China Star in Lake Mary, FL

Today we're going to yet another Chinese take-out restaurant! China Star gets confusing because of the prevalence of the name in the immediate area. This China Star is in Lake Mary, right on the Sanford border. Go less than five miles away into Sanford and you have another take-out called China Star and a very scary buffet called China Star. I don't get the feeling that any of the China Stars are connected.

I've picked up food from this China Star on several occasions and they messed up the order for the majority of these visits. After a certain point I stopped getting food there, but I recently gave China Star another try. When I got the food home, it turned out they got the order correct!

I had the Curry Chicken Combination. It came with fried rice, an egg roll, and wonton soup...

The Curry Chicken was nice and spicy, mixed with onions, peppers, snow peas, and mushrooms. The portion was huge and turned into three meals by the time the chicken was gone.

I guess we spent enough so they threw in a bag of these Chinese doughnuts. Can't complain about free extras!

China Star got the order right on this visit, the food all tasted good, and the portions were huge for the price. I think I'll add them back to my list of options for Chinese take-out!

Joey's Supreme Pizza in Okeechobee, FL

Okeechobee. Located between Florida's biggest lake and miles of sugar farms to the south and endless cattle farms to the north, it's a pretty isolated town. The drive along 441 through this nothingness is a great ride, but there really isn't too much in terms of food along the way. That is, except for in Okeechobee. The last time I took the scenic route down south, I stopped for dinner in Downtown Okeechobee at a place called Joey's Supreme Pizza.

We started out with garlic knots at Joey's Supreme Pizza. These knots were way bigger than what most Italian restaurants serve when it comes to garlic knots. I unfortunately filled up on these so I didn't have much room left for the pizza! They tasted alright, although I thought they could have used less oil and more garlic.

I find Florida has far too much mediocre pizza, so I honestly wasn't expecting much for pizza in Okeechobee. When the pizza was delivered to the table, I was plesantly surprised. This pizza was a thin crusted NY style pie. It was cooked to perfection and had just the right amount of sauce and cheese. The sauce was a little too thick and pasty in spots for my liking, but otherwise I have no complaints. I love it when I find a totally unexpected good pizzeria!

Beard Papa's in Sanford, FL

I visited the new Beard Papa's Fresh 'n Natural Cream Puffs in Sanford. I've been meaning to try the Japanese version of a creme puff ever since I heard of the chain and finally had my opportunity. I'm still a bit confused as to who had the bright idea to open a Japanese cream puff franchise on the west side of I-4 on 46. Maybe they'll prove me wrong, but somehow I don't see the market being there. Adding to this, the store had lots of employees but they still seemed very unorganized. There were three people in front of us and it took about fifteen minutes for us to finally order. While we were standing there waiting, three more groups of people came and left after all of the employees standing behind the counter completely ignored their questions. This doesn't bode well for a new fast food place unless they get their act together. Enough of that though and onto the food...

 I ordered the obvious thing and got a cream puff. I enjoyed my creme filled pastry but didn't notice any big difference between a Japanese creme puff and one bought elsewhere. It was nowhere as greasy as a doughnut, filled with creamy goodness, and topped with lots of powdered sugar.  If I'm riding by again and craving a dessert, I may stop back into Beard Papa's for another creme puff. Hopefully served in a more organized fashion next time...

House of Blues in Orlando, FL

A few months ago, I was invited to attend the House of Blues Gospel Brunch in Downtown Disney. That was an awesome food experience, and since then I've attended a few concerts at the House of Blues. I've definitely gone to the House of Blues enough in the past year, but I never actually ate at the House of Blues restaurant on all those visits. Last time I ate at the restaurant was at least three or four years ago, so when I met up with some relatives visiting Disney and found a good deal on restaurants.com, I figured it was about time I return to the HOB...

I ordered the Jambalaya, consisting of rice, chicken, shrimp, and ham, topped with andouille sausage and green onions. I liked it, although I personally thought I could have used a little more spice. Otherwise the portion was large and very filling. House of Blues was kind of overpriced at $18 and it would have been nice if some sort of bread was included, but it is on Disney property. You have to expect it to be overpriced...

While House of Blues isn't my favorite restaurant in Downtown Disney, I personally think it's one of the better ones. I seem to like most anywhere that serves Cajun food, and this is no exception. I would definitely visit again!

BagelWorks in Boca Raton, FL

I decided to get breakfast at one of Boca Raton's bagel places and ended up at BagelWorks.

BagelWorks was very popular with Boca's senior citizens. They had a line for tables that queued up along BagelWorks' deli cases. It was kind of like waiting for a ride at Disney while watching a preshow of cream cheese and Kosher smoked fishes and listening to people complain about the wait.

It was eventually our turn to be first in line and were seated. I decided to get a spinach & feta omelet, served with homefries and an everything bagel. The omelet was okay, although the cheese could have been distributed throughout the omelet better. There was lots in the center, but none at the two ends of the omelet. Homefries were good, but the bagel was horrible. At a restaurant called BagelWorks, I was expecting good bagels. Unfortunately, every bagel served to our table had an extremely hard outer crust. So hard that I couldn't bite into the bagel. I couldn't break through the crust with the utensils at the table either. Whatever caused the bagels to have this outer crust was definitely not good. I don't think I'd go back to BagelWorks because of their rock hard bagels. With the majority of the customers in BagelWorks above the age of 65, I wonder how well these bagels fare with dentures?

Orlando Food Truck Bazaar

It's funny how a few months ago, few people would consider visiting Orlando's food trucks. They've been there for years off most people's radar, hidden away along the less traveled parts of certain roads such as OBT and Colonial. That is until a Korean BBQ Taco Truck shows up. Suddenly, food trucks are the cool new thing in town and several more new (gourmet) food trucks pop up soon after.

TheDailyCity.com has been a big proponent of the Orlando street food scene with their occasional Taco Truck Taste Tests, but now they're bringing us the next level of street food events with the Orlando Food Truck Bazaar. Lots of food trucks, all in one place. How can you possibly go wrong? Details below:

Cowboys Bar B-Q & Steak Co. in Ft. Pierce, FL

I stopped for dinner at Cowboys Bar B-Q & Steak Co. in Ft. Pierce based on a recommendation while driving down south. I'm not all too familiar with the area, but I'm pretty sure I ate a meal at a R.J. Gators that used to be in this building a few years ago.

I ordered their pulled pork dinner. The menu claimed it was award winning. Sounds good to me. The pork was nice and tender with very little fat. It had a great smokey flavor and there were plenty of barbecue sauces on the table to sample with the pork. I had waffle fries and corn on the cob for my two sides. I liked the corn, although all of the salt and pepper on top was definitely a bit on the strong side. The waffle fries tasted like fries should. Garlic bread was the only part of the dinner I didn't like. It was boring white bread with very little garlic flavor. I suppose that's what the butter was for...

Charley's Grilled Subs in Sanford, FL

Charley's Grilled Subs is a chain in the Seminole Towne Center food court in Sanford. They serve mostly cheesesteaks which I find to be somewhat overpriced for the size but are also really tasty. Something about their Chicken Teriyaki sandwich topped with mayonnaise and lettuce is particularly pleasing to my taste buds...

Doris' Italian Market & Bakery in Boca Raton, FL

Doris' Italian Market & Bakery is a small chain of stores in South Florida. I was recently brought their store in Boca Raton and have since returned a few more times! The store was small, but they had some really interesting foods. Where else can you buy a whole goat head in the meat department? On all my visits, I passed on the exotic meats and went for the bakery. This was a bakery that you don't generally find in Florida. Italian bakeries like this are all over in the New York area, but I've yet to find something like this in the Orlando area...

I've been to Doris' for their bakery a few times now. On one visit I had this canolli. Canollis are good...

Another time, I had this sfogliatelle. How can you go wrong with flaky dough filled with cheese and covered with powdered sugar?

I sampled their Chocolate Mousse Pie on a third visit. This was a towering chocolate pie, filled with mousse and whipped cream, then covered in a hard layer of chocolate. Very tasty...


I'm hoping that one day Doris' Italian Market will expand from South Florida into the Orlando area. I'll definitely visit if they do!

Lucky Buffet in Orlando, FL

Looks like Lucky Buffet has closed at some point since the original publication of this post...

The last time I was paying attention, there was a Chinese take-out in the strip mall off of Collegiate Way near UCF. I guess somewhere along the line, Los Chinitos Chinese Fast Food decided they would be better off as Lucky Buffet...

Lucky Buffet was on the small side as far as Orlando Chinese buffets go, but was equivalent to others in the immediate area. They had two tables of hot food and one dessert table. In terms of what's expected from Chinese buffets, I thought the food here was a little above average. I didn't taste any food that was so explicitly bad that I left it on the plate. They were constantly refilling the foods so the turnover was pretty good too.

Lucky Buffet had some unusual items not often seen on Chinese buffets, such as the baby bok choy, salt & pepper squid, and the awesome desserts filled with red bean paste.

Overall, not the best Chinese food around but better than other buffets in the UCF area.

Zushi Asia in Melborne, FL

I had dinner at Zushi Asia in Downtown Melbourne. It seemed they did mostly sushi and Thai food...

I ordered the Green Curry Rice Dish with Chicken. The chicken was mixed with bamboo shoots, squash, bell pepper, and peas. The sauce was a mix of green curry and coconut milk. The coconut milk was the dominate flavor over the curry, making the dish more sweet than spicy. Since this was called a rice dish, I was expecting the chicken and other ingredients to be mixed together with the rice. Instead, the rice and chicken were served completely separate on the plate. Overall, the food was okay, but I was hoping for something with a bit more spice when I ordered something with curry...

Treasure Tavern in Orlando, FL

A few months ago, I went to the new dinner show called Treasure Tavern connected to Pirate's Dinner Adventure in Orlando.

A mixed green salad topped with blue cheese and kalamata olives was served first.

The main course consisted of prime rib, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. I'm not really a big beef eater, so this is probably one of the few times you will see prime rib on this blog. Since I don't normally eat prime rib, I'm not going pass any sort of judgment on the main course.

For dessert, they served something called an Opera Cake. The slice had alternating layers of chocolate, sponge, and coffee cake, topped with a piece of hard candy.

The dinner show wasn't exactly what I was expecting. Being connected to Pirate's Dinner Adventure, I thought it would be somewhat pirate themed. Instead, it was more of a variety show with comedians, contortionists, magicians, jugglers, and had very little to do with pirates. All of the different acts kept the pace of the show moving, unlike some of the other dinner shows in Orlando that tend to drag on and on with their horrible shows. Entertaining enough and as far as dinner shows go, the food and show both could have been way worse!