Brianto's Original Hoagies in Avalon Park, FL

There is lots of praise on the internet for the cheesesteaks at Brianto's Original Hoagies in Avalon Park. I tried them once a while back and was not impressed at all. The cheesesteak was extremely dry and didn't really have any standout characteristics. Recently, I decided to give them another visit and this time around was a bit better. I had the 6 inch Cheesesteak Supreme, consisting of thinly sliced beef, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and cheese wiz. The sandwich was good enough and wasn't horribly dry like on my previous visit, but it still didn't have any standout characteristics that made me proclaim it was the best cheesesteaks in Orlando.

I was told that Brianto's ships a type of bread called Amoroso rolls in from Philadelphia to make the cheesesteaks more authentic. Authentic as this bread might be, I found it to be a bit mushy for my liking. I much preferred the crustier bread that I tried on my cheesesteak from Tony Luke's in Philadelphia over the summer. If your in the area, the cheesesteaks here are good enough, although I wouldn't make a special trip way out to Avalon Park to eat one...

Termini Bros in Philadelphia, PA

While wandering around Philadelphia, I stumbled across the Reading Terminal Market. I had heard of this market in the past, but completely forgot about it until it was in my sights and bells went off in my brain that I should go in.

 

Inside, Reading Terminal Market sort of reminded me of Chelsea Market in New York, only on a larger scale. They sold almost every type of food stuff imaginable in here, ranging from Pennsylvania Dutch made cheese to Middle Eastern foods to Italian pastries.

The whole market was swarming with people, some taking foods to go, although the majority seemed to be eating in the tables set up in the aisles between the various vendors.

I had already ate lunch at Tony Luke's earlier in the day, so I decided I would get some dessert in the market. I came across a place called Termini Bros that caught my attention.

They had giant butterfly cookies in their display case. I have some happy food memories from when I was a little kid associated with these cookies, so I decided that I would get myself one.

The cookie was huge, probably a foot long from wing tip to wing tip. It was made of a flaky dough with a sweet cinnamon filling between the layers. I totally overdid it, but I devoured the entire cookie in one sitting.

We also got a cannoli from Termini Bros. They were filling these behind the counter as ordered, so it definitely made it more interesting than just getting a pre-made dessert from the case. The filling had a very strong ricotta flavor which I enjoyed. To me, this is what cannoli filling should taste like. The person who I split the cannoli with disagreed and prefers the typical Florida Italian restaurant cannonli filling which tastes more like icing.

Tony Luke's in Philadelphia, PA

While in Philadelphia, I decided I had to eat what is perhaps the city's most well known food: The Philadelphia Cheesesteak. I googled cheesesteaks in the city and a restaurant called Tony Luke's came up on the upper portions of the lists of the best cheesesteaks in the city. The restaurant wasn't too far from where I was, so it was the lucky cheesesteak winner.

Tony Luke's was located in an industrial area. You ordered your food at a window and dined in their outdoor seating. There was a very varied crowd here, ranging from very obvious tourists like me, lots of airport workers, and construction workers.

While I was waiting for my sandwich, I headed over to their pepper bar and sampled a couple of these hot pickled peppers.

For my sandwich, I had a Philly Cheesesteak Hoagie. This consisted of steak, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. I wasn't really sure if I'd be able to tell the difference between a cheesesteak in Philadelphia compared to the sandwiches in Florida. Turns out the biggest difference I noticed was in the steak itself. Rather than the really finely sliced beef that I've had elsewhere, the steak from Tony Luke's was a bit thicker. I would estimate the slices were about double the thickness of standard cheesesteak meat. It also had a meatier flavor, so perhaps less seasoning/processing was used to prepare the steak. 

Overall, this was a tasty sandwich. I can also now say that I've eaten a Philly cheesesteak in Philadelphia. That makes me a self-proclaimed expert on this type of sandwich, right?

Tea-Do in Philadelphia, PA

I found myself spending the day exploring Philadelphia. While wandering around the city, I ended up in Chinatown. I honestly had no clue that Philadelphia had a Chinatown before I wandered into the neighborhood, but while there I decided to get something edible. This ended up being boba tea from a place called Tea-Do.

Tea-Do had food on the menu, but I decided to only get a drink here. I had a mango smoothie with boba and mango jelly floating around in the drink. The smoothie was good, cold, and very refreshing. I liked the mango jelly, but the typical tapioca ball boba like this always make me want to brush my teeth badly. It's something about their sticky consistency.

I did enjoy my smoothie from Tea-Do. They had a better selection of drinks available than many other boba tea places I've visited and offering food was nice as well.

Philly Pretzel Factory in Haddon Heights, NJ

I was driving along the New Jersey Turnpike and got off for some gas in the town of Haddon Heights. Suddenly, I saw a place called Philly Pretzel Factory. Since I was still relatively close to Philadelphia, I decided it was worthy of a stop.

The pretzels were surprisingly cheap at $0.50 each. They weren't the typical pretzel shape that I was expecting, but were still pretty tasty. There wasn't a huge difference in taste between this and other soft pretzels that I've tried. I ate the pretzel with some mustard and ended up being a very nice snack.