FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Merry’s Miracle Tart

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After being on the road for two weeks, I felt as though I could not eat one more junky bite.  Knowing this, my Dallas friend, anxious to show me a new health hot spot, brought me to Southpaw’s Organic Cafe. She ordered the Dr. Luke sans beast and it looked amazing.  But honestly, I couldn’t imagine anything passing through my food abused lips.

In true ‘I can’t sit still’ fashion, I wandered around the store.  I honed in on the refrigerated goods and the word ‘raw’ immediately came into focus.  I’ll take one of these!

At 400 calories for one Merry’s Miracle Tart, it’s not a guiltless treat.  But knowing that the the ingredients were quality, the fats were good and the taste was to die for, was enough to make me not care.  Rumor has it these bad boys are sold at Whole Foods – I’ll keep ya posted!

Crab Shack Baby

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Three days and two restaurant meals is a limited time frame to prove your city’s food worth to out of towners.  Two meals is even more of a challenge when you have, on more than one occasion, stated that Tampa kicks Dallas’ tail in the food department.  And although this was a challenge incapable of being won, I gave it a darn good try.

Each restaurant was predictably delicious and provided my guests with polar opposite dining experiences.  We went from a coursed meal amongst red velvet at Bern’s Steak House to paper napkins just past the redneck riviera at the Crab Shack.

This was my first Crab Shack experience and let me tell you, it is nothing short of treasure.  Raw Oysters are nine bucks a dozen, king crab legs are 12 bucks a half pound, and our waitress was sweet as pie.

I hope that my full-bellied friends found their trip brag-worthy and will return quickly so I can continue proving that small town dining can, in fact, compete with The Big D.

Grass Roots

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Tampa is what it is, and after returning home from a year in Dallas, I appreciate the “is”.  I’ve never doubted my seemingly lacking city in the food quality department.  And even if you gave me a choice between a Tampa and Dallas restaurant, I’d probably choose Tampa 95% of the time.  Yes, really.  But the other 5%?  My heart aches for Spiral Diner, Cosmic Cafe, and Bliss Raw Cafe.

The only place here that compares in fashion forwardness is Grass Roots.  And it’s not just good because of it’s lone soldierism, it ranks nicely in my theoretical Tampa vs. Dallas game.

I ordered “Sabrina’s Favorite Sandwich” for lunch – raw onion “bread” with raw hummus, avocado, sprouts, lettuce and sheeze.  It seems as though faux cheese and I have a special relationship these days.  Interesting.  But back to the dish, 100% raw and 150% delicious!  The raw onion bread even sparked an interest in adding a food dehydrator to my extensively unnecessary food appliance collection.