Loving Fort Worth Food Park, behind Montgomery Plaza, and happy to find Good Karma Kitchen with veg and gluten-free fare. Great bowl of chili with corn muffin, and a number of other good choices. Feels a little like Austin, and I think that’s the point.
Tuesdays are half-price burger nights at dutch’s–the Texana made with a Gardenburger and avocado is my fav. There’s a new two-story patio out back, too, for when the weather breaks.
Now on the menu at Chipotle is brown rice with cilantro, making it easier to be good on the run.
From the latest issue of 360 West, here’s a vegan recipe from Spiral Diner’s executive chef, James Johnston. One of the best parts of my job is the chance to meet the people in and around Fort Worth whose ingenuity and follow-through make our town culturally richer and so much more interesting for their efforts. James and his wife and business partner Amy McNutt are high on that list. They’ve been running Spiral Diner, our town’s only vegan restaurant, for close to a decade; add to that the fact that 2012 should see their dream of opening an art house theater realized, and you can see why they’re so important to Fort Worth. My thanks to them for sharing this recipe with me and our readers. I tested it at home with a jar of Joe T’s salsa and it’s good stuff. This simple recipe is also a great way to incorporate quinoa — that high-protein super grain (or seed, technically) — into your cooking. (Costco has great deals on big bags of organic quinoa.)
It started a few years ago. I would get a whiff when I walked through a room, just a flash, but would try to put it out of my mind; I have a very sensitive nose, one which has made me, at times, a pain in the ass to the people I live with. A few days later, its whisper would get louder, challenging me to ignore it. I’d stop, look around, sniff. Sometimes I’d wind up on hands and knees, inspecting an area rug, lifting up a crumpled blanket, straightening out the ends of a too-long curtain pooled on the floor. Invariably, I would find it: the yellowish circle on the bottom of the white curtains, the patch of carpet that stung my nose with its stench, the laundry pile that was much filthier than it started out. Everyone was under suspicion. The aging cats I’ve had since graduating college. The dog who might have been left inside a little too long. Even the recently potty-trained children running around the house. I asked my daughter, then two, if she had any idea who was peeing in the house. No, she did not. When pressed, she wrinkled her nose, shrugged her shoulders, and said “Maybe Papa did it?” Hmmm. Probably not. Each occurrence would send me into a fit of cleaning, purchasing chemical cleaners, borrowing a carpet spot cleaning machine from a well-equipped friend, becoming more religious about cleaning the kitty litter, letting the dog outside, reminding the children to get to the toilet. But invariably, it would happen again. Cats hustled off to the vet to rule out any problems, and we found our culprit. Unfortunately for the cats and for the rest of us, we’ve relived this scenario a number of times over the last three years, as the problem has become chronic. I have added an extra litter box, added a kitty door to the fenced-in backyard. But no matter, my family home was, slowly but disgustingly, becoming a litter box. On the last vet visit, to a kindly man who has several cats of his own, he ended the checkup with some advice that caught me very much off-guard: Don’t put them down, he told me, make them outdoor cats.
I had not considered putting them down, didn’t really know it was an option. But, apparently, this is what happens to old cats. It’s among the many, many things nobody tells you when urging you to adopt kittens in pairs so they’ll have someone to play with.
I’ve recently taken the vet’s advice, except that they’re not entirely outdoors. We’ve managed to cordon off an area that allows my old boys access to the laundry room, which has a litter box (for old time’s sake, and one of them does use it), and a small hallway, where their food and a warm, fuzzy orthopedic bed awaits. A friend has called it a nursing home for cats, and, I guess that’s what it is. While life often feels organic and totally in line with nature, decisions completely clear, my beliefs giving me sure footing on any path, the aging of my cats has thrown me off, making me more aware that my love for them can bend a bit on their destructiveness, even when it’s not their fault. One seems happier than before, the other obviously still a bit irritated. Guess which is which.
Worth a try is the newly opened Thai Select in the Sprouts shopping center in southwest Fort Worth (I-20 and Hulen). It’s a sister restaurant to Thai Rice N Noodle on Camp Bowie, and has a similar menu. We loved the fiery red curry (specify a heat between 1 and 5 and don’t make the mistake I did of letting your ego get in the way) and the pad Thai was nice, too. Most dishes are available with soft or fried tofu in place of meat. The kids’ menu could use some work, but this is a very welcome addition to the neighborhood for carryout or dining in — the dining room is more inviting and modern than you’d expect in the strip mall location.
It was Friday afternoon, a couple hours to kill with the kiddos, thinking about dinner and shaming myself out of ordering takeout. That’s what lead me to pick up Anna Thomas’ not at all new The New Vegetarian Epicure, a gift from my parents when I moved into my first apartment in 1997. It’s a beautifully written book of vegetarian menus designed for entertaining, full of joie de vivre and fabulous food. But the page that’s dappled and dented from being cooked over so many times? The one on homemade pizza, in a section entitled “What do children eat?” We made it our Friday afternoon project, using half whole-wheat flour for the crust rather than all white, and purchased sauce (Muir Glen organics makes a very handy canned one), but otherwise following her instructions exactly. We mixed up the yeast dough, then we went to do a little grocery shopping (mozzarella, peppers); as predicted, when we returned home, they were thrilled with the risen pizza dough, each shaping their own portion and topping it exactly how they wanted, as did I. As she writes, “There’s peace in the house.” Amen, sister. Check out her much newer soups book, Love Soup, for vegan and vegetarian meals for cooler weather.
Can’t complain about the lack of independent cafes if you don’t support them. The Cup is open on Camp Bowie, so stop in for a cup of Illy. There are even vegan energy bars on the counter.
Just sat in on Ann Gentry’s vegan cooking class at Central Market in Fort Worth. What an inspiring evening of food and conversation, strangers coming together with a shared passion. People’s stories of wellness through diet, punctuated with soup, salad, cornbread, fruit, and a couple glasses of wine, made it an evening to remember.
…wait in line for In N Out, that I would give the just-opened location on Seventh a few weeks to simmer down. But I’ve been missing California a lot lately. The only veg option: Grilled cheese with grilled onions, part of the secret menu, and worth the 20-minute wait.
