An American Banquet

Well, this is exactly what the food blog was designed for! If only I ate this well every week. I have just returned from 2 weeks in Orlando and here are a few stills of the American cuisine I sampled whilst out there.
After a crazy long flight there, we settled in and went out for a meal. The first restaurant we hit was a place called Uno's Chicago Grill on Internation Drive, Orlando (where most of the restaurants we ate at were located).

I forget what starter I had, but I opted for a teriaki salmon for my main course and enjoyed several pints of Stella before going home

and sleeping.The picture to the right, in spite of being quite dark, shows the skinless potato with sour cream and stuff on. I also had some veg with it and a garlic bread thing. Very tasty and a nice way to start my American culinary adventure.

Whilst in America, we ate several times at the Ponderosa Steakhouse - the all-u-can-eat buffet never fails to delight. Especially the all you can eat breakfast buffet. You can help yourself to as much sausage, bacon, beans, eggs, french toast, pancakes, syrup and much, much more as you can!!

This is one plate of the several I would eat in one sitting, sometimes I would eat some salad or fruit as well (just to make it look as though I was being healthy).

Hence the pic of the fruit I have posted here.

We did eat in the Ponderosa one evening, had a steak (and Sarah's chicken) as well as an all you can eat "grand buffet" (spaghetti,

mincemeat, bolognaise, vegetables, curry, chicken nuggets and much more besides). I would pretty much leave the place feeling sick with fullness.The next restaurant on my list is the Black Angus restaurant. I wasn't planning on eating a steak there, but after a few beers I changed my mind and had myself a very tasty Black Angus 16oz New York Strip.

It was very nice, if slightly pricey.

Another restaurant we enjoyed was the Bahama Breeze. The portions were nice and large, even the starters. So much so the waitress was very shocked we ordered a starter each. I had the Spinach Dip and Island Chips for starters (described as a breezy blend of spinach, artichokes and cheese, with a hint of nutmeg, served warm with tortilla chips).

This was very tasty and filling, especially as I ate the rest of my families leftovers.. but I had ordered the seafood paella for my main course and was determined to eat it (it was lovely).

The menu described the Paella (apparently pronounced "pie-ay-ah") as a traditional Caribbean casserole with shrimp, sea scallops, mussels, chicken, fish, Spanish sausage and peas, cooked with moist and flavorful yellow rice.

It was fantastic and makes up for the fact I never got round to having one when I was in Ibiza last September.

We did actually go back to the Bahama Breeze, as it was so nice, on the last day of the holiday. The one downer is I was actually ID'd on the first visit to this place. Stupid Americans.

One of the early days in the holiday, I managed to convince the rest of the family to visit Gatorland - we actually had a good time in the end, we fed the 'gators and I tried some alligator ribs and alligator nuggets. Very tasty.

On the whole, the food in the parks were pretty good and not as expensive as I would expect.

We obviously did all the theme parks.. Disney's Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, MGM Studios, Typhoon Lagoon as well as Universal Studios, Universal Islands of Adventure, Sea World, Discovery Cove (swim with dolphins) - it was quite a hectic schedule. But the villa was nice, with a private pool - so we did do some relaxing.. and one of the days me and my old man hired a Ford Mustangout for the day.

Anyway, back to the food (all this food stuff is making me right hungry)!! We did visit TGI Friday's one evening and I had another New York strip steak with some kind of sauce for my main course (but I can't really remember what I had for starters).

I ate this meal with vegetables and salad and washed it down with Stella. Nice work. I expect I finished this meal with an Irish Coffee.

One of the park snacks I really like is the Turkey Leg! Here is a picture of my Dad and I tucking into one of the giant turkey legs in Typhoon Lagoon!

Because they are smoked they taste quite different to turkey, almost more like ham or gammon - but very tasty! If quite messy.

As you can probably see, America wasn't all about the steak for me. I was also eating lots of seafood, fish and pasta. They really seem to do seafood quite well out there and I really love my seafood.

Pictured right is the seafood chowder that I had in an Irish restaurant of all places, near Pleasure Island in Downtown Disney.

Another fine restaurant we visited (twice) was the Olive Garden.

I had a Zuppa Toscana soup to start (described as spicy sausage, russet potatoes and cavolo greens in a creamy broth).

They even brought a salad out for us to share between the starters and the mains.

For my main course on this occasion, I had Seafood Portofino (descibed as mussels, scallops, shrimp and mushrooms with linguine in a garlic-butter wine sauce).

It was very enjoyable and we all decided that the Olive Garden would be worth a return visit.

As I had been banging on about going to a seafood restaurant like the Crab House or Red Lobster for the whole holiday, everyone finally succombed and we went to the Red Lobster for our evening meal quite late in the holiday.

You could pick your own lobster to eat, if you fancied it. But nobody did.

I had the New England Appetizer Sampler as my starter, this is Lobster, Crab & Seafood Stuffed Mushrooms, Bacon-Wrapped Sea Scallops & Fried Clam Strips.

As my main course, I had the Ultimate Feast, this was succulent broiled Maine Lobster Tail, tender Snow Crab Legs, savory Shrimp Scampi & lightly breaded Fried Shrimp.

It took a moment for me to work out where to get the meat from the crab's legs.. but the once I found it - wow. Lovely.

The lobster tail was also good, I am definitely going to have to have that again (maybe get a whole one next time).

Nobody else on the table were so adventurous, although my Dad did have some steamed oysters. They looked alright, but everyone was quite revolted by the slurping.

Anyway, as I said we returned to the Olive Garden on another occasion and I had the Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip for starters, this was a blend of artichokes, spinach and cream cheese. Served with Tuscan bread.

Delicious!

For my main course I opted for the Tour of Italy, this consisted of homemade lasagna, lightly breaded chicken parmigiana and creamy fettuccine alfredo.

The final day, we had our evening meal back at the Bahama Breeze. For starters I had the Coconut Shrimp, which their menu describes as "our guests' favorite! Crispy large shrimp hand-breaded with sweet flaky coconut, with our delicious citrus-mustard dipping sauce". Not bad. For my main course I chose to try their Lobster and Shrimp Pasta, which offered Sweet Caribbean lobster and shrimp in every bite! Sauteed with fresh mushrooms, herbs, brandy and cream and tossed with linguine. A fine way to end the holiday.