Keeping my promise

Good morning readers! I hope you all had a good night's sleep, filled with dreams of delicious foods and time spent with precious loved ones. OK enough with the mushy stuff, on to business. Yesterday I spoke about the delectable food I had in Montana that was locally grown, and I made a promise that today I'd let you in on a handfull of places in the Metroplex that also did the farm to table dining.

                                                                 

The next on my list is also a soft spot for me, it's less than a mile from my house, Restaurant Ava. This new splendid restaurant is one of the best places in the Metroplex to eat, and in my opinion, the best high end dining in our little town of Rockwall Texas. They use farm to table products and free range chickens. The food is divine, it really is. Their lunch and dinner menus are sublime, but if you have a chance to stop in for breakfast I recomend getting their Shrimp and Grits (house cured tasso ham, oven roasted tomatoes, gulf shrimp, stone ground grits) for dinner I recommend Pan Roasted Chicken Breast (asparagus, french green beans, spanish chorizo, barking cat sweet peppers, patatas bravas).

Now if you're in Dallas and you need something on Inwood and Lovers Lane, then you should go visit Rise no1. A beautiful french bistrow featuring souffle's, the brain child of my boss' dear friend Hedda Dowd. She and Chef Cherif are co owners of this beautiful and very green living restaurant. It's one of the most interesting and delicious places one can eat at in the Dallas area. They have really made it their mission to educate and demonstration the importance of utilizing the local agriculture for gastronomic arts. They prove that local is delicious. Everything on their menu is superb and almost every ingrediant is something grown in the local area. They also use recycled materials from their decorations to their linens, but that's a tale for another day.

I realize that sometimes eating out is a little out of budget, don't worry, farm to table can also be your table. "But Wide Eyed, I don't think I can go to a farm for food." is what you might say, but I anticipated that. Yes, even though the two restaurants I listed are reasonable in price, eating out every meal isn't very cost effective, nor is it wise to drive to a random farm in the middle of Texas and just start plucking away at their goods. I found that in the Metroplex all you need to do is take a little drive to a local farmers market. I instantly found three convenient locations. There's the Rockwall farmers market, it's open Saturdays from 8-12noon, unfortunately it is not year round (it ends October 8th, hurry and go visit it). Then there's the Coppell Farmers Market, a huge supporter of the Farm to Table movement, they are also Saturdays from 8 - Noon, I know they are not year round, but not sure when they close down for the season, I'm pretty sure it's in November. Finally there's the Dallas Farmers Market, it's been up and running for 70 years. You can find anything there, and it's something you could do as an all day event, it is open 362 days a year from 8am - 6pm, no excuse to miss out on it. 

There's so much more I could tell you about when it comes to Dallas and it's growing appreciation for farm to table eating, but there's not enough hours in the day to tell you all about the delights. I know that DISH on Cedar Springs is one of Dallas' new hot spots but unfortunately I haven't had a chance to visit it personally, but trust me, I will be doing some very in depth research on it and will report back with the quickness. Have a wonderful weekend gnomes, go out and see if you can find some down home cooking, be it in a farm to table restaurant or fresh farmers market in your own kitchen.

http://restaurantava.com/
http://risesouffle.com/

http://www.dallasfarmersmarket.org

http://www.coppellfarmersmarket.org/

http://mainstreet.rockwall.com/faqs.asp