I had some ice cream from Treats on the Beach on Flagler Avenue in New Smyrna Beach, FL. I ordered soft serve lime flavored ice cream. I'm not sure exactly how it worked, but they advertised something like twenty six soft serve flavors of ice cream. I only saw two soft ice cream machines, so I don't know where all of these flavors came from. I'm guessing they somehow mixed flavoring syrup in each time they dispensed the ice cream. The ice cream really didn't taste that much like lime and tasted more like vanilla. It was still good as far as soft serve ice cream goes...
In the shopping center at the intersection of Lockwood and Mitchell Hammock in Oviedo, FL, there is an Italian Restaurant called Cafe Panuzzo's. The neon lights out front attracted me to the restaurant while I was riding by, and I eventually returned to give Cafe Panuzzo's a try.
I ordered Tortellini Alfredo. It came with a salad and bread, both of which were served before the tortellini. It was pretty good bread. The tortellini itself tasted okay, but it was a bit boring. It was basically the pasta and sauce on a plate, and that was it. Adding anything at all to break up the monotony of the pasta would have been an improvement. Sprinkling some basil leaves on top or something would have helped. The food did taste okay, but it was nothing that will have me going out of my way to return to Cafe Panuzzo's any time soon to eat more boring food.
I had a sesame bagel from Dunkin Donuts in Altamonte Springs, FL. I found it funny that there were several police officers in here buying doughnuts at 10:00 PM when I had my bagel...
Lots of art shows/craft fairs were going on this past weekend. There's the Longwood Crafts Fair. Deland had some sort of similar event, and Altamonte Springs had the Art on the Boulevard in Uptown Altamonte Festival of the Arts event. I walked around this art show the day after I walked around Longwood's event. I liked the selection of art being sold here much better than what Longwood had, but don't forget it's all about the food. Unlike Longwood, I actually ate something in Uptown Altamonte. I had a chicken gyro from the Sparta Greek Food stand. It was tasty, with chicken, lettuce, tomato, onions, peppers, and tzatziki, all wrapped in a pita. My only complaint was that the chicken was a little burnt in spots, but otherwise I had no complaints. I ate the gyro sitting on bleachers overlooking the lake in Cranes Roost Park...
I went to the Longwood Arts & Crafts Festival on November 22, 2008. It was a good time walking around Downtown Longwood, looking at the old houses and what people were trying to sell. Much of it was actual handmade arts/crafts, while a lot was also mass produced junk made in China that people were trying to pass off as their own. This is a food blog though, and that's why I took lots of pictures of the food stands at the festival. The food always seems to be very photogenic at events like this, and although my visit to the festival involved no actual eating of the food being sold, I'm posting the pictures of the food stands anyway.
I ate a Chicken Souvlaki Pita at Athena Cafe in Altamonte Springs, FL. The pita was filled with very flavorful chicken, lettuce, and tzatziki. Tomatoes were also an option, but I had them left off of the sandwich. Pasta salad was served with the pita and it was all very tasty.
Even though the food is good, the atmosphere of the restaurant could use some improvement. Being able to watch the employees do crossword puzzles due to there being so few customers isn't a good thing.
I went to Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven, FL on their last day of existence in their current form. After, I ate at the Ruby Tuesdays right outside of the park, but I will get to that. First, I'm going to post some random pictures from Cypress Gardens in it's current state with an occasional comment. To start, here's the front entrance to the park. Cypress Garden's last day was the busiest I've ever seen the place. It took about twenty minutes of sitting in traffic on this road to finally enter the parking lot due to the crowds. After entering the park, I first headed towards Cypress Garden's zoo and saw giant rodents, miniature deer with tusks, an albino blind wallaby, lemurs, and all sorts of other animals.
After the seeing the animals I walked through the Santa's of The World exhibit and saw mannequins dressed up as variations of Santa Claus.
After I saw the Santas, I decided to go on a ride on the park's observation tower type ride that is currently called The Sunshine Sky Adventure. Formerly, it was known as the Island in the Sky, but whatever it's called, it's a very cool ride that was one of the park's original attractions. The only problem was that it wasn't open. It actually looked like it was sort of in a state of disrepair from the angles I saw the ride from and would take some work to get it in working order again. I don't see it up for sale with the rest of Cypress Garden's rides though. Since the ride was closed, I headed towards the Wings of Wonder Butterfly exhibit. I guess all of the butterflies must have died because instead of butterflies, they put a few parrots in here instead. In some of the gardens right outside of the former butterfly exhibit, I did come across a wild butterfly that sat there while I took pictures of it, along with a sad looking vegetable garden and some lion statues. I wandered through more of the gardens in the park, like the topiary garden. I kind of wonder if this part of the park will still be here when Cypress Gardens reopens next year. I kind of get the feeling it won't be (if the park reopens at all). There's the park's big waterfall nearby the topiarys. I remember all of the plants around here being much more lush on my last visit to Cypress Gardens. The water ski show was up next. They no longer had an ice skating show, so Cypress Gardens was down to only one 'big' show. I actually didn't watch the whole thing, but I did stay for the best part, which was the hang glider. During this show, I guess the employees all wanted to get one last flight in, so there were multiple gliders flying at once. It was cool. After the ski show, I continued through the rest of the botanical gardens in the park. This is actually one of the coolest parts of the park in my opinion, with all sorts of unusual plants in a jungle like environment. That baynon tree is very impressive. Rumor is that this part of Cypress Gardens is staying, but I hope they at least bring back the boat ride through the canals when (or if) they reopen. After I finished up viewing plants, I took one last look at the rides at Cypress Gardens. It seems every single one of these rides are up for sale and a parking lot will be built in their place once they are gone. They are mostly carnival rides and small (and painful) roller coasters which really won't be missed, but my personal opinion is that Cypress Gardens should keep the two wooden roller coasters. The Triple Hurricane is small, but it really is a fun ride. It was the only roller coaster that I enjoyed riding before the park bought the Starliner. The Starliner is Cypress Gardens newest roller coaster, and it is something they should definitely keep. It was built in 1963 at Miracle Strip in Panama City, FL. When Miracle Strip closed in 2004, Cypress Gardens bought the ride and rebuilt it in it's current location. It finally reopened in 2007, and less than a year later, it's up for sale again.
Going for a ride on the Starliner was one of the reasons to visit Cypress Gardens one last time. Apparently, I wasn't alone because I rode at the end of the day when the line was shortest and the wait was still over an hour. I overheard the ride attendants talking that people flew in from places as far north as Massachusetts to get a ride on the Starliner before it was sold or demolished. The Starliner is definitely a draw, and since it is the first roller coaster built in Florida, and Cypress Gardens likes to advertise they are Florida's First Theme Park, the two seem like a perfect match for each other. Cypress Gardens wants to build a parking lot here, but I think they should definitely consider building the parking lot around the Starliner. I found this video of the Starliner on Youtube from Theme Park Review:
After riding the Starliner, it was 5:00 and Cypress Gardens was closed for the day, at least until next year or possibly forever. I made my way to the parking lot where I sat in traffic for over an hour trying to leave due to the huge crowds that Cypress Gardens had on their last day. I stopped at the Ruby Tuesdays right outside of the park to get dinner once I finally left the parking lot. I ordered something called New Orleans Seafood. It consisted of tilapia and shrimp, served with rice and broccoli. I don't really get where the New Orleans name came from since the food didn't taste very Cajun, but it was still tasty. I had the salad bar along with the seafood. After dinner was done, I headed home and took one last look at the Starliner...
I was going to go to the Food Festival that was happening in Downtown Orlando, but that turned out to be a rip off. Instead, I gave Crooked Bayou a try. With Jockamos out of business, Crooked Bayou is the only restaurant in the Central Florida area that specifically specializes in Cajun food. Crooked Bayou was a tiny little place on Central Blvd that seemed to be more bar than restaurant. They had some cool stuff in the tiny space like a big tree made out of bent rebar in the center of the restaurant and a window to an old painted advertisement on the neighboring brick building.
I started by ordering a cup of Jambalaya. It was really good, with plenty of chicken, andouille sausage, and shrimp along with the rice. According to Wikipedia, this was Creole Jambalaya since it was tomato based rather than Cajun Jambalaya that is tomato free. It was definitely some of the best Jambalaya that I've eaten. I ordered a Cajun Crawfish Po'boy to follow the Jambalaya. The crawfish were tiny, but the sandwich was still really tasty. There was plenty of seasoning on the crawfish, which were placed on pressed french bread with lettuce, tomato, and tarter sauce. A pickle and potato chips were served with the sandwich.
I ate lunch at Bubbalou's Bodacious Barbecue in Altamonte Springs, FL. I had a pulled pork basked, which consisted of a pulled pork sandwich and two sides. For the sides, I picked collard greens and baked beans. Everything was tasty, although the collard greens were really bitter. The sandwich had enough flavor that barbecue sauce wasn't necessary, which isn't always the case for pulled pork.
Papa Joes used to be a local chain of really popular Italian restaurants in the Central Florida area. Their Altamonte Springs and Lake Mary Blvd locations almost always had a wait, and then they started to expand. As they opened up more and more restaurants in the area, their food and service became worse and worse. After a while the restaurants weren't worth eating at anymore. Eventually other people must have gotten the same feeling because the restaurants seemed to no longer have waits to eat, and Papa Joes closed all of their restaurants except for two in Lake Mary and one in Altamonte Springs.
I went to the Papa Joes in the Colonial Town Center in Lake Mary, FL for the first time in years. I had garlic bread and a cheese pizza. The garlic bread was disappointing and was nothing more than a roll topped with that garlic butter stuff and some parmesan cheese. I don't think there was any actual garlic. Papa Joe's pizza seemed to go into a downward spiral back when I used to eat at the restaurants more often until it wasn't worth ordering anymore. When I ordered the pizza on this visit, I was surprised with the result. The pizza was actually pretty good. My only complaint was about the sauce. I found it to be way too sweet, but other than that the pie was pretty good. It didn't come close to King Umbertos standards (best pizza ever), but was definitely a few steps above many other local pizzas.
I ate at the new Yokohama Japanese Steakhouse in the Super Target Shopping Center in Sanford, FL. It's a hibachi style Japanese Restaurant where they cook at your table. The first thing I noticed in the restaurant was that the chairs were too low for the table. I'm an average height, and the table was kind of high, so I imagine it would be much worse for a shorter person. The second thing I noticed was that for some unknown reason, they dressed their chefs up as cowboys. Someone must have thought it would be a good idea to put the chefs in cowboy hats and bandannas, but it just caused the chefs to look silly.
As for the food, it tasted good, but was overpriced. My Hibachi Chicken was a few dollars more than what the already overpriced Kobe charges. For that extra money, the portions here seemed to be smaller and they didn't include the noodles that most other Japanese Steakhouses serve. I have issues with most Japanese restaurants that serve these noodles, assuming the stupid Americans think they are eating something exotic like soba or udon, when in fact it's just a box of spaghetti. When the noodles don't come though, I miss them. Yokohama should move above all of the other Japanese Steakhouses nearby and actually serve a more traditional noodle.
The meal started with some soup and salad. The menu said miso soup, but they served the normal steakhouse onion broth. I don't like it when places switch menu items without telling you. The cowboy chef came and cooked the food soon after. Everything was good, but something I especially liked was the mustard sauce. It's rare to find a Japanese Steakhouse that serves this and it's very tasty. The other thing I liked was that the shrimp were already cleaned and they didn't make a show out of cleaning them. This meant that they were really clean and weren't covered in those strings of shrimp guts like you get at Kobe. After the meal, Yokohama gave a plate of sectioned oranges for dessert. Overall, most of the food tasted good, but I don't think I would return to the Hibachi part of the restaurant. It cost a bit too much, and giving less of basically the same food as their cheaper competitors isn't an incentive for me to return. I did notice that most of the people eating here were sitting in the non-hibachi area of the restaurant, so this may be the way to go if I do return. From what I saw while glancing over the menu, it seemed you could order similar food for a lower price without the show. And the sushi looked good too!
This is a chocolate covered cheesecake that came from the bakery in the Publix Supermarket in Lake Mary, FL (on Lake Mary Blvd). The cheesecake itself was good, but the chocolate covering wasn't that good. Since the cake was refrigerated, the chocolate got nice and hard. This didn't work too well since cutting the first slice of cake caused the hard chocolate to shatter on the whole cake. At the same time, the chocolate pieces pushed down into the cheesecake, squishing and crumbling the good part! It was tasty though.
I tried something that I haven't eaten in years. A Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell. I probably shouldn't have ordered a Mexican Pizza though, because I remembered this to be a whole lot better than it actually was.
The Mexican Pizza's crust was made from refried beans sandwiched between two hard tortilla shells. The pizza's sauce was Taco Bell's hot sauce, which was covered in melted cheese. It has been a very long time since the last time I've eaten one of these, and memories really aren't that reliable, but I remember these having more toppings. For some reason I remember scallions and peppers on the pizza, but apparently Taco Bell decided that they don't need anything green on the Mexican Pizza.
I ate a Chicken Teriyaki Cheesesteak sandwich from a place called Phat Philly in the UCF Student Union food court. The sandwich consisted of chicken, teriyaki sauce, onions, cheese, lettuce, and mayonnaise, all on a huge roll. The bread definitely could have used some improvements. Mushy white bread doesn't really go with teriyaki sauce, but otherwise the sandwich was tasty.
I ate at Imperial Dynasty in Longwood, FL. I noticed one of their sushi specials on the way in was something called a California Earthquake. It was described as a California Roll topped with baked fish. It sounded interesting, so I ordered the roll and a wonton soup. Imperial Dynasty has good wonton soup. Unlike most other Chinese restaurants, they put lots of good vegetables in their soup. Besides from the standard wontons, pork, and scallions, Imperial Dynasty also put cabbage and carrots in the soup. Adding more vegetables to a soup is never a bad thing in my opinion.
As for the California Earthquake, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it was still really tasty. The sign with the specials said the California roll was topped with baked fish, so I was expecting actual big pieces of fish. Instead, it was more like a fish salad. The fish was broken up into small pieces and mixed with other ingredients (it said something about eel sauce) to make the topping for the roll. All of this was topped with crumbled tempura batter and decorated with some radishes carved into flowers. I would definitely get the California Earthquake again.
I ate the same pasta from Ikea in Orlando once again. It seems I've been going there often lately to get their cheap food.
Speaking of Ikea, check out this new store in Brooklyn, NY. It's built on the site of an old shipyard. Instead of getting rid of the shipping stuff, they kept lots of it. They have huge shipping cranes in the store's parking lot!
This was a very strange Halloween. Last year over 100 trick or treaters came to the house to collect candy. This year there was a grand total of TEN! I don't get it though. Halloween was on a Friday night this year, and yet nobody was out. In my neighborhood, there were very few houses giving out candy too. Did everyone decide not to celebrate Halloween this year? It looks like I have a whole lot of candy to eat now.
Even though hardly any trick or treaters saw it, I still put up my Halloween display. The pictures below are of some of the monsters that I build, all from scratch, mostly from paper mache:
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