SeaWorld Christmas Celebration Food

Ended up at SeaWorld a few times this past season during their Christmas Celebration. They had booths selling specialty holiday food items all over the park. Here's the foods I tried.

Bacon & Blue Cheese Mac & Cheese: Bacon bits and blue cheese crumbles over macaroni and cheese.

Lobster Mac & Cheese: Lobster, shredded cheese, breadcrumbs, and parsley over macaroni and cheese. The better of the two mac & cheeses that I tried.

 Tachos: Nacho equivalent with tater tots instead of tortilla chips. Topped with pork, cheese, jalapenos, salsa, and sour cream.

Beef Slider:

Shake Shack Holiday Menu (International Drive)

I was invited to visit the Shake Shack on International Drive in Orlando to taste some of their new menu items for the holiday season this year.

The visit started out with a sampling of the standard Shake Shake foods including ShackBurgers and Cheese Fries.

The first of the holiday menu items was a cup of Brownie-Batter Hot Chocolate. This very thick and rich hot chocolate was topped with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles.

There were three Holiday Shakes to sample. The Chocolate Peppermint shake was my favorite with a strong minty flavor. The Pumpkin Pie shake tasted just like pumpkin pie, and was almost like drinking liquefied pie in a cup. The Christmas Cookie shake was also good, tasting the most like a traditional vanilla shake. These seasonal milkshakes are on the menu until December 31.

These aren't new for the holidays, but they were new to me. Shake Shake also sells Shack Burger Dog Biscuits for your pets. I brought a bag of these to a few dogs I know who quickly scarfed them down.

Ikea Orlando's Julbord Holiday Buffet

I was invited to visit IKEA and try their Julbord Holiday Buffet. According to IKEA's website, Julbord is a classic Christmas dinner in Scandinavian countries. The word “Julbord” is made up of two parts: “Jul,” meaning Yule (synonymous with Christmas) and “Bord,” meaning table. 

The all-you-can-eat smörgåsbord happened in the Orlando IKEA on December 11, 2015 in their restaurant. The center of the restaurant was transformed into an abundant spread of delicious foods.

There was assorted breads and crackers.

Cheese:

IKEA served some of their standards including their meatballs.

Mashed potatoes:

Prinskorv sausages were new to me. According to Wikipedia, the name translates to prince sausages.

Red Cabbage:

There was a huge spread of crawfish to choose from.

I really like IKEA's Red Beet Salad. I first tried this at another IKEA media event last year. It was delicious this time around too.

Swedish Potato Salad:

Hard Boiled Eggs:

This was a type of potato casserole. This was interesting by having a sweet aftertaste.

Gravad lax is one of my favorite foods from IKEA. I helped myself to far too much of this delicious cured salmon.

Christmas Ham:

IKEA served lots of assorted desserts, including cakes, cookies, rice pudding, and chocolates.

Glögg:

With that overview of the Julbord Holiday buffet, here's my two plates of delicious foods. Plate #1 was loaded up with crawfish, salmon, cucumber salad, meatballs, sausage, carrots, and mashed potatoes.

Plate #2 had ham, gravad lax, assorted salads, cheese, and the potato casserole.

I really enjoyed trying the Julbord Holiday Buffet. I had tried going here a few years ago but ended up trying to get my tickets too late and it was sold out. For future reference, buy your tickets early! I'm glad I finally had the chance to visit this year and sample all the delicious Swedish Christmas foods!

Whole Foods Holiday Menu Tasting Event (Phillips Crossing)

Recently I was invited to enjoy a sampling of the Whole Foods Market holiday menu. The event happened at the Phillips Crossing Whole Foods off Sand Lake Road and what a cornucopia of deliciousness it was! The variety and creativity of the prepared offerings along with menu planning assistance will surely alleviate the stress of any gathering. Bring on the festivities! 

To begin, I tasted a luscious French blue cheese called Persille du Beaujolais served with a honeycomb to balance the savory notes. I learned that persille means parsleyed in french and just describes the blue green veining throughout blue cheese. The creamery in France overlooks Beaujolais vineyards, but it was truly dreamy when I paired it with a white Vin de Savio Apremont, which is a top 10 holiday wine pick. I also found out that Whole Foods Certified Cheese Professionals can create a cheese and wine pairing menu just for the asking. 

Cranberry Walnut and Fig Stuffed Brie is a layer cake made of American artisan Brie filled and topped with cranberries and caramelized walnuts and fig spread. It was a beautiful presentation available in a small or large stack.

Next I tried the St James Smoked Salmon platter. Scottish salmon cold smoked with oak, with no nitrates or preservatives, only a buttery silkiness served with hot house cucumbers, red onions, capers, and sliced eggs, David, the Regional Seafood Coordinator mentioned that St James has a smokehouse in Miami-- nice to support local-- and that the salmon are fed a high quality diet, that I found palpable in the flavor. In addition, the company prides themselves on sustainability. 

The Sasasian Caviar served on bite sized blini with creme fraiche was outstanding. There were three types offered: Truffle Pearls,Trout, and Imperial and I liked them all! The pop of the lightly salted glistening eggs was a tantalizing treat for all the senses.

Of course there was moist roasted turkey and an array of accompaniments and options. Here's the Bell and Evans smoked Cornish hens.

72 hour Beef Short Ribs

One of my favorite sides were the harvest root vegetables, kale, tender brussels sprouts, and butternut squash with candied pecans and cranberries dusted with cinnamon.

There's also a hearty Vegan Field Roast En Croute as a meat alternative. Grains are used as a vegetarian protein combined with squash, mushrooms, apples and spices wrapped in an outer layer. It is a great alternative to soy based proteins.

Pumpkin Cheesecake was creamy, without being too heavy, and had perfect undertones of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and of course pumpkin. It is a creative twist on the traditional pumpkin pie.

Fruit Cake also was sampled and it was nothing like the much maligned variety. It was very moist, tender, and dark with the sumptuous, soft fruits used mainly as a topping. This Fruit Cake would definitely be consumed immediately and certainly not re-gifted! 

With so many wonderful choices from Whole Foods Market here's to happy holidays
and eating!

(Written by Florence R.)

The Chop Shop in Lakeland, FL

I found myself in Downtown Lakeland last Saint Patrick's Day. Roads were closed and there was a street party going on. Lots of people were getting drunk on beers dyed green with food coloring, but I was looking for dinner rather than alcohol. There was an Irish pub downtown called Molly McHugh's that would have been appropriate for the holiday, but they didn't serve food. Instead, I ended up across the street at 50s themed restaurant specializing in burgers called The Chop Shop.

Since it was Saint Patrick's Day, I decided to go with their special and ordered the corned beef and cabbage sandwich. This large sandwich consisted of a large hoagie roll filled with corned beef, cabbage, and mayonnaise. The corned beef was thinly sliced, nice and tender, and had a good, somewhat salty taste. The cabbage seemed a bit more like sauerkraut than I was expecting, but that was fine with me. I like sauerkraut! Fries were served on the side.

I enjoyed my slightly Irish inspired combination of flavors in my sandwich. Apparently corned beef and cabbage is an American invention and isn't actually a thing in Ireland (it's derived from the Irish bacon and cabbage dish). Does this make me, a person with no Irish heritage, eating corned beef on a sandwich with fries at a burger place as bad as all the non-Irish people using Saint Patrick's Day as an excuse to get drunk?

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Go eat pumpkin flavored foods...

Dunkin Donuts in Longwood, FL

I think this heart-shaped, cream filled doughnut from Dunkin Donuts in Longwood is probably an appropriate food item to post for Valentines Day. Have fun facing the crowds as you try to eat out tonight!

Happy Easter

For Easter food, you pretty much have two choices:

Special Rabbit Heads
Originally uploaded by Augapfel

You can have the traditional Easter candy, eggs, and ham, or you could go with the less popular option and eat the Easter Bunny. Here is a somewhat gory recipe for Rabbit Head Pasta:

Rabbit Head Pasta

Any takers?

Happy π (Pi) Day!

Do you know that today is π Day? It's one of the better obscure holidays out there, just about on par with International Talk Like a Pirate Day. In celebration, this post is being published on March 14, at 1:59, or to be more specific, 3.14159...

Enjoy the many types of pies that I've taken photos of in my travels, like Key Lime Pies from a fish market in Lake Mary, FL and Sleuths Mystery Dinner Show in Orlando, FL.



Then there is Chicken Pot Pie. The first is from Toojay's in Altamonte Springs, FL and the second is from Ruby Tuesdays in Florence, SC.



Then there is this Spinach Pie from the Capital Diner in Harrisburg, PA.


And to end out this series of pictures of pie for Pi Day, who could forget everyone's favorite type. The Pizza Pie, such as this pesto pizza from Il Porto in NY and this vegetable pizza from Louies at Universal.



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