Al Bacio in Winter Park, FL

I was recently invited to a new restaurant and bakery in Winter Park called Al Bacio. They are located at 505 N. Park Avenue, very close to the Morse Museum and within walking distance of the SunRail station. When translated to English, Bacio means "to kiss." This should evoke the classic Italian gesture of placing one's index finger and thumb to one's lips and giving a kiss. They serve Italian, American, and Latin American food prepared by world-class pastry and Italian chefs. Al Bacio is open from morning to early evening serving breakfast, lunch, baked goods, coffees and a variety of appetizers complimented by a fine selection of beer and wine.

The dessert case is very prominent inside of Al Bacio. It was filled with all sorts of delicious looking pastries including cannoli, cheesecake, fruit tarts, and cupcakes.

For the media event that I attended, a choice of red or white sangria was offered.

We were also served a delicious selection of appetizers, hors d'oeuvres, and pastries.

Skewers of fresh mozzarella, artichoke hearts, and sundried tomato along with skewers of prosciutto wrapped melon:

Beef chimichurri:

Fried mozzarella and cheese empanadas:

 Desserts:

Canollis:

Sienafit was my companion on this food adventure to Al Bacio. You should be subscribed to her Youtube Channel. A few days later, she returned to the restaurant and sent me her first guest contribution to this blog:

A few days later I decided to go back and show a friend the the coffee shop. I asked if Al Bacio could make coffee drinks with designs in the foam/milk like they have pictured on their website. The waiter told me cappuccino could be made like this, so we ordered two. One of the cappuccinos was served with a nice star design on top made from foam and chocolate syrup. The other was just a plain cappuccino. My friend was a little disappointed his drink was not pretty as well. Cannolis were my favorite dessert at the media dinner. We got another to go with our cappuccinos.

That's the preview of Al Bacio. Visit their website for their location, hours, and menu:
http://albacio-florida.com


 

Croissant Gourmet in Winter Park, FL

SunRail has officially started service in Orlando as of this week. In order to try out the new train, I decided to ride to Winter Park to get some lunch. You can read all about my experience riding SunRail on a new blog that I started called FloridaTrainAdventures.com. After I got off the train, I walked over to a French restaurant called Croissant Gourmet.

Croissant Gourmet is a French bakery, serving all sorts of delicious looking croissants, pastries, crepes, and sandwiches.

I ordered a sandwich called the Croque Monsieur topped with an egg. I've heard this sandwich also described as a croque madame if egg is involved, but according to the menu this was a croque monsieur. The sandwich consisted of two slices of bread, ham, melted cheese, and a fried egg over the top. Once the yolk was broken, the runny egg was absorbed into the bread giving the sandwich an extra burst of flavor. A salad was served on the side.

I shared a cinnamon raisin roll for dessert. It had a nice, flaky, almost croissant-like texture that I enjoyed. The roll was topped with powdered sugar and was tasty.

I enjoyed my meal at Croissant Gourmet. The food was good, and although it wasn't the cheapest restaurant around, it was more affordable than a couple other similar French bakeries that I've visited. After my meal, I returned to the train station and rode home...

Vaccaro's in Baltimore, MD

While in Baltimore, I decided to get some sort of dessert in Little Italy. I came across a bakery called Vaccaro's and decided to give them a try.

They had all sorts of pastries, cookies, cakes, and other desserts in here.

I had a chocolate and vanilla neapolitan. This flaky pastry was filled with alternating layers of vanilla and chocolate pudding.

I wasn't a fan of how it was served in the plastic clam shell container. The chocolate that topped the dessert stuck to the lid and sort of pulled the pastry apart when I went to open the container. This was tasty, although it was definitely more than I could eat in one serving.

I found out later that Vaccaro's was part of a larger chain. I came across a Vaccaro's in a strip mall in the suburbs of Baltimore and was also informed that there are a few of these in New York as well. I guess Vaccaro's wasn't the small, independent pastry shop in Little Italy that it initially appeared to be.

Le Macaron in Winter Park, FL

Macarons, not to be confused with macaroons, are a type of French cookies that were completely new to me. I always knew macaroons as those coconut cookies that seem to cross all cultural boundaries, found everywhere from Kosher food stores to Vietnamese markets to Latin-American markets. It seems like the whole world loves those little mounds of coconut, so when I first heard about French macarons from Droolius at a Foodspotting dinner, I assumed these were the same type of cookie. Apparently the difference is more than one less 'o' in the name...

 A couple months later I visited Le Macaron in downtown Winter Park to finally try a French macaron. Le Macaron is a little shop tucked away in an alley off Park Avenue. Macarons are the main focus of this shop, but they also had a very limited selection of chocolates for sale as well. There was a gelato case too, but it was empty on the day I visited.

At $1.80 each the macarons were a bit expensive for the small size of the pastry. Regardless, I got a box of six macarons. Picking out the flavors got a little weird though when the grumpy employee helping us interrupted filling our box to offer her friend that had walked in after us a free sample of a macaron. Besides being a little sour that we didn't get offered any free cookies, our macarons were soon taken home to be tasted.

I tried several flavors and the Pistachio, Basil & White Chocolate, and Raspberry macarons were my favorites. The cookies had a crispy outer shell surrounding a gooey inside that almost reminded me of marzipan. These were definitely some tasty little cookies and were not that macaroons that I've known. With all the different flavors that were offered, I really wanted to try more but $1.80 per cookie is a bit pricy to go crazy. Perhaps another visit is eventually necessary...

If you haven't tried a macaron, definitely pay this place a visit. They're desserts that most people seem oblivious to. Because of that, you must try these expensive little cookies...

Summit Coffee in Davidson, NC

One last snack in Downtown Davidson came from a place called Summit Coffee. Didn't try any hot beverages, but instead had a chocolate croissant. Definitely a yummy pastry...

Java Coast at the Gaylord Palms

I went to see ICE at the Gaylord Palms Hotel in Kissimmee, FL. Pretty cool exhibit where you go into a tent cooled to 9°F and see all sorts of ice carvings and ride down ice slides.

After you leaving the freezing temperatures, everyone got a very small complementary cup of hot cocoa.

While at the hotel, I bought a dessert from a coffee place called Java Coast. It was in the hotel's gigantic lobby, right next to their re-creation of St. Augustine's Castillo de San Marcos. Their pastries looked good in their display case and I decided to get a Cinnamon Bavarian Twist.

The Cinnamon Bavarian Twist had a consistency similar to that of a doughnut. Doughnut wasn't exactly what I was thinking of when I saw the pastry in the case, but it was still tasty. I just wish it had the flaky, crunchy crust that I've had elsewhere with similar desserts.

Christmas Panforte

A panforte was ordered from Amazon to have for dessert on Christmas. The panforte was a type of very dense cake filled with dried fruit and nuts, topped with powdered sugar. It actually was more like a candy rather than a cake, but it was a very unique dessert.

Altamonte Mall Cinnabon

I got the free end of a cinnamon roll with a buy one, get one free coupon from Cinnabon in the Altamonte Mall. Cinnabon cinnamon rolls always taste really doughy to me, almost as if they aren't cooked enough...

King Umbertos & Italian Pastries

I ate dinner from King Umbertos in Elmont, NY for a second time. Their pizza is still the best ever, and had improved from the last visit where the selection of pizza choices was somewhat slim. Tonight there were plenty of different pies to choose from.

I took home the slices of pizza from King Umbertos rather than eating in the restaurant. I can't name all of the slices, but the square slice is called Grandma's Pizza. Next to Grandmas, there is a stuffed vegetable slice. The slice next to that consists of a spinach crust topped with cheese, basil, plum tomatoes, and more. There is a cheese slice next to that, followed by a slice topped with fresh mozzarella, and then another slice on the spinach crust.



Out of all of those slices, I had the stuffed vegetable slice and one of the spinach crust slices.


They were both really good. It's hard to decide which was better...



I ate some dessert from Ramona Lee Italian Pastries in Franklin Square, NY. Cream puffs, pignolis, chocolate mousse, and more. It was good a good dessert!