The Halal Guys in Orlando, FL

There is a food thing in New York City known as Halal Carts. These carts mostly serve middle eastern rice bowls and sandwiches. Of the New York Halal Carts, the most famous is perhaps The Halal Guys. The Halal Guys have a reputation of being really good, but my one attempt to see what they are all about was deterred by the line going up the block. Their countless competitors all serve variations of the same menu with no waiting, so I never actually tried The Halal Guys. Until now. Apparently they have expanded beyond street food and a location was opened in Waterford Lakes.

I tried their combo platter which consisted of yellow rice topped with beef gyro, chicken, lettuce, tomato, white and hot sauces, and several slices of pita. Was it worth the hype? It was okay, but I would be disappointed if I waited in a line spanning a NY city block. Both meats were very plain tasting to me. The gyro reminded me of a hamburger and the chicken lacked seasoning. Not necessary bad, but I normally expect a bit more flavor from middle eastern food.

I wonder if the food from a brick and mortar location of this chain in the suburbs of Orlando is equivalent to a cart serving food on a city street corner? Since their a chain, I would expect so...

Central Florida Fair Food

I visited the Central Florida Fair and had some carnival food. I avoided deep fried Oreos, deep fried Twinkies, deep fried bacon, or anything else deep fried and got food from a booth selling steak. The food was being cooked in big skillets and smelled much better than much of the other fair food.

I tried a sandwich called the Big John. This featured a roll filled with mashed potatoes, mushrooms, onions, peppers, and sirloin tips. The steak was nice and moist with good flavor. Mashed potatoes on sandwiches always seems strange at first glance to me, but it worked here. Overall, this was a much better choice than a corn dog...

Durham's Best Barbeque in Elkton, MD

I stopped in Elkton, MD for lunch. I got off I-95 at this exit and had a few interesting food choices. One was a seafood restaurant selling food from a shipping container. Another choice, and the winner for the meal was BBQ in a log cabin called Durham's Best Barbeque.

I had the beef brisket sandwich, topped with peppers and onions. Durham's gave a huge amount of meat, all overflowing out of the bun. It had nice flavor but was a bit dry. The small cups of barbecue sauce that were supplied weren't enough to moisten the sandwich. The peppers and onions were very skimpy and went almost unnoticed.

Asian Chao at UCF

I tried the Asian Chao in the UCF Student Union for lunch one afternoon. I ordered the two item combination and went with Kung Pao Shrimp and Beef with Broccoli. These were both served with a side of lo-mein. Although nothing great, it all tasted okay and was equivalent to the Chinese restaurants in the mall food courts. Being that the same franchise is in several of the local malls, I suppose that's how it should be.

The same dishes are so much better from many independent local Chinese restaurants though...

Pei Wei Asian Diner in Orlando, FL

Pei Wei Asian Diner is a fast food Asian fusion restaurant owned by P.F. Chang's. Their first location in Orlando was on Colonial Drive, just on the outskirts of the Mill's 50 District where you have a high concentration of wonderful private Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants. I think the main reason I had never tried Pei Wei was because of it's location. If I was in that area of Orlando and was hungry for something in this genre of food, I'd always pick one of the great Vietnamese places right up the street rather than an Americanized chain version of Asian food.

A few months ago, I saw Pei Wei had a promotion where they were giving out coupons for free Japanese Chile Beef Ramen on Facebook. Once I got my coupon, I stopped into Pei Wei one night and got my Beef Ramen to go. Interestingly enough, the two people in line in front of me both had the same coupon, so apparently Pei Wei was giving out a lot of free food.

Soon enough, I opened up my to-go order and started eating. The Japanese Chile Beef Ramen was really tasty, with beef, carrots, onions, bean sprouts, red chiles, and cilantro, all over noodles. To me, it tasted very similar to Chinese lo mein for the most part, but I didn't mind. I like lo mein! And most lo mein doesn't have hot peppers in it either! I'd go back again.

Mariachis Mexican Restaurant in Manning, SC

After a day of driving north along I-95 from Florida, everyone started getting hungry. Rather than stopping at the normal travel restaurants like Waffle House, Cracker Barrel, Denny's, or some sort of fast food, we decided to try a Mexican restaurant called Mariachis that was advertised on a billboard.

It was located right off of the exit in Manning, SC and was really busy. The hostess' question of "Smoking or non?" caught me off guard at first since it's been so long since I've heard that in most places I eat. After sitting, tortilla chips and salsa were served.

After reading over the large menu, I changed my mind at the last minute and ordered the Enchiladas Supreme. It came with four enchiladas, each one stuffed with something different. There was refried beans, beef, cheese, and chicken. I liked my enchiladas and sitting in the restaurant was a nice break from driving in the car all day!

Giordano's Stuffed Pizza

I have heard good things about Giordano's Pizza. It is Chicago style stuffed pizza with multiple layers of crust with the sauce on top. I really have very little experience with Chicago style pizza, and I had never tried a pizza quite like what Giordano's sells. The restaurant was on my list to try for a while, an I finally made it to the location on Apopka Vineland Road near Disney.

The meal started out with some garlic bread. There was a decent amount of garlic on here, unlike some other Italian restaurants that just use garlic butter and no actual garlic.

Although I was planning to just have a cheese pizza, I realized that would defeat the purpose of the stuffed pizza if it had nothing but cheese. It was agreed that my half of the pizza would have ground beef, pepperoni, and black olives. The meat was baked into the pie in between the layers of crust along with cheese. On the top layer, Giordano's put more cheese, sauce, and the black olives. I came across this video of how Giordano's makes their pizzas:



The pizza was definitely unique, but I think I still prefer the more traditional New York Style pizza. This pizza had far too much cheese that all oozed out of the slices. Perhaps if it was given time to set, the oozing wouldn't be as big of a problem, but it was still too much. One slice on this pizza probably had just as much cheese as a few slices of a traditional pizza. The crust on this pizza was pretty good though. It was sort of flaky, sort of like a pie crust rather than the bread that normally makes up a pizza crust.

I didn't think Giordano's pizza was anything great compared to traditional pizza, but it's definitely a novelty. Because of the uniqueness, I would gladly return and give their pizza another try. This visit to Giordano's also introduced me to another Chicago specialty that I now need to try: The Italian Beef Sandwich...

Gucci's Pizza in Marshall, TX

After a day of traveling, I ended up in Marshall, TX for the night. The motel clerk recommended Gucci's Restaurant as having the good Italian food, as opposed to the Italian restaurant right across the street. After eating, I really hope Gucci's can't speak for all Italian restaurants in Texas.

The pizza topped with half green peppers and half ground beef with a sesame seed crust was served. I am almost certain that Gucci's used pre-made pizza crusts. The crust was a horrible, dense, foamy bread. I say foamy because if the crust was poked with a fork, the holes would close up and appear that it was never stabbed. Although the crust had seemingly magical powers to heal itself, one thing it couldn't do was connect with cheese. Every bit of cheese, sauce, and topping slid right off the crust. Sometimes this happens if there is too much sauce on a pizza, but there was actually very little sauce on this pie. It's hard to tell exactly how much sauce the pizza started out with though because a lot of it got absorbed into the crust, making it kind of soggy. Perhaps this soggy crust couldn't provide a surface for the cheese to bond itself to.

Whatever caused the flaws with this pizza, I've had better pizzas than this pie from the frozen food section at the Supermarket...

Beef O' Brady's Cuban Sandwich

My Cuban Sandwich from Beef O' Brady's in Deltona, Florida wasn't very authentic. Compared to other Cuban sandwiches that I've eaten, this was more along the lines of a ham sandwich with pickles. There was no roast pork here, but that's what you get when Cuban food is ordered at an Irish sports bar. Not that the restaurant was even very Irish. The only food on the menu that seemed remotely Irish was the fish and chips, but there were plenty of American hamburgers. For what it was, the sandwich was decent tasting, but was nothing that will have me rushing back to visit Beef O' Brady's again soon...

Habanero's Mexican Grill

I ate at Habanero's Mexican Grill in Casselberry, FL. The meal started with chips and salsa. I liked how they gave everyone their own individual bowl of salsa with a pitcher of salsa on the table for refills. This way, each person at the table could double dip to their hearts content.

For my dinner, I ordered the Enchiladas Supreme. This included four enchiladas, each with a different filling. One was filled with refried beans, another was cheese, the third was beef, and the final enchilada was filled with shredded chicken and peppers. The four enchiladas were topped with sauce, lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. I could have done without the beef enchilada, but I liked the other three.

My only complaint was that it would have been nice if they served the enchiladas with a side of rice or beans like other Mexican restaurants often do.

Food From UCF & Boba Tea

I ate a buffet served at the University of Central Florida. The selection was somewhat limited. It consisted of salad, rolls, potato chips, cookies, and some sort of pasta with a mystery meat. The meat had the consistency of ground beef but was too light in color and looked more like pork to me. Maybe it was the sauce that lightened up the meat. My guess is that this was supposed to be Beef Stroganoff. It actually tasted surprisingly good...

Later on, I stopped at the Lollicup in Winter Park on the corner of University and Semoran Blvd. I has a passion fruit boba tea. It was good, but after a while it became way too sweet. My last cup of boba tea from Tkettle in New York City was better...