Danketsu in Orlando, FL

I visited Danketsu in Orlando on Lake Underhill Road. They serve Korean BBQ, hotpot, sushi, and Japanese food. I was tempted by the hotpot but it was late in the evening and I didn't feel like cooking my own food. Instead, I ordered a soup that required no preparation: The Nabe Yake Udon.

The large bowl of noodle soup contained shrimp tempura, egg, noodles, and various vegetables. It was delicious, and since Danketsu did that well, it's a reason to visit again and try the rest of their huge menu...

Nine Spices Hotpot in Orlando, FL

I visited Nine Spices Hotpot on Kirkman Drive in Orlando. I've been to other hotpot places a few times before, but this one was even more fun because Nine Spices features conveyor belts! At dinner there were a few options including all you can eat from the conveyors for about $24. Other menu options included soups with pre-selected ingredients. I decided on the all you can eat. When you enter the restaurant, take note of the helpful sign telling you the cooking times.

There was a choice of several broths. I tried their Original broth. It was a bit bland on its own, but they had a sauce bar which flavored the broth nicely.

Once the broth quickly came to a boil on the induction stove built into the table, it was time to start cooking food. The conveyors were endlessly being refilled with various ingredients. I started with several items and started cooking!

A post shared by Watch Me Eat (@watchmeeat) on Jul 26, 2017 at 8:55am PDT

Dumplings, noodles, lamb, tofu, taro, and greens went into the pot first.

After a few minutes the contents of the pot were scooped out of the broth, eaten, and the whole process repeated!

I had fun eating at Nine Spices. Cooking soup with lots of ingredients chosen from conveyor belts makes for an interesting meal!

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 Asian Soups: Global Kitchen and Minnis Shabu Shabu

In a continuation of the last few posts on this blog where New York foods were discussed, this post is about Asian foods that consisted of soup.

We'll start at a place called Global Kitchen. This restaurant was located in the Theater District and was set up food court style. The place reminded me a bit of the nearby Oliviero Cafe which I had eaten at during a previous trip to New York. There was a station focusing on sandwiches. Another focused on salads. There was an Italian/pizza section, then there was where I ordered. I went for the Japanese/Sushi counter.

I had a bowl of their shrimp tempura udon soup. The large styrofoam bowl was filled with a tasty broth and lots of thick udon noodles. After the broth and noodles filled the bowl, the soup was topped with various vegetables, tofu, and two large shrimp fried in tempura batter.

This was a tasty bowl of soup overall. I wasn't exactly expecting much for a place which was essentially a food court, but this was a very nice bowl of udon that rivaled what I've had at fancy Japanese restaurants!



The second soupy food adventure happened at Minnis Shabu Shabu. Minnis was a Taiwanese style hotpot style restaurant located in Flushing Chinatown. Shabu Shabu is a style of eating where you cook your own meats in pots of boiling broth. I've been to restaurants where you cook your own foods and I always find them a bit intimidating. That makes food adventures much more fun!

Everyone in Minnis was seated at large communal tables. All the seats had a bowl of hot broth in front of them to cook your food.

Everyone then received a large tray of various non-meat foods items to cook. These included cabbage, corn, onions, multiple types of mushrooms, two different dumplings, noodles, egg, tofu, and more.

I ordered the lamb and pork combination for my meat. Thinly slice meat was soon delivered to the table and cooking began.

Cooking the meat was the intimidating part for me, mostly because I rarely cook meat by boiling it. I didn't want to undercook the pork, but it cooked extremely fast since it was sliced so thinly. Some of the vegetables took longer to cook, such as the corn or large pieces of cabbage.

There was a large sauce/condiment bar to add some extra flavor to the food. They seemed to like MSG at Minnis.

I also had a shaved ice here for dessert. This large bowl was filled with finely shaved ice topped with sweetened condensed milk, pineapple, and something called grass jelly. Shaved ice like this is way better than a snow cone!

Minnis Shabu Shabu was a very fun eating experience. Having a pot of boiling broth and a huge pile of raw foods in front of you, then having to figure out how to cook everything definitely makes things more interesting than just having cooked food delivered to your table.

3 Chefs Chinese Restaurant in Miami, FL

On a visit to South Florida, I had dinner at 3 Chefs Chinese Restaurant in Miami. It was a nice night, so we decided to dine outside at the tables 3 Chefs had out front.

I ordered the Szechuan Shrimp dinner combination. This meal started with a bowl of wonton soup.

An egg roll was served next:

Which was then followed by the main course. This came with several large shrimp mixed with various vegetables. The sauce used on the Szechuan shrimp had a nice kick, which is a good thing. The little pepper icon on the menu denoting a spicy dish actually meant something here. Fried rice was served on the side.

3 Chefs Chinese Restaurant served pretty standard American style Chinese food. Everything was fairly similar to what countless other Chinese restaurants serve. Regardless, the food was tasty. I enjoyed the sauce on the shrimp and it came with a nice variety of vegetables.

Ru San's in Atlanta, GA (Midtown)

I had dinner in Atlanta at a Japanese restaurant called Ru San's. This restaurant is apparently a local chain in the area and I ate in the location in Midtown Atlanta. Ru San's was up on the second floor of a strip mall and is apparently under new management according to the banner hanging out front. Inside, Ru San's almost had a nightclub atmosphere with lots of color changing lights and loud music. The prices on much of their menu were very reasonable.

While the majority of the menu featured sushi, I instead ordered the Nabeyaki Udon. This large bowl of soup was packed with udon noodles, tempura shrimp, chicken, egg, mushrooms, onions, zucchini, and other vegetables. The broth had a nice, slightly spicy flavor with just the right amount of saltiness. Rather than the soup's contents floating towards the top, this bowl was filled pretty much to the brim with yummy stuff with the broth filling up the space in between. With all this food in the bowl, I got about half way through before I decided I was full...

I'd return to Ru San's. The food was tasty and was a good value for the price.

Viet Garden in Orlando, FL

Viet Garden was my gateway restaurant into Vietnamese food. Years ago, when I was unacquainted with this type of food, I remember trying Viet Garden for the first time and thoroughly enjoying it. I knew nothing about Vietnamese food at the time, but I knew I liked the sounds of all the noodles and soups that I found on the menu. I soon found myself trying more and more of the surrounding Vietnamese restaurants in the Orlando area. It had been a while since I'd had Vietnamese food, so I decided to return to Viet Garden for another visit.

On this particular visit to Viet Garden, I had the Cho Lon Combo Egg Noodle Soup. This consisted of shrimp, crab claws, roast pork, wontons, egg noodles, and some greens in a broth. The standard side dish of of bean sprouts, basil, jalapeno, and lime accompanied the huge bowl of soup. I did enjoy my soup, although the shrimp and crab claws were a bit elusive. I think I found two of each in the entire bowl. The broth had nice flavor with just the right amount of saltiness. Overall, this was a pretty tasty soup.

This wasn't my first visit to Viet Garden, and it most likely wasn't my last. I'm sure I'll be visiting again one day when I'm craving some Vietnamese food...

Firehook Bakery in Washington DC

While in DC, I ended up exploring the Dupont Circle area. While in the neighborhood, I ate lunch at a restaurant called Firehook Bakery. They ended up being a local chain in the Washington area and I passed a few more Firehooks in my travels around DC.

Based on their pastry and cake selections, they definitely didn't appear to be a chain. All of this stuff looked delicious! Unfortunately, I was there for lunch rather than dessert so I didn't try any.

I had the soup and sandwich lunch combo. I choose tomato bisque for my soup, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was creamy, slightly spicy, and had just enough tomato flavor so it wasn't overpowering. This was actually one of the best soups I've had in recent memory. A slice of bread was served alongside the tomato bisque for dipping. The sandwich was pressed and filled with turkey, cheese, and roasted red peppers. Pretty tasty, but nothing exceptional. The soup was the definite winner out of the two parts of this meal.

I enjoyed Firehook Bakery. When it comes to bakery chains, Firehook was definitely towards the better end of the spectrum. Way better than some of the larger bakery chains (like Panera). I'd return here.

Joy Luck House in Washington DC

While visiting the DC area, we were on our way to the National Zoo when we decided to stop in Chinatown for some lunch. Much to our surprise when we emerged from the Metro, we happened to randomly decide to stop in Chinatown during the Chinese New Year, shortly before the big parade started. I've been to this Chinatown in the past and I've never seen it so packed, meaning wait times in restaurants were suddenly a factor in choosing where to eat. Joy Luck House was where we finally settled on.

The Chinese pastries from Joy Luck House seemed to be very popular. I tried a coconut bun while I was waiting for the rest of the food. This was a tasty, slightly sweet roll, filled with a coconut paste. I was planning on getting one of their baked goods filled with red bean paste, but the person ahead of me bought them all.

Since this was DC in the winter, it wasn't exactly warm out. That's why I decided to have one of Joy Luck's noodle soups for my lunch. I choose the shredded pork with pickled cabbage noodle soup. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect with the pickled cabbage, but to me it tasted like normal cabbage in the soup. Besides the pork and cabbage, the soup was filled with carrots, snow peas, herbs, and thick noodles in a tasty broth. I was expecting something a little different with the pickled cabbage, but regardless, this soup was still good and very satisfying.

As soon as we finished eating, we ventured back into the crowds outside and watched the parade. Chinese dragons, especially when they were totally unexpected, completed my visit to Chinatown!

Sakura Sushi & Grill in Tallahassee, FL

 While in Tallahassee, I had Japanese food for dinner one night from Sakura Sushi & Grill. This restaurant was located relatively close to downtown and FSU. The outside was nicely decorated with wood panels and lit by paper lanterns.

 Once seated, we had an unobstructed view of the sushi bar.

 My meal started with a side salad. This was the typical Japanese restaurant salad, consisting of iceberg lettuce topped with carrots, cucumber, and ginger dressing.

I also had the Shrimp Udon Soup. This huge bowl of soup was filled with many large shrimp, sliced mushrooms and other various vegetables, and thick udon noodles in a very flavorful broth. Like most main course soups at Asian restaurants, this udon was really filling. It was a good deal for the price and tasted good too!

If I'm ever back in Tallahassee and make it back to Sakura, I'm going to have to try the Volcano Roll. I saw one of these get delivered to a table and this roll is literately erupting when served. The whole roll is wrapped in foil, with the excess foil being made into a basin that was filled with some sort of flammable liquid.While being served, the volcano roll was ignited resulting in huge flames. It is the dream sushi roll for any pyromaniac foodie!

 

Anh Hong in Orlando, FL

Anh Hong is a Vietnamese restaurant on the corner of Mills and 50. They have apparently won various awards, plus I had heard people I know personally say good things about the place. Hearing all this, I figured it was about time to give Anh Hong a try...

I wasn't impressed the first time I was here. I ordered the Meatball Pho and the broth was very bland. The beef broth in pho is normally really flavorful, but in this case I had to add lots of condiments to give it some more taste. The meatballs weren't much better, tasting much better after being dipped in some hoisin or sriracha. For a restaurant that claimed to be award winning, I was disappointed.

A few months later, I decided to give Anh Hong another try. I forget the exact name of the dish that I ordered, but according to some of the online menus I found, I had the Cho Lon Combo. This was a big bowl of egg noodles, topped with shrimp, squid, crab meat, roast pork, assorted greens, jalapenos, and lime slices. A bowl of broth was served on the side. I'm not sure the proper eating technique of getting the broth on the side like this, but I ended up pouring it over everything in my larger bowl. Unlike my first soupy experience at Anh Hong, the food tasted much better this time around. The broth had lots of flavor, the meats were cooked to perfection, and was overall good.

My first meal at Anh Hong left room for improvement, but they redeemed themselves on my second visit. I'll go back...