Foodapalooza

I had a good weekend. The little love affair I’ve been having with bacon cheeseburgers continued on Friday.

I met hubs for lunch at Graffiti Junction, a burger joint I’ve been wanting to try out for a year now. Since we didn’t drive together, it actually felt like we were on a date, which I kinda loved.

I was prepared to have my hair blown back and my pants dropped by “Orlando’s best burger” but unfortunately, I didn’t care for it. Or the fries. Or the chili we had as an appetizer.

Saturday morning, hubs and I did the Spartan workout at Crossfit. I finished in about 33 minutes. That’s a 15 minute improvement from the last time I did it. Fifteen! It’s really cool to be able to see how much I’ve improved in the year I’ve been doing Crossfit. Now I just need to figure out how to shave that time off my half marathon.

Saturday night the food fest continued when our friend Morgan was in town for the night.

We went to Ceviche, a tapas restaurant downtown, and it was delicious. We ordered a billion things and I was fully prepared to take pictures of every dish. I even had the camera in my lap the whole time, but I was so busy stuffing my face that this is the only picture I took.

We ended up at Sky Bar afterwards where our friend’s Teri and Greg joined us.

Yes. I am gigantic.

The cab ride home was equally entertaining as the night out. The driver was jamming the music so loud that none of us could hear each other speak. Hubs was in the front seat and the driver kept looking over at him while saying, “aaahhhh yeah!” as he was rocking out.

More food was had today when we went out for a Mother’s Day dinner with the in-laws at Pannullo’s in Winter Park.

We all had a hard time deciding what to order because it all sounded so good. Hubs and I ended up sharing the orange roughy, which looks like a hot mess in this picture.

And the gorgonzola stuffed chicken.

I can’t imagine why America is so fat.

Everything was delicious but I was so full afterwards that I’ve felt like a turd all day. Now I’m comatose on the couch. So far I’ve skipped my workout, taken a nap, and watched In Time. I never thought I’d look forward to eating healthy, but tomorrow cannot get here fast enough so I can get back on the wagon.

Sushi Pop

Last night, the Hubs and I went out to dinner with our friends K and Steve to Sushi Pop in Oviedo.

Sushi Pop is an ultra modern anime-themed sushi restaurant and comes extremely recommended from Hubs, Steve, and K, so I couldn’t wait to try it out.

The interior is small but adorable.

There are at least 4 televisions playing anime movies.

And all the servers dress up in an anime or Harajuku theme.

I want that backpack.

K and I were wondering how it’s possible something this cool exists in Oviedo…and next to a driving range.

The hostess had a purple wig on that we loved. You can see her walking by behind K and I.

Sushi Pop only serves beer, wine, and saki. But they do have sakitinis. I tried the Kiwi Sakitini.

It was good, but not great. K tried the Chocolate Truffle Sakitini, which was awesome. It tasted like Yoo Hoo. Yum!

I like the pink noire Veronica Mars look of the pictures from the partition we were sitting next to. I might need to come back here and solve a mystery. And make out with Logan. Wait? What are we talking about?

For dinner, Hubs and I started off with the Edamame.

They didn’t give you too much, which I liked, and you could choose whether you wanted sea salt, truffle salt, sautéed garlic, or sautéed shichimi pepper and garlic on the Edamame. (I went with sea salt.)

For dinner, I chose the Oviedo Chicken roll (tempura chicken, Japanese mayo and avocado drizzled with honey mustard), the Yee-Haw! roll (seared wagyu beef with avocado, toasted peanuts, chives and peanut hoisin sauce), and K and I split the Volcano roll (crab with spicy mayo baked on top of a cucumber and asparagus roll).

Hubs had the Bananarama roll (eel, tempura flakes, lump crab and avocado, topped with sliced bananas, honey and toasted sesame seeds) and the Two Kings roll (can’t remember what was in it, but it had salmon on top).

No pics of the Hub’s rolls, sorry. How about an aerial view of my food instead?!

I’m gonna be honest here. I tried 5 different rolls, and I didn’t care for any of them. I thought they were boring and lacked flavor. Even the Volcano Roll – which is my go-to roll at any sushi restaurant – disappointed. The baked seafood on top was crunchy in areas which was off-putting.

Everyone else loved what they ordered.

For dessert, we had the P.M.S.

Again, I didn’t care for it. The molten chocolate cake was dry and lacked flavor. Now that I look at the picture, the chocolate looks like a skid mark and I’m not sure I’m crazy about that look in my food. However, I thought the salted caramel ice cream rocked. It was very different and delicious.

In a weird turn of events, Hubs hated the ice cream and liked the cake, so at least that worked out for us since we were sharing.

Steve had the ice cream sampler, which I thought had a cute presentation.

Steve special ordered the candied bacon on top of the ice cream. *shudder*

The checks look like little gift cards. Well, the worst gift cards ever because you owe money when you open those. 🙂

Overall, I thought the atmosphere was great. Because I am the only person out of four that didn’t want to rub the food all over my body like I just discovered land, I’m going to say to try this place out if you live in the area.

Steve and K have been there numerous times and are never disappointed. Our trip was the second for the Hubs and he loved it both times too. Personally, I wouldn’t go back by choice, but I would give it another chance if my friends or the Hubs really wanted to go. Maybe I’ll reevaluate then.

Do you like sushi? (I love it, but won’t eat anything raw after a spicy tuna roll/food poisoning incident that scared me off.)

Logan or Duncan? 🙂

Dinner with Friends

Last night, the hubs and I met up with Michelle and our friend Leslie at BJ’s Brewhouse by Mall at Millennia.

(Stolen from Google)

When we arrived, we were immediately seated by a guy that looked like Steve-O from Jackass. “Steve-O” was convinced he knew Michelle and asked her if he looked familiar to her. Um, yes. You look like Steve-O. When the answer was no, I assured “Steve-O” that he knew Michelle from “the clubs.”

The best part about a sarcastic sense of humor is when people you don’t know have no clue you are joking. I’m pretty sure “Steve-O” left wondering which club he hooked up with Michelle at.

Hubs and I started with the Thai Shrimp Lettuce Wraps for an appetizer (Michelle had these for her meal.) I forgot my camera too, so these pictures are all stolen from her.

Really good, but not filling.

BJ’s has a menu of items “Under 575 calories” so I ordered the Creole Tilapia from there and it was AMAZ-ing.

The salsa on top had the perfect amount of kick to it and the fish was awesome. Usually I’m a mahi-mahi girl, so I was really surprised.

Whenever I go to a restaurant, I read the dessert menu first. That way I know if I should leave room in mah belly or order something lighter. I saw a pizookie on the menu and decided that it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

I ordered the Pizookie Trio and chose the Cookies and Crème, Peanut Butter, and Red Velvet Cake flavors. Yeah, that’s my spoon waiting in the upper left for Michelle’s slow ass to take the picture so I could dig in.

I’m not sure if you know what a pizookie is, but it’s basically 1 part angel tears combined with 2 parts kitten souls and then topped with ice cream.

Tastes goooood.

We all really liked BJ’s Brewhouse. Ok, I loved it and will definitely go back. They had me at “pizookie.” It was fun meeting up with Michelle and Leslie. Plus, none of us had seen Leslie in a couple years, so it was nice to catch up.

After hubs and I got home, we went to bed early, which happens 1% of the time. Going to bed early means I woke up at 5:00 am and 5:30 am, thought about working out, and then didn’t. You won this time, lazy.

Now it’s time to get some work done and wallow in pizookie guilt.

Do you read the dessert menu first? 🙂

Dinner with an Old Friend

My friend Kim is in town from Bradenton this week. Bradenton is about two hours South of Orlando and where I lived most of my tender, impressionable years. Kim and I went to high school together, lost touch, and got back in touch through Facebook. We thought it would be fun to meet up for dinner.

The hubs and I met up with Kim and her boyfriend Matt last night in Altamonte Springs. After Seasons 52 denied us me, we I decided to make a reservation at Elephant Bar.

I saw Kim for approximately 10 minutes about a year ago but other than that, I haven’t seen her since high school.

We’re probably 16 here. Please enjoy the rare beast known as my natural hair color, cuz that’s about the only time you’ll see it.

Hubs and I arrived on time but still had a 15 minute wait with reservations. After narrowly escaping the elephant stampede, Kim and Matt arrived.

Yes. I am 80-feet taller than Kim.

And everyone else I know.

We got our table and started instantly throwing back hard-core shots of water.

It took awhile for the food to come out, but I think the kitchen was a little overwhelmed for a Sunday night. We spent the time chatting.

Good thing I had my camera and made Kim and Matt do a private photo shoot. Matt was thrilled.

Ahh, much better.

I didn’t get any pictures of my cobb salad once it came out because I started sucking it down like a Hoover. The vacuum. Not the ex-president. Unless he ate fast, then maybe like him.  All of us loved what we had.

I did get a picture of our dessert. The Hot Apple Blueberry Walnut Cobbler. Holy crap that thing is good. The picture is blurry since I needed to take it quick before Matt ate my part.

That dessert is the equivalent of eating this:

About 1 minute after the above picture was taken, the plate looked like this.

Matt really liked the dessert. A lot.

After Matt was done licking the plate, I asked him to take a picture of me and Kim. I got this.

Eh, close enough.

We all had a great time. It was so much fun catching up with Kim and making our men sit through long conversations about stuff like laser hair removal in the nether regions.

I had only been to Elephant Bar once before several years ago and I forgot how good it was. I’m going to have to go back more often.

Thanks for dinner Kim and Matt! It was awesome seeing you. 🙂