like it inside. The chairs and bar stools are chrome with bright, glitter-infused vinyl seats and backs - four different colors at each table. Other than that, the decor is sparse. Black and white pics of family and friends line the top of the front wall. A board on the back wall gives you the menu. And gosh, these people are nice. What better way to build a loyal clientele that to be super nice and get to know your customers? Serve great food, you say? Check. My migas plate - migas, good beans and good potatoes - was plentiful and yummy for $5. (I think my days of craving the more expensive vegetarian tacos at Cafe Brazil are over.) There is a great assortment of combos available for your breakfast tacos. There is a salsa bar with green and red as well as jalapeno ranch. And the music was perfect - Stevie Ray followed by Talking Heads - that's very good stuff. The owner even brought be a newspaper to read. I will definitely be back. Gotta try the lunch menu.

Obviously, The Observer likes it too.

I did a lot of other good stuff too - pedicure, Hallmark, grocery shopping, cooking. A good day. And tonight CB and I dine at Soley! Details to follow.

An awful thing

I hesitated about a week before writing this bit. At first I thought there had to be some mistake, or maybe it would work out. But it is true and sickening. Last week my brother's business partners told him they were "eliminating" his position and buying him out. They basically took away his restaurant. He is not getting entirely screwed financially, but he is in every other way. These jackasses basically got him to relocate, design a menu, hire and train a kitchen staff and get them good reviews from all the state-wide press and then they sucker punched him.

I hate them.

They cannot maintain what he created. My prediction is that Salut! will be gone in nine months. I hope they fail miserably and expensively - especially since they did it so the rest of them could make more money.

Don't eat at Salut! in Little Rock because the people who own it are rotten. And they don't have a chef.

(My brother will probably get mad at me if he reads this post, but I doubt he has ever looked at this blog. But if tells me to take it down, I will.)

T'anta - Soon to be on the Dallas Food Scene

I just read some exciting Dallas foodie news. We are to get the first U.S. outpost of T'anta early next year. I have never been to T'anta, which is in Lima, Peru. But it sounds like a very nice addition to the Dallas food scene. The new Food & Wine magazine calls it a "restaurant / take-out store that resembles a South American-themed Dean & Deluca." Intriguing. I have linked some reviews.

T'anta is one of many establishments owned by Peruvian chef Gaston Acurio. He is a celebrity chef in South America who has more than a dozen restaurants in Peru alone. His story is interesting. His father was Peru's prime minister. He quit law school in Madrid in his third year and secretly went to cooking school. (Your author now drifts off wistfully, considering the road her life could have taken. Okay, I'm back. Kinda.)

I won't repeat the whole Food & Wine piece, but pick up the November issue. It has lots of good stuff in it, as November food magazines usually do. I guess November is to food magazines what September is to fashion magazines. (Like I read fashion mags. Is September correct, Elle, my fashionable friend?)