The new toast of Texas: more than just a hub and convention center, Dallas/Fort Worth is an enticing spot for a weekend of food and adventure - Traveling Fare

Vegetarian Times, Nov, 1997 by Haneen Arafat

More than just a hub and convention center, Dallas/Fort Worth is an enticing spot for a weekend of food and adventure.

In the well-entrenched barbecue climate of Texas, searching for meatless cuisine can be a challenge. Yet the sprawling "metroplex" of Dallas/Fort Worth offers lots of surprises for curious travelers, including some top-notch places for vegetarians to eat. Follow this plan for spending a long weekend in the area and you'll find plenty of stimulating places to explore as well as wonderful meals to satisfy your appetite and pocketbook.

Between October and April in north Texas, the weather fluctuates wildly. There can be a chilly rain one day and balmy temperatures the next, so make sure to get outside when the sun shines. If Friday dawns cloudless, an ideal inner-city getaway is the White Rock Bike Trail, at its most serene while most of the world is still at work. The path begins at Plano, 12 miles north of White Rock Lake. It winds through suburban north Dallas neighborhoods, eventually making a seven-mile loop around the lake's edge. Because there are dozens of parking areas from which to access the trail, you can walk, ride or skate whatever portion of the path you choose. Within steps of the water, both Jack Johnson's and Richardson Bikemart on Garland Road rent road and mountain bikes by the hour or day ($7 to $25). But you'll have to bring or borrow your own in-line skates.

Before or after you ride, stop at one of two macrobiotic restaurants close to the northern leg of the trail. Macro q Broccoli sits in a warehouse-sized space in an aging strip mall, but it feels like a cozy diner with its mix-and-match chairs, self-serve tearoom and cadre of a regular customers. The menu, handwritten above the kitchen doorway, changes daily and includes such dishes as hearty chickpea croquets with onion gravy and Italian squash casserole, both well-matched by a complimentary cup of barley tea. Open for lunch and dinner, Macro Broccoli is inexpensive (an entree costs $6) and particularly excels at desserts--peach pie, rhubarb cobbler, coconut macaroons and large, chewy carob brownies.

A former chef at Macro Broccoli opened the nearby Macro Gourmet. This macrobiotic eatery is done-up in typical cafeteria-style, with plastic flowers on the tables and indoor-outdoor carpeting on the floors, but there's nothing cookie-cutter about homemade offerings, such as red lentil soup with caraway or sweet, fresh steamed kale with onions, all made with organic ingredients. Besides serving lunch and dinner, Macro Gourmet is open for hearty breakfasts that will get any weekend traveler off and running.

Closer to the central portion of the White Rock Bike Trail is a neighborhood called lower Greenville, where the Whole Foods Cafe, in a quiet corner of a natural food store, serves breakfasts fit for ovolacto diet, as well as vegan dishes, such as huevos rancheros made with tofu or, for lunch or an easy dinner, spicy tempeh chili sprinkled with soy cheese (for about $6). After you eat, you can while away many interesting hours in this lively neighborhood. In the daytime, shoppers browse through vintage clothing, hand-blown glass and Mexican folk art. When night falls, jazz, reggae and folk bands play live in both funky dives and upscale clubs.

Begin Saturday at your leisure at the Dallas Farmers Market. It's open all day, year-round, in two open-air structures the size of airplane hangars on the southeastern edge of town. Stroll among dozens of booths, sampling slices of juicy cantaloupe, peaches and sun-warmed tomatoes, or pick up some homemade jam, herbs or hand-painted garden pots to take home.

From the market, a five-minute drive farther east on Gurley Avenue takes you to a lunch at Kalachandji's, where sari-clad members of the community of Krishna Consciousness serve a wonderful Indian-style cuisine based on vegetables, grains and dairy products. As well as being tasty, meals here are a bargain: lunch from the all-you-can-eat buffet comes to $7, while dinner is only $10. You might invest the money you save in a book of recipes from the gift shop.

You could easily spend the rest of the day just across the highway in Fair Park, a complex of museums, amphitheaters and stadiums landscaped with fountains and flower gardens. During the fall and winter, this is the place to be if you're a college football fan--the Cotton Bowl is here--or an opera lover because the Dallas Opera is in residence at the Music Hall in November and January. Of special interest is the African-American Museum, where a retrospective of the Negro Baseball League will be held this fall. Science Place, a museum full of challenging brain-games, is in the complex as well, along with an IMAX theater.

For dinner and evening activities head for Deep Ellum, a district in the shadows of downtown where ancient pool halls now share walls with French pastry shops and karaoke bars. Retaining only its mysterious name and occasional graffitied wall, the once-seedy Deep Ellum is now the center of Dallas night life. While there are no strictly vegetarian eateries in the area, most of the restaurants--including Italian, Middle Eastern and Creole--have meatless options or are more than willing to accommodate specific requests.