3 Chefs Chinese Restaurant in Miami, FL

On a visit to South Florida, I had dinner at 3 Chefs Chinese Restaurant in Miami. It was a nice night, so we decided to dine outside at the tables 3 Chefs had out front.

I ordered the Szechuan Shrimp dinner combination. This meal started with a bowl of wonton soup.

An egg roll was served next:

Which was then followed by the main course. This came with several large shrimp mixed with various vegetables. The sauce used on the Szechuan shrimp had a nice kick, which is a good thing. The little pepper icon on the menu denoting a spicy dish actually meant something here. Fried rice was served on the side.

3 Chefs Chinese Restaurant served pretty standard American style Chinese food. Everything was fairly similar to what countless other Chinese restaurants serve. Regardless, the food was tasty. I enjoyed the sauce on the shrimp and it came with a nice variety of vegetables.

Kingfish Bistro in College Park, FL

I read about Kingfish Bistro in an Orlando Weekly article. According to the article, they are apparently a Vietnamese owned Italian restaurant, and that combination intrigued me. Because of this, Kingfish was dinner last time I was in College Park. There wasn't really too much Vietnamese-Italian fusion food going on here. The majority of the menu seemed strictly Italian, except for several out of place items, such as these egg rolls that we had for an appetizer.

 

We also decided to share a half meatball, half cheese pizza. The pizza was good, although not great. It was comparable to most of the other nearby pizzerias which are all pretty much middle of the road and average in this neighborhood. I'd have Kingfish's pizza again if I was eating there, but I wouldn't seek it out to fulfill any sort of pizza cravings.

Overall, the food at Kingfish Bistro was good, although not great. I liked the egg rolls as a prelude to pizza, but I really would have liked to see more culture-clashing fusion foods here. Asian vegetables on pizza? I could see it!

Asian Express in Altamonte Springs, FL

A new restaurant called Asian Express opened in Altamonte Springs in the building that was formerly occupied by Wonderful Chinese Express. For a fast food Chinese, I always thought Wonderful was pretty good, so I decided to give the new place a try.
I ordered a Kung Pao Chicken dinner combination which started with wonton soup. For whatever reason, I've noticed many local Chinese restaurants have stopped putting the strips of roast pork in their wonton soup. It used to be that the pork was standard in wonton soup, but now it seems I see it rarer and rarer in the soup. The soup at Asian Express had plenty of pork...

The soup was followed with the Kung Pao Chicken, brown rice, and an eventual egg roll that was initially forgotten. The chicken was chopped into small chunks, with green and red peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, scallions, and peanuts. The Kung Pao Chicken was tasty, and I'd gladly get it again!

China Star in Sanford, FL

There are several Chinese take-outs in the various strip malls that surround the Seminole Towne Center mall in Sanford, FL. Out of all of them, China Star is my favorite. They have the tastiest food for the most reasonable prices. On this visit, I ordered a shrimp with black bean sauce combination. It came with wonton soup, fried rice, an egg roll, and the shrimp.

The shrimp came in a brown sauce with black beans, carrots, onions, and huge mushrooms, maybe portobello? Mushrooms are one of the few foods I really dislike, so I could have done without them. Besides from picking out the mushrooms, I enjoyed my food!

Animal Kingdom's Yak & Yeti Local Foods Cafes

Continuing my day at Disney's Animal Kingdom, I had lunch at the Yak & Yeti Local Foods Cafes. This is a fast food attachment to the full service Yak & Yeti restaurant with outdoor seating.

I was considering eating at the actual full service Yak & Yeti, but after looking at their menu, I changed my mind. It seemed they had pretty standard dishes that you could get at any Chinese Restaurant, but charged about $30 per dish. The Local Foods Cafes also featured some pretty standard Chinese dishes, along with some burgers, all for much less money. If I wanted to spend top dollar on Chinese food, I don't think a Landry restaurant in a theme park is the best choice.

I ordered the Shrimp Lo Mein. It had plenty of shrimp served over noodles with a somewhat limited selection of vegetables. It definitely could have used more variety when it came to the vegetables in the dish, but it was still pretty tasty. It was a whole lot of food too. Much more than what it looked like.

I also split an order of Pork Egg Rolls. This had to be one of the greasiest egg rolls I've ever eaten. The hot oil was dripping off of the roll when I picked it up! I don't know what happened here, but it wasn't a good thing!

Moving away from the food/restaurant pictures for the rest of this post, I'll say a few things about the new stuff in Animal Kingdom to please the obsessive Disney fans who cause a big spike in this blog's traffic whenever something Disney related is posted.

First new thing was the whole carnival themed area that was added to Dinoland. I didn't quite understand the purpose of the whole area, except as a cheap theme to tie in some carnival rides. What do dinosaurs have to do with carnivals or roadside attractions? I went on the Primeval Whirl roller coaster while in this section of the park. Kind of a stupid ride, but it is what it is. I love roller coasters, but wild mouse coasters really do nothing for me.


Moving on to Dinosaur. Last time I rode this, I'm pretty sure it was called Countdown to Extinction. Very cool ride, but stupid storyline. As someone who has spent way too much time in Natural History museums, the Carnotaurus on this ride really bothers me. This ride portrays the carnotaurus as a large animal, equivalent to a tyrannosaur, when in reality they were much smaller dinosaurs. Even smaller than the iguadon that you are trying to rescue in the ride. I would have expected better scientific accuracy from a ride partly narrated by Bill Nye the Science Guy...


Last, I have to mention Expedition Everest. This ride was one of the highlights of the day. As far a themed roller coasters go, this is definitely one of the best, right up there with Thunder Mountain. Roller coasters always seem so much better when they build a fake mountain around the track. It had it's nice surprises and was really smooth. Only disappointment was that the robotic yeti wasn't working. Still, Expedition Everest is a really fun ride!

Szechuan Chicken from Imperial Dynasty

I returned to Imperial Dynasty in Longwood, FL and ordered the Szechuan Chicken early bird dinner.

Wonton soup and an egg roll were the included appetizers. Similar to my experience on my last visit, I found the soup to be a bit too salty. Everything else about the soup is good except for the saltiness. I had no complaints about the pork egg roll.

Szechuan Chicken was a good choice. I wanted something spicy, and this dish definitely provided that. The chicken was cooked with carrots, cabbage, scallions, and onions, and was served with brown rice. I'm sometimes disappointed with chicken dishes in Chinese Restaurants, but I had no complaints about this Szechuan Chicken!