Joella's Hot Chicken in Viera, FL

I had Joella's Hot Chicken highly recommended to me. Specifically, I was told to try the restaurant's Pimento Cheese Chicken Sandwich. I stopped in when I was in the area, and was a little surprised that it was a regular fast food restaurant. I had Joella's described as a chain of gourmet hipster chicken restaurants, but that was inaccurate. The building was similar to a Zaxby's.

As for the Pimento Cheese Chicken Sandwich, think a Chick-Fil-A sandwich (fried chicken and pickles) with added pimento cheese. It didn't look great, but the sandwich did have much more flavor than the Chick-Fil-A equivalent. I had macaroni and cheese as a side.

Joella's Hot Chicken was okay. It was a bit over hyped when I had it recommended to me. Good for Joella's for creating that hype though.

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.

Toasted in Winter Park, FL

I've been to Toasted in Winter Park a few times now. They specialize in fancy grilled cheese sandwiches and burgers. I've tried a grilled cheese on every visit.

On one visit I tried the Fig and Goat. This grilled cheese was filled with havarti and goat cheese, fig, basil, and honey. Good flavors with a nice contrast of sweet fig and honey and savory cheese and basil.   The bread was the most disappointing part of the grilled cheese.

I had the Blackberry Melt on another visit. This grilled cheese had fontina cheese, bacon, blackberry, and arugula. Again, it had a nice contrast of sweet and salty. They used bacon bits instead of sliced bacon which was a little disappointing. Again, the boring white bread was the weakest part of the sandwich. The blackberry melt was still pretty tasty though. Of the two sandwiches, I liked this one the best. I ordered this with a side of macaroni and cheese, which was just okay.

I like the grilled cheeses at Toasted, but I wish they improved their breads. Interesting bread on their sandwiches could make their grilled cheeses so much better...

Porkie's Original BBQ in Apopka, FL

I had lunch at Porkie's Original BBQ in Apopka on a couple occasions recently.  On my first visit, I tried a sandwich called the Sloppy Cow. This consisted of shredded pieces of brisket, topped with grilled onions and a horseradish sauce served on a round hamburger-like bun. I ordered collards and Brunswick stew as my sides. The sandwich was unique compared to what I see at most barbecue places. The brisket was nice and tender, had good flavor, and the horseradish added to the meat's flavor. I enjoyed the Brunswick stew, mostly because it isn't a food I see often in Florida's barbecue restaurants. The collards were good but forgettable.

I had the Pig Dip on another visit. Unlike the Sloppy Cow, I wasn't a big fan of this sandwich. Two pieces of pressed bread were filled with thickly sliced pork. An au jus for moistening up the sandwich was served on the side. The thick slices of pork were a bit chewy, had a little too much fat, and lacked flavor for my liking. The au jus didn't really help with flavor. It just made the bread soggy. I used more of the barbecue sauce on the table compared to the au jus. I ordered collards and Jim's Dirty Taters as my sides this time. I mentioned the collards were good but forgettable. I had forgotten I ordered them last time I was here. Still tasty enough on this visit. The potatoes were the best part of the meal on this visit. They were cut sort of like home fries and topped with all sorts of delicious seasonings.

My conclusions from eating at Porkie's a couple times now. Get the Sloppy Pig but skip the Pig Dip. Interesting that I liked brisket much better than pork at a restaurant named Porkie's...

D-Luxe Burger in Disney Springs

D-Luxe Burger is one of the restaurants which recently opened in the new Town Center section of Disney Springs. The restaurant's theming was seemed to be modeled off a Florida cattle ranch, located alongside the new spring that has suddenly started to bubble up in what used to be a Downtown Disney parking lot.

The menu reminded me of a Shake Shack or a BurgerFi in both format and choices. I ordered the El Diablo Burger. The menu described this as a chorizo-and-signature blend patty, fried banana peppers, pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, and chipotle mayonnaise. A small box of fries was also ordered.

The chorizo did add a bit more flavor that isn't generally found in a plain beef burger. The meat itself didn't provide much spice, nor did the fried peppers, but the chipotle mayonnaise did have a nice kick. The main issue I had was with the burgers being served vertically. Gravity pulled all of the sauce down. This resulted in a sandwich where the top end was dry and bland. The bottom end had plenty of the tasty sauce, but was also really soggy with all the sauce pooling downwards.

Overall, the burger at D-Luxe was good enough. I wouldn't call myself a burger expert (I don't understand the gourmet burger trend that seems to be going on right now), but the burger here had more taste than just plain, bland ground beef and ketchup, so that's a good thing. They would have been better if the burgers were served flat though...

Boston Coffeehouse in Deland, FL

Boston Coffeehouse divides people. I know certain people who love Boston Coffeehouse while other people claim it's the most horrible coffee/food they've had. I recently visited the Boston Coffeehouse in Downtown Deland. Not horrible, but not great either.

I ordered the half sandwich/half soup. For the sandwich, I had the Cambridge Croissant. The croissant was filled with sliced turkey, spinach, provolone, tomato, and creamy avocado spread. It was a very basic sandwich with nothing too exciting going on, but it was tasty enough. For the soup, I had corn chowder.

I also ordered a Frozen Hot Chocolate. Frozen hot chocolates confuse me. There is the contradiction in the name. Something cannot be frozen and hot. Wouldn't this drink be more like an icy chocolate milk than a hot chocolate? Regardless, the drink was good. Like I said, it tasted like an icy version of chocolate milk, topped with whipped creme and chocolate syrup.

NY Jewish Food (Regal Kosher Deli in Plainview and Russ & Daughters in NYC)

In my travels around the New York area, I ended up eating at two restaurants serving Jewish/Kosher style foods. One was Regal Kosher Deli on Long Island and the other was Russ & Daughters in Manhattan.

Regal Kosher Deli in Plainview, NY:

Regal Kosher Deli is located in Plainview, NY on Long Island. They are a kosher deli serving pretty standard jewish foods. I ended up eating here on two occasions.

Pickles are delivered to every table upon being seated. They serve half sour and full sour pickles. Being that the half sour pickles were devoured before I could take a picture, it's obvious what everyone's favorite type of pickle is.

Bowls of coleslaw were also served with the pickles.

I tried two different types of knish on my visits here. My first knish was a plain potato filled knish. This one was square with mashed potatoes filling the flaky crust. Pretty tasty.

The spinach knish was my favorite of the two. It was round (I'm assuming the different shapes are so they can tell different fillings apart easier?), filled with a potato/spinach mix. It had more going on in terms of flavor compared to the plain knish.

On one visit I tried a corned beef sandwich. This consisted of a whole lot of sliced meat between sliced rye bread. I have to admit that these jewish deli style sandwiches are a little boring for my liking. I know cheese can't be added because of the whole kosher thing, but they are too much of the same thing.

On another visit I tried what they called a stuffed sandwich. I ordered the Corned Beef, Tongue, and Hard Boiled Egg. When the sandwich was delivered, the waiter informed me that they were out of hard boiled egg. I'm also pretty sure the menu said there should have been coleslaw on here as well, but that was missing too. Without those components, this was basically a corned beef sandwich stacked on top of a tongue sandwich. I did enjoy the novelty of eating sliced tongue. That is not a cut of meat that I eat very often.

Regal Kosher Deli was enjoyable. They may have boring sandwiches, but that's expected in a jewish deli. That aside, I did like the rest of the dining experience in here...





Russ & Daughters in NYC:

I first heard about Russ & Daughters several years ago and they have been on my list of New York foods to try ever since. It took me several more visits to the city before I finally made it to Russ & Daughters. They've been around for 101 years, so the amount of time it took me to try the restaurant was probably nothing for them.

They specialize in smoked and cured fish. Their cases are filled with all sorts of lox, smoked salmon, mackerel, sable, and other seafoods. There's also a large selection of cream cheeses, bagels, desserts, and other jewish foods for sale. Russ & Daughters was a very busy place. I waited over a half hour to put in my order. People were buying quite a bit in here as well. Almost every order placed that I heard was at least $100. Russ & Daughters is a little gold mine...

I had an everything bagel with pastrami salmon with goat cream cheese. The salmon was thinly sliced with a peppery coating on the outside. The goat cream cheese was new to me. It still had the consistency of normal cream cheese, but with the distinctive earthy flavor that seems to be in all goat cheeses. The combination of it all was delicious...

I also tried a pickle. A customer in front of me was ordering gallons of these pickles, announcing that she takes the train from Vermont to replenish her pickles every time her supply gets low. With an endorsement like that, I decided I must try one. It was a very tasty pickle, although I don't know if I'd travel from out of state for a pickle. 

Joe Smoked Meat in Quebec City, QC

Smoked meats seem to be another food that's popular in Quebec. I passed several restaurants specializing in smoked meat, so I figured I'd try one. I ended up at Joe Smoked Meat in downtown Quebec City. Looking at their website now, it looks like they are a chain. Didn't know that at the time.

They had smoked meats served various ways. Someone I ate here with had smoked meat poutine. I decided to go with a sandwich instead and ordered the Assiette Garnie. Out of all the menus in Quebec City, I had the most trouble translating/understanding this one. Because of this, I picked my sandwich mostly because there was a picture of the Assiette Garnie on the menu. The sandwich reminded me of something found in a Kosher style NY Deli. Sliced meat was piled upon rye bread with spicy mustard. Fries, coleslaw, and a pickle were served on the side. I never confirmed for sure what sort of animal the smoked meat was from, but I'm assuming beef. The smoked meat in the sandwich was tasty, but I had the same complaint which I have in the Kosher delis. There was too much meat and not much else going on in the sandwich. Some other flavors would have been nice.

D'Orsay in Quebec City, QC

I found that Quebec City seems to shut down pretty early. I was looking for dinner one evening around 9:30, and almost everywhere in the Old City was closed or closing for the night. D'Orsay was one of the few restaurants which was still open, so that's where I ate.

Because I was in a French speaking province, I felt the need to order French Onion Soup for some reason. The soup here was a bit overpriced. Still, the tasty bowl was filled with salty broth, soggy bread, and topped with lots of cheese. Can't go wrong.

I ordered a lamb sandwich for my meal. The sandwich was served on fig bread (according to the menu- I detected no figs). There was a huge mound of thinly sliced, tender lamb between the bread, with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. A mixed green salad and fries were served alongside the sandwich. Everything was tasty and the sandwich exceeded my expectations!

For the limited choices of this evening's meal, D'Orsay was a very nice choice!

Casavana Cuban Cuisine in the Fort Lauderdale Airport

I'm going to start a string of some blog posts about food from my recent travels outside of the Central Florida area. An airport is a good place to start talking about traveling.

I flew out of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Spirit. My plane ended up being delayed about three hours, so I had time to kill there. Eating is a good way to pass the time. There was an interesting choice of foods in Spirit's terminal. Rather than the typical airport chains, this terminal had a Kafe Kalik serving Bahamian food and a second restaurant called Casavana Cuban Cuisine. Each restaurant was split into a fast food and sit down section. Being that the prices were similar in both, I ate in the sit down section of Casavana.

I had the Pan con Bistec. This was a sandwich consisting of steak, onions, tomatoes, fried potato sticks, and cheese. The sandwich was disappointing. Eating the steak was like chewing on leather. Even with the cheese and vegetables, the sandwich was very dry and needed some sort of sauce (none present on the table). Somehow a whole lot of the potatoes ended up outside the sandwich rather than between the bread. The sandwich may have been disappointing, but I enjoyed my experience eating here more than I would have if the airport terminal only offered the typical McDonalds/Burger King/Wendy's options, plus eating here consumed time before my flight left.

Central Grocery in New Orleans, LA

I've never had a good muffuletta in the past. I've tried ordering these sandwiches several times at various restaurants in Florida, but they always end up being disappointing. More specifically, every muffuletta that I remember trying has always been very dry and bland tasting. Central Grocery is a New Orleans restaurant which was recommended I try while in the city. They advertise that they are home to the original muffuletta. I was setting myself up for having a disappointing sandwich, but it turns out the original is indeed the best.

The muffuletta from Central Grocery consisted of a large sesame roll filled with mortadella, salami, mozzarella, ham, provolone, and olive salad. This olive tapenade is what set Central Grocery's muffuletta apart from the others I've tried. In the other muffulettas, whoever makes the sandwiches is always really stingy with the olives. At Central Grocery though, they piled the olives on, adding a whole bunch of flavor to an otherwise boring sandwich. The oil from the olive salad also provided some much needed moisture to the sandwich, preventing the muffuletta from being too dry.

Thanks to Central Grocery, I now know that muffulettas can be much better than I've experienced in the past!

Smashburger in Orlando, FL (Waterford Lakes)

Restaurants specializing in fancy burgers seem to be opening all over the Central Florida area lately. One of the newest gourmet burger chains to recently open is called Smashburger. They currently have two locations in the area, one in Waterford Lakes and another along Colonial Drive in Orlando. Just before they opened to the public, I was invited to come try the Waterford Lakes Smashburger for a media preview.

Tom Ryan, the founder of Smashburger, was there to guide us through the restaurant's menu.

I tried some of Smashburger's fries and sides first. I tasted their Smashfries (fries tossed with rosemary, olive oil, and garlic), Sweet Potato Fries, Spicy Buffalo Fries, Veggie Frites, and Fried Pickles. My favorites were the Buffalo Fries and the Fried Pickles.

The Classic Smash was the first burger that was tasted. This was a burger topped with American cheese, Smash Sauce, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onion, all on an egg bun.

The BBQ, Bacon, and Cheddar Burger was my least favorite of all the burgers. It was topped with BBQ sauce, applewood smoked bacon, cheddar, and haystack onions. It was mentioned that this burger was a big seller, but it didn't do much for me. Even with the toppings, it didn't seem to have enough flavors happening for my liking and was too meaty.

The Truffle, Mushroom, and Swiss Burger had truffle mayo, sauteed criminini mushrooms, and aged swiss on an egg bun.

The Central Florida Burger included Wicked pimina cheese, spicy brown mustard, fried green tomatoes, shredded lettuce, and mayo on an egg bun. This was the first time I've ever had fried green tomato on a burger as well as ever hearing of wicked pimina cheese. Since this was the Central Florida Burger, specifically sold in local Smashburger stores, I suppose I'm supposed to like this stuff. This burger was tasty.

The Avocado Ranch Black Bean Burger was a vegetarian option that we sampled. It consisted of fresh avocado, pepper jack, lettuce, tomato, and ranch on a multi-grain bun. I did enjoy the black bean burger patty.

Spinach, Cucumber, and Goat Cheese Chicken. The chicken sandwich had cucumbers, spinach, goat cheese, tomato, onion, and balsamic vinaigrette on a multi-grain bun. This was my favorite sandwich of the evening.

The Buffalo & Blue Cheese Crispy Chicken consisted of fried chicken in Frank's RedHot Buffalo sauce, blue cheese crumbles, lettuce, tomato, and mayo on an egg bun.

The Spicy Jalapeno Baja Burger was the last sandwich that was sampled this evening. It had fresh jalapenos, guacamole, pepper jack, lettuce, tomato, onion & chipotle mayo on a spicy chipotle bun. The chipotle bun was interesting. I personally didn't find the bread too spicy, but it had a unique flavor. For the rest of the burger, guacamole is always a plus.

Smashburger also had various flavors of hand-spun shakes available featuring Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Their Nutter Butter shake was my personal favorite out of what I sampled.

I liked what I tasted at Smashburger. For my personal burger preferences, there should be enough flavors happening on a burger so it doesn't just taste like beef and bread. Luckily, the majority of the burgers at Smashburger had enough going on to make me remember that burgers don't have to be disappointing. I'd have a burger from Smashburger again!