Food Truck Bazaar

Food trucks have been around for years, but for some reason central Fl was a little behind on this trend, especially Kissimmee. I am so happy that City of Kissimmee has let the Food Truck Bazaar group  have a monthly roundup event. These food trucks are not your typical "roach coach" trucks. These are restaurants on wheels, some even gourmet. On Friday, 15 trucks lined up all along Dakin St.

They had trucks from lobster rolls to gourmet cupcakes.The first truck we went to was for pupusas. A pupusa is a Salvadoran dish made of thick, hand-made corn tortillas and stuffed with ground pork, cheese, and beans. Then they topped it with spicy salsa and cabbage. They also had other varieties like jalapeno cheese which my husband tried.These little pockets of goodness were my favorite food of the night. I will be getting these again. And since they are cooked on a griddle and not fried, they were not heavy or greasy. Just perfectly crisp.

 

 Our next stop was at a Korean BBQ truck. The bbq boxes came with your choice of meat, rice, sushi, salad, spicy chicken wing, and tofu. All for $8. I tried the short rib box. The meat was marinated in a special sauce and sauteed with onions. The short rubs were so tender they melted in your mouth like a filet cut would. Very tasty. By now we were getting full on just these 2 dishes so we decided dessert was next.

The Yum Yum truck. This is a gourmet cupcake truck that gets to go order by the dozens. Im serious. People were walking away with 2-3 dozen. These little cakes are not cheap either. At $2.50 a pop I was hoping these were worth it. We tried the basic vanilla, Dolce Gabbana (tres leche with dulce de leche frosting), and Peanut Butter Chocorama (Peanut Butter Frosting, crushed peanuts, and chocolate sauce top our super moist chocolate cake). All were delicious and cant wait to try more flavors next time like Dom Berrion (strawberry cake with champagne frosting)

This event was packed and I hope it stays that way. Kissimmee needs something like this close by since it can take over an hour to Orlando events. We cant wait to try the other tucks next time, even though I can go for a pupusa right now :)

Habibi Lebanese Food

I love middle eastern food especially falafel. Last weekend I was able to try Habibi Lebanese restaurant in Orlando near Disney. As soon as I pulled up I knew I was in for a treat. As you walk up you can hear Arabic music and their patio looks like a middle eastern tent oasis. Flowing curtains, lounge chairs and tall ceilings. We sat on the patio of course. Since there were 5 of us we decided on the Mezza. The Mezza is a sampling of 10 dishes served family style for the great price of $30 per person. We tried Hummus, Tabbouleh (parsley salad), Falafel, Kibbeh, mixed grill meat platter, and so much more. The hummus was creamy and tasty, and falafel perfectly cooked and the right amount of spices, the meats were tender and juicy. The plates just kept comming, and while we ate we had a belly dancer dance to the middle eastern music. It was a perfect meal and experience and can't wait to try it again.

Webite- http://lakebuenavista.habibiusa.com/

Revamped Blog

This blog was mostly about our travels. But traveling is also about eating great food while there. So in addition to traveling, I will be posting reviews of restaurants, as well as healthy cooking recipes. These recipes have helped us maintain a healthy lifestyle as well as my husband losing 40 lbs. I hope you like the new additions.

St Augustine

St Augustine is a great weekend trip. If you are into history as I am, you will love it. I have had the pleasure of visiting twice and both times have found many things to do.
We went to Fort Matanzas first. It is a little south of St Augustine and worth it. It is a free fort to visit. You have to take a boat ride to the actual fort and they have reenactments there as well. It was a nice start to our St Augustine trip.

We then made our way to the Dow Museum of Historic Houses. It is a beautiful display of 7 homes that date back to 1790. They are wonderfully preserved, and well worth spending an hour or two there. They have beautiful gardens as well.


Since St Augustine is a walkable city, we made our way to the pedestrian only street St George. It has the usual tourist shops, but there is a great place for lunch. It is tucked behind a little alley and is called The Spanish Bakery. Its a great place for a cheap good lunch. On St George St is also the oldest schoolhouse. Yes the oldest in the US. Our next stop was the Castillo de San Marcos fort. This is a big fort with a lot of history. They had old cannons, and many displays to give you a self guided tour. It was very nice and they also had cannon reenactments.


The next time we went to St Augustine we were able to see one of the oldest drugstores in the US. So many antique bottles it was very interesting. We went to Flaglers College to see some nice historic architecture. We didn't get to do the tour, but it is on my list to do next time. The building was beautiful. We went to the Pirate's Museum. At first I was worried it would be too much for kids, but it actually wasn't. They had real exhibits of items that pirates have used from hundreds of years ago. There was a history area to read about pirates that was interesting too. At the end you got to fire a makeshift "cannon". They had some guns to see which were incredibly heavy. Overall it was a good place to learn some history, and take a break from the sun. St Augustine is also home to the fountain of youth, and they have some trolley tours as well. It is a nice place for families to visit as well.


Restaurant Reviews

Old Spanish Bakery- Good affordable food with only outdoor seating. They had great empanadas and picadillo with rice. Their baked goods are great too

Columbia- We went for some drinks- Sangria and Mojitos. It was a nice place to cool off from the heat and the drinks were good

A1A Aleworks- They had some good seafood and many beers made on site. I had the pale ale and it hit the spot. The restaurant has nice views of the bay. Staff was a little weird but the food was good.

Future Travels

It looks like we are finally going to be international travelers. So far we have only done US travel, but October that will change. We booked our tickets to Ireland. We are so exited. Then in Jan 2013 we will hopefully be going to Costa Rica. If that doesn't work out, we will be going somewhere in the Caribbean.
We do a few long weekend trips in Florida throughout the year, so I will continue to post these as well. Looks like we will have a busy traveling year this year.