Soft shell crab season is running out of road. The East Coast has mostly wrapped up for the year, and the fresh crabs still landing in Dallas kitchens are coming out of the Gulf, where the season opens in early April and can hang on through October, sometimes into November when the water stays warm. After that, a soft shell on a menu almost certainly came out of a freezer.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Jeffrey Yarbrough was sitting in Mary’s Cafe in Strawn, a small town just off I-20, when the question came to him. Mangoes had their own holiday. Why didn’t chicken fried steak?
Today is October 26, which makes it Texas Chicken Fried Steak Day. That’s Yarbrough’s doing, and fifteen years after the state made it official, he’s still the one pushing it.
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Bison and elk used to be once-a-year meat in Dallas, the sort of thing you ordered at a steakhouse with a mounted head on the wall and then forgot about until the next anniversary dinner. These days a home cook can find it on a Tuesday. Between a Far North Dallas butcher counter, a frozen-meat chain that shelves kangaroo a few feet from the chicken thighs, and a Hill Country ranch that ships wild antelope to your porch, North Texas has more game within reach than most people realize.
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Hallie Crawford was 19 when she took her first teaching job in Presidio, just as Pancho Villa’s raids were reaching into the Big Bend. Her father figured she was off on a wild goose chase. Her reply, “Then I’ll gather my geese,” became the title of the memoir she published in her nineties. According to the Handbook of Texas, she showed up for that first job with her teaching certificate in hand and her father’s gun strapped to her side.
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Social isolation can affect anyone, regardless of age, background or lifestyle. While staying connected with other people is an important part of maintaining good mental wellbeing, busy schedules, changing circumstances and modern life can sometimes make it difficult to build and maintain meaningful relationships.
There are so many reasons for this, whether it be through age and feeling lonely, mental health conditions, relationship breakdowns, even the rise in people struggling with addiction and going through the likes of alcohol or ketamine rehab.
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Food is about much more than nutrition. What we eat can be closely connected to our emotions, memories, routines and relationships. A favorite meal can provide comfort after a difficult day, while sharing food with friends or family can create a sense of connection and belonging.
The relationship between food and mental health is complex. Eating certain foods does not automatically improve our mood, and emotional eating is not necessarily a sign that something is wrong. However, there are some foods that can be great for that sort of thing and can even be useful for combatting mental health conditions like addiction, with treatment for cannabis addiction often promoting certain foods that can help reduce cravings as well as providing comfort.
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The State Fair has packed up, the pumpkins are still out, and Dallas finally has weather that makes you want to leave the house. This weekend, October 23 through 25, brings Rachmaninoff at the Meyerson, a folk hero at the Majestic, a Texas songwriter in one of the city’s oldest dance halls, and three very good meals in between. Here’s how to spend it.
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The heat finally broke, the patios are full again, and nobody in Dallas has to sweat through a shirt just to sit outside with a cold one. This is the season the city waits all summer for. Round up a few friends, pick a spot, and let a Saturday afternoon stretch until somebody remembers they had plans.
Here are five places that do day drinking right, from Lower Greenville to Oak Cliff, with a little something for the beer people, the brunch people and the friend who only drinks mezcal.
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