Category: Travels

Food Review: Crushcraft Thai in Dallas- Spoiler Alert, it is AWESOME.

My “second lunch” after the delicious Banh Mi at Nammi (hey, there were a couple hours in-between) was a carefully chosen, very healthy option: Crushcraft Thai Thai Street Eats. It has hundreds of great reviews online and another blogger I follow, Daniel Eating Dallas, suggested it a while back. So, here’s the breakdown:

ENVIRONMENT

Crushcraft Thai is a really nice area of Uptown Dallas and is in a very modern shopping center.  When you first walk in, the menu is plastered to a wall on brown paper. You then have to memorize what you want to and walk over to the counter to place your order.  This is the only thing that bothered me. There were no paper menus for me to read off of while ordering, so I had to keep jumping over 2-3 feet to read the wall to order the three items I wanted. Awkward.
Suggestion: pull up their menu on your phone and take it with you to the counter. Much easier.
Also, with the only menu on the wall in a small area, this area gets pretty crowded.

Behind the counter you at which you order and pick up your food, there are some bar stools to sit at.

Though most patrons, myself included, chose to move further into the restaurant in the much more fun and colorful seating area. This room is spacious, colorful, and bright.

MENU

You can find their menu here (as it is hard to read my picture) on their website: http://www.crushcraftthai.com/menu/

In short, there are many delicious options, making a decision on what to order a tough one. There are many rice or noodle dishes (ex: drunken noodles), a few coconut milk curries (ex: panang over rice) , some “craft greens” options that sound very healthy (ex: chicken lettuce wraps), and many unique sides and “shareables” (ex: tofu fries). Plus, everything is pretty cheap!

FOOD

First thing to mention, at the serve-yourself drink station, there are 7 different types of sauces to take to your table. I love me a sauce bar! Most are very spicy, fyi.

Tom Kha Soup + 3 Fresh Rolls, $7.99 (pictured on the left)
Description: Chicken or tofu, rice wrap, basil, cucumber, crushed peanuts, toasted rice, chili lime dip, with a cup of thom kha soup.

This was the least flavorful dish we ordered. (Meaning it only gets better!) The spring rolls were fresh and pretty flavorful, but not nearly the most flavorful I have had. The chili lime dip was delicious and really helped.
The Tom Kha, which is probably my favorite soup overall, was pretty bland. It definitely had a tomato tinge to it, which was weird. It was worth eating, but definitely nothing I’d get again.

Green Papya Salad Cup, $1.95 (pictured in center)
Description: none given

Even though there was no description, this VERY flavorful and spicy salad had green papaya “noodles”, slices cherry tomatoes, green beans, and crushed peanuts with a vinaigrette full of chiles and lime juice. It was the BEST papaya salad I have ever tried, though it was so spicy it was hard to eat all of my half (split with Drew)…even with breaks in-between for non-spicy fresh rolls.  I would definitely get this again. Plus, it was really large for less than $2!!!!

Mahaw Lettuce Bites $1.85 (featured on the right)
Description: Wok-seared pork, pickled radish pineapple chutney, crushed peanuts, seasonal microgreens.

Wow, this was so unique and delicious! Even though these are called “bites”, each one was easily 3 bites each. The salty pork with the vinegar-y veggies and the sweetness from the pineapple hit all flavor components. The only downside was it was a little dry. Adding a little sauce to the top of it definitely would help the dryness. But it was still fantastic! I would  get this one again for sure.

OVERALL

While there are some hits and misses here with the environment and some of the food, I don’t think you can go wrong coming for a to-go meal or a quick, healthy meal. The sides and shareables are probably the best deal. Though, I definitely want to try some panang curry next time!

Food Review: Nammi’s Banh Mi + Dallas Farmer’s Market= Great afternoon!

I have never been to the Dallas Farmer’s Market downtown, but I am so glad I did! This will be a necessary stop each and every time I’m in the area.

The first place I came across was the outdoor portion of the market, called The Shed.

Packed full of tents and tables selling all kinds of foods, goods, and talent, this market was very large- without being overwhelming. (For example, The Granville Island Farmer’s Market in Vancouver…ridiculously overwhelming.)

We were offered so many free samples of cookies, puddings, bread, hummus, and more. Needless to say, we bought a few delicious items for the road. But I didn’t want to ruin my lunch, which I had been planning for a few days now.

Inside the food area, called The Market, which is the enclosed part of the farmer’s market, are so many great restaurant stands and plenty of seating available…think huge food court.

It would have been hard to decide where to eat if Nammi was not there. But when I hear one of the best banh mis in the area are at this farmer’s market, there’s no wondering about where to eat lunch.

The small food stand, which has been known for its food truck, is located at one end of The Market, so it wasn’t too crowded.

The menu has a few items to choose from: banh mi sandwiches, rice bowls, noodle bowls (vermicelli) and tacos: all that come with many options of protein (honey grilled pork, Asian BBQ pork, lemongrass chicken, lemongrass beef, ginger soy tofu, fried fish patty, and curried cauliflower.
They also have a few sides, such as shrimp chips and fried daikon and carrots. Finally, they have some boba teas and other beverages such as Asian sodas and fancy lemonades (basil and lime).

I didn’t look twice at the menu. I knew what I had to get- Asian BBQ pork banh mi…to split with my husband since we weren’t very hungry after all those samples.

The one sandwich is cut into halves and served with a sriracha mayo and cilantro cream sauce. Looking right on, it looks like a TON of veggies. This is good, but should also come with a TON of meat. After one bite, I knew it definitely delivered on the pork.

There was a very large amount of pork and veggies to top it off. This made the sandwich a little messy, but can a sandwich be good if it isn’t a little messy?
The pork was tender, flavorful, just right. The veggies were fresh and vinegar-y.
The bread was perfect. Really. It was toasted and crunchy on the outside and soft enough and thin enough in the middle that it didn’t take over the sandwich. It just held all its juices and gave a crunch, like a good banh mi sub should. There was some garlic mayo added as well. Though, honestly, I couldn’t taste the garlic. It isn’t the garlic’s fault, everything else was just so flavorful.
The sandwich itself wasn’t spicy (unless you got a bite-full of the thick slice of jalapeño that I picked off (too spicy for me). So, the sriracha mayo added a nice little kick. The cilantro cream was a lovely, as I love cilantro flavors galore on my sandwich. They also had hoisin to add to your sandwich if you prefer.
This was definitely one of the best banh mis I have ever had. And I’ll be back.