Starbucks in Ashland, VA

On a long drive home from New York, my fellow travelers decided that they needed to stop at a Starbucks to refuel on caffeine. I instead opted to get actual food and tried their Spinach and Feta breakfast wrap. It consisted of egg whites, spinach, feta, and some sort of tomato based sauce. It was better than I was expecting, but I really would prefer if they used whole eggs rather than just the whites. Egg whites may be healthier, but without the yolks they are tasteless with a consistency that I really don't like. Otherwise it was a good wrap from a coffee chain that isn't known for their food.

Toojay's Western Skillet

I ate at the Toojays in Altamonte Springs, FL for breakfast. I ordered a Western Skillet, which consisted of potato pancakes topped with scrambled eggs, tomatoes, and scallions. The Western Skillet normally comes with ham, but I wasn't in a porky mood that day. From how this dish was described on the menu, I was expecting a lot more potato pancake and less egg. Regardless, I ate it all and enjoyed it.

The Western Skillet also came with two slices of Toojay's wonderful rye toast. Even when compared to more authentic Jewish Deli style restaurants, Toojay's definitely makes the best rye bread that I've tasted in the area.

Chipotle Turkey from Jersey Mike's Subs

I ate at the Jersey Mike's Subs in Lake Mary, FL for a second time. Last time, I wasn't all that impressed with their sandwiches and I didn't have all that much desire to return. A visiting relative is in love with the fast food restaurant for some odd reason, so I went again.

I shared a giant Chipotle Turkey Sub with someone. The sandwich was topped with every possible sandwich component, excluding tomatoes. A chipotle mayonnaise turned the normal turkey sub into a chipotle turkey sub. The sandwich did taste okay, but wasn't any better than similar sandwiches from other restaurants.



The restaurant as a whole did seem a little disorganized though. The employees seemed a bit confused, and that didn't help the long line. One employee started asking if anyone in line wanted any hot subs, and since I was getting a cold sub, I said no. Because of this, I somehow ended up getting skipped and the employee acted all annoyed when told nobody took my order.

Papa Joe's Pizza (Lake Mary, FL)

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.

La Strada Gnocchi

I ate Italian food for lunch at La Strada in downtown Millburn, NJ today. I ordered gnocchi with a four cheese cream sauce. Two different types of bread was brought out first, with the focaccia being the better of the two. When the meal was brought out, I was a bit surprised to see tomato sauce covering the top of the massive pile of gnocchi. The menu said nothing about any tomato based sauce and only mentioned the four cheese cream sauce. Regardless, the gnocchi was still good and the tomato and cream sauce mixed nicely into a pink tomato cream sauce. It would have been a better meal if they gave less pasta and instead gave a salad along with the gnocchi...

Sweet Tomatoes

I ate at the Sweet Tomatoes in Altamonte Springs, Florida. All of those senior citizens sure do love their all you can eat buffets where they can fill their purses with all of the brownies that they can fit.

Heres a plate of salad I ate...