Any culinarian worth their salt will tell you that Dallas is a foodie mecca. From 5 star restaurant offerings to local Texas longhorns establishments, fresh ingredients are flown in overnight from across the world to help make Dallas a worthwhile food-focused pilgrimage.
Dallas restaurants have been making the “best of” lists in premiere international travel publications for a long time and with good reason. The Mansion on Turtle Creek, mentioned in Conde Nast “Traveler”, one of Dallas’ many 5-star restaurant offerings, can be found right beside the 2014 Forbes Travel Guide Star Award Winner – Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek hotel. While another 5-star restaurant, The French Room that is nestled inside the Adolphus Hotel, has been described as “a Louis XV fantasy on the prairie . . . indisputably the most striking and sumptuous restaurant in Dallas”, by the New York Times.
Enticed, yet? Wait, there’s more.
What makes Dallas truly special is its astounding variety that caters to any palate and budget. Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Ethiopian, French, Italian, South American, Mexican, Russian, Indian, Greek, Creole, Thai – name the cuisine and Dallas has it. What’s even more remarkable is that you can find incredible restaurants on a $20 budget, or a $2000 budget that are all worth writing home about. Some restaurants even provide a pre-stamped postcard for you to do just so!
But the most fun I’ve had on my Dallas cuisine pilgrimage in my 10 years on-and-off in this town is writing for Roaming Hunger, because I have been given the luxury of eating amazing and affordable food that I don’t have to travel far to find – in fact, in a roundabout way, it comes to me. Food trucks have made an indelible mark on the culinary landscape of Dallas.
If you’ve been following me, you’ve seen my escapades to the Texas Truck Yard, which is famous not only for its 15,000 square-foot trailer-park inspired space featuring 3 bars – one inside, one in a converted Airstream, and one in a treehouse, but also for its divine, mouth-watering Philly Cheese Steak that is made on-site. As well as to the Fort Worth Food Park, whose communal feel also hosts numerous community service opportunities in which its patrons may partake.
My most recent and possibly favorite visit thus far have been to Klyde Warren Park, that is nestled in the Dallas Arts District, offers every imaginable cuisine, and is quintessentially family-friendly. The park has a mini water park, a playground, a reading area with books, magazines, and newspapers available to patrons to enjoy while relaxing, and noshing, under a tree or in the football-field length grassy knoll that stretches across the park.
In addition to the wonderful amenities a variety of Food trucks visit the park as well. From those solely devoted to the sugar-savvy – think homemade ice cream sandwiches and cupcakes – to national favorites such as burger and pizza trucks. A truck famous for its fried catfish is parked there daily and a Japanese fusion truck offers more than just sushi, it also well-known around Dallas for its snowcones! With Klyde Warren Park, it is easy to forget you are between the lanes of Woodall Rogers Freeway, that serves as the dividing line between Downtown Dallas and Uptown neighborhoods. There’s more to come in my writings on this park, but meanwhile, why don’t you come see for yourself?
-Gina Marie Gandy
Contributor Page: http://roaminghunger.com/guest-contributor-gina-marie-gandy
