Time To Make My Own Lunch

I feel like I'm losing my affinity for greasy food. I guess that this is a good thing for my health, however, I might miss the taste. I won't miss the after-feeling in my abdomen, though. I discovered this eating a burger from All American, which I love, though I'm going to need to limit my consumption. I also need to limit my going out to lunch. That's going to be hard for me to do, but it's a need and I'm willing to make the sacrifices. I'm going to start making my own lunch and avoiding excruciatingly unhealthy dinners.

First of all, the obvious, I'm going to eat dinner at home as often as I can and I'm going to make a better choice in eating when on the go. Second, I'm going to limit my trips to fast food restaurants and find snacks at home. When it comes down to caffeine, yes, I'm addicted at quite a young age which isn't good, though I'm not willing to break that addiction just yet, I don't want the lack of caffeine in my system to affect my performance and I also love the taste of Coca-Cola so much, I do everything I can to go out of my way to get a can of it (that's a different post however).

Now that I'm back from my diversion, I'll continue with ways to eat well and stay healthy... I'm starting to sound like Jenny Craig for God's sake. You know, I will start to eat better and cut down on the junk food, though I'm not going to make a massive life change and give up my passion for food, that's crazy. For example, never ever in my life would I pass up the opportunity to eat a really good looking doughnut. I'll just need to lay off the greasy food and do more exercise. I'll also make lunch for myself every day and since I consider myself a good chef, I'll be happy.

Of course, I will take time to go out to lunch with my friends, no diet is worth giving up a social life or eating out for that matter. How the hell would I live without Jean Georges or a great steakhouse in Texas, I wouldn't.

I know for a fact I can make a good tasting, healthy sandwich. I mix condiments that I have in the pantry to create unique seasonings. Next thing I have to do is get to the Italian Pork Store for the Italian sandwich that I'll make once a week for myself, with 50% of the cured meat being salted fat, I'll be satisfied.

So to sum up. I'm lowering my consumption of greasy food and doing more exercise. Thank's for listening to my rant.

It's Official, I Have A Love Interest in Food.

Yesterday, I said something that I never thought I would hear anyone say. When discussing different tones, we mentioned seductive, and it didn't necessarily have to be sexual, though very, very enticing. I wound up saying that I thought a really good looking hamburger could be seductive...

It's almost a low point for me. Other foodies would probably argue not. Thinking back, however, I would like to have replaced the hamburge with a few of the doughnuts from Round Rock. It's a shame, I feel that I have some sort of emotional attatchment to that doughnut shop and whenever I think about I feel remorseful about the fact that I won't be getting those doughnuts for a long time.

When it comes down to it, it seems like there are so many great places to eat outside of New York and some that are very far away. My uncle is getting married soon and he lives in Texas, I'm hoping that he had his wedding there so I can go to the ceremony and then get some great doughnuts and BBQ.

My cousin is getting married in San Fransisco and I'm looking to see what kind of food they have there. I can't believe that I'm taking advantage of these weddings for food. I don't think many other people would. I just have some strange love interest in food.

Disney Hunger Quest Pt. 3

DAY FIVE

My last day in Disney this year brought me to accomplish eating goals that I've had for quite a long time. First, I had to go for the churro. I was shocked to realize that by the last day of my trip, I had not had one churro! I went over to the Mexico Pavilion to the same stand where I got my guacamole and ordered a churro. Not only was this thing massive, though it came with a Mexican caramel sauce. I'm not sure how authentic the caramel was, however, it was really sweet and an excellent complement to the cinnamon-sugar covered fried dough stick. I was genuinely upset when I finished eating it because it went down pretty quickly and then I had to go to lunch to accomplish my second goal of the trip.

THE TURKEY LEG COMPLEX

Of all of the years that I have been going to Walt Disney World I have and other family members have notices the amount of larger than life people rolling around on their motorized wheel chair holding not else but a massive smoked turkey leg. For so long, my family has made fun of that in all different ways. This trip, I was going to get a first hand experience of this giant drum stick. I headed over to the American Pavilion to the Fife and Drum Stand featuring Turkey Legs and Popcorn. I only was interested in the turkey leg which I picked up and was pleasantly surprised. It was flavorful and had a nice smoky taste as well as the taste of the poultry. As well, it was really, really big... I however did make it to the bone. At that point I had accomplished my Disney Goals for that trip. I did get made fun of by my family quite a bit after showing the picture to them, especially since the leg was bigger than I was.

That was the end of my hunger quest in Disney in 2010. I came home the next day and keep in mind that I definitely left out some stuff that I didn't photograph....

Disney Hunger Quest Pt. 2

The next installment of my adventures in Disney brings me to two different restaurants, both worth talking about because they both have "Things I Do For Food" type stories! But first, a little diversion for some of the snacking that I did.

DAY TWO

On my second day, I went to the Magic Kingdom to take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours for the hotel guests. I saw this as an advantage to get breakfast before the park fully opens so I can get on the rides that usually have long lines. So I went over to the Main Street Bakery to spend my time eating a cinnamon roll the size of my head. It was really good and fresh out of the oven! I ate at my leisure and had time left over to still take advantage of the extra hour.

Keep in mind this picture was taken after I had already eaten half. Afterwards we went on Splash Mountain and all of the various other rides and went back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. That night Epcot was going to have Extra Magic Hours for hotel guests until midnight and we were going to have to eat dinner before. That evening, we went over to Iron Chef Cat Cora's Kouzzina (meaning kitchen in Greek). There we shared two appetizers, fried saganaki cheese and amazing fried calamari, definitely at the iron chef standard. For my main course I had the Greek Lasagna, Pastitsio, which I have had several times before. I never would have expected that it would have been about 2 and a half pounds.

Notice the nervous look on my face because it is extremely heavy and it was big on its own as well. I was very, very afraid digging into it, though never the less, I finished it to my shock... After a few hours in Epcot, I wanted a snack!

DAY THREE

The third day, we went over to the Animal Kingdom for the Safari and to get soaked on the Kali River Rapids ride twice. There was nothing really special in terms of dining since we went to dinner off the Disney premises with my dad's cousin. However, I sampled the Mickey Ice Cream Bar and the Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich that day and it was really, really good ice cream as well as the chocolate which kept me eating those all throughout the trip until the end.

DAY FOUR

Le Cellier Steak House in the Canada Pavilion of Epcot is arguably the best restaurant in all of Disney World. I didn't have reservations regardless of how much I tried before going on the trip. With my notion that persistence is key when you want something, I went for it. Every two hours from my arrival, I went to the concierge for them to check through the official dining system for reservations at Le Cellier. By the end of Thursday, I snagged a reservation for two for dinner on Saturday (YES!!). There was only one issue, there were three people... Saturday evening, we were ready to head over to the restaurant... in a monsoon. Thank God that the hotel was giving out towels and that we invested in the ponchos. Once we got to the restaurant, we went to the hostess and made the case that my father was with us and they gave us the seat!

I went crazy with the food. They started out with giving us our bread sticks which were hot and fresh baked including both sour dough and the pretzel which I loved coating in butter and finishing them off.

Next I had seen that the table next to me ordered onion rings which looked beautiful, I couldn't help but put in an order for those too, and they were completely worth it.

Next the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup as an appetizer. I cannot get over how amazing this is. It is composed of white cheddar, Canadian beer, and of course, bacon. My parents ordered cups of this, though I knew how it tasted and I would have wanted more than a cup, so I ordered a bowl.

Of course, there as well was the main course! It was a steak house and it has one of the best filets I have ever had there. It was a filet mignon with a mushroom risotto. Let me just say, the steak was excellent and top quality but the risotto was prepared so artfully and it was jam packed with flavor! It was completely worth the persistence, and I am so glad that I made sure that I snagged the reservation.

A lot of work for food I'd say, though there is one more story and that is going to be saved for part 3 just above!

Disney Hunger Quest

You may have been wondering where I went for such a long time without posting; let alone telling you that I was going to be away. The answer is that I was partying it up in Disney World Florida! People who see Disney in plain sight just think it to be a big theme park/resort that millions of people attend per year. However, it's much more than the general thought makes it out to be. To start, Disney is definitely not just for children, the attractions over most of the parks are actually designed to draw people over 18. I saw more groups of [over 21, though young] adults walking around without kids than children alone which made me feel really comfortable a I always am when I go there. The next thing that people don't realize is the quality of food in Disney and how much variety there is with great food. I took advantage of that as much as I humanly could in the 5 days that I was there. Lastly, the reason I know that Disney is adult friendly is the amount of alcoholic beverages that can be found around there and apparently, they are damn good (so I've heard).

Regardless, I'm not missing out on all of the dining festivities in Disney with the restriction of no alcohol, of all of the restaurants and food stands, one could get a range of food from the level of a Michelin Starred restaurant in Manhattan to the delicious fried food that you would expect from the South. Never the less, all of them are and will be delicious. I stayed in the Yacht Club Hotel on the resort property which is in walking distance of Epcot's World Showcase where most of the eating takes place. I wound up walking all the way down and going into the theme park just to get a bite to eat for lunch or a small snack and then immediately going back to the hotel without going on any rides (I was equipped with a Park Hopper ticket which allowed me to go in and out of all of the parks at my leisure which made everything in terms of my eating adventure very easy and of course I made sure I got on all of the rides more than once!).

Let's begin:

DAY ONE

Upon my arrival at Disney, my parents and I set down our bags and after our flight without eating any breakfast, we were hungry, so we went over to France for lunch. The small bakery on the France pavilion is one of our favorite places in all of Disney to grab a bite to eat, and that we did. I settled on a simple tartine (pronounced: tart-anne) sandwich, with ham, cheese, and tomato and for dessert a nice big piece of the cake of the day, a thick, all chocolate cake that has been serving as the cake of the day, every day for as long as I can remember and I have been heading down to Disney annually and sometimes bi-annually since I was 18 months old, I have a severe attraction to that place and a photographic memory so I know that it has never changed.

Later on, my father went to Winterhaven for the night to visit his cousin and my mother and I continued our eating quest after going on a few rides of course. After getting a light snack of a plate of guacamole from the Mexico Pavilion, we took a boat over to Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios) for dinner at one of the the premier restaurants in the resort: The Hollywood Brown Derby, which is a replica of the original Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood, California. For an appetizer there I had a creamy onion soup with pecorino cheese and basil oil shown below.

For the next course, my mother and I both enjoyed a filet mingon with a tomatillo relish and red chili sauce on the side. We happened to enjoy it so much that I forgot to take a picture of it before devouring it. For desert, I had the Disney Brown Derby signature dessert, the grapefruit cake! The mix of bitter and sweet, layers of cake with a grapefruit-cream cheese icing and with a sweet grapefruit sauce.

That was it for the first night. As well, there is no way I can fit my whole trip into one post. Look up for part 2.