Tasty Chomps' Orlando

• Dragonfly Creates a Robata Experience
• Dining in the Dark 2016

Dragonfly Creates a Robata Experience

We were happy to visit Dragonfly Robata Grill & Sushi for a VIP Robata Dinner Experience, which consists of a special preview menu that is hand fabricated daily and quantities are limited. 

Each dish is created by David Song, Chef De Cuisine, and his team to their best capabilities.

Aka Salad – fennel, cucumber, yuzu, heirloom tomato, micro wasabi green, shoyu vinaigrette. The octopus is very tender and the cucumber added a light, watery touch to the dish as the vinaigrette creates a unique taste for your palate.

Roberta Top Neck Clams – shoyu, sake, mirin, micro shish. This was my favorite dish of the night. The clams are delicious with or without the sauce in the shells.

Maitake Mushrooms – goma ai, togorashi, pine nut, micro cilantro. Maitake mushrooms were nicely cooked and tender. The sauce is creamy as well as slightly sweet and nutty.

Robata Grilled Bison – Japanese eggplant, sweet shoyu broth, togarashi, ryu oil. The grilled bison is nicely flavored and tender, yet slightly gamey. It goes very well with the sweet shoyu broth. The eggplant is a bit too soft for my preferences.

Bronzino – ginger scallion, ponzu, pickled radish. The fish is fresh and is great, even without the citrus-based ponzu.

Dango – red bean ice cream, anko paste, sweet shoyu glaze. The red bean ice cream is wonderful, especially with the shortbread crumble. The anko paste adds a sweet touch to the mochi it is glazed over. The Sweet shoyu glaze is not my favorite as I still think of its salty flavors.

The VIP Robata Dinner Experience can be booked by groups at robata@dragonflyrestaurants.com

For more information, please visit Dragonfly Robata.

Photos by myself as well as Ruby Sea Official.

Dining in the Dark 2016

Second Harvest Food Bank teamed up with Lighthouse Central Florida, the Orlando Police Department SWAT team, award-winning Chef Jill Holland, staff and students, and our community for another successful Dining in the Dark. With all hands on deck, a total of $13,250 was successfully raised for our community.

Dining in the Dark is a unique sensory experience like no other. It was a world of smell, taste, sound, and total darkness as we join together to help bring light to the isolation that hunger and vision loss can cause. The Orlando Police Department SWAT team was decked in night vision goggles and served guests in complete darkness.

The food looked great! This is what it looked like before the lights came on at the end of the night. Many have asked and the answer is: yes, the food was all plated beautifully whether or not the light was on.

Terrine of Blue Crab, Pico de Gallo and Guacamole wrapped in Yellowfin Tuna. Each ingredient is fresh, full of flavor and adds a different texture to the dish.

Vegetarian/Allergen Option: Cold Summer Vegetable Terrine (Ratatouille vegetables with agar agar jellied tomato sauce)

Watermelon, Endive, Feta Tile Salad with Carambola (mint, pickled red onion and watermelon rind). The Carambola and watermelon were very refreshing. The watermelon was very sweet, but the starfruit was a tad sour.

Chicken Ballantine with apricots and pistachios with a size of roasted asparagus and sweet potato purée. The apricots added a unique sweetness to the chicken. The chicken was nicely made, but slightly dry. The roasted asparagus were not soggy nor were they tough to eat.

Vegetarian/Allergen Option: Stuffed Portabella Cap and sweet potato purée

Mango and Guava Mascarpone Profiteroles with Port Glaze and Peanut Brittle

About the Organizations:

Second Harvest Food Bank is a private, non-profit organization with a drive to lend a helping hand to neighbors in Central Florida with the help of donors, volunteers and a caring, committed community. Approximately 64 million pounds of grocery products are distributed to partner programs such as food pantries, soup kitchens, women’s shelters, senior centers, day care centers and Kids Cafes. The food bank also creates self-sustaining opportunities through their culinary and warehouse training programs to do their best to improve the lives of those within our community.

Lighthouse Central Florida is a private, non-profit organization that provides services, including education, independent living skills and job training and placement, for people who are completely blind to those who have varying degrees of low vision (i.e., a vision impairment that cannot be corrected and interferes with daily activities).The non-profit provides services for babies, children, teens, adults and seniors, as well as their support systems of family and friends. Since 1976, the organization has served more than 100,000 people with sight impairment and their families in Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties.

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