Thursday, September 09, 2004

Not cooking makes me actually sad and dissatisfied and kind of off, I'm finding. However, I had a really good reason not to- I was in Fort Worth for a friend's wedding (I was a bridesmaid, she was beautiful, it was all crazy fun) and while we were there we ATE THE ENTIRE CITY. Seriously. I think I gained 10 pounds and it was worth it. Here's where we ate:

Thursday night we arrived and were ravenous but it was 10 PM. We went downtown and despite the revived downtown, there still aren't a lot of places to eat late (although we were staying right next to Ol' South , but I couldn't quite subject my husband to that). I thought maybe we'd go to 8.0, since in high school I did my internship there (seriously, I told them I was interested in Restaurant Management and spent a good portion of my senior year hanging out in a bar), but their kitchen had closed. Plus, the crowd looked even tackier than they did when I was there last 5 years ago, which was pretty tacky. So we went to The Flying Saucer and had a pretty good 1/4 of a pizza.

Friday morning I insisted on dragging my husband to the Paris Coffee Shop, where the Cain's coffee was exactly as good as I remembered it being when I went there every single morning back in high school. The biscuits and gravy were also excellent and y'all? Nowhere in LA can you get a full breakfast for two for $13. (Actually, I lie. I think you can at Nick's, which I always forget about.) But truly nowhere in LA can you get a full breakfast with stellar, friendly service for $13. And that delightful Cain's coffee.

For lunch we wandered around trying to figure out where to eat forever. They tore down the Back Porch. Just tore the whole building down, apparently years ago, and WHY did no one think to tell me? Why? And the place that made the sandwiches I loved with the apple in them was long, long gone so we went to La Madeleine after perusing the menu of every other establishment in downtown Fort Worth.

The rehearsal dinner was at Joe T's and the bridesmaid's luncheon was at Angeluna. Joe T's was as good as I'd remembered it and their margaritas were as sneaky as I'd remembered them. (And also, it's a great place for out of towners since apparently a lot of them had seen it on the Food Network.) The luncheon was good, too- very luncheonesque with bellinis and iced tea and bruschetta and salads. I thought there was mushrooms in the salad and they tasted really weird and gross, but then I realized they were slices of pear and they were delicious. Also, I ate way too much of the frambois soaked fruit and caramel nutty thing for someone who had to fit in a bridesmaid's dress in only a few hours.

Y'all know you are in Texas when the bride's dressing room has a tray of pimento cheese sandwiches (and other tea sandwiches, but who can look at another sandwich when there is pimento cheese to be had?).

The wedding dinner was great, too- mashed potatoes and shrimp and chicken piccata and tenderloin that was smoked by Railhead. And great cake.

By the next day I think Jeff and I were both ready to explode. However we were tempted by the two things that could make us eat- first, brunch at Reata (y'all, the bacon. And the jalapeno cheese grits. I never make grits because my heathen husband doesn't like them and these grits made me want to make them every day anyway. I could have eaten a whole plate of them. And the Bloody Marys helped immensely, too.)

Then, for dinner, we went over to Pineapple Girl's. She worried me over the phone by saying we were having tapas- not that I don't love tapas, but it had been an action packed weekend and the last thing we wanted was some ridiculously elaborate meal with a ton of fussiness, as I find tapas often is (you know, three hours of work for three bites of food). However, what we actually had was what she called "Snacks for Supper," which is up there with "Breakfast for Dinner" on my idea of perfect theme meals. Roasted red pepper hummus, smoked trout spread, chicken salad, prosciutto, and a jillion other things and plenty of wine. Jeff turned to me on the drive home and said, "You want to have snacks for supper every night now, don't you?" And, you know, I so do.

Monday we finished up our gustatory tour of Texas with lunch at Sonny Bryan's in Dallas, which, while not my idea of the best or even really great barbeque, was good enough to show my husband why I refuse to eat barbeque in California.

And now I'm eating salads forever.

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