Yup, It's All Good at AllGood Cafe

Food. Food is delicious, delectable, yummy, scrumptious and just plain 'ole fing good.

I started doing food reviews when I was a junior in college. I guess you could call me a food snob. (In fact, please do. I consider it a compliment and not an insult. Afterall, that's what the column at the newspaper was called: Food Snobs.)

I'm always thinking about trying new places to eat. I love food, I love taking pictures of food and I like writing about food because if you think about it, food represents a hell of a lot more than just taste buds, tongues and happy stomachs. It is often an art form and food from different cultures tastes like, looks like and smells like its very own personality. (I'm partial to Thai and Sushi...oh, and I have an addiction to the Mexican drink Horchata..mmmm.)

It is also a social symbol. I mean think about it. When you and your friends are sitting around bored or want to plan some kind of event or party, what do you usually do? You probably end up going to eat at your fave local dive or grabbing some yummy cocktails at the downtown bar during Happy Hour. (It's OK if you've memorized their drink specials. No one is going to judge you. You like what you like, and there's nothing wrong with local loyalty. )

So with this love for what I like to call "Comida Culture", I decided this past weekend that I wanted to try a place in Deep Ellum called AllGood.

Now OK, I want to be completely honest with anyone who might be reading this and say I had never been to the Deep Ellum area and because I have no sense of direction, I had to turn around a few times before I found the cafe off the corner of Walton and Main. ( In my defense there are way too many one way streets and merges. It's not the most obvious location if you've never been to that part of the city.)

But if you're like me and you totally appreciate Mom and Pop type businesses, AllGood is the place to go. It's very quaint and ornate. A bunch of paper origami hangs from the ceiling. There's a candle at each table (Ours had Jesus on it.), a bunch of Christmas lights twinkle in the front window and a 90s CD player stacked with old CDs sits on top of the dessert display case towards the back of the place. (Although I think my favorite part of the decor was the stage area that had a shelf full of random tea cups and trinkets. If you look closely you can see a Winnie the Pooh on the shelf some where. How very A.A. Milne of them!)

 It was around 11 a.m. when we got there so I decided to go for their short stack of blueberry pancakes, which was absolutely delicious and extremely filling. (I can't even imagine how big the tall stack would've been) It's a decently priced place, and the staff seems to be hip and young. (Our waitress even confessed to accidentally walking in on someone while they were in the bathroom because she didn't think anyone was in there. Hey, it happens and makes you human. Maybe whoever was in there should've locked the door!)

AllGood, you are delicious all day everyday. This Food Snob wishes she lived close by because if she did, she'd be all good all the time.

Link to their webpage: http://www.allgoodcafe.com/index.php

Bridesmaids And A Breakfast

You know what movies do for me? They not only occupy my time and keep me busy, but I watch them for the same reason everyone else does: they make me feel good. I went and saw the new Bridesmaids movie yesterday afternoon. ($3 matinee because no one goes to a movie on a Wednesday in the middle of the day? Priceless) Not only did I fall in love with the hunky cop (It must have been the uniform and the accent), but I laughed. I laughed really really hard. Some of it was a little too gross for my taste (showing vomiting women in a bathroom together is a little too much for me), but I think over all it was just one of those feel good things to see.

Needless to say I went ahead and continued my film obsession this week by purchasing Breakfast at Tiffany's, She's All That, The King's Speech and Fried Green Tomatoes (What?! I like chick flicks. Sue me!)

Hopefully they'll all make me feel good too. Afterall, $5 a movie is enough to make you pee your pants with happiness.

Cheers!

Today's Word of Mouth:

Check out the Dallas CityArts Fest this weekend: http://www.dallasobserver.com/2011-05-26/calendar/cityarts-is-the-best-in-sensory-overload/ (Looks like they like to have breakfast at Tiffany's too)

The Man With The Plastic Bags

I went for a walk by myself on Sunday. It was peaceful. There weren't many people around as Sunday is supposed to be "The Day of Rest". (Personally I think it's more of a "I'm hungover from the weekend and I'm craving fried chicken" kind of day. At least in my town it is.) The thing about this walk was the fact that it gave me a chance to just be alone with my thoughts and observations, and I started to realize something.

How many of us actually take a moment everyday to really pay attention to what's going on around us? Seriously, do you even look at someone long enough,whether they're a significant other or a co-worker or even just a friend, to remember what they're wearing or how they're feeling or if they smiled at something you said yesterday?

I'm a writer so I'm supposed to pay attention to all the details around me. It's kind of like having a sixth sense. You're just supposed to be naturally nosey because if you're not, well, you aren't going to find anything juicy to write about, damnit. (And I refuse to go all Shattered Glass. Beyond unethical, He was just plain deceiving and in simpler terms a big, fat liar.) But I admit I'm a human too and sometimes we just get so caught up in what we are doing, we forget to actually pay attention when we don't have to.

So on my Sunday evening walk, I decided to take time out to pay attention.

As I was walking down one of the hills by where I live, I noticed a man. There was nothing unordinary or scary about him. He was quiet. He wasn't bothering anyone, but it was the way he looked at me when I finally got closer to him that made me do a double take. He was digging through the dumpster outside of one of the apartment complexes. He looked at me like he was ashamed of what he was doing. He seemed sad yet it appeared to me as if he was used to the digging, like it was a normal routine. As I got closer to him, I nodded and smiled shyly. I felt as if I had unintentionally intruded on someone's private moment for right after he looked at me, he moved away from the dumpster. I noticed his bike had a bunch of plastic bags hanging on the handle bar and in that moment, I knew the man with the plastic bags had a story to tell.

It was only after he got on his bike and rode away down the hill that I realized I had made a connection with a complete stranger without really doing or saying anything. There were a million questions I could come up with to figure out who he was. Was he looking for food? Was he looking for furniture? Did he live in the area? How often did he use his bike? Did he have a family to support?

 Although I won't ever see the man again, he certainly got me thinking about what it means to pay attention to others.

 And just think of all the stories people could write if they paid attention more often. (I'd probably be out of job.)

(P.S. The photo of all the plastic bags is enough to make you want to recycle every piece of plastic you ever owned.)