La Bella Luna in Baldwin Park, FL

I ate dinner at La Bella Luna in Baldwin Park. Last time I ate here, this restaurant was a Pizzeria Valdiano. Somewhere along the line, I guess ownership changed.

The pizza definitely tasted much better than it looked. When the pizza was delivered to the table, I was a little disappointed. It was messy and a bit cheese-heavy. Upon tasting my slice, I changed my mind though. The cheese and sauce were both tasty. Crust was average. While it wasn't the best looking pizza, it did definitely taste way better than it looked! I'd get a pizza here again.

Grillwise in Deerfield Beach, FL

I stopped for lunch at a Middle Eastern/Burger restaurant called Grillwise in Deerfield Beach.
I ordered the Falafel Pita. The contents of the sandwich were kind of interesting, filled with the fried chickpea balls, tzatziki, and french fries. I've honestly never seen a falafel sandwich with french fries wrapped in the pita.

According to the menu, the pita was also supposed to come with tomato and onions. Since my pita didn't come with these, I borrowed the missing ingredients from a fellow diner's burger.

The falafel at Grillwise was tasty, although I would have preferred more vegetables and less french fries. The falafel balls were nice and crispy while the tzatziki had great flavor. Good enough for $4...

Kelsey's Pizzeria in Port St John, FL

I took myself to Port Canaveral to get an up close view of a recent Delta IV rocket launch. The rocket went up right around dinner time, so it was a great excuse to try a new restaurant in the area. The winner for the night turned out to be Kelsey's Pizzeria in Port St. John.

If a restaurant is called pizzeria, perhaps I should have tried their pizza. Instead, I decided to get their version of Eggplant Parmesan. This dish consisted of breaded and fried eggplant rolled around ricotta cheese, topped with melted mozzarella and marinara sauce. The eggplant tasted good, although the eggplant slices still had skin which ended up being pretty chewy in spots. Also included in the price was a side salad, garlic bread, and a huge plate of spaghetti.

Overall, it was your average, middle of the road Italian food. Nothing creative or exceptional, but nothing bad either. The food was pretty much what I was expecting when I ordered...

And for those interested, here's my video of the rocket launch...

Crowne Plaza in Syracuse, NY

I had breakfast on the twentieth floor of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Syracuse, NY. It was a buffet serving all the normal breakfast foods. Eggs, homefries, bacon, sausage, french toast, fruit, and pastries were all eaten...

Being on the twentieth floor not only provided a good breakfast, but also had a great view of Downtown Syracuse...

Friendly's in East Syracuse, NY

While in Syracuse, I visited a chain that was never discussed on this blog. That chain is Friendly's...

I had a Ruben sandwich. The sandwich consisted of corned beef, sauerkraut, cheese, and thousand island dressing on rye bread. The sandwich's ingredients seemed pretty benign, but somehow massive amounts of grease kept on magically appearing. The sandwich was sitting a puddle of oil when I picked it up, and more oil kept on dripping out as I was eating. With all this dripping oil on a sandwich that shouldn't be dripping oil, I can see how Friendly's got it's reputation of having some of the unhealthiest chain food around.


I'm not going to go rushing back to a Friendly's any time soon. The amount of grease was scary and their sandwiches were the price of dinners at some other restaurants. To me, Friendly's remains in the same category of restaurants to me as Denny's and IHOP. Places you go when you can't find anywhere else...

Francesca's Cucina in Syracuse, NY

I had dinner at Francesca's Cucina in Syracuse's Little Italy. This was part of an event I attended, so there was no ordering involved and all the food was served family style.

A big antipasto salad was the first dish to come out, topped with all sorts of good stuff, including prosciutto, salami, cappicola, olives, cheeses, peppers, greens, and much more.

An unusually shaped ravioli in marinara sauce came next.

Then came a plate of rigatoni in a tomato cream sauce.

By the time the meal was done, my plate was also filled with some chicken marsala and some sort of white fish in a tomato sauce.

Finally, this huge plate of Italian desserts was served. It was piled high with cannolis, cookies, cream puffs, eclairs, and more. Sadly, most of the dish was untouched by fellow diners. I couldn't let this be and had to remedy the problem...


As I was leaving Francesca's Cucina, there were a few snow flurries falling. None of the snow stuck though...

Bruegger's Bagel Bakery in Syracuse, NY

At the end of October, I found myself enjoying the wonderful cold weather in Syracuse, NY for a weekend. For breakfast one morning, I ended up at Bruegger's Bagel Bakery at Syracuse University.



There was a Bruegger's in Altamonte Springs for a while, but I never visited and they eventually closed. After getting my bagel, I can kind of see why they were so short lived. This bagel was tiny! I was expecting the bagel to be on par with the other chain bagel places, but this wasn't even close! The everything bagel was topped with smoked salmon cream cheese, roasted red peppers, cucumbers, and red onions. It tasted good, but was just way too small!

Cibo Express Gourmet Markets in JFK Airport

During my travels to Syracuse from Orlando, I had a three hour layover in JFK airport. Since I was waiting for a connecting flight, I was stuck in the Jetblue terminal to avoid going through security again. With all that time to kill, I was able to check out the airport food in the terminal! There were a few restaurants serving fancy airport food as well as a sushi bar, but I found myself at the food court called Cibo Express Gourmet Markets...

I tried food from two different restaurants inside of Cibo Express. One was an Italian chain called Famous Famiglia Pizzeria.

I tried a slice of Sicilian topped with pepperoni. The crust was hard and dry. The cheese didn't have much flavor and was congealed like it had been sitting out for far too long (not reheated long enough). The oil from the pepperoni didn't help much to hydrate the dry crust either. Of course, they sold this substandard slice for overly inflated airport prices. They definitely weren't following the rules of the New York Pizza Connection here...

I also split a sandwich from the Boar's Head Deli. They had a very cool computer ordering system here. It could have been improved if they told you which sandwich toppings cost extra and which were included. I had to go back a few steps several times to remove something that cost an extra $1.50. Those extra costs added up quick, although I'm sure most people buy their sandwich regardless of the price.

The sandwich turned out really good, considering it was from an airport food court. Salsalito turkey, brie cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and pesto all came on a semolina hero.

Overall, this was a really nice food court as far as airports go. The pizza could have used some improvements, but otherwise there was a nice selection of food choices and tasty custom subs...

Jetblue Snacks

I recently flew up to Syracuse on Jetblue. They seem to be one of the few airlines that still give any sort of snacks during their flights. Giving a nice choice of snacks and their willingness to give seconds on the food is only one of the reasons that makes Jetblue my favorite airline!

Blue potato chips and Dunkin Donuts tea.

Linden's chocolate chip cookies!


Coming up next: Food in the JFK Jetblue Terminal!

Earl of Sandwich in Orlando, FL

Earl of Sandwich is a fast food restaurant located in Downtown Disney. I found it interesting that the restaurant was actually started by the real life Earl of Sandwich and the founder of Planet Hollywood.

The majority of the menu consisted of hot sandwiches. Each sandwich sold for $5.99 which is pretty good for Disney prices. No sides came with the sandwich, but still, $6 isn't bad given the location.

The Caribbean Jerk Chicken sandwich and The Earl's Club were ordered.

Caribbean Jerk Chicken on the left and The Earl's Club on the right.

The Caribbean Jerk Chicken was filled with chicken, roasted red peppers, banana peppers, and a jerk sauce. The Earl's Club had turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and sauce. Both sandwiches were really tasty, but I think most of the flavor actually came from the sauce. Unfortunately, on both sandwiches, they were somewhat stingy on the meat and other fillings. I guess they hope you don't open the sandwich to look inside...


Overall, Earl of Sandwich was pretty good. The sandwiches were a bit small, but one sandwich still filled me up. As far as the price goes, these are probably one of the best values in Downtown Disney. I'll be back!

Orlando Food and Wine Festival

On November 13, I visited the Third Annual Orlando Food & Wine Fest. It happened on a section of Robinson Street next to Lake Eola Park. The festival featured food samplings from a multitude of Orlando's restaurants, cooking demonstrations, and live music.

While I was there The Redcoats were playing Beatles covers.

I watched a cooking demonstration with John Zimmerman of Ruth Chris Steakhouse.

Moving on to the food for sale, Kobe was cooking up their hibachi chicken.

Sushi was also well represented at the festival with Shari Sushi, CRAVE, and this Spicy Tuna Hand Roll from Orlando Sushi House.

There were several restaurants serving ribs. O'Charlie's had big slabs of ribs and The Boheme at the Grand Bohemian Hotel was offering Beef Ribs with Mango BBQ.


Dexter's was serving up pulled pork sandwiches.

Cityfish had huge Jalapeno Hush Puppies and some delicious looking Gumbo.

Champion's Gate was grilling kabobs that smelled great!

The larger restaurant chains were also at the festival. Panera Bread was serving soups and P.F. Chang's had rice and lettuce wraps.


Anatolia Mediterranean Cuisine was one of the booths that I choose to try. I had a gyro, served with tzatziki, hummus, and pita. The lamb in the gyro was very tasty!


I also tasted the food from Caribbean Sunshine Bakery. I tried the Jerk Chicken with a side of rice. The chicken was nice and tender and had a great kick to it. Out of all the food at the festival, it seemed like Caribbean Sunshine Bakery was giving some of the most generous portions.


I had a good time at the Food & Wine Fest! I was able to eat delicious foods, but my only wish was that I could have tried a bit of everything! There was so much to choose from at the festival, there was no way to sample it all! I suppose it's a good excuse to go visit the restaurants represented at the festival and try what I missed...