Kouzzina March 18, 2010

After my visit to Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill, I couldn't pass up the change to try Cat Cora's Kouzzina. While Flay's cooking style is Southwestern, Cora's is a Mediterranean style. Newly opened in 2009, Kouzzina occupies space at the Walt Disney World Boardwalk with a nice view to the Epcot Geodesic sphere.









After putting my name down on the list, I waited about 35 minutes before my pager buzzed and I was seated. I ordered the signature Ouzo-tini. Ouzo is a clear Greek Liquer flavored with Anise. The Ouzo-tini also has Absolut Vodka, Pineapple juice, fresh lime juice and Pomegranate served in a sugar-rimmed martini glass. The ouzo-tini was strong. In fact, I was more buzzed after my second sip than I was from the entire beer the prior night. I must admit that I dindn't enjoy the Ouzo-tini. I've since come to the conclusion that I'm not a huge fan of Anise. For those unfamiliar, Anise has a taste that is similar to licorice.


For my main dish, I ordered the Pastitsio, a greek-style lasagna made with bucatini pasta, a cinnamon-spiced meat sauce, all covered with a nice thick bechamel sauce. the Pastitsio was quite tasty. The bucatini pasta is similar to chopped up thick noodles that I've occasionally tasted. The meat sauce spiced with cinnamon was interesting. The bechamel was a perfect way to top the entire dish.



























I ended my meal with the Freshly baked Greek Donuts drizzled with warm honey. The donuts were light and amazingly tasty.




All in all, I have to say that I enjoyed my meal at Kouzzina. Although the wait was long, the fact that it is located on the Boardwalk at WDW means that I could do some people-watching while waiting. Two iron chefs down, four to go.

Verdict: I'd drive 20 miles to try it again, but WDW is a bit far from So Cali.

Giordano's March 17, 2010

By my third night in Orlando, I wanted to do something unique to the Orlando area. I read about a restaurant that servers Peanut Butter and Jelly cheeseburgers and went in search of the restaurant. Either the GPS unit led me astray or the restaurant didn't exist anymore, but when I got to the location, there was only an Olive Garden and a Burger King at the location. I continued driving down the street and spied a Giordano's Pizza and parked.

Giordano's is a Chicago chain specializing in Chicago style deep dish and stuffed pizza. For those of you who don't know the difference, a deep dish is a pizza served in a very deep dish while a stuffed pizza is a deep dish pizza served with another crust on top. The stuffed pizza usually consists of (from the bottom up) Crust, toppings and cheese, another crust, and sauce.







I ordered an ice tea and a medium Special Stuffed Pizza which consists of Italian sausage, green peppers, mushrooms and onions. I intentionally ordered the medium (normally for 3-4 people) so I would have leftovers the following night. My pizza came out about 30 minutes later piping hot and smelling delicious. Stuffed pizzas take approximately 30-35 minutes to prepare so get ready for a wait. The wait is so very very worth the time, though.




The great thing about Giordano's or any really good pizza place is the fact that they use real mozzarella instead of some cheese product. Notice the intense stretch of the many strands of mozzarella cheese on the picture of the slice of pizza. That's real mozzarella baby and it's a thing of beauty. I'm drooling just looking at it right now.




The cold leftover pizza was still tasty, but I've come to the conclusion that stuffed pizza aren't as good as regular pizza the day after. The toppings and cheese were still heavenly, but the crust became hard and crumbly. Stuffed pizzas are good the day of and not so good the day after.

I could easily see myself indulging in stuffed pizza again and I'd probably drive 35 minutes to get one, but unfortunately, Chicago is a tad bit more than a 35 minute drive.

Big River Brewery March 15, 2010

Traveling to the East Coast can be brutal. You pretty much lose a day since you're flying in the opposite direction of the sun. I checked into my hotel at around 7:00pm and immediately walked around looking for a place to eat. Surprisingly all of the restaurants in/near my hotel and on the Boardwalk were crowded despite being a Sunday evening. I was attending a conference and had a feeling that a lot of the people there were also attending the same conference. I finally decided that the line at the Big River Brewery was the shortest, so I walked up, place my name on the wait list with the hostess and sat down to do a little people watching. For those of you who normally spend a day a Disneyland or Walt Disney World trying to fit in as many attractions as possible, I've always found Disneyland to be a great place to people watch.

After waiting for about 10
minutes, my name was called and I was seated outside where I could do more people watching. My Gadzooks Pilsner was a nice flavorful pilsner with a nice crisp taste.










Before my trip, I promised myself that I would attempt to eat a healthy balance of food, so I started off with a dinner salad. I try to order my salad dressing on the side as I find that many times they slather my salad in dressing, but this time I forgot and got my money's worth.















My main dish was the Shrimp and Scallop Penne Pasta. Sauteed shrimps and scallops in a pesto sauce all ladled over penne pasta. The pesto wasn't as strong as it could have been, which leads me to think the sauce probably was packaged and simply heated and then pour onto top of the shrimp and scallops. I was happy with the number of shrimp and scallops that my dish included. The penne wasn't as al dente as I would have preferred, but overall the dish wasn't bad.

















If I had to drive to get food from Big River Brewery, I wouldn't drive more than 15 minutes away. I also don't see myself craving it anytime soon.

Barcelona on the Go June 2, 2010

I must admit that I don't really like the term foodie. I prefer the term Neo-Gourmand. As a Neo-Gourmand, I'm always keep my eyes and ears open for new taste experiences. Of course, it can be more difficult to find new tastes and new experiences in boring, we-close-at-8pm OC. More often than not, I'm headed towards LA anytime I'm on the hunt to experience the latest and greatest. When I heard that a great Spanish (not Mexican) experience could be had at Barcelona on the go, I had to brush the dust off of my twitter account and go hunting for this Famous OC food truck.


Debuting on March 15, 2010, Barcelona on the Go is a new OC twist on the food truck craze sweeping the country. Specializing in Spanish cuisine, I found Barcelona on the Go would be parked a few minutes from work. I managed to convince a few co-workers to drive down the street to try something new.

I ordered the Flank Steak with Chimichurri sauce and french fries. I also ordered two chicken empanadas. The flank steak was tasty and the french fries were crisp, light and perfectly fried. I did find it odd that, although the cashier asked how I wanted my steak (medium), they cooked the meat well done. In fact, all past pictures of the dish featured steak that was well done. If they're gonna cook it well done anyways, why bother asking me. The empanadas were light and flaky with a very tasty chicken filling.
















All in all, it was a tasty, cheap lunch experience, but I've had better meals from other trucks and from other Spanish restaurants. I'd drive a maximum of 10 minutes to get it again.

Nick Tahou Hots - May 25, 2010

Number 81 on the Travel Channel's "101 Tastiest Places to Chowdown" is Nick Tahou Hots. Located in Rochester NY, (a convenient 15 minutes from my company's Rochester manufacturing location) Nick Tahou Hots was established in 1918 and is the home to a Rochester staple - The Garbage Plate. Garbage plate, you say?? How could that be possibly appetizing? Well, the name is certainly not as appetizing as the components of the garbage plate.





Starting from the bottom and working our way up, a customer can order and mix of sides including home fries, macaroni salad, baked beans or french fries. The customer will next choose their protein portion consisting of red hots (hot dogs) white hots (an upstate NY variation of the hot dog), cheeseburger, hamburger, Italian sausage, chicken tenders, fried fish (haddock), fried ham, egg, veggie burger or grilled cheese. Then it is all topped off with mustard, chopped raw onions, and Nick Tahou's signature red sauce, which is a kind of beanless chili.


I selected the home fries, macaroni salad and cheese burger for my garbage plate. I topped it all off with a root beer.






Overall, the garbage plate was pretty tasty. I especially love the red sauce and chopped onions on top of the burger patties. I also like the creamy contrast that the potato salad provides.













The one component that I was not happy with was the home fries. If you serve me stale home fries, at least give me a plastic fork sturdy enough to puncture them. It only adds insult to injury to hive me a cheap plastic fork and then serve me stale potatoes hard enough to force me to stab the home fries with my knife instead of my fork. Overall, I'd try the garbage plate again, but I'd rather try the french fries or come during a busier period when the sides are fresher.





How far would I drive to get it? 20 minutes. It was good, but it could have been better.

Sassoon Chicken May 14, 2010

Periodically, I get weird cravings, whether it be McDonald's French Fries dipped in Soft Serve Ice Cream, or Ketchup on my fried rice. I recently had a sudden craving for Falafel and I'm always on the lookout for good Lebanese food someplace closer than Anaheim. Thanks to yelp, I found out about Sassoon Chicken. A mere 10 minute from my workplace, I had to give this place a try.

Whenever I visit Zankou, I usually inhale three wraps in the span of about 10 minutes. So I mirrored my usual Zankou order at Sassoon and ordered a chicken shawerma wrap, a beef shawerma wrap and a falafel wrap. Falafel, in case you didn't know, is THE greasy comfort food that people in the middle east indulge in. Interestingly enough, it's a food that's popular with both Israelis and Palestinians both. Sassoon chicken is a small mom and pop store in a strip mall in Orange. Pop took my order, mom prepared my order and poor junior was outside cleaning graffiti off of all of the windows. I went early and was the only patron in the restaurant, which is never a good sign to me.

I received my order about 15 minutes later and took my food back to the office.

I started off with the falafel. The falafel was tasty and perfectly crispy. The flatbread was fresh, which is always nice. I really despise stale flatbread.










After inhaling this delicious wrap, I moved onto the chicken shawerma wrap next. The chicken was flavorful and tender. The fresh tomatoes provided a nice sharp flavor to contrast the strong garlic sauce.










The final wrap was the beef shawerma wrap. Now out of all of the wraps, this one was the most disappointing. The beef was dry as if it had been sitting on the spit all day. Since I appeared to be the first customer of the day, I guess I'm not really surprised that my beef shawerma was dry, but it was disappointing nevertheless.






How far would I drive to get it? 15 minutes. It's okay, but hopefully it could be better.

Kogi May 13, 2010

So after seeing one of my coworkers mention the Kogi BBQ truck I tracked down when the Kogi truck was coming to the K-1 racing building in Irvine and invited him and some coworkers to experience Kogi. I had actually waited for them slightly over an hour the previous week when they visited the Bruery in Fullerton. I had the Kogi sliders, the Kogi dog and a short rib burrito in Fullerton. When the came down to Irvine, I had the short rib burrito again, but did the blackjack quesadilla for the first time.

I must say that I've found a new favorite at Kogi. I'm always a sucker for anything with a lot of cheese, so quesadillas have a special place in my heart. The Blackjack quesadilla consists of ooey, gooey, jack and cheddar cheeses enveloping spicy pork (not very spicy at all) and caramelized onions. All in a folded and toasted tortilla topped with Kogi's special Salsa Verde.


How long would I drive to get more? An hour. It's that good.