It can be very difficult to maintain a diet when traveling. When the diet isn’t one that’s elective, in order to lose weight or lower cholesterol, then it’s even more important to have some assurance that it will be possible to eat. For vegans, this can be especially important, because it is a more delicate balance, and it’s very difficult to convince people that it’s a necessity to eat vegan, not an option.

Those who are traveling to Dallas-Fort Worth, and wondering if this city will be more friendly than others have been, the answer is a very resounding yes. Although, yes, it is in the part of the world where the cow is part of food and clothing in many places, it’s also very accommodating to vegans and vegetarians. There are some magnificent places to eat for anyone, actually, Indian restaurants like Kalachandji’s offer an enormous variety of food from a culinary tradition that’s one of the most beloved in the world. It’s also in the tradition to refrain from meat, in many instances, so there’s no substitutions or anything missing in the recipes, and the taste is sublime. It’s vegan-friendly, not completely vegan, so the selections with dairy are very clearly marked.

Other restaurants, like Cosmic Cafe appeal to a wide crowd, too, with a vegan sensibility in all their cooking. Here the choices are more of a kind of world culture tour variety, with Mediterranean dishes, Mexican specialties, and goodies that appeal to the traditional alternative population. There’s a lot of choice here, and even a local Vegetarian Networ that specializes in activism and education. They have a lot of resources for local shopping and eating, and happy cow is always a great place to look for local eating possibilities.

This is all good news, since one can book the 4 star hotels in Dallas without worry about going hungry. It’s quite the opposite here!

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Vegan in Dallas

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When I was in college I was a member of a food co-op.  The place was called the Gentle Strength Health Food Coop, and until about ten years ago it was the only place to find organic fruits and vegetables, as well as anything else one would want to buy from the grocery store.  The one catch, the one element that made this place different from all the other stores in the city at the time, was that nothing was sold and no products were carried, which contained artificial anything.  For many years, a large portion of the population still bought their fresh produce in corporate markets, unaware that there was an option to pesticides.  The years past and the larger, corporate health food chains such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s moved into town, and the co-op and its organic market went out of business.  There is a parking lot there now, where the forty year old small store used to stand.

I needed to get back to this kind of life.  I wanted out of the city, and although Trader Joe’s is great, I wanted a real garden, a real farm.  I had heard of the Terhune Orchards in Princeton, New Jersey so I booked a flight and booked a hotel and was off.  During the two generations of Terhunes who ran the farm, it had had only three kinds of fruit trees, apples and peaches with a few pear strewn here and about.  But in 1975 a Pam and Gary Mount bought the orchard and turned it into a farm.  Now everything from fresh herbs to tomatoes to squash and peas can be bought here.  The catch is though…you won’t find your produce polished to a nice shine.  You won’t be hit by the tiny sprinklers as you pick out the best zucchini and you won’t smell dirt.  At the Terhune Orchards and Farm, you “pick your own”.

You pick your produce from the plants and the trees, and you dig your potatoes out of the dirt.  The couple had spent many years in the Peace Corps, and the notion of sustainability is something they brought back with them when they returned to the States.  When traveling through Princeton in the summer time, this is a great place to stop off and pick a basket of strawberries.  For working vacations, many people take a few weeks, live on the farm and work the fields.  In the ever growing corporate world, it gives one peace of mind to know that there are still places to get away from it all, in order to get back to what is real and to what is important.

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The Terhune Orchards of Princeton

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Rivers run through a number of towns and cities in the United States, but how many comprise over twelve percent of the city itself?  I don’t know the answer to that, but at least one of those cities is Grand Prairie, Texas, just outside Dallas, whose Johnson Creek flows through the city of over a hundred and sixty thousand and into the Trinity River.  This small city is a destination spot for families and offers those who stay in the hotels Grand Prairie offers its guests a number of fun activities, including fishing and camping and boating and hiking in the Cedar Hill State Park or Joe Pool Lake.  There’s also the Traders Village Flea Market, which is perhaps one of the most popular flea markets in Texas, where you can find typical Texan cuisine: turkey legs, burgers, corn-on-the corn, not to mention corn dogs. There’s theme park rides, too, as well as amusement parks.  Just a few blocks away from a number of hotels, you can find entertainment similar to the kind you might if you were visiting Hollywood: A Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum and a Palace of Wax (Of course, Hollywood doesn’t offer a Lone Star Park horse track or Six Flags, Hurricane Harbor [you have to drive forty miles north for the latter amusement park in California]).

Originally, the city was known as “Dechman” after a man named Alexander McRae Dechman who learned in 1863 that he could trade for land in Dallas County.  Using his oxen, a broken wagon, and two hundred in Confederate cash, he bought nearly two hundred and forty acres.  Well after the Civil War, in 1876, he traded this prairie property to the T&P railroad, making certain that trains would come through town.  The railraod depot was named Dechman.  In 1877, the postal service used the name Deckman because they couldn’t read the handwriting on the form, creating confusion between Deckman and Dechman.  The post office decided they would just use the name Grand Prairie, based on map designations of the area from twenty years prior, around 1850 to 1858.  Soon, a legend grew up (that proliferates all over the internet): A famous actress came to town by train, got off at the depot, and said, “Oh, what a grand prairie.”  Perhaps it’s true.  I’m sure somebody said it at some point, perhaps more than once!

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Family Fun in Grand Prairie

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When are in Maryland, and you are out to eat at a one of the best Baltimore restaurants, do you ever wonder where they get their seafood?  Well, chances are they go where most of the city goes for the best of the best, and that is the Lexington Market.  The entire city is steeped in history, and the market is no different.  The market has been in business since 1782, the largest market in continual operation in the world.  Recently the market made it to the CNN list of the top ten seafood markets in the country.  They are  still at their original location between Greene and Eutaw Streets on Lexington.  They know what they are doing.

Along with the variety and the quality of the seafood, the market also sells fresh meat, poultry, specialty items and groceries.  There are many stalls that sell prepared food, for eat in or take away.  More than one hundred and forty merchants have stalls in the market, and many events and festivals are scheduled here throughout the year.  Two favorites are the The Chocolate Festival and Lunch with the Elephants.  An ongoing event is the “Fresh Music at the Market” in which live musicians set up and play every day at noon during lunch time.

School children throughout Baltimore are introduced to the market at a young age, for if their parents don’t shop there, their schools will bring them there.  Staff of the market lead field trips and teach children about the foods at the market and topics such as the environment and organic farming.  The market has seen the city change, and will be there to see it change again.  The Urban Village project is underway.  It is a project in adaptive re-use and green development.  The market too will be renovated, with upgrades on the facilities–an overall face lift for this structure more than two hundred years old.  The project will also include the construction of reasonably prices apartments, bringing more life on a day to day basis into this already lively and wonderful area of Baltimore, Maryland.

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CNN’s Top 10 Seafood Markets: The Lexington Market in Baltimore

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Klye was in the mood for a steak. And when he said steak, he only meant the best steak available and for Kyle, that meant taking a trip across the bridge to Brooklyn and enjoying a great meal at Peter Luger Steakhouse. He swears that any restaurant that can last a hundred years has got to be one of the best restaurants New York City and beyond. And that night, Kyle was hungry and wanted the best.

However, and unfortunately for urgent appetites, Kyle’s wife Velma was adamantly in the mood for her favorite Chinese food. And her hunger demanded that they take a trip to the Chinatown Brasserie. She simply had to have some sea bass with black bean sauce and would not take no for an answer. This was an unusual predicament for the two of them to find themselves in as both of them were rather easy going about choices and were usually easy to please. Granted, they both had their favorites as was just demonstrated and occasionally they would find themselves unwilling to compromise when the need struck them though it rarely happened to both of them on the same night.

So, to rectify the situation, one they can’t recall ever having dealt with before Velma called her mother to gain support. That was all Kyle needed and with his hunger growing he sulked into the other room to grab his coat. Well, Velma wasn’t pleased with her mother’s first suggestion, which was to go for the steak because she preferred that herself. So, when pressed the mother came up with a different solution, which was to go to separate restaurants for the night so that each could enjoy their own choice. That was an odd suggestion, but Velma was attracted to it. She mentioned this to Kyle, who did not like to eat alone. But seeing that they were both unwilling to compromise they decided it would be the best thing for that evening. And while they both had the dinner they wanted, and enjoyed their meals, they decided that in the future they should make their plans earlier in the day before their appetites could get the better of them and leave them eating alone.

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Peter Luger Steakhouse in New York is 100 Years Old

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I’m back in Bangkok for only a few days to prepare for Myanamar and then on to India. You’d think I would be scrambling for some last minute supplies, trade in my useless guide books and in all prepare to leave for Southeast Asia. Well I should, but I decided to do a less conventional preparation, which was to learn Thai cooking!

May Sangie runs this food stall in Banglampu, which is a very popular tourist area. Her food is ranked among the best on my list of best foods during my journey and what’s even better is it’s all vegetarian. I’m seriously now thinking of all the food I’ll be able to cook when I get back home. I became so hooked on her spicy and sweet Massaman Curry. I tried it the first time I came through Bangkok and I came back many times. So, with the little time I have left, I will take a Thai cooking class.

I left my 5 star hotel Bangkok has and met with May then next morning and we went to the market to get supplies. As we passed other street food hawkers, May received a lot of yells, which I can’t help think was all about her walking with a geeky white guy from America, especially since they were all smiling and pointing at me. I asked her what they said, and she only replied that they wanted her to pick up some goods at the market. I’m sure they were saying something more along the lines of ‘He’s going to burn your stall down’.

She bought huge amounts of vegetables and four live catfish, it was all more than we both could carry and left them there to be delivered to her stall, all except one live catfish, which she gave me to carry. She lead me down an alleyway that seemed to lead to nothing but a canal. She then explained to me that she was going to give the fish back to the river as a part of her religious practice, or belief, a belief that if one takes something from nature, one must give something back. She said a short prayer and cast the fish into the canal and we headed back to her stall. That gesture made me realize that I was going to not only learn cooking today.

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It’s More Than Cooking in Bangkok

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Now that the weather is cooling off, the cal flame grills will be fired up in many backyards throughout Phoenix.  And with a gourmet grill, one will find that they are inclined to host all their dinner parties out doors.  When the grill is set up in the garden, the evening nights are turned into spectacular events.  These cal flame grills are not just your regular backyard grill, as many of them are equipped with options that are more akin to a gourmet kitchen.  The entire meal can be cooked out side as many of them come with burners for use when sauteing up the side dishes.  And many are custom designed for one’s own personal style with various tiles and finishes.

My next door neighbor in Chicago was known for her recipes and her skill with the out door barbecue.  Many of her dishes were a couple days in the preparation, and she often times fired up the grill by six in the morning.  The smells from Catherine’s cooking woke us up on many summer mornings.  One of her famous recipes was her BBQ steak.  She started the night before, rubbing the steaks with salt, thyme.  She then put the steaks in the refrigerator over night.

Then she started in on her secret BBQ recipe, she let me watch, but I was not allowed to write the ingredients down. She added beer and garlic, and that’s about all I can remember.  That sauce she kept going over a low heat for most of the night.  The next morning she would cover the steaks with the sauce and put them on her grill.  She slow cooked them until about noon, and then it was time for the feast.  That woman fed us just about once a week that summer, and it was always great to sit on her porch and partake in the summer afternoons, and delicious home cooked food.

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Cal Flame Grills and Catherine’s Secret BBQ Recipe

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When in Delhi, India you will want to be sure and give yourself the ultimate, self-indulgent treat of staying in one of the five star hotels in Delhi. One of these fabulous hotels is the Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi. It’s ideally situated, being just 15 miles from the Indira Gandhi International Airport. The Oberoi has everything you could ever imagine, and then some. For the utmost in relaxation, you can enjoy the spa and a massage, or how about the hot tub or whirlpool bath and of course there is the beautiful 18-hole golf course, the refreshing swimming pool or the fitness center for your daily exercise. You can also visit the onsite beauty parlor before your shopping excursion. Now for your palette, the Oberoi offers two bars and not one exquisite restaurant but five restaurants. You can select Continental, Cantonese Szechwan, Thai, Indian or all day dining. The savory menus featured at any of these restaurants will leave you completely satisfied and ready to explore this wonderful, ancient city.

As you discover Delhi, the fascinating and beautiful mosques and temples and the interesting historic forts and museums will enthrall you. You will find many, many people going about their daily activities on the busy streets. Do not be surprised by the wide variety of dress and modes of transportation. There will be rickshaws, carts and hand pulled trolleys right along with the modern cars, trucks and city buses. Even cows and the occasional elephant will be winding their way along the streets. The attire of the many people will be just as diverse, the businessman in his sharply pressed suit and tie alongside the traditionally dressed Hindus and Muslims, the ragged beggar sitting beside the spellbinding snake charmer and of course the levi clad teenagers. You will leave Delhi but you will take part of this city with you as your memories will be long remembered and enjoyed. Find out here about other hotels from around the world.

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Delhi Great Cuisine

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I’m so glad that my husband convince me that the best way to go from one spot to another was to call up and hire Cape Town Car Rentals. I thought we could do without the added expense, but the freedom it gave us was well worth the cost. Cape Town offers some fantastic locations for our family in a very relaxed and playful atmosphere. We are always on a constant quest to find child friendly spots offering restaurants with child menus and offers stuff for us adults. We managed to find a few places with which I will share.

We found in Cape Town itself  the Deer Park Cafe’ located in the suburb of Oranjezicht. It was trendy for the local families because the cafe offers deli style food and a large play park. The menu has enough variety for both adults and children. Deer Park Cafe was a wonderful way to spend time with our children and eating some gourmet treats. Then the next day we found the Shoreline Cafe’ located at the waterfront. It was created for pure enjoyment and is right next to the Two Oceans Aquarium. It has an indoor play area with lined AstroTurf and has a big TV screen to entertain the older children while the younger ones are kept busy on the very creative jungle gym and slides.  The food was not as good as Deer Park, but the play area did a good job of tiring out my children. They conked out early that night.

The next morning we headed to the Cape Farmhouse Restaurant in Red Hill. It’s en route to Cape Point, where we were headed for the day. We had an unforgettable family day out. The farmhouse turned restaurant created a very gorgeous space with which to savour a long lunch under vines.  On the grassy play area, geese roamed around. There was plenty of running around for the children. The menu comprised of gourmet delights and a local band played while we ate.  But, the ultimate child friendly venue was the Barnyard. Located in Tokai. It comes complete with farm animals, three jungle gyms and home-style cooking.

We drove to each place in Cape Town with no problems at all. The direction we got were good and our children got to see some of the best sites Cape Town offers. I highly recommend hiring out a car when in Cape Town, it’s worth the expense.

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Cape Town Child Friendly Restaurants

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With so many grill islands and grill island options to choose from, you’ll find the exact perfect match for your tastes.  For your decor preferences, for the many uses you already have in mind for your outdoor kitchen, and not least important of these, your taste in food, there is something to match your needs.  More than just a weekend activity, outdoor kitchens speak about a lifestyle, one where luxury, taste, and a social circle are decidedly necessary.

With all these ideals, one thing that certainly comes into play is a kind of boldness, one that is not afraid to experiment with taste.  Outdoor kitchens necessarily mean outdoor chefs, and cooking is a fine art that is constantly in motion.  For outdoor grills, it could be argued that there is no higher ideal than finding the perfect barbecue sauce.  Anyone who’s been within 100 feet of a barbecue knows that the sauce is a hot discussion topic.  There are parts of the world where it’s something that’s regularly debated, and often fiercely!  And although having your own outdoor kitchen doesn’t automatically enter you in to the competition among world class chefs, but a grill island does show that you’ve taken it seriously enough to enter the conversation.

You’ll want to start collecting all sorts of best barbecue sauce recipes from all over the place.  Consult cookbooks and friends, check with the chef at your favorite restaurant, and you’ll start growing an impressive catalog in no time.  Try your own variations, too, of course.  You’ll notice a few key ingredients to all of them: onion, garlic, tomato, vinegar.  There is also some sweetener, or combination of sweeteners.  Decide which spices you like the best.  And most importantly, and often they key point of contention, decide your level of heat.  There are some who prefer a little subtlety of kick, but for others, it’s a strong-man contest, but it’s most important to know the flavor of the peppers.  Get to know them all, and experiment.  Your friends and family will love the testing process.

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Best Barbecue Sauce

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