Dallas is so much fun!

Since Leslie moved to Dallas I have been trying to get over there to see her.  I've been missing my friend and needed to go for a visit.  She moved into her new SWANKY apartment a couple months ago and has it all set-up for guests.  I felt like I was staying at the Ritz but it felt homey too.  I arrived on Friday night and we headed to The Porch, a really nice restaurant.  It was delish.  I didn't get any pictures. :(

Leslie took me by her new place of employment, Parkland.  She is working on the new, multi-billion dollar hospital.  She has a pretty amazing job and I am so proud of her!  It was really cool to see just how big the hospital is going to be.  We got home and stayed up until midnight chatting about this and that.  

After 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep, I felt totally refreshed.  We got dressed and headed out.  We covered LOTS of ground in less than 24 hours.  We pretty much ate the entire time.  But, what are friends and vacations for?  EATING!

We went to breakfast at yummy Bread Winner's.  We stopped by a garage sale in Highland Park where I purchased a small Ball jar.  We hit up a cute fabric store and paper store. We went to the Pearl Cup (Leslie's favorite coffee shop) and on a Dallas Food Tour.  

This picture looks like 2 floating heads...Bread Winner's

Leslie and me at the Pearl Cup

We headed to our tour at 1:00.   A local food writer was our guide.  He writes at the popular CraveDFW blog.  He was very knowledgeable and knew about places off the beaten path.  The first place we went to was REALLY off the beaten path.  We arrived and they basically had no idea why we were there.  We went to a place called World Market Warehouse...not the World Market that is in shopping centers...this was a real weird place.  Every canned good had Arab writing on it, the produce looked scary, and the other patrons were jerks.

This aisle made us laugh.  None of these items were on the hairgel/coffee aisle.

I really took this picture of Leslie because I wanted one of the guy that verbally accosted  me pictured below.

Leslie and I were just minding our business checking out the canned hummus when this guy out of no where yelled "F-word! ARE YOU TALKING TO ME!?"  I was totally confused because Leslie and I were just chatting to EACH OTHER. He goes "You are yelling in my ear!"  I just stood there dumbfounded and then walked off.  We found out later that he didn't want no stinking Caucasians in his store!

Some of the people on the tour with the chef

mmmmm...homemade naan bread

They told us they can sell meat (goat and lamb) cheaper than most places can buy it.  They prepare it according to Halal guidelines.  Read more here.  Basically they slaughter the animals humanely...slaughtering humanely seems like an oxymoron to me.

 Our next stop was a pizza place called Cane Rosso.  We enjoyed fresh Neapolitan Pizza prepared in a brick oven.

This was the last picture I took of our tour.  The main reason for this was that I was so full I couldn't think about anything but a nap!

We headed to Zen Bakery, the Dallas Farmer's market Shed #2, and TJ's seafood as well.  All of the places we went were fabulous and I can't say that I have a favorite.  I am so glad we went on this tour because we got to do so much in a short amount of time.

Leslie, thank you so much for having me!  Can't wait to go back to the big D!