NY Food: Jekyll & Hyde Club

Someone recommended that I try the Jekyll & Hyde Club while in New York. The restaurant is advertised as the club founded by Dr. Jekyll for explorers, philosophers, biologists, and other men and women whose exploits into science and adventure was deemed too unorthodox by their colleagues in accepted society. They filled the club with artifacts and trophies from their adventures. Basically, it sounds like a restaurant for people who's favorite holiday is Halloween, which potentially could be awesome.

Jekyll & Hyde Club is located near Times Square. Its theme is spooky stuff. Think Rainforest Cafe themed to Halloween. There were skeletons playing organs. Busts came alive and talked. Mounted heads of werewolves and elephants started moving. A Frankenstein type monster was brought to life in an hourly show with a live actor.

I ordered the Cheese Tortellini. Way overpriced for what it was, this pasta consisted of a plate of tortellini topped with tomato sauce. It wasn't meat sauce, at least I don't think it was. Still, I occasionally got a bite of ground beef in the sauce. Either way, it means the vegetarian tomato sauce got cross contaminated with beef belonging to someone else or this was one of the most disappointing meat sauces I've ever been served.

In theory, this restaurant sounded like it could have been awesome. I unfortunately came away disappointed. I wanted to like Jekyll & Hyde, but something about it just seemed off. The effects seemed too in your face and annoying when they would have worked much better if they were more atmospheric. Rather than one thing happening at a time accompanied by an audio track played throughout the restaurant, I think it would have worked much better if everything was more subtle and happening all the time. Make it so you have to notice things happening in the building rather than making it obnoxiously obvious. Jekyll & Hyde has a second location and was recommended to me, so maybe I'm being overly critical since everyone else seems to like this touristy restaurant. Perhaps I've worked in one too many haunted houses and take the details in a place like this way too seriously. Perhaps living in Orlando has spoiled me with Disney and Universal quality attractions. Eating here did remind me a bit of Disney's old Adventurers Club in Pleasure Island and how a similar concept was executed much better there. As I finished my meal at Jekyll & Hyde, I couldn't help but think about how I could make a spooky themed restaurant so much better than this one. That is, except for the bathrooms. The bathrooms were the coolest thing about this place. I'm not giving any spoilers and will let you find them yourself...

Krispy Skremes at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in Orlando, FL

I went to the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in Orlando near Millenia Mall to try their Halloween/Autumn doughnuts. They have all sorts of doughnuts known as Krispy Skremes decorated for Halloween, including Jack-o-Lanterns and spiderwebs. They also have Ghostbusters doughnuts to celebrate the movie's 30th anniversary.

I liked their Pumpkin Cheesecake Doughnut. It was stuffed with a pumpkin cheesecake filling, topped with creme cheese icing and gingersnap cookie crumbles. Also pictured is the Pumpkin Spice Doughnut.

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man Doughnut and Ghostbusters Doughnut were also tasted. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Doughnut was a marshmallow Kreme-filled shell topped with white icing, decorated with Stay Puft Marshmallow Man’s familiar face and a sugar piece hat. The Ghostbusters Doughnut consisted of a marshmallow Kreme-filled shell topped with white icing, a decorative green “splat” inspired by Slimer, and a Ghostbusters logo sugar piece.

Jack-o-Lantern Doughnut!

They had a doughnut decorating station set up and I created this Ghostbusters Doughnut. Should I be proud of my slime placement on this doughnut?

Now for the important part! Everyone likes free food. Make sure you wear a costume to Krispy Kreme on Halloween. It will get you a free doughnut!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Go eat pumpkin flavored foods...

Twisted Cuban Food Truck in Orlando, FL

There is an annual Halloween Festival in Downtown Longwood and food trucks were involved this year. The festival was located in Reiter Park, where the baseball fields and playgrounds were removed and replaced with a mysterious grass covered hill. The trucks attending were Gastrotruck, The Batter Bowl, and a truck that was new to me called The Twisted Cuban.

I tried their Cuban sandwich. It consisted of ham, roast pork, swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard on pressed Cuban bread. The sandwich was very tasty and was plenty to eat. It was also made extremely quickly by the standards set by most of Orlando's other food trucks that I've tried. I'd get more food from them in the future!

I tried the Twisted Cuban truck a second time at one of the Food Truck Bazaars. On this visit, I tried their fritas. These were two slider-size sandwiches consisting of burgers topped with fried onions. Unlike the traditional American beef burger, these contained other meats including chorizo which gave them really nice flavors.

Happy Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween

What's better on Halloween than a home-grown Seminole Pumpkin?

Desert Grill at Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL

I went to Busch Gardens for Howl-O-Scream this October. Eventually, I started to feel hungry so I ventured to the Desert Grill in the Timbuktu section of the park. The restaurant doubled as the theater for their Blood Relations show, so I was able to watch the show during my meal.

Taco Bell's Black Jack Taco on Halloween

On Halloween, Taco Bell was giving out their Black Jack Tacos for free from 6pm till midnight. After I was done with my Halloween fun for the night, I ventured over to the nearest Taco Bell to try their newest featured food item.

The taco had a black taco shell which was completely purposeless. It tasted just like a normal taco shell, and I highly doubt Taco Bell used blue corn for the color. It's probably a whole lot of food coloring. The inside of the taco was a standard beef taco with lettuce and cheese, along with the addition of a pepper jack sauce. It tasted like a slightly spicy ranch dressing. Besides from the sauce and the colored shell, this Black Jack Taco was pretty much a normal Taco Bell taco. Taco Bell tacos aren't something I eat very often, but it did taste okay. I can't complain about the price either...

Happy Halloween

What happened to the trick or treaters? Two years ago, over 100 came through collecting candy. This year, only 19. Still better than last year's 10...

Gatorland's Gator Hallow

I went to Gatorland for their Gator Hallow Halloween event. Since no visit to an alligator farm would be complete without tasting gator meat, I ordered some Fried Gator Nuggets from the snack bar before tour left (it turned out Gatorland doesn't actually raise alligators for meat). I really liked the deep fried alligator, especially with hot sauce. The saying goes that gator tastes like chicken, but the truth is that it really does. In terms of taste, consistency, and look, gator tail and chicken does look a whole lot alike. Not too surprising though since reptiles and poultry aren't that far off. Chickens are a close living relative to the Tyrannosaurus Rex...

Once I finished eating my alligator, the tour started. While I was disappointed by Halloween Horror Nights at Universal this year, I was surprising pleased with Gator Hallow. For $10, they gave a really entertaining tour that was really well done. Having a tour with different guides along the way to move the story along definitely adds something to the experience that you don't get in the standard Halloween maze where you just wander through while people jump out and shout boo. Gatorland had plenty of hoards of zombies, aliens, bigfoot, and of course, gators...


I'd gladly do Gator Hallow again next year...

Halloween Candy

Happy Halloween!

This was a very strange Halloween. Last year over 100 trick or treaters came to the house to collect candy. This year there was a grand total of TEN! I don't get it though. Halloween was on a Friday night this year, and yet nobody was out. In my neighborhood, there were very few houses giving out candy too. Did everyone decide not to celebrate Halloween this year? It looks like I have a whole lot of candy to eat now.

Even though hardly any trick or treaters saw it, I still put up my Halloween display. The pictures below are of some of the monsters that I build, all from scratch, mostly from paper mache:

Eating Louie's Pizza at Halloween Horror Nights

I went to the second night of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL. It was a fun event, but wasn't exactly up to par as to what the event has been in the past. There were eight haunted houses this year, and I went through six of them. I will return to go through the remaining two. Some of the haunted houses seemed to have a lot of potential to be really good, but didn't quite work out right. Others were just plain bad. Out of all of the houses I went through, there was nothing that was really a huge standout.

My personal favorite house of the night was called The Hallow. It was filled with all sorts of classic Halloween imagery like Jack-o-Lanterns, scarecrows, cornfields, witches, and lots of other good Halloween stuff. This house could have been really good, but the actors in the house really seemed to be lacking. There were times where I would go several scenes without seeing a single actor, and when there was a monster, they just stood there. There was lots of potential here for improvement, but I still enjoyed the house.

Another one of the better, but still mediocre houses was the Body Collectors house. It was one of the houses with lots of potential, with great sets, characters, and the occasional good special effect, but something just seemed off in the house. I remember liking the original Body Collectors haunted house from a few years ago a whole lot better. I'll need to give this one another try.

Dead Exposure was a haunted house that I found really didn't work too well. Before going to the event, I was told by someone who went the night before that this was the best house at the park. I thought it was one of the worst. I found it to be lots of improperly used strobeing blacklights with an occasional glow in the dark zombie. The story had to do with someone taking pictures of zombies or something, hence all the flashing, but it was nothing obvious. It really didn't work, but the only redeeming factors were the people in the floor and ceiling...

Reflections of Fear was the house that featured the events icon, Bloody Mary. The house seemed to be about phobias, but again, it didn't work too well. Out of the houses I went through this was definitely in the bottom three. The only cool thing in here was the claustrophobic hallways that you had to push your way through. Thinking about it, I don't think there has ever been a haunted house in this location (Jaws line) that I liked.

Then there was the Doomsday house. This was just as bad as Dead Exposure, but in a different way. I had no idea what this house was supposed to be. There were biker type people, people with chainsaws, and times when it seemed like the house had a nightclub vibe. It seemed very similar to the setup and execution of last years Texas Chainsaw Massacre house, but at least I had some idea of what was supposed to be happening in that house. I don't think I saw a single actor in here either from entering the house until I was three quarters through.

The remaining house that I went through was called Creatures. It seemed to feature rednecks, giant worms, and aliens. It took way too long for me to figure out what was going on here. The first half of the house seemed to feature no creatures, and just bars filled with people talking with southern accents and shooting at stuff. Then the second half seemed to completely switch to large animatronic aliens. It was a bit strange, but had some pretty nice sets and the aliens were cool. I think I'll need to try this one again when I go back to go through the remaining two houses.

While the haunted houses seemed to be lacking this year, the scarezones were wonderful. Upon entering the park, there was a Wizard of Oz themed scarezone called Path of the Wicked. It had the Wicked Witch taunting the crowds, the Cowardly Lion, The Scarecrow, the Tin man, Munchkins, and some very cool flying monkeys soaring over the street.






The Asylum in Wonderland scarezone was also very cool. It was a nice area poking fun on what could be considered Disney characters. Lots of fog, good lighting effects, and all of the characters seemed to be very good at ganging up on certain people here...


Another really good scarezone was The Skoolhouse. This scarezone seemed to be related to the Hallow haunted house with the classic Halloween theme. An old school house was built, and all of the actors here were dressed up as trick-or-treaters, all holding the classic Jack-o-Lantern candy baskets. Beyond the schoolhouse, the scarezone continued into a wooded area where all of the trees were covered in Jack-o-Lanterns. It was a very well done area, and one of my favorites.





The American Gothic Scarezone had some interesting monsters, but I didn't walk through this area after dark to get the full effect.




The Streets of Blood scare zone really didn't too much for me. Lots of people walking around in Victorian clothes, but that seemed to be about it...

The remaining scarezone called Fractured Tales was another very cool area. It featured fairy tale creatures and was a very fun area overall. The scarecrows at the entrance of the area were great...








The majority of the shows this year weren't anything all that great, although Brian Brushwood's show is always fun to watch.



Oh yes, FOOD!

On this visit, I had some pizza for dinner...



As far as theme park pizza goes, Universal makes good pies. Most theme park pizza is overpriced personal sized pies that seem to be nothing more than bad frozen pizzas. At Universal Studios, there is a restaurant in the New York section of the park called Louie's Italian Restaurant. Here, they make full sized pies rather than the personal sized pizzas. The taste of the pizza, the willingness of the employees to do special orders on the toppings, as well as the imperfections in the crust lead me to believe that the restaurant employees are actually making the pies in the back instead of just heating up pre-made frozen pizza.

On this visit, I ordered a Garden Vegetable pizza, minus the mushrooms. It was a good pizza, but I had problems with the crust and the toppings. I thought the pie could have been cooked a little bit longer to make a slightly crispier crust, although it seemed consistent with the pizza I have eaten here in the past. A generous amount of the toppings were piled onto this pizza. There was no lack of green peppers and onions, but they didn't seem to be cooked into the pizza too well. The toppings seemed like they were piled onto the pie halfway through cooking, so not all of them stuck to the cheese. It was a minor thing, and the pizza held together for the most part except for the occasional bell pepper that decided to escape.


As far as theme park pizza goes, this was a good pie. If you compare it to non-theme park pizza, it would be average, but still tasty.

Something interesting did happen while I was eating the pizza though. A guy in a wheelchair rolled up and dropped a business card with an American flag pin stuck through it. My initial thought was that he was handing out church propaganda to all of us pagans that were enjoying our Halloween event, but it was worse than that. He was begging for money. The card talked about how he was deaf and for a donation of $3, we could keep the pin to help with his expenses. I wonder if those expenses included the admission that he paid to get into the park, which would have cost somewhere between $30 to $70. As we were eating, he probably made about $50 in ten minutes before coming back the section of the restaurant where I was sitting and collecting his card. By the end of the night, he must have made a huge amount of money. Whether he was really deaf or not, no one should be subjected to being solicited for money while eating when you pay an overpriced admission to get into a theme park.

Other than that, Halloween Horror Nights was good, and so was the pizza...