Orlando Food Trucks: The Crooked Spoon

I had been trying to get to The Crooked Spoon for lunch for the past few weeks but life (or laziness!) kept getting in my way. So, when I was ready for work a bit early the other day, I decided to stop by their spot at the Citgo station on the corner of E. Colonial Dr. and Fern Creek. I ordered both the lamb burger and the macaroni and cheese, and even filled my car with gas while I waited for my food to be ready!

The folks working at this awesome truck are super friendly (and responded to my tweeted question regarding whether or not they take credit cards-they do-in the time it took me to drive from my house to their location), and the food is super tasty.

I opened my lamb burger as soon as I sat down at work and it smelled and tasted amazing. I had never had ground lamb before in anything but a gyro, and now I can't wait to experiment with it at home! So, so good. I shared about a third of it with my friend and found myself wishing I hadn't!! Of course, I was completely full by the time I finished the burger and accompanying chips, so the mac and cheese was put into the fridge for the following day.

This photo SO does not do the burger justice :(

The next day for lunch I warmed the mac and cheese up in the microwave at work and brought it back to my desk, eager to enjoy the item I'd heard the most good things about from this gourmet food truck. I will be honest; I am a bit of a macaroni and cheese purist. I like noodles, cheese (preferably a variety), seasoning, and some sort of crispy topping. I am not much of a fan of veggies or meat mixed in; at that point, I feel like it has become a casserole, not macaroni and cheese. That being said, the cheesy flavors and topping on the macaroni and cheese from The Crooked Spoon were great, even after being reheated in the microwave. I was not a huge fan of the peppers and bacon scattered throughout but again, that is more due to my feelings about macaroni and cheese in general and not that the flavors were bad. They weren't, far from it.

Would I go to The Crooked Spoon food truck again? You bet. Over, and over. I only wish the lamb burger was part of their regular menu. However, since it isn't, I'll have the opportunity to try the other items this truck has to offer.

Disney Series #2: Kouzzina by Cat Cora

C and I stayed at Disney for our anniversary back in January and took advantage of the Disney Dining Plan as part of our mini-vacation. I know this post is way late but hey...I didn't have a blog back in January! On the first night of our stay we decided to try out Kouzzina by Cat Cora (here's a link to the full menu, a new-ish restaurant (it opened in August of 2009) that took the place of Spoodles at Disney's Boardwalk Resort. I had made reservations a few days prior, and boy was I happy that I had!




Photo taken from WDW Info


I have been a fan of Cat Cora's since her show Kitchen Accomplished aired on the Food Network, and love watching her on Iron Chef America, so when I saw that she was opening a restaurant nearby, I was psyched. Mediterranean food is a particular favorite of mine and C enjoys it as well, so it was a good choice for us for our anniversary trip. The anticipation was high enough as it was, but when we got to the restaurant and checked in for our reservation and saw a sign stating that Cat was actually at the restaurant that night and meeting the patrons, I got a little bit star-struck. Movie stars and famous singers do nothing for me. They might as well just be really rich (and often very attractive) random people. For the most part, anyway. Chefs and writers that I admire, though? As much as I say "oh they are just normal people, why would I get all worked up over meeting so-and-so"...I am 100% full of crap. When I saw Cat Cora walking around her restaurant and greeting people, I got positively giddy. Please forgive the horrible quality of these photos; they were taken with my old and incredibly crappy cell phone.



Me looking ridiculous and giddy and Cat Cora....not looking at the camera. Oops!

Oishi Japanese Hibachi Restaurant

I bought a coupon from EverSave awhile back for $40 worth of food at Oishi Japanese Hibachi Restaurant for $20 and kept forgetting to use it. So, when I realized I had both a free evening and a craving for sushi, a foodie friend and I went off to take advantage of my awesome deal. I had read very mixed reviews of Oishi on Yelp so went in with an open mind and fairly average expectations.

Oishi is located at the corner of International Drive and Central Florida Parkway in a shopping plaza. It looks unassuming from the outside, but the decor is very nice. The tables are made to look like natural wood, and while there is a lot going on, it is tastefully done. Since it was relatively late (almost 10pm, and they close at 11), we decided to sit at the sushi bar with hopes of seeing some exciting stuff being made right in front of us. Alas, the clear window was a bit too high to see anything going on behind the counter. A little disappointing, but no biggie; we could decide what we wanted from the menu instead of just picking and choosing as things that looked good went out to other tables.

We ordered four rolls (spicy tuna roll, sex on the moon roll, spider roll, and ninja roll) plus two pieces of octopus sushi. I'll be honest, I tend to like to order rolls that sound a little different, so I was excited about both the sex on the moon and the ninja rolls because of their wild descriptions, but I was really most pleased with the simpler rolls.

Recipe Quickie: Cheese & Onion Pasties

We lived in the UK for about a year after I graduated college (C is British), and while I had never heard many glowing reviews of British food, I did find that I was VERY fond of their "takeaways" while living there. One of my favorite items from our local Fish & Chip shop was the cheese and onion pasty. Pasties are basically savory hand pies filled with a variety of delicious combinations of meat, cheese, and veggies.

Here is a quick dinner I whipped up a couple of nights ago for C and I. They are incredibly easy, do not need any sort of real recipe, and can easily be frozen to keep on hand for even quicker meals.

Ingredients:

yellow onion
cheese (I use pre-shredded colby or cheddar jack, usually)
frozen puff pastry

Directions:

I preheat the oven at 375, then set the puff pastry out to defrost. While it defrosts I slice the onions and put them in a saute pan with a pat of butter and some olive oil. On medium-low to medium heat I saute the onions until they are soft and slightly brown and then transfer them to a mixing bowl. I let the onions cool a bit while I put parchment paper onto a cookie sheet and spray it with cooking spray. I then unfold the puff pastry and let it continue defrosting. Once that is done, I add the cheese (usually a full bag of shredded cheese) to the mixing bowl along with some salt and pepper and whatever other seasonings strike my fancy at that moment. After mixing everything together, I cut each sheet of defrosted puff pastry into four pieces, then spoon a generous amount of filling onto half of each piece. Then the pastry gets folded over and sealed with a fork before being moved onto the cookie sheet. Once they are all laid out on the cookie sheet, I spray them lightly with cooking spray and cut slits in each little package. They look like this:

Then I pop them in the oven for 35-40 minutes, and they come out all golden, delicious, and oozing with cheesy oniony flavor. Like I said, these little packets of amazingness can be made with pretty much any filling. Try shepherd's pie, with ground beef, veggies, and chunks of potato! Or chicken pot pie filling! The possibilities are endless, really.

Key Lime Cupcakes

When the key lime tree growing in a pot in front of our house is bursting with fruit like it is right now, it means only one thing to me: time to make key lime cupcakes! This year I’ve got all sorts of other key lime ideas (key lime tiramisu, key lime cookies, key lime pie, key lime ice cream, the possibilities are endless!), but I had to start with my classic favorite cupcakes. These cupcakes aren’t difficult to make, but they are definitely a bit time-consuming. I’ve had some health issues this year that have kept me from baking as often as I like due to mobility problems, so now that I am feeling better most days I have been itching to get back in there. This recipe is great for that because of the different steps; they took me two days to finish this time, but I got to rest in between. Plus, they are totally worth waiting for, if I do say so myself (and I do).

I made this recipe up because the key lime cupcakes I had had from various bakeries and found in various cookbooks just weren’t…key-lime-y…enough for me. I like a seriously tart dessert with tons of delicious citrus flavor, so I was intent on infusing every part of this treat with some lime component. I started with my favorite yellow cake recipe, taken from Cupcakes! and adapted it slightly by using a bit less sugar and adding a generous amount of key lime zest to the batter. Elinor’s recipe is so great in part because it uses only oil as the fat, no butter, so it can be used last minute instead of having to wait for butter to soften. The first time I made it I worried it would have an effect on the cake but they always, always come out moist and delicious. So, I start by making regular sized cupcakes, adding the key lime zest to the batter at the very end. Using an ice cream scoop sprayed with cooking spray, I divvy the batter up in the cupcake pans and pop them in the oven.

Disney Series #1 – Paradiso 37, Sassagoula Floatworks & Food Factory, and Riverside Mill Foodcourt

I am a self-professed Disney freak and have been so for pretty much my entire life. I spent my childhood visiting WDW every spring break, and then when my family moved to Celebration in my teens, I didn’t even wait a week after my sixteenth birthday before walking into the Disney Casting Center and getting my first job. I left the company (much to my dismay – that job was the best I’ve ever had but just couldn’t pay my bills) a few years ago but have continued to visit the parks time and time again, whether it be for day trips or for weekend getaways.

Even after working for “the mouse” for eight years and visiting as often as I have, I have barely scratched the surface of the amazing and varied dining experiences that Walt Disney World has to offer. Due to that, I bring to you the first of my Disney Series of restaurant blog posts. Ideally, I’d like to eventually visit, photograph, and write-up each of the full-service (and some of the counter-service) restaurants on property.

We stayed at the Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter this past weekend for a short break from reality. We had originally planned to spend one of the days in the parks but opted to just hang out at the resort for the most part instead. I had stayed there for a week when I was nine (back when it was just Port Orleans Resort), and my memory of the resort was fairly accurate, although it was clear the rooms had been renovated in the past 18 years at some point. The rooms were gorgeous, and the property equally so; the huge trees and cobbled walkways make it a great place to walk around, Sassagoula River runs the length of the property, and a boat dock is right by the pool area with a ferry to and from Downtown Disney running every ten to twenty minutes throughout the day. Speaking of the pool area, there were plenty of comfortable lounge chairs scattered about the twisty pool, and the dragon’s body that weaves its way around said pool is adorable. Port Orleans French Quarter was the very first Disney resort to get its own water slide, so I should have taken that to mind when I was recalling the slide for C. I described it somewhat as “this AWESOME AMAZING DRAGON HEAD where you slide down his INSANELY LONG TONGUE.” Needless to say, my adult brain was remembering it as it had seemed to my nine-year-old self. The slide was still pretty cool, and it IS a dragon’s tongue, but it is very short and very tame. Still fun, though.

Anyway, while at the resort for the weekend we mainly noshed at the local food courts, with a trip to Downtown Disney for a mid-afternoon sit-down lunch/dinner (linner? Dunch?) at Paradiso 37, a restaurant I’d wanted to try since it first opened (after they tore down my beloved Pleasure Island sobsob). For dinner the first night we ate at Sassagoula Floatworks & Food Factory, the French Quarter’s food court and pizza shop. It was standard Disney quick-service fare: expensive with above average flavors. C had an angus bacon cheeseburger with French fries and I had cheese steak sandwich with pasta salad. Both of the sandwiches were made to order, and the cheese steak was very tasty, even if the ratio of meat to bread was a little low. The French fries were well-seasoned but my pasta salad was pretty terrible, frankly. It was elbow macaroni, chopped celery, and chick peas with seemingly no dressing at all. No seasoning, even. It was extremely bland, and I didn’t eat more than two bites.  That night after dinner we went to the Scat Cat’s Lounge, which boasted live jazz and delicious libations. How could we turn that down? Our new friend Elliott did entertain for a few hours, although his music was not limited to just jazz. The man is talented, playing the saxophone, the clarinet, and the steel drums as well as singing during his set, and almost all of the songs were great, even if they weren’t all the jazz we’d been hoping for. Once he broke out Kool & the Gang, though, I was sort of ready to go. My Pina Colava (pina colada mixed with raspberry puree. So. Good. Especially when made with vodka instead of rum) couldn’t even get me through that one.