Market on South in Orlando, FL

I've ended up at Market on South in Orlando on a couple occasions recently. Market on South was described to me in a way that made it sound similar to East End Market or Plant Street Market, as in one building that houses several separate food centered businesses. Technically, that's what Market on South is, but the separate entities are all sold from one single counter inside the building. Until my first visit there, I also didn't realize that everything sold at Market on South is vegan.

Dixie Dharma is the name of the food vendor inside of Market on South that serves sandwiches. I tried their Carolina BBQ Pulled Jackfruit Sandwich. The menu described it being topped with crispy fried onions, garlic pickle, arugula, preserved lemon & coca-cola reduction, all on Texas toast. This was my first time ever trying jackfruit on a sandwich and it was pretty tasty.

I also traded a sandwich half with the person I ate here with and tried the Florida Fried Green Tomato Sandwich. This had deep fried green tomatoes, with smoked eggplant remoulade, garlicky kale & chow-chow on Texas toast. Of the two sandwiches I tried, I preferred this one. Both were good, but this one had a little more going for it. I did like that Dixie Dharma didn't pretend that they we serving meat when they weren't like I've seen done in far too many vegan/vegetarian restaurants. My main complaint with both of the sandwiches was the Texas toast. The white bread didn't do it for me...

Valhalla Bakery is the bakery portion of Market on South. It seems like most of their baked goods are doughnuts, but when I saw they were advertising King Cakes for Fat Tuesday on their Instagram, I stopped in a picked a few up. My most recent experience with vegan baked goods before this from a bakery which will not be named was like eating corrugated cardboard that was supposed to be a brownie, so my expectations weren't high. These King Cakes luckily exceeded my expectations. I had a Publix King Cake the day before, and these were way better. I'm not sure how Valhalla Bakery does it with no eggs or dairy, but the cakes were moist, held together well, and didn't fit the stereotype of vegan baked goods at all. Unfortunately, babies were not supplied with the cakes.

Cajun Food on Fat Tuesday

Happy Fat Tuesday!

In celebration of today being Fat Tuesday, the last day of Mardi Gras, I'm posting some previously unpublished Cajun food that was eaten before the existence of this blog. This is an Andouille Sausage Sandwich with peppers and onions and a plate of Shrimp Gumbo. These were eaten at Universal's Mardi Gras event, where along with the fun parade and concerts, they also set up several food stands throughout the park selling Cajun food that isn't half bad. I especially like their Jambalaya, complete with whole crawfish, but unfortunately, I don't have any pictures.

Of course, for more Cajun food in Orlando, I really liked the jambalaya and po boys from the Crooked Bayou.

To get closer to New Orleans for today's Cajun theme, I dug up some pictures of food from a trip to Memphis, TN in 2006. Here is some Alligator Gumbo that I ate at the Rum Boogie Cafe on Beale Street. From what I remember, the alligator gumbo tasted great. The problem was with the amount. What I ordered was considered a dinner, but the amount of gumbo that was actually served was kind of sad. They put a little pile of iceberg lettuce next to a cup of the gumbo and charged double the price of just a cup of gumbo alone. Eating outside at the restaurant along Beale Street was a great environment, although it didn't make up for the horribly slow service in the restaurant.