La Strada Gnocchi

I ate Italian food for lunch at La Strada in downtown Millburn, NJ today. I ordered gnocchi with a four cheese cream sauce. Two different types of bread was brought out first, with the focaccia being the better of the two. When the meal was brought out, I was a bit surprised to see tomato sauce covering the top of the massive pile of gnocchi. The menu said nothing about any tomato based sauce and only mentioned the four cheese cream sauce. Regardless, the gnocchi was still good and the tomato and cream sauce mixed nicely into a pink tomato cream sauce. It would have been a better meal if they gave less pasta and instead gave a salad along with the gnocchi...

Lunch in Freeport, New York

I ate lunch in Freeport, New York on Long Island. The restaurant that was decided upon was called Capt. Phil Ehrhart's. Being a beachy seaside town, I was hoping to eat some sort of seafood in Freeport. Capt. Phil Ehrhart's couldn't really provide that. They didn't seem to specialize in seafood all too much, but I picked out some coconut shrimp. They were unable to prepare them though due to lack of ingredents, so I ended up just going with a Caesar Salad. It was a good salad and there was nothing wrong with it. I just wasn't what I had in mind...

There was a nice view from the restaurant's deck of the nearby fishing boats. There was also a live band playing out here.



After eating lunch it was time for dessert from Ralph's Italian Ices. The Ralph's in Freeport was a short walk up the road from Capt. Phil Ehrhart's, and I tried lime and passion fruit water ices. The flavors themselves were good, but this Freeport Ralph's wasn't as good in general when compared to the Franklin Square Ralph's. A small ice here cost $0.25 more than the Franklin Square Ralph's. For the extra quarter, you received a smaller portion in a paper cup that quickly got soggy compared to a larger styrofoam cup. The ices were good, the rest of this Ralph's wasn't quite as good...

Everything Bagel From Elmont Dunkin' Donuts

I ate this freshly baked everything bagel with cream cheese from the Dunkin' Donuts in Elmont, New York across the street from the Bellmont Racetrack. It tasted like a bagel should...

BUT, doesn't it sort of defeat the whole purpose of going to Dunkin' Donuts if you order a bagel?

Chicken Pesto Sandwich from Valley Caterers

I ate a sandwich from Valley Caterers in Valley Stream, New York. Apparently they won some sort of Best of Long Island award in 2007 that they are very proud of. They had all sorts of food in their deli...

And I ended up eating a Chicken Pesto Sandwich on a sesame egg roll. The sandwich consisted of chicken, roasted red peppers, fresh mozzarella, and pesto. It was tasty, although I would have preferred more mozzarella and less chicken. The sandwich was good, but I don't know if I would go as far to say it was the best of Long Island...

Il Porto

I ate at a restaurant called Il Porto in Manhattan's South Street Seaport. Since it was a very hot summer day, we were lucky to sit near an open door to the nearby Dead People exhibit, which blasted us with nice air conditioning. Soon enough, the meal started out with a loaf of bread.

I ordered the Pizza alla Pesto which consisted of mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese, pesto, and basil leaves, all on a crispy pizza crust. It was very tasty. It wasn't what I would think of as the typical New York Style pizza, but it was still delicious...

After eating, the next stop was to walk over to the Playing the Building exhibit up the road. On the way there, I explored the South Street Seaport for a bit:

And then I finally reached my destination and enjoyed Playing the Building:

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.

Charlie Brown's Steakhouse

I ate at the Charlie Brown's Steakhouse in Garden City, NY. I ordered a combo dinner that included shrimp and snapper, as well as a salad bar. The salad bar was good. Lots of good stuff was there for the taking, like several different types of olives. The feta stuffed olives were especially good for a salad bar...



I believe the fish I ordered was herb encrusted snapper. It was okay, but wasn't anything exceptional. The cilantro shrimp were much better than the fish. This was served with mashed potatoes as a side.

It was way too much to eat...

Wah-Luck Kitchen

I ate Chinese food from Wah-Luck Kitchen in Franklin Square, New York. I picked up the take out, which consisted of scallion pancakes, wonton soup, and Szechuan chicken. The pancakes were a tasty treat since there are no Chinese restaurants in Florida that serve this menu item.

The soup tasted like normal wonton soup...

The chicken was a disappointment. Compared to other Szechuan chicken dishes that I have ordered elsewhere, the sauce was very thick and tomato-paste like. The sticky sauce got stuck on the food and was way too overpowering. I should have gone with lo-mein. You can't go wrong with lo-mein...

Tuna & Ice Cream on a Long Island Beach

I ate on the beach today. I bought a tuna salad sandwich from the Waldbaums Supermarket in Long Beach, New York. The sandwich was put in a cooler and was taken a few miles up the road to Lido Beach, where it was eaten on the sand. It was a good sandwich.


While leaving the beach, a stop was made at Marvel Ice Cream in Lido Beach. They are a little ice cream shop with a giant ice cream cone on the roof that seems to specialize in soft serve ice cream. I didn't have much, but I did try some soft serve vanilla/chocolate twist and some pistachio ice cream. It tasted good and was pretty much what was expected from ice cream.

King Umbertos Pizza

King Umbertos in Elmont, New York has the best pizza I have ever eaten. All other pizzas have to be compared to the pizza from King Umbertos.

When I ate here for dinner, I had a slice of stuffed vegetable pizza and a slice of plain cheese. Although the pizza selection was a bit thin when I ordered and the ovens needed cleaning (which happened as I was eating), King Umbertos still holds the #1 Pizza spot in my book. I will be back...

Stop 20 Diner

I ate lunch at Stop 20 Diner in Elmont, NY today. I ordered the Chicken Souvlaki Pita lunch special. It came with soup, a side Greek salad, the sandwich, dessert, and a drink.

There were several choices of soup to choose from, and I picked lentil. The soup was good. A basket of challah bread and crackers was brought out at the same time as the soup.

The soup and bread was followed with the side Greek salad. It didn't come with the wonderful items that make Greek salads from these Greek diners special such as the stuffed grape leaves or anchovies, but these generally don't come with side salads. It consisted of lettuce, tomato, onions, feta cheese, and olives. It tasted good enough, although it would have been much better with some stuffed grape leaves...

The Chicken Souvlaki pita came out next and was the biggest disappointment of the meal. The pita was filled with lots and lots of grilled chicken, chopped green peppers and onions, and chopped tomato. It was served with a cup of tzatziki. The sandwich was way too much chicken, and not enough other stuff. Each bite was almost all chicken and was way too much and lacked enough flavor. I've had much better chicken souvlaki sandwiches elsewhere...

I ordered a cheese danish for the included dessert. It was tasty enough, and had some currants in it which was a nice touch.

The lunch special was a great deal with the amount of food that was given for the money, but the quality of the food could have been better. My souvlaki had room for improvement. Two of the other meals ordered at my table was a spinach quiche and a spanakopita (spinach pie). The spanakopita and the quiche were exactly the same thing, only the quiche was served as an upside down spanakopita. A quiche is more than a spinach pie turned upside down.

The food here has been better in the past...

Ralph's Barbecue...

Continuing yesterday's trip up I-95, today I ate lunch at Ralph's Barbecue in Weldon, North Carolina. It was a buffet, filled with mostly older people, giving the place somewhat of a retirement home look. The food was tasty enough though and had some unique items on the buffet. Some hush puppies were placed on the table to start...

From the buffet, I started out by trying a plate of pulled pork with a vinegar based barbecue sauce, cabbage, black-eyed-peas, salad, and a roll. The pulled pork was the best thing on this plate...

I tried a second plate of cole slaw, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, beans, and a bit more pork...

I ate a plate of banana pudding, a slice of a beet, and some pickled watermelon rinds for dessert. I have never heard of pickled watermelon rinds before, but they are a very interesting food. They are sweet, but also have a tart vinegar taste. They are translucent and look like jello, but are much more solid. They were very interesting. They tasted good too...

Ruby Tuesdays on the Road...

Went on a road trip today! From eating at a dinner show in Orlando one day to eating dinner in South Carolina the next day. It's amazing how that happens.

After eating a packed lunch of peanut butter sandwiches and hummus, the dinner plan was to find a barbecue restaurant to eat at. Some barbecue restaurants were found in Florence, South Carolina, but it seems like they were all closed on Mondays. Here is one of closed restaurants I stopped at with a very cool sign.

Not having much luck finding a unique place to eat, I ended up at a Ruby Tuesdays, also in Florence, South Carolina. I ate a chicken pot pie served with a tomato and mozzarella salad with the salad bar included. Here is my plate from the salad bar...

And the chicken pot pie...

It wasn't bad...

Sleuths Mystery Dinner Show

I ate at Sleuths Mystery Dinner Show on International Drive in Orlando, Florida for someone's birthday.

The eating experience started out with some appetizers that were served in the lobby while in line to get your tickets. The food was all gone by the time I got to it, thanks to all of those ravenous British tourists. What I saw didn't look all that special anyway. Mostly cubes of cheddar cheese, celery, and something wrapped in a tortilla.

Everyone was escorted into the main theater by a guy dressed up like a detective with a fake British accent. Waiting on the tables was rolls, crackers, and salads. The salads were way too small and the salad dressing (blue cheese?) seemed a bit watered down.

The first portion of the show began after all of the food on the tables was devoured. I found this portion of the show to be a bit too long and tedious, with way too much nonsense leading up to the murder that the rest of the show was based upon. When this portion of the show finally ended, the main course was served. The three choices were prime rib, lasagna, or cornish hens. I went with the hen, and although I don't find it very appetizing to rip the flesh off of a dead chicken's bones before eating it, the hen was actually quite tasty. They served half of the bird with string beans, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and a sweet potato. I really had no complaints for this part of the meal, which was surprisingly good when compared to other Orlando dinner show food.

The show continued after the main course, in a much shorter and less tedious interval this time around. Dessert was then served. I ordered key lime pie. It was disappointing. It tasted like instant key lime flavored pudding that you buy in the supermarket poured into a pie crust. I wouldn't be surprised if that is what the pie actually consisted of. It was pretty bad and I ended up leaving some of the pie. I should have gone with the chocolate cake instead...

The dessert was followed by the conclusion of the show, and that was that. Sleuths was definitely better than some of the other Orlando dinner shows in regards to the show and the food, but there was still some room for improvement. At least it was better than the horrible Capones dinner show or the short lived and even more horrible Fiascos dinner show where nothing happened in the show and the food was delivered from multiple take out locations all over International Drive...