We’ve been talking about starting a food blog for a while, and we starting making some more serious plans at the end of 2011. While we didn’t really need anything unique to kick off the blog, we did know that we would be heading to Dallas, TX for a conference late in January and thought that might be as good a reason as any to launch the blog.

So here it is, our food blog. We have no specific plans other than to write about our food adventures. We live and work in Philadelphia, so our observations certainly will skew toward places there.

And the name? Well, Tom’s brother has this washing machine that has three load sizes: small, medium and super plus. We’ve been amused for awhile that it skips large altogether and goes straight to super plus, so anything that is particularly good, we deem “super plus.”

We arrived in Dallas on a Friday afternoon and were starving. We needed to eat before getting involved in the conference. Our hotel was about a mile and a half from the convention center area and we looked on Yelp to find something between our hotel and that area. Luckily, we found Medina Oven & Bar, a Moroccan restaurant in Victory Park, a planned community on Houston Street.

We walked over and were immediately struck by the unique decor. The restaurant is rather small, but it was not crowded when we arrived. The waiter was super friendly and seated us promptly.

Everything we had was quite delicious. We started by sharing the Med-Rim Salad, which is a beautiful concoction of spinach, poached figs, toasted almonds, cinnamon-spiced orange, feta, and a honey-lemon vinaigrette.

We followed that by sharing the equally delicious oregano-fennel famb sausage pizza with tomato, feta, peppers, red onions, mozzarella, and olives.

We finished with some outstanding cinnamon-spiced coffee and the orange blossom creme brulee.

In fact, we enjoyed Medina Over & Bar so much, we made sure to get there one more time before we left. Often, we return to a place we really like at the end of a trip to make sure our last meal there is a good one. We were trying to make plans with friends for dinner the last night and tossed around a few ideas before coming back to the idea of bringing them to Medina. We were a party of five, so we made reservations, knowing how small the place is. Thankfully, Medina is on Open Table, which I find hugely convenient.

Again, the experience was outstanding.

I began with one of their specialty cocktails: Marrakesh Mint Tea Martini, which consists of vodka, mint tea, lemon and orange blossom water.

Our table shared an appetizer plate which included marinated olives, garlic hummus, roasted peppers & tomatoes, harrisa, eggplant, and pita bread.

For dinner, I had the Imperial Fez Seafood Couscous, which came with scallops and shrimp over a bed of couscous that had cinnamon-spiced apricots, asparagus, toasted pine nuts, and golden raisins.

Needless to say, we were thrilled to have discovered Medina Oven & Bar. The atmosphere was relaxing and the service exceptional. The owner was present the night we were there for dinner and he was very welcoming and friendly.

The Dallas Adventure…Continued!