aloha cuz

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celebrated my birthday last weekend. My sister has been in the area for about 3 weeks on vacation-spending time between the beach, my parents and my house. So, I was able to spend a day with her and her kids along with dinner out on the the big day.
We had actually made reservations to hit ‘Ohana at the Disney Polynesian Resort about 4 months ago when I tried to get in there for our anniversary. It is a popular Hawaiian themed restaurant with a great view on the lake outside of the Magic Kingdom.
We were ushered in and told a line about Hawaiians giving you a loaf of bread and then you become family. They gave us a loaf and proceeded to call us all cuz.
We were also given a great seat right at the window with a view to Cinderella’s castle and them the food started coming. I hadn’t realized it is a family style all you can eat type place.
First came green with honey lime dressing followed by pork and lemongrass potstickers with a kind of carmelly drizzle and teriyaki wings. Then they brought out skewers of really good fire roasted meat, pork, chicken, steak and shrimp. We were impressed at the quality of the cooking over huge fires at the end of the room. Meanwhile, a guy played the ukelele and put leis on people for their birthday/anniversary and taught the hukelau. They brought out some excessive peanut noodles and steamed veg (brocoli and snap peas) and then closed with banana bread pudding with coconut ice cream and banana carmel sauce. Kind of excessive but a fun experience.

After dinner we took a monorail ride to the Magic Kingdom while the sun went down and then rounded off our trip with a breezy boat ride across the lake. I love the magic of Disney, the kind of false magic that is kind of dreamy and thought out. I notice the wear by millions of guests but still enjoy the show. We even found some funny art fish that we both loved in a gallery in the lobby. Aloha!

old salty dog

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we stopped in at the old salty dog on the virtue that we saw it on the man v food show on the travel channel…. soooo I can’t gripe too much if the food is less than spectacular.  Decorated in beach shack pub style with a dog dish for the table.  It is sitting on the water in Sarasota, Fl and the view can’t be beat.  We went there to get an oversize deep fried hotdog.  Yikes.  Kind of shameful when I think about it.  Not a corndog, just a beer battered foot long dog with whatever fixins float your boat.  Z had jack cheese and grilled onion and I had bacon and cheddar.  It was crunchy and fun with mustard added on top.  They bring out all the baseline condiments, relish, onion, ketchup and mustard for you to add and the dogs come with fries.  It was about what you’d expect, a greezy dog but t was fun to eat and consider the ridiculousness.  We sat and watched boats on the water and the sunset and then made our way home.

hawkers

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roti flatbreads with curry dipping sauce
five spice pork chopettes

hawker – one of the definitions is a person who travels around selling goods, typically advertising them by shouting and it is also the name of a restaurant on Mills that was so new they hadn’t had their grand opening when we stopped in on a rainy Friday night for dinner.  It is a place of small shared plates of Asian street foods and they have tons of options all ranging $3 to $6.  There are a few countries showcased including Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and China.  We had six small plates starting with green papaya salad and moving on to five spice deep fried green beans and roti flat breads with incredible lightly spiced curry.  After the curry out came roast duck tacos with korean bbq sauce and five spice pork tenderloin chopettes followed by pork bahn mi sliders.   Everything was really good and all we missed was a small bite of dessert but they said they were still working on the menu.  We will definitely be back.

padrino’s

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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.