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.

Del Taco in Orlando, FL (International Drive)

Del Taco is a fast food Mexican chain that has a few locations in the Orlando area. They recently added ground turkey as a meat option to their menu. To announce the turkey, I received a box of feathers in the mail with a gift card to go try the new meat at Del Taco. I used the gift card to try the turkey at the Del Taco on International Drive in Orlando. I ordered a Turkey Taco, a Turkey Crunchtada Tostada, and a Vanilla Milkshake.

Turkey soft taco:

Turkey Crunchtada Tostada- I preferred this to the taco.

Vanilla Milkshake:

Kings Dominion Food in Doswell, VA

On my way home from a road trip up and down the east coast, I stopped and did a theme park day at Kings Dominion in Doswell, VA. It was a fun day with lots and lots of mediocre roller coasters and a few that I really enjoyed. Kings Dominion definitely wasn't up to Florida theme park standards, but it was still a good day. While there, I did sample some of Kings Dominion's theme park food...

Kings Dominion mostly had fast food chains for their dining offerings. I chose not to visit any of the chains and ate at a restaurant called Border Cafe.

This Mexican themed restaurant worked by everyone filling out papers with what they wanted by checking off boxes. I ordered a burrito with chicken, black beans, spicy cheddar, spicy corn salsa, lettuce, onions, jalapenos, black olives, and sour cream.

The burrito was served with a side of tortilla chips.

I can't say this was very good theme park food. I guess I'm spoiled by the food in the Orlando parks, but this was pretty bad. The tortilla wrapping up the burrito was very stale tasting. Not only that, it was dry and crunchy as opposed to the moist and soft that it should have been. The rice also had a similar problem, being crunchy as opposed to moist. As for the items that I checked off when ordering, salsa was completely missing from the burrito. For the cheese, the burrito was filled with cheese sauce, although I cheddar sauce wasn't checked.

Perhaps I would have been better off going to one of the chains in King's Dominion after my burrito at Border Cafe. Later in the day, it was time for a snack so I got dessert from another one of the park's non-chain restaurants called Jukebox Diner.

This place was themed like a 50's diner and served mostly burgers. I ordered a strawberry milkshake here. I was actually a bit impressed with the milkshakes here. A milkshake like this outside of a lower end theme park wouldn't be that impressive, but I was surprised given the location. They actually made these to order as opposed to using the somewhat pre-made milkshakes that I've seen elsewhere. The shake was filled with lots and lots of strawberries and was topped with a mountain of whipped cream.

Kings Dominion had some good roller coasters and I don't think anyone's going to that park for their food. It's definitely not Epcot...

BurgerFi in Delray Beach, FL

I recently ate dinner at BurgerFi in Downtown Delray Beach. This fast food burger chain reminded me of a modern version of Five Guys with a better menu.

I had a strawberry milkshake as my drink. It came topped with whipped cream and sprinkles. For almost $5, I thought it was somewhat expensive for the size cup the milkshake was served it. Tasted good though.

Fries and onion rings. The onion rings were good, but the fries were very average.

I had a Chicago Style Chicken Apple Sausage. The sausage was served on a poppy seed bun, topped with tomato, onions, relish, peppers, and a pickle slice. BurgerFi was generous with the toppings, but I was expecting something a little different with the sausage itself. I couldn't detect any sort of apple flavor and the sausage tasted like a normal hot dog to me.

Overall, the food was pretty average at BurgerFi. I wouldn't purposefully rush back any time soon, but it definitely was better than Five Guys (I don't get the appeal of that place) and other similar burger chains.

Robert Is Here

I was down in South Florida for a weekend and decided to do some sightseeing. My first stop was the Coral Castle. It was definitely an interesting place to stop, but they pushed too much of the woo with their theories of how the place was built. It seemed pretty well established and obvious how the castle was built, but this is a food blog, so I won't complain much more about roadside attractions adding more hype than actually surrounds a place.

My next stop was the Robert Is Here fruit stand. I found out about this place their brochures in the rest stops along the Florida Turnpike, so they must be pretty touristy. There advertising works though, because I visited as a tourist.

Robert is Here sells all sorts of tropical fruit that grows locally in the Redlands area south-west of Miami. They had some of your standard tropical fruit like mango and papaya (grown on the trees out back), but then there was more exotic stuff. They had locally grown Jackfruit, and then there was fruit I've never heard of.

Besides from the tropical fruit, Robert is Here's milkshakes also seemed to be a big draw. I bought myself a key lime milkshake. This very thick shake tasted just like a key lime pie in a viscous, semi-drinkable form. Really good!

I also had to buy myself some of the locally grown fruit. I choose a Florida Mango and a Mamey Sapote. When I went to pay for these two fruits, I found out why Robert is Here can afford to advertise in all of those Miami brochures. These two fruits came out to $8 and change. It seemed really overpriced to me, especially since mangos can often be found in supermarkets for under a dollar during the season. I was doing the tourist thing though and I really wanted to try the mamey, so I ended up buying th fruit anyway.

Lately, mango has become one of my favorite fruits. I've noticed that there is quite a difference between fruits depending on where the mango is grown. If the mango comes from South America or Mexico, they have a lot more juice and are slighly stringy. A Florida mango doesn't have the stringyness and has a creamier texture. Out of the two types, Florida mangos are definitely my favorite. The mango that I bought from Robert is Here was a prime example of a really good Florida Mango.

I bought the mamey sapote because I was totally unfamiliar with the fruit and the sign said it tasted like a pumpkin pie. You would never know from the brown fuzzy skin on the outside of the fruit that the inside flesh was a brilliant deep orange color. The flesh had the texture of an avocado and really did taste just like a pumpkin pie. This fruit could probably be put in a pie crust, and you would have an instant pumpkin pie with no work! It would probably be a lot healthier too! I've never seen a mamey in a store up in the Orlando area, but I'd definitely buy the fruit again if I see it!

Space McDonald's

On August 28, 2009, the Space Shuttle Discovery was making it's third attempt to launch on mission STS-128. Although I can see the shuttle just fine from where I live, I decided to go out to Titusville, FL to get a closer look. I arrived about an hour before the launch and some sort of dessert seemed appropriate to pass the time.

I initially thought of going to this Ice Cream Truck. I've noticed that most ice cream trucks in Florida are pretty sad. They normally involve a guy in a van selling prepackaged ice cream bars out of a freezer. These are the same ice cream bars that you can buy a box of in the supermarket, probably for about the same price as one pop. Up north, they have soft serve ice cream trucks like Mr. Softee where they do more than pull a frost covered ice pop out of the freezer with a big markup. When I saw this particular ice cream truck parked on the side of the road in Titusville, I got excited. It looked like it was a soft serve truck. Unfortunately, when I walked over, it seemed the truck and another car got in a fender bender and ice cream was no longer being sold.


The next dessert choice within walking distance was this Mcdonald's with appropriately decorated windows. I had a strawberry milkshake, which was okay for what it was and where it was from. It really couldn't compare to milkshakes from a soft serve ice cream truck though!





At 11:59 pm, the Discovery finally launched. I love night launches, especially when you can hear the roar of the engines! It's a shame the shuttle program is coming to an end pretty soon. I really hope NASA gets it's act together and goes through with completing the Orion Project, but somehow I have my doubts that we will see it happen any time soon.