Well, this is goodbye. This is my last Lunch Ladies column. I'm leaving The Dallas Morning News to pursue other opportunities, and it's a bittersweet moment. The paper has been good to me, and I've loved writing this column. I will be moving overseas for a year for a new adventure, so I'm also leaving Dallas behind — at least until next summer. As I leave you and the D-FW area behind, I want to share my favorite restaurants (purely for taste and not health in mind):
• Joe T. Garcia's —This Fort Worth restaurant has a huge, beautiful patio and has great margaritas. I love going with a large group of friends on a weekend evening in the early spring or fall. They serve just two things for dinner — enchiladas and fajitas — and both are great.
• East Wind —Lunch entrees come with a soup or salad to start and end with a simple dessert, like lemon cake or German chocolate cake. I love the cream of corn soup. My favorite entrée is the chicken curry with potatoes and onions. I also love the huge vermicelli bowls with either chicken or beef.
• Cosmic Café — This place is a vegetarian restaurant, but meat eaters will still love it. The No Bull Burger is the best veggie burger I've ever had. But my all-time fave is the Portabella Trance, which has sautéed portabella mushrooms, spinach & onions served on nan with cream cheese. They also have great chai tea.

We are very sad to see Gretchen leave Dallas. She is one of the original Lunch Ladies and I will miss sparring over her dislike of tomatoes and my dislike of ground meat.

Perhaps we can talk Gretchen into returning as a guest Lunch Lady on occasion.

With her departure, I would like to introduce Christy Robinson as the new Lunch Lady.

Christy lives life with the philosophy of "everything in moderation." She's an avid trail runner, enjoys playing soccer and is a full-time food enthusiast.

Christy also avoids gluten, which makes her eating choices more interesting. I'll let Christy tell you more about herself in the next newsletter.

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