stopped in on our way home from the beach. Padrino‘s is about 10 minutes from our house down the highway. They serve Cuban flavor and it tastes pretty good. They brought us crunchy plantain chips with onion and veg oil for a pre-lunch snack. Z tried a steak empanizado (coated and fried in flour) with traditional palomilla onions. It came with black rice and deep fried plantain. I had a warm cuban with fries and lots of iced tea. It was a nice find for a quick pull off the highway.
seems kinda fitting that we would eat at a New Orlean’s kitchen tonight – on the eve of one of the most massive floods in the recorded history of the Mississippi River. A sign on the wall read, ‘God willin and da creek don’t rise…’ We ate at the few months old Tibby’s New Orleans Kitchen tonight with a friend and friend of a friend. It was on my Orlando To-do list and is by the creators of Tijuana Flats and I am sure they must have plans to expand to multiple locations as it feels like a really bankable restaurant. I think that will be doable as it really was one of the more enjoyable meals I’ve had in a long time. We tried both new and familiar dishes.
I kicked it off with a nice strong hurricane-rummy, yummy and strong! For an app we tried the New Orleans Cheese Plank – a crispy fried pepper jack sitting on creole sauce-one of those things it is better you run out of before you want to stop eating. Z had an andouille po-boy and loved the flavor and texture. I had a Parish Country Fried Steak and andouille grits. It was all nested on red wine andouille gravy with crispy fried nuggets of sausage. Why can’t I make grits that taste like this? To cap it off we had beignets doused in powdered sugar-fluffy and sweet. A fun night with good food-excellent.
friday night we left the house under dubious skies and struck out for a new restaurant in Winter Park called Jimmy Hula’s It’s been open for about a month so should have surpassed the newbie opening error stage, It is a fast casual kind of place decked out literally with a large wraparound porch and comfy seats inside that look like boat seat cushions. There is surfing lifestyle paraphernalia everyplace including boards and tiki huts. You stand in line which is kind of slow and watch the menu board flip by. It is a little complicated to figure out what you want based on the flip actually. I had the advantage of perusing the menu online before we went so had some idea – Z less so and for him it was hard to figure out what he wanted. I think they probably lose some sales and ad-ons like apps because of it.
I ordered the Burnt Reynolds burger – fried egg, bacon, potato chips and ketchup. Z had a Pipeline Pork – citrus marinated pulled pork with voodoo sauce. The pork was really tasty. His sandwich was better than mine though – my burger was not hot or particularly juicy. We also ordered three sides to go with. Jalapeno bottlecaps, onion petals and curly fries. All had sat just a bit too long – they weren’t really fresh or crunchy. The voodoo sauce on the side of my petals was tasty.
I think they could have done better. For the mediocre food – it was packed – which shows that this is what people are looking for. The prices are reasonable and it had good ambiance. We were there for the food though and it could be kicked up a notch.
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| Mini Lychee Pinkberry w/ Lime Wedges & Mochi |
according to google, habibi variously means either ‘mah boy’ or ‘my love/dear’ depending if it comes from a man or a woman. We ate at a little local place for lunch today called Habibi. I am guessing it is a labor of someone’s love. Clean, tiny and a big menu of Lebanese fast casual eating, they had everything from the falafel I was craving to schwarma and kebabs. I had falafel in Lebanese bread with Lebanese hot sauce, pickled red onions and tahini. They didn’t have their fryer up which seems funny for a Saturday afternoon so there were no fries or anything available but the sandwich was just great. Z had a kebab probably so he could say kebab.
My Urban Pantry 