NYC Icy in New York

Late one night in Manhattan's East Village, I stopped for some Italian ice at a small shop called NYC Icy. Some of the flavors on the menu were really interesting.

I ended up getting lemon and mango basil. The ices had a different consistency compared to other places. They were almost gooey. I'm not sure how exactly this was done, but I liked it. The lemon was good and tart, as it should be.

The mango basil ice was hidden beneath the lemon. Mango basil isn't a dessert combination that I would normally think of, but this was really good.

If you Google NYC Icy, a picture comes up of their purple carrot ice. This sounds interesting, but unfortunately, it wasn't on the menu on the night I visited...

Maison Le Grand

Maison Le Grand is a Montreal-based company that produces several types of pestos, sauces, and tapenades. They were kind enough to send me a sampling of their products to try. I suppose it's an unexpected perk of writing a food blog and what you see below is what I cooked with their products along with some thoughts.

Since I'm a big fan of pesto, I started by trying their pestos. Pesto and pasta is a classic combination, so I had to give it a try. Here's the Garden Pesto on angel hair pasta with shrimp and cannelloni beans. This pesto was vegan, but the lack of cheese wasn't missed. Out of the three pestos I tried, the Garden Pesto was my personal favorite.

Pesto also goes great on sandwiches. Here's my lunch one day consisting of egg, cheese, avocado, spinach, sliced radish, and the 4 Nut & Cheese Pesto on whole wheat bread. I wasn't sure how well the avocado and radish would taste with the pesto, but I actually thought it was a pretty tasty combination.

For Maison Le Grand's Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto, I went back to the default pesto and pasta. It was good, but being a person that isn't a huge fan of tomatoes, I preferred the greener pestos.

Moving on to other types of sauces, next up is Maison Le Grand's Lemon Confit & Pumpkin Seed Aromatic Sauce. With this, I made a dish consisting of brown rice, garbanzo beans, pickled turnips, onions, and spinach. It ended up having a great citrus flavor. I also found the Lemon Confit & Pumpkin Seed Aromatic Sauce went really well with shrimp.

Pictured here is Maison Le Grand's Spicy Olive and Sun Dried Tomato Tapenade on a cracker. I also tried the mild version of the tapenade and decided that the spicy was my favorite. It had a nice kick to it, although the tapenade's spiciness was a bit too much for a few other people that tasted it.

Overall, Maison Le Grand definitely has some tasty sauces. I liked just about all of them and the pouches that the sauces come packaged in are just plain cool. I've never seen any other sauces packaged in their type of astronaut food type pouch!

If you want to try Maison Le Grand's products, they are available at Whole Foods and The Fresh Market in the Orlando area. Be sure to check out their website, follow them on Twitter, and become their fan on Facebook. Give them a try!

Kilwin's in Celebration, FL

I ate a lemon sorbet waffle cone from the Kilwin's in Celebration, FL. I have no complaints. Simple ice cream like this is so much better than what you get from all the Cold Stones and Marble Slabs where you get a half melted mass of ice cream by the time they mix in your toppings.

Leo's Italian Ice Factory

I found a coupon in a newspaper for a free Italian ice from a place called Leo's Italian Ice Factory in Oviedo, FL. On one hot afternoon, I decided to go and utilize my coupon.

The ice I ordered was half lemon and half passion fruit. The lemon tasted like a normal lemon ice, but the passion fruit tasted much more like grapefruit. I like grapefruit, so this was no problem for me. The ices weren't as solid as other ices that I've had in the past, but were still really good.

Sweet Tomatoes

Salad bar, Chicken Lemon Orzo soup, and focaccia pizza from Sweet Tomatoes in Altamonte Springs, FL.

Romano's Macaroni Grill

I was in the Tampa area and ate at the Romano's Macaroni Grill in Carrollwood, FL. Although there were some other menu items that were tempting me, it seems I always end up getting the Chef's Trio on my visits to Macaroni Grill. I started with a Caesar Salad.

For the main dish, I choose something called Pasta Milano. The dish consisted of bowtie pasta, chicken, sun dried tomatos, and a garlic cream sauce. I had the restaurant leave out the mushrooms that normally come with the pasta. I liked the Pasta Milano. It definitely could have used another vegetable (spinach?), but otherwise I enjoyed it.

For the dessert, I had Lemon Passion cake. I really like those huge mint leaves that Macaroni Grill tops their dessert with...

Chef's Trio @ Romano's Macaroni Grill

I ate at Romano's Macaroni Grill in Lake Mary, FL and ordered the three course dinner that was offered called the Chef's Trio. It started out with a Caesar Salad:

That was followed with a plate of Fettuccine Alfredo:

And a slice of Lemon Passion Cake for dessert:

The meal wasn't anything exceptional, but was an okay deal for $11.99 in this type of restaurant.

Ralph's Italian Ices

I ate dessert at Ralph's Italian Ices in Franklin Square, NY. They have very tasty Italian ices. I had lemon, passion fruit, and sour cherry. The first two flavors were good, the third was not as good.