Berrywise Cafe in Altamonte Springs, FL

Berrywise Cafe is one of the many self-serve frozen yogurt shops that have been opening all over Central Florida lately. Berrywise is located in a Wal-Mart shopping center in Altamonte Springs and serves both yogurt and Lollicup drinks.

During one visit, I tried their frozen yogurt. Berrywise Cafe had eight different yogurt flavors to choose from in the self serve machines. They gave small sample cups to taste the flavors first, then you get a larger bowl to fill with your selections. After filling the bowls with yogurt, there is an adjacent topping bar stocked with all sorts of good stuff like fruit, jellies, and candies. After the dessert is made, it is weighed at the cashier and charged by the ounce. A word of warning though, the bowls are quite large and the machines dispense yogurt very quickly. If you're not careful filling your bowl, you can potentially end up with an expensive dessert.

I decided on a twist of California Tart and Pomegranate yogurt topped with strawberry and kiwi.

On another visit, I ordered something from Berrywise Cafe's Lollicup menu. I had an Avococonut Smoothie with tapioca balls. I've gotten the flavor once before at another Lollicup and liked it. This particular drink was just as good.

I initially didn't know what to think about these self serve yogurt places, but I liked my visits to Berrywise Cafe. The whole self serve aspect allows you to self ration yourself, rather than the typical ice cream/yogurt shop where you have to order a set size. The flavors of yogurt I tried were all really tasty too!

Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy in Lakeland, FL

I had lunch at Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy in Lakeland. The interior of the restaurant was set up to look like an outdoor courtyard.

I had the Enchilada and Taco combination from the lunch menu. I had my choice of fillings in each and picked an avocado enchilada and chicken taco. The avocado in the enchilada was actually a really smooth guacamole. Sort of reminded me of the guacamole from Taco Bell, but it was still tasty. No complaints about the taco. The combination also came served with refried beans and rice.

Abuelo's was pretty good for a chain Mexican restaurant. I'd place them above other chains like Chevy's or Don Pablos.

Dinner at Bayridge Sushi

I had dinner at Bayridge Sushi in Longwood, FL. I've never been here at dinner time, and it was even more packed than the place gets for lunch. It seemed like all you could eat sushi was the thing to get, with the sushi being made at a lightning fast speed. There was no question here whether the fish was out too long.

The unlimited sushi cost a bit more than I wanted to spend at $20, so I went with some individual rolls and miso soup.

I ordered a Wasibi Roll first. It was filled with half tuna and half salmon, along with cucumber and avocado. It was topped with orange and green fish eggs. I liked it, although the salmon kept on sliding out of the roll. It was a little spicy, but not too bad.

While everyone else ordered their second rounds of all you can eat sushi, I ordered a California Roll so I'd have something to do. It tasted like a California Roll should.

Fish Tacos from Market Street Cafe in Celebration, FL

I ate Fish Tacos from the Market Street Cafe in Celebration, FL. Celebration was the planned community created by Disney and the Market Street Cafe is one of the original restaurants in the city. The restaurant has the whole classic diner look going on (as seen by the picture below), and they seem to try to have the appropriate food. I really don't know how appropriate tacos are for diner food, but they were still good.


My fish tacos were good. They consisted of fried cod, lettuce, and salsa wrapped in tortillas, and were served with an avocado tarter sauce and fries. My only complaint was that the French fries were kind of soggy, and didn't exactly seem freshly cooked. Otherwise, my Market Street Cafe Fish Tacos were tasty.


It also snowed in Celebration while I was there. They had soap machines that blew out bubbles that simulated snow on the lampposts downtown. Every hour, everyone would get completely covered with oily soap. It was fun...



Here's a video of the fake snow in Downtown Celebration followed by a house with Christmas lights synchronized to music from Epcot's Illuminations.


As for something else food related in Celebration, I took a picture of this large ginger bread house in a store window.


Of course, that little ginger bread house is nothing compared to some of Disney's larger ginger bread creations:

Hershey, PA

I ate lunch in Hershey, PA. I ate at a restaurant called the Chocolate Avenue Grill, across the street from the chocolate factory. I had something called a Noah Sandwich, which consisted of turkey, cheese, avocado, and bacon. I could have done without the bacon, but it was otherwise a good sandwich.

After lunch, I went to Hershey's Chocolate World and rode their Chocolate Factory Dark Ride, complete with singing cows and lots of fake chocolate. After it was over, they gave out these free samples...

In the gift shop after the ride, they did have all sorts of Halloween flavored Kisses that sounded good that I had never heard of like Pumpkin Spice, Caramel Apple, and Candy Corn...

Avococonut Boba Tea

I had an Avococonut Boba Tea from the Lollicup in the Little Vietnam section of Orlando. Avocado and coconut is a good combination...

Chicken With Avocado @ Eastern Pearl

I ate Chinese food for dinner at Eastern Pearl in Altamonte Springs, FL. I had the Chicken with Avocado. It had a really nice presentation, with the chicken overflowing out of the avocado skin and other plate decorations like a sliced carrot in the shape of a flower. I liked the avocado a whole lot, but the sauce over the whole meal could have been a bit more flavorful.

NYC Angelica Kitchen & TKettle

After eating a very meaty lunch, I had the complete opposite for dinner. I ate organic vegan food from Angelica Kitchen in Manhattan's East Village.

I ate a Dragon Bowl, which consisted of rice, tofu, lentils, kale, zucchini, carrots, and some wonderful seaweed. This was served with a tahini dressing. I know many meat eaters would look away in disgust at this meal, but it really was delicious. Everything was good, with the exception of the lentils which tasted very bland. I'm not sure what the shredded purple seaweed that was used in the Dragon Bowl was called, but that is some of the best seaweed I've ever tasted. It was by far my favorite flavor in the whole Dragon Bowl.




After finishing dinner at Angelica Kitchen, I had dessert at Tkettle. They served what they called bubble tea (although I think the correct name is boba tea), and other variations on the idea, along with some actual food. Boba tea is very cool stuff. It is a type of tea that originated in Taiwan that is filled with floating tapioca balls. I ruined my vegan dinner by ordering a avocado milkshake. They blended half of an avocado, milk, and ice, and then poured the milkshake over the tapioca balls. An avocado milkshake is definitely not a combination that I would have thought of, but it wasn't bad. Drinking it without sucking up the tapioca balls left it tasting like it needed some salt, but with the tapioca, the milkshake was very good...