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Archive for ‘eating out’

May 11th, 2011

burger king chicken tenders

Recently I was offered a free gift card to try out Burger King’s NEW Chicken Tenders.

Umm, free food you say?

Yes, please!

One day last week when hubs was on his way home from work, he picked up a 20 piece of the new chicken tenders so we could test them out. Burger King has lots of sauce options for the tenders, but hubs kept it simple with sweet BBQ and tangy honey mustard.  Hubs says BK has the best tasting burgers – so with the leftover money on the card he also picked himself up a Whopper.

Dude is always so hungry…

In addition to the new menu item, Burger King also has a neat feature on their website to help with calorie counting. You can choose the item you’re planning on getting and then add any sauces to it and on the right hand side there is a calorie counter to let you know where you are at with the calories!  I think this is kinda genius of them because if you’re someone who’s watching what your caloric intake is, you can easily see what you’re in store for before you even go to the restaurant!

And I don’t know about you, but if I had the calorie info right at my finger tips for every place I ever went out to eat at…well, let’s just say some places could never come even close to offering me options I could consider :)

But I guess that what “cheat days” are for!

Thanks to Mommy’s Wishlist for recommending me to try these new chicken tenders – they were scrumptious!

Oh, and their Cinna-Mini’s are KILLER good too! Hubs brought me some for a “breakfast-in-bed” on Mother’s Day :)

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April 7th, 2011

the Waldorf Astoria & dinner at the chef’s table

In an effort to “get-away” we opted for an overnight trip to Orlando for my birthday weekend.  We couldn’t go far because of his job, so this was the perfect spot; hubs planned everything and all I had to do was show up! We left town on Saturday afternoon and arrived in Orlando before dinner.  T booked an uber swanky hotel for us to stay the night in because he said, “You only turn 30 once!”  I had no idea where we were staying until we pulled up to the doors and I saw the sign, “Welcome to the Waldorf Astoria Orlando.”

Wow!

Once we checked in we changed and headed out for dinner. Hubs had picked a really unique restaurant that he felt was right up my alley.

Boy was he right!

The dinner was held at the Chef’s Table of the La Coquina restaurant.  It was set up with about 5 tables right inside the chef’s kitchen, and at any time during the meal you were allowed to get up, go inside the kitchen and watch the chef’s prepare the meal. It was so cool! I felt like I was right there on set of The Food Network!!!

I had so much fun watching them cook and prepare the food – it was right up my alley! I have to admit, hubs and I are kinda foodies. We like saving up for a nice dinner out at a fancy place and we both agreed that this was by far the best meal we’ve ever had! No pre-meal fillers like bread & butter or chips & salsa – this was legit!

I’d attempt to describe each plate that was served, but really, my lame adjectives do nothing to convey the yumminess that was before us. Here was how the menu listed our evening of dinner:

Amuse-Bouche with Pertosian Caviar

Lemongrass Poached Lobster

Potato Wrapped Snapper

Honey Roasted Duck Breast

Champagne Grape Ganite and Gele

Pepper Seared Buffalo Tenderloin

Bouche’e of Chocolate Bread Pudding

La Coquina Signature Grand Marnier Souffle

items pictured from left to right, in order of menu

Savory. Crisp. Buttery. Tart. Salty. Rich. Creamy. Juicy. Sweet.

It was amazing.

Pricey, but amazing!

Best of all – it lasted 2 hours (the time passed quickly!), which was perfect for savoring each dish and keeping room for the next. The only thing that was probably bad was the fact that we don’t really drink wine – they had about 4 pairings to go with each entree, but hubs and I politely declined and stuck with good ole’ H2O. We did drink the champagne though – it was quite good!

What is the best meal you ever had?

Categoryeating out, experiences with food, life experiences, travel | Comment6 Comments »

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March 15th, 2011

ice cream birthday cake for hubs

You know those “About Me” sections on the social media sites? Hubs always puts the same thing:

I’m in the Navy and I love ice cream.

That’s serious business. His love for ice cream might preceed his love for Saints football on some days. It might also preceed his love for traveling. There are moments when I think I’m in direct competition with Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Chunk…but ice cream melts and I do not.

I Win!

Hubs and I celebrated his birthday last month and unlike me, he doesn’t enjoy making a big hoopla about birthday’s. He never wants a party, no gifts, no special acknowledgement at all. Denial? Maybe. But he’s also the most giving person I know - and usually givers have a hard time recieving.

The one thing he mentioned he would like was an ice cream cake. So my hunt began for the perfect ice cream cake for him.

A few days before his birthday I started making plans. I did my best to keep it low key but I still ended up inviting several friends of ours out to lunch with us to celebrate.  But I still wasn’t sure what to do about the cake… I was torn because I can’t eat ice cream without some serious reprecussions, so I didn’t want to buy us a large cake that he’d have to consume all by himself, though he might not have minded that. Actually he would mind that since he’s trying to eat more healthy.

Still learning my way around town, I turned to Google to help me out. I came across a lot of options, but decided on calling Cold Stone Creamery to see what they could do. When I called Cold Stone they told me they had the solution for my not wanting a large cake: I could do a petite cake (and we all know how much I adore mini-anything!) and it was less than $10!

Hubs loves peanut butter so I chose the peanut butter cup cake. But it was made with chocolate ice cream (which hubs is not a big fan of) so I was a little worried.

Until the guy in the phone told me I could have it made HOWEVER I WANTED.

Did I just call Burger King?

I was so thrilled – I could hardly keep it a secret from hubs! I place the order and told them I’d be there on the weekend to pick it up. The night before his birthday (which is when we were celebrating it) we made a “stop for an errand” and I took him in with me when we picked up his cake.  I got him a chocolate ganache ice cream cake filled with a layer of vanilla speckled with pieces of Reeses Peanut butter cups over a layer of moist chocolate cake. Then we brought it home, he sliced it up and we “mmm’d and mmm’d” until it was finished.

I’m pretty sure ice cream cake is gonna be a must for us for every birthday he has from here on out! What do you think?

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March 1st, 2011

Mambo’s Cuban Bistro on the beach

By far one of my favorite things about moving to Florida has been the abundance of Cuban food. It’s not exactly like Puerto Rican food (which is my favorite), but it’s pretty close.

And it’s more reasonable than waiting until I see my mom again so she can make some Puerto Rican food!

My theory is that a lot of the islands in the Carribbean have similar flavors, each with their own spin on it.  Of course to test this theory I’ll have to visit more islands in the Carribbean…

Unlike Texas, where Tex-Mex and Mexican food dominated the scene, Florida is inundated with Cuban flavors all over the place!  It was hard living in Texas because Tex-Mex/Mexican food isn’t compatible with my dietary restrictions, so I mostly avoided it.

Except for the tortillas.

My weakness: fresh-made, still-warm tortillas from Rosa’s Tortilla Factory.

I digress.  Texas offered me a lot to be desired in the way of latin food. And finding Puerto Rican food anywhere in the USA beyond my mom’s table has been near impossible.

So imagine my great delight when I found Amarillos Fritos at the store (here they are called fried plantains) – they are my all time favorite food. Just ask hubs. I’m ALWAYS in the mood for them.  Best of all, they exist in abundance in Puerto Rico and they are so simple to make!

But don’t ask me to make you any.

Because it’s likely I’ll mess them up. And you’ll be forced to sprinkle salt all over them to drown out the taste while doing your best to smile and make grunts of approval…

At least that’s what hubs did last time I tried to make them.

So finding them pre-made is like heaven on earth!  What was even better was when the hubs and I discovered this gem of a restaurant called Mambo’s (they have 2 locations: Mambo Cafe & Mambo’s Cuban Bistro) where they have all kinds of Cuban food that is very similar (if not exactly) like my favorite Puerto Rican dishes.  The bistro is located right next to the beach and I recently went there with a friend for dinner.

On the menu was a $3 margarita (on the rocks), picadillo (a ground meat concoction with olives and raisins), fried plantains, yellow rice, and flan for dessert!

I just adore this kind of food – it’s flavorful, but not spicy or lactose-laden. I can pretty much eat anything on the menu – and I can’t wait to go back to try more!  Do you have a favorite Cuban dish you love that I should try? If not, what is your favorite dish to enjoy?

Categoryeating out, experiences with food | Comment8 Comments »

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