"Ever since 1989, Cowgirl (formerly known as Cowgirl Hall of Fame, and tethered to a museum in Fort Worth) has provided the city with an exemplary version of Southwestern food, Tex Mex, and classic dishes of the American South. The chicken fried steak, for example, is the best in town, smothered in buff-colored gravy, and even the barbecued beef ribs deserve to be called barbecue. But a favorite dishes there is a vegan appetizer: black-eyed pea salsa ($8) is a tortilla chip dip of the brown black-marked bean in a puckering broth of vinegar and a dozen flavorings, among them oregano, Tabasco, Worcestershire, tomato, and jalapeño. Sometimes it’s called cowboy caviar, and ordering it with a group invariably engenders a contest to see who can hoist the largest quantity of beans on a chip." - Robert Sietsema