NY Food: Bagels (Pumpernickel Bagel, Zucker's Bagels & Smoked Fish, Russ & Daughters, and Liberty Bagels)

Since nobody can travel right now due to COVID-19, let's go back in time a few months and visit New York to eat. My last visit to the New York was in December for a few days. The last couple posts on this blog from New York had to do with the pizza and Indian food I ate on the trip. This post is about the Indian restaurants I visited while there. I ended up eating a lot of Indian food on my short trip.

Pumpernickel Bagel:

This was a random bagel shop I walked by in Long Island City when it was time for a bagel breakfast.

I had a whole wheat everything bagel, filled with lox cream cheese and onions.

 Zucker's Bagels and & Smoked Fish:

This bagel shop was located a few blocks away from Bryant Park. It was a chain. I ordered a sandwich called The Flatiron. This had everything seeded smoked salmon, avocado, and scallion cream cheese. I very much enjoyed this sandwich.

Russ & Daughters:

This place is a classic that I've visited before in the past. They have all sorts of delicious smoked fish here.

I had the Shteil. Smoked sable and goat cream cheese on an everything bagel.

Liberty Bagels:

This was my last bagel experience before heading back home. They were located close to the train station so I grabbed one last bagel before catching the train back to JFK. They had some interesting bagels that involved a lot of food coloring like their rainbow bagels.

They had some interesting cream cheeses as well. Can't say I've ever seen maple bacon or Oreo flavored cream cheese anywhere.

None of that matters though, because it ended up with me getting handed the wrong order. They confirmed what I ordered when I picked it up, but that's not what was in the bag. What they gave me was a sesame bagel stuffed with lox, avocado, tomato slices, onions, and capers. It wasn't a bad combination. It was almost a combination I would have enjoyed, except there was no cream cheese. Who in their right mind orders bagels with no cream cheese!? Unfortunately, I was already on the train to the airport when I opened the bag and saw I had the wrong order, so I ate it...

NY Food: Indian Restaurants (Deep Indian Kitchen, The Kati Roll Company, and Apna Masala)

Since nobody can travel right now due to COVID-19, let's go back in time a few months and visit New York to eat. My last visit to the New York was in December for a few days. The last post from New York had to do with the pizza I ate on the trip. This post is about the Indian restaurants I visited while there. I ended up eating a lot of Indian food on my short trip.

Deep Indian Kitchen:

This was an Indian fast food restaurant located right outside Times Square. With this restaurant, imagine a Chipotle, only serving Indian food instead. I ordered a meal called the Live Fire Feast which was a combo that included a main dish and several sides. I had the Chicken Tikka Masala, saffron rice, chickpea dal, beet kachumbar, and garlic naan. I had blood orange lemonade as a beverage.

The Kati Roll Company:

This tiny restaurant served something called kati rolls. This Indian street food was something new to me and was similar to a wrap/burrito. There's apparently several locations of The Kati Roll Company in New York. This location was on MacDougal Street. I ordered the Unda Chicken Roll. This was chicken tikka and eggs wrapped in paratha bread. Not exactly knowing what I was getting into with a new food, I was very impressed. This little wrap was delicious.

Apna Masala:

This was one Indian restaurant among many in the East Village. They had a nice dinner combination that came with tea, appetizers, a main course, and a dessert.

NY Food: Pizza (Vinnie's Pizzeria and Ray's)

Since nobody can travel right now due to COVID-19, let's go back in time a few months and visit New York to eat. My last visit to the New York was in December for a few days. The next few posts on this blog will focus on that trip. This particular post will discuss the pizza I sampled while there, because what trip to New York is complete without pizza.

Vinnie's Pizzeria in Williamsburg:

This was my first pizza experience on the trip to New York. Vinnie's was located in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.

I had two slices. One was topped with eggplant and ricotta. The other was a sauceless white slice. Both were a good example of NY style pizza. I preferred the eggplant of the two, but both were very respectable slices of pizza.

Famous Original Ray’s Pizza:

I ate at this chain of pizzerias in New York. I ended up getting a slice of white pizza when I saw the crazy prices of some of the more exciting toppings ($8+ for a slice). It was alright, but nothing I'd go back to seek out.

Gateway to India in Longwood, FL

Since everyone is supposed to be social distancing right now, I used UberEats for the first time ever and had food delivered from Gateway to India in Longwood. I've been to the restaurant before in the past, but always at lunchtime for their buffet.

The order consisted of Chicken Tikka Massala, Butter Chicken, and Garlic Naan. The main dishes were served in plastic takeout containers and came with a large styrofoam container of rice. The naan was wrapped in foil. All was delivered in a sealed paper bag.

The garlic naan had plenty of garlic on it.

Here's a photo of the chicken tikka massala after it was re-plated out of the togo container. Of the two chicken dishes, this was slightly spicier. Not unbearably spicy, but it had a nice, flavorful heat to it.

Everything here was enjoyed with my stay at home meal from Gateway to India.

Catfish Johnny's Restaurant in Lake Panasoffkee, FL

I was driving to Dade City from Orlando a while back and wanted dinner on the way. Restaurants were thin on the route I was taking, but the internet told me there were restaurants in the town of Lake Panasoffkee. I had never heard of the tiny little town, but the highest rated restaurant was called Catfish Johnny's. Headed that way and lost cell signal, meaning that my meal was phone free.

I ordered the Catfish Fingers Dinner. This consisted of a huge mountain of deep fried, boneless catfish. The crispy batter was nice and flavorful and the fish was tender. Corn fritters, cheese grits, and fried okra were served as sides.

With the slim pickings of restaurants that I had in the area, I think I chose well!

Farmer's Market Restaurant in Florida City, FL

I had dinner in Florida City at the Farmer's Market Restaurant. This was located in the State Farmer's Market. I've seen similar restaurants like this in industrial farmer's market complexes, but it seems unusual to actually see them open for business. This Farmer's Market Restaurant had the highest restaurant rating according to Google near my hotel and was also open at 8:00pm when I was looking for food.

I had their seafood combo special, which started with a cup of lentil soup:

The combo came with conch fritters, fish, and shrimp. The shrimp and conch fritters were both deep fried, but I had the fish blackened. The meal came with two sides. I picked mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts. Everything was tasty. Biggest complaint that some of the shrimp seemed a little overcooked and were beginning to be a little rubbery. Other than that, the fish and conch were both cooked well and were flavorful.

I enjoyed my meal!

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.

Harry's Pizzeria in Coconut Grove, FL

Was in Coconut Grove and had lunch at a restaurant called Harry's Pizzeria. They had a lunch deal going on where you got a salad, drink, and pizza all for less than the price of a pizza by itself. That's what I went with obviously. I picked an Escarole Caesar for the salad. I enjoyed that they put anchovies on top of the salad.

I had the Pesto Pizza. This pie had pesto for the base sauce and was topped with ricotta, mozzarella, parmigiano, and tomato slices

Thanksgiving at Perkins in Altamonte Springs, FL

 Wondering what a Thanksgiving meal looks like at a Perkins? I ended up at the Perkins in Altamonte Springs on Thanksgiving since they were one of the few places open. I was going to order breakfast since I did the meaty Thanksgiving thing already, but the talkative regulars at the next table had great things to say about the holiday meal on the menu. Taking the recommendation, this came with several slices of turkey, stuffing, green beans with bacon, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce.

A slice of pie was also included. I had the lemon meringue.

Not the best Thanksgiving turkey ever, but the meal was totally passable for a late night breakfast chain.

Blond Giraffe Key Lime Pie Factory in Tavernier, FL

I went down to Key Largo and decided to get some key lime pie. I ended up at a place called Blond Giraffe Key Lime Pie Factory in the town of Tavernier. They had several variations of the pie available, including plain, dipped in chocolate, but I decided on the key lime pie with meringue topping. The pie was nice and tart and the meringue was very fluffy. That was all good, but we really don't want to talk about the food, do we?

We want to talk about the bunnies. Blond Giraffe had a fenced in yard behind the restaurant. This yard was filled with rabbits! Apparently they have chickens back here too, but I visited after dark so they were all roosting for the night.

I ate my key lime pie rather quickly, but stayed much longer petting rabbits...

Lazy Moon Pizza in Orlando, FL (Mills-50)

Way back when this blog was pretty new, I wrote a post about Lazy Moon Pizza. This was at a location that no longer exists in a strip mall that was demolished for a newer development. Since then, Lazy Moon has expanded with a newer location nearby UCF (which I have not eaten at) and another location in Mills-50. The Mills-50 location is what this post is about.

The slices here are still huge, but the overload of half melted cheese that the UCF location was known for has seemed to improved. Lazy Moon seems like they have learned that too much cheese could be a bad thing and their slices are much more balanced in terms of cheese/sauce/toppings now.

Here's a slice with pesto as the sauce, topped with spinach and Italian sausage. They use slices of sausage rather than crumbles, which is always better in my book.

The Cuban Slice is a more unique pizza that I can't say I've had elsewhere. Its basically a Cuban sandwich in pizza form. It has mustard as a sauce, topped with pork, ham, pickles, and cheese. I was skeptical, but I ended up enjoying this.

I am glad Lazy Moon has improved since my first few experiences with the restaurant way back when!

Fort Wayne, Indiana Restaurants (Dash-In, Cindy's Diner, The Hoppy Gnome, Proximo, True Kimchi, J K O'Donnell's, and The Famous Taco)

I spent a few days in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Food was eaten there. This blog post is some of that food. The first food I had in the city was at the Ft. Wayne Airport. There was a TSA agent handing out chocolate chip cookies as I left the secure area of the airport. My Uber driver was telling me about how the airport cookies are somewhat controversial in the city. There is apparently somewhat of an obesity issue in Ft. Wayne and people say the airport shouldn't be contributing to this. Regardless, free cookie!

Dash-In:

This was my first actual meal in Ft. Wayne. I asked around for restaurant recommendations and was told to visit Dash-In.

I ordered the Pesto Deluxe Grilled Cheese. This sandwich was filled with cheddar, swiss, provolone, muenster, artichoke hearts, tomato slices, and pesto. I had a cup of Tomato Bisque as my side. The sandwich was good, with one major exception. The cheese wasn't melted in the center of the sandwich. Melted cheese is the whole point of a grilled cheese...

Cindy's Diner:

Breakfast the next morning happened at Cindy's Diner. This was a tiny building that was a very stereotypical diner. They only had counter seating and a few outdoor tables. It was very busy.

I had French toast, eggs, and bacon. It was exactly how I would have expected the meal.

The Hoppy Gnome:

This was another restaurant that was recommended to me. It was half restaurant and half brewery.

I had three tacos here. I sampled the Duck Confit, Korean Short Rib, and Chili Glazed Shrimp tacos. The shrimp taco had the most flavor in its sauce, but didn't have much else going on besides the breaded shrimp. The Korean short rib seemed to be lacking in the sauce and was very dry but had interesting taco toppings. The duck confit was a bit boring and bland tasting.

Proximo:

I had breakfast at a restaurant called Proximo. I ordered something called the Garbage Skillet, which seems to be an Indiana breakfast item because I saw similar garbage themed items on other breakfast menus in Ft. Wayne. This was potatoes with bacon, peppers, and onions, topped with gravy and eggs. It was good, although I found the gravy to be a bit too salty (and I like salty food!).

True Kimchi:

This was a booth selling Korean food at the Ft. Wayne Farmer's Market. 

I had the bibimbap. It was rice topped with all sorts of pickled vegetables and a fried egg. I enjoyed it!

J K O'Donnell's:

This was an Irish pub in downtown Ft. Wayne. Apparently there are more than one Irish restaurants in downtown and this is supposed to be the good one.

I had a cup of potato leek soup.

I also had a plate of curry and chips topped with chicken. I received more than I was expecting with all sorts of good vegetables in the curry, including broccoli, squash, and cauliflower. This was all in a delicious curry sauce which soaked into the fries underneath.

The Famous Taco:

My last meal in Fort Wayne was at a restaurant called The Famous Taco.

I had three tacos. I tried the chorizo, pastor, and carnitas in the corn tortillas. The tacos were served alongside white and yellow rice and refried beans.