Tuesday, July 5, 2010 - Herrera's Mexican Cafe

Herrera's Mexican Cafe
4001 Maple Ave.
Dallas, Texas 75219
214.528.9644

We had to go on Monday this time instead of Tuesday. Valentina had to work. This is a great "hole in the wall" Tex-mex restaurant, and a Dallas landmark, so to speak. It's another old establishment that doesn't have a website. The building is a little dumpy but the food is fantastic.

Margaritas to start, of course. Valentina orders a swirl. Ok, the margaritas.. not good. They're too sweet, and you can't taste any alcohol.

She's such a tease.. ;)

The salsa is really excellent. Both of us ordered the "Larry" special. Which is one cheese enchilada with chili sauce, one Sour cream chicken enchilada, and one green chili enchilada. OMG, this was cheesy ambrosia of the gods! They might just be beating out Ojeda's here (which is my absolute favorite). I have to order the cheese enchiladas there first to compare. I always get puffed tacos. Next time I'm here though, I'm going to get a whole order of those chili cheese enchiladas and wallow in them.

The "Larry"

Valentina ordered a side of guacamole, and the waitress recommended she order the guacamole on a tostada instead of the side, because apparently it's the same amount of guacamole and it's about 2 dollars cheaper. Just keep that green sh*t away from me. :)

Guacamole tostada

Ok, this is the funniest picture. Valentina wasn't posing here. She thought I was taking a picture of the plate and this is what she was doing with her silverware while she was waiting on me. She didn't realize she was in the photo. Of course this is a shot I couldn't resist. :)

lol

And Sopapillas for dessert. Oheda's definitely has better sopapillas.

4 out of 5 stars

oh, and this was a big news item a couple years ago...

Mike Herrera, of Dallas restaurant chain Herrera’s, dies at Parkland Hospital

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

DALLAS — Michael L. "Mike" Herrera, 58, of Dallas Herrera's Restaurants chain, died Saturday at Parkland Hospital, after waiting nearly 19 hours to be seen.

He came to the emergency room on Friday afternoon because he felt a sharp abdominal pain while golfing -- he had a hernia -- but had no health insurance and wasn't suffering from an urgent injury such as a gunshot wound, so he kept getting bumped back in line. Friends and family came to visit him while he waited. On Saturday morning at 11 a.m., he was on his way to an examination room when he began vomiting and collapsed. Doctors tried to revive him for almost two hours.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - Afrah Mediterranean Restaurant

Afrah Mediterranean Restaurant

314 E Main St
Richardson, TX
75081-6045

972.234.9898

Great Mediterranean style food in Richardson, Tx. This is another cafeteria style place. It's not much to look at but the food more than makes up for it.

We started off with mint tea. It's really similar to mint tea we used to get at a place called Cafe Marrakesh, that isn't open anymore.
The tea isn't sweet here though, and it was at Marrakesh. I counted how many spoons of sugar it took before it tasted the same. 4 and 1/2! for one cup. eep!
And we used to drink pots of the stuff.

Valentina and the mint tea

Valentina started with an order of Tabbouli. She loves this stuff, but it sort of tastes like lemon flavored parsley to me. I can take it or leave it.

Tabbouli

After that, we both ordered the Shish Tawook.. which is basically chicken kababs, and they came with your choice of sides. I got hummus and fattoush which is a type of salad, and Valentina had hummus and baba ghannouj, which is sort of a baked eggplant. It came with turnips and a fabulous garlic sauce.

Fattoush

Shish Tawook with hummus and baba ghannouj

Shish Tawook with hummus

MmMMmmmmmm....

These are turnips. Why and how they dye them fuschia I have no idea. But it's a little disturbing.

Just about this time, they seated a couple at the table beside us with a toddler about 2 years old. A screaming toddler. And the woman was egging him on.. teasing him with pieces of food and making him scream louder. So I feel a rant coming on...
lady, people aren't looking at you because they think you're funny or your baby is cute. They're thinking up ways to kill you. Even the occasional woman who might come up and tell you how cute your baby is.. she doesn't mean it.. she's trying to gauge whether or not her fellow diners will turn her in if she stabs you and the kid with a butter knife once she's in range. No one wants to go out and spend 30 to 100 dollars on a nice evening, to have their peace and quiet ruined by your screaming spawn. If an adult screamed non stop in a restaurant they'd be asked to leave. ..And that also goes for you brainiacs who bring your kids to R rated movies and let them run up and down the aisles. Take your cheap asses home and hire a baby sitter. rant over.

Dessert was awesome! Except we had to eat it over the sound of screaming.
They have all kinds of different flavors of baklava and gelato.
We both went for the pistachio baklava and coffee flavored gelato. It's worth going there just for the dessert.

pistachio baklava

baklava and coffee gelato

Afterwards we drove down the street to TGI Fridays to get a drink. We both left with a headache from the screaming. Afrah doesn't serve alcohol.

4 out of 5 stars (for the food)

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - Pizza By Marco

Pizza By Marco

10720 Preston, Suite 1014
Dallas, TX 75230
214.363.6122

Apparently they are the oldest "pizzeria" in Dallas.(According to them)

Frank, the son of Marco, is the only person who knows the secret spices that go into the sauce and dough which he makes fresh daily.(according to them) Since 1956, they've been voted as having the best pizza in Dallas by over 30 publications and websites. Citysearch just recently awarded them "the best pizza in Dallas for 2009". No other pizza in Texas has won more awards.(according to them)...

Valentina and George

Ah, just being snarky.. ;)

It was actually very good pizza. Their Preston location hasn't got any seating though, so you have to take it to go. I don't know if I'd rate it "best"... Carmine's is pretty amazing also.

Our friend George came to hang out with us, so we took the food back to Valentina's office.

Valentina, enjoying her salad

Sorry, ended up with crappy iPhone pictures for the rest of it.

Valentina had some red wine also, which went well with it all.

We split a Feta salad, an Augustus pizza, and a pizza with pepperoni, black olives, green olives and jalapenos. While we sat around kidding each other and drinking too much.

Feta salad

Augustus pizza

Pepperoni, green olives and peppers

Ok here's George, having the only drink I've ever seen him have.

salud!

to good ideas. ;)

3 1/2 out of 5 stars for the pizza, 5 stars for the company! :)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - Sweet Georgia Brown BBQ Buffet

Sweet Georgia Brown BBQ and Soul Food Buffet
2840 East Ledbetter Drive
Dallas, TX 75216-7516
214.375.2020

Apparently this soul food place is a chain. I wouldn't have guessed it. It looks like it's in a building that used to be something else, so I thought it was a local place. And they don't seem to have a website so I put in a mapquest link.

Anyway, this place is awesome. It's cafeteria style and you get practically a trough of food for the same price you'd pay for an average meal at a chili's or other comparable chain.

The food is SO good. And it should be, because you can live on one of their plates of food for 3 days. I ate until I was stuffed and the container was still full when I finished.

Ok, Valentina had beef tips in gravy, sweet potato casserole, broccoli cheese rice casserole, black eyed peas, corn bread.. and some thing I am not remembering.. cabbage?

Beef tips in gravy, sweet potatoes, and broccoli rice casserole

I had the BBQ sausage, mashed potatoes and gravy with beef tips, and broccoli cheese rice casserole. And I snagged some of Valentina's cornbread.

BBQ Sausage, mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli rice casserole

For dessert they have soft serve vanilla ice cream.. all you can eat, for free.
And they can give it away because after you've had one of their meals, you're not getting much ice cream in there.

soft serve

awesomeness.

3 1/2 out of 5 stars. The food rates higher, but I had to take 1/2 point for general atmospheric grunginess.

We went out a little earlier than usual because we had to drive to Oak Cliff, so we were finished fairly early and looking for ways to entertain ourselves... so of course.. shopping! Our home away from home, NorthPark Center. woo!

Actually more like "window shopping for weirdness".
And I always manage to find some. At Anthropologie. :)

Yes, they want 50 bucks for this craptastic piece.

windchimes made of cut off bottles.

Anyone remember the Ronco bottle cutter? We had one, because of course everyone desires candle holders made out of used bottles. We were thinking green in the 70's.. ;) All we ever did was get glass dust all over ourselves.

pieces of broken scrap wood painted black and priced 800 dollars! marked down to 350. dang!

I don't even know. It looks like a craft project from the 50's

Not weird. I love this bed. It looks like a canopy of trees

Still trying to figure this one out.. a lopsided bottle with the end cut off, and a rope around its neck.

Next we headed to Barneys and they had all kinds of fun weirdness for us. They had these essential oil candle scents (that I didn't take pictures of dammit), and I swear all of them but one, smelled like ass. I did manage to record some other fun stuff for you. :)

weird expensive jars that look like inflated, decapitated heads

decapitated head in a jar plate. I really should have looked at the prices because I'm so curious about this one now.

Kitty. I like it.

skull candles with lizards wrapped around their heads... or are they gila monsters?

This is a stick up! Hand over your garden tools and no one gets hurt!

Call this guy an "asshat" and he might take it literally

A too short, foray into the shoe department.. Valentina wearing a pair of 2,100 Christian Louboutins, marked down to 1,200. Me wants! I tried them too. Lovely.