Universal Studios Hollywood Food

 I visited Universal Studios Hollywood twice in the past year. The initial visit was to see the park for the first time (alongside Disneyland). A few months later, my schedule and budget allowed me to go a second time to see Hollywood's version of Halloween Horror Nights. 

First food in the park was from a hot dog cart in the upper lot. I ordered the Californian. This was a Nathan's hot dog topped with guacamole, diced tomatoes, cilantro, and Takis. Very topping heavy. They were really generous with the guacamole and cilantro, which I won't argue with. 

When I returned a few months later, I walked by this same hot dog stand. All of the interesting hot dog toppings were replaced with basically one option: A 22" Chili Cheese Dog. Nowhere as exciting...

French Street Bistro:

I tried a brownie from the French Street Bistro. 

City Snack Shop:

I had this during Halloween Horror Nights. I had a Strawberry Spiral Croissant. This round croissant was partially stuffed with whipped cream, with some strawberries topping the cream. Pretty tasty.

Eggholic in Queens, NY

I tried a restaurant called Eggholic in Queens, NY. This was an Indian fast food restaurant where most everything was egg based in some form, whether it be actual egg or chicken.

Started with somosas:

I tried the Lachko. This was new to me when it came to Indian food and I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. The menu described it as shredded green bell pepper cooked with cheese and running eggs. It was served with roti. I enjoyed it. The egg wasn't very identifiable, but the cheese very much was. It reminded me of eating the roti covered in a cheesy dip. 

 

UK Trip Travel Food: London Food (Leon, Bake, Gerrard's Corner, British Library, Sushi Daily, and Pizza Express)

I took a trip to England in the summer of 2019. I spent the last two days of my trip in London. Here's some of the food I ate:

Leon: 

I had a breakfast box from this chain of fast food restaurants. I believe the box I tried was vegetarian, with a poached egg, beans, mushrooms, tomato, avocado slices, and a delicious type of grilled cheese called halloumi.

Bake: 

I ended up in Chinatown. I stopped in this bakery on my visit to London in 2016. I think they may have been renamed since my last visit. Last time, they were called Chinatown Bakery. This time, the store was just Bake. I thought the waffle fish stuffed with various fillings were enough of a novelty that I needed to get another fish when I walked by.

Gerrard's Corner:

Another restaurant in Chinatown. I know British food has a bad reputation, but this is the only meal on this trip that really was unenjoyable. I had the sliced pork with seasonal vegetables. Those seasonal vegetables included carrots and broccoli, but the pork was the bad part. Pretty sure it was undercooked. A friend ordered fried rice. The rice was crispy. Most of our food was left uneaten here. It was confusing because the restaurant was packed...

British Library:

Cinnamon roll from the cafe in the lobby of the British Library.

Sushi Daily to Go:

This was a fast food Japanese restaurant. I had a chicken noodle bowl and miso soup.

Pizza Express:

This is a chain that is very prolific in London. Seems like there's a Pizza Express every few blocks. The name is confusing, since it is a sit down restaurant and isn't very express.

UK Trip Travel Food: Newark on Trent Food (The Old Post Office, The Old Bakery Tea Room, Turkish Delight, and The Sir John Arderne)

I took a trip to England in the summer of 2019. I began this trip in Brighton, left early in the morning, and took a train to Newark on Trent where I stayed for about a week.

The Old Post Office:

My first meal in the city was at a pub called The Old Post Office. I had a meat pie, served with mashed potatoes, peas, and gravy. Not the best food, but not the worst either. There was some confusion with the service where they mixed up what I had ordered, but we'll forgive them.

The Old Bakery Tea Room:

I thought tea in a royal palace was pretty cool in my last post, but this was different. This restaurant was in a building that was amazingly old from an American perspective. The Old Bakery Tea Room is located in a medieval Tudor style cottage which has been around since the 15th century. Their website lists them as one of Nottinghamshire's Most Haunted Buildings too, but I saw no ghosts... 

Started out with tea. I had Earl Grey.

I ordered the Ploughman’s Lunch. This came with a salad, various cheeses, fruit, pies, and slices of bread served with butter and chutney. Everything about this meal was delicious. 

Of all the foods I ate on this trip to England, this won as my favorite meal. The food was great, combined with the environment of eating in a restaurant who's building has been around since the middle ages...

Turkish Delight:

Middle Eastern food located next to a church which has parts dating back to the 12th century. I'm glad the crusades are over... 

I had the lamb and chicken combination doner kabab. The meats were served over chips, topped with a tzatziki style sauce, and pickled vegetables. This was a huge amount of food for the price. More than I was able to eat in one sitting. 

The Sir John Arderne:

This was the second pub I visited in Newark on Trent. The Sir John Arderne was the better of the two. Better service, better atmosphere, and I enjoyed the food more as well.

I ordered what seems to be a standard British pub food: The Chicken Tikka Masala. I guess this is a side effect of colonialism. The chicken was served alongside rice and garlic naan. No complaints at all with this meal. 

NY Food: Pizza (Vinnie's Pizzeria and Ray's)

Since nobody can travel right now due to COVID-19, let's go back in time a few months and visit New York to eat. My last visit to the New York was in December for a few days. The next few posts on this blog will focus on that trip. This particular post will discuss the pizza I sampled while there, because what trip to New York is complete without pizza.

Vinnie's Pizzeria in Williamsburg:

This was my first pizza experience on the trip to New York. Vinnie's was located in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.

I had two slices. One was topped with eggplant and ricotta. The other was a sauceless white slice. Both were a good example of NY style pizza. I preferred the eggplant of the two, but both were very respectable slices of pizza.

Famous Original Ray’s Pizza:

I ate at this chain of pizzerias in New York. I ended up getting a slice of white pizza when I saw the crazy prices of some of the more exciting toppings ($8+ for a slice). It was alright, but nothing I'd go back to seek out.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Food (350 First, Blue Strawberry Coffee Company, White Star Ale House, Need Pizza, Grin n Goose, La Cantina, Newbo City Market, Parlor City Pub, and Great American Popcorn Company)

Last summer I visited Cedar Rapids, Iowa for a week. I wrote a blog post on my food travels there, but for some reason never published it. Better late then never. Here is my thoughts on Cedar Rapids food from Summer of 2017...

350 First:

This was located on the top floor of the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Cedar Rapids where I was staying. After flying in, I had dinner here. The restaurant had lovely views of the city. There was city skyline in one direction and a massive Quaker Oats factory in the other. I ordered the Pastrami Ruben. The sandwich was good as far as ruben sandwiches go. It was pretty standard and was served with fries and a pickle. The almost three hour process that I took to have this sandwich wasn't nearly as good as the sandwich. The kitchen was hopelessly backed up. The servers were flustered. Managers were placing the blame for the restaurants issues back onto the customers. Don't eat here at dinner time if there's a convention going on in the hotel...

Blue Strawberry Coffee Company:

Visited this coffee shop a couple times for food because it was quick and convenient to where I was staying. One visit was for breakfast and one for lunch.

I had the Big Boss Burrito on my first visit here. The burrito was filled with bacon, egg, cheese, potatoes, green peppers, and onions. The whole thing was pressed on a grill. Sour cream and salsa were served as sides. I liked it!

I had the Grilled Asparagus Sandwich on my second visit to the Blue Strawberry. This was basically a grilled cheese with mozzarella and provolone. Grilled asparagus, roasted red peppers, and basil were grilled into the sandwich. It was okay, but sounded better on the menu's description that it actually was. Asparagus was too round and separated the bread too much to work on a grilled cheese.

White Star Ale House:

This was a restaurant recommended by the front desk at my hotel. Overall, it ended up being an okay restaurant, but was very forgettable. The menu was generic and while the food was good enough, it was nothing that made me want to go rushing back.

I had the Roasted BBQ Pork Shanks with Baked Cheesy Potatoes as my side. The barbecue sauce was spicier than expected, but good. The pork was nice and tender and came off the bone easily. Cheesy potatoes were sort of bland.

Need Pizza:

There were two restaurants serving pizzas in downtown Cedar Rapids. Need Pizza seemed to be doing much more business than their counterpart, so the assumption was that they were that better restaurant.

I shared a pizza topped with pepperoni, sausage, Canadian bacon, kalamata olives, and mushrooms. The pizza was okay. Not the worst pizza ever, but not something I'll be craving any time soon. There was a bit of a cheese overload on the pie, which I do not enjoy. I guess Iowa isn't really known for their pizza...

Grin n Goose:

Grin n Goose was one of those restaurants where my initial reaction was to wonder if they were focusing more on food or alcohol here. Luckily they did food well.

I had the Turkey Club. The sandwich consisted of an Asiago bun filled with sliced turkey, lettuce, tomato, garlic aioli, bacon, swiss, and American cheese. I had French Onion soup as my side. The sandwich was as expected, while the soup was better than expected. Sometimes French Onion soup is basically bread with a little onions and liquid poured over it. Thankfully in this case, there was much more of the soup than the bread submerged in it. Plenty of gooey cheese topped the bowl...

La Cantina:

I had Mexican food at a restaurant called La Cantina. I ordered the Enchiladas de Mole. The chicken enchiladas were topped with a mole sauce alongside refried beans, rice, and sliced onions. It wasn't my favorite mole sauce ever, somewhat lacking in the chocolate flavor found elsewhere, but it was still pretty tasty. It was also a good value for the price.

Newbo City Market/Roaster's Coffeehouse:

This was Cedar Rapid's big food hall. I tried some Beer & Cheese soup from a booth called Roaster's Coffeehouse.

Parlor City Pub & Eatery:

Brisket Sandwich with onion rings. This is not something I'd reccomend. Meat was chewy. The roll was stale, and the rings were soggy.

Grant Wood is from Iowa. American Gothic was standing near the restrooms in here.

Great American Popcorn Company:

Ice Cream from a popcorn store!

NY Food (Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery, Veselka, Totto Ramen, Sunnyside Pizza, Halal Truck, Shiro, and Dave's Bagels)

Continuing from my recent trip which took me around New England, New York was the next stop on the journey:

Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery (Manhattan):

This place has been on my radar for a while. They specialize in Knishes and have been around since 1910!

I had a Spinach Knish. Spinach was mixed into the potato in the knish. I very much enjoy knishes, and this was no exception!

Veselka (Manhattan):

I went here almost immediately after visiting Yonah Schimmel's. Pierogi are hard to resist and Veselka is one of my favorite restaurants in New York. Their Sunday Brunch was happening and I tried the bacon, egg, & cheese pierogi. The waiter told me I wanted them fried. I should have gotten them boiled. The amount of crispiness from being deep fried made them seem like empanadas more than pierogi. Filling wise, bacon egg and cheese in a pierogi was really good!

Totto Ramen (Manhattan):

Google listed this as a highly rated ramen shop in the city. They specialized in a type of broth which I had never had called Paitan. This is apparently a chicken based broth.

I had the Miso Paitan Ramen. It was noodles in chicken paitan broth, topped with miso, egg, scallions, bean sprouds, onions, and pork. Delicious!

Sunnyside Pizza (Queens):

This is a pizzeria in Queens that has good New York style pizza, available by the slice.

I had a slice of cheese and an eggplant/ricotta slice. I do enjoy that they put sesame seeds on the crust.

Halal Truck (Queens):

I had a Lamb/Chicken combo from a random Halal food truck in Sunnyside. They made the standard NY Halal cart fare a little more interesting by adding bell peppers and onions in with the meat. Served over rice and lettuce, topped with white and hot sauce.

Shiro (Grand Central):

I had an Eel Avocado Roll from a fast food sushi restaurant in Grand Central from Shiro.

Dave's Bagels and Grill (Queens):

I had an everything bagel with lox cream cheese.