By Ricky Ly of TastyChomps.com on Oct 06, 2015 10:53 pm
It’s kind of a hidden gem. Deep within Walt Disney World’s Swan and Dolphin resort, you can find Kimonos, a long time favorite for sushi and Japanese cuisine.
The restaurant is accented by dark woods and hanging kimonos, the namesake traditional Japanese robes, each colorful and intricately woven, creating a rather intimate ambiance.
Sushi is the main attraction here, but the cooked and side dishes might outshine even the sushi if you know what to order. Oh, and a meal here is not inexpensive by any means – may be a preferred location for those expense accounts.
For an appetizer, we recommend the Kobe Beef Tartare and the Kimchee salad. The tartare is served artfully with avocado puree, dashi, and sliced lotus chips – full of flavor and beautifully presented.
The Kimchee salad is a classic dish here at Kimonos – known as kimuchi by the Japanese, kimchee is actually a Korean dish as most folks know by now, but the dish is popular in Japan as well, owing to its long colonial history with Korea and the cultural exchange from that time period. It’s spicy, with lots of heat, yet the octopus makes it refreshing as well.
Kimchee salad – with Octopus, Spring Garlic – $10.50
Sushi rolls are plenty here, and are rather traditional compared to other locations. The fish quality is excellent. The Kimono is a popular go – to, made with tuna, yellow tail, salmon and a wasabi mayonnaise glaze. On this visit, we go with the coconut shrimp, and dragon roll – both quite tasty.
Coconut Shrimp Roll – $13.00 and Dragon Roll – Spicy Tuna, Salmon, Avocado – $16.50
Dessert at Kimonos is something you must save room for – the desserts are all beautifully created by Laurent Branlard, executive pastry chef for the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort, who has the distinction as the only two-time winner of the World Pastry Team Championship.
For those visiting later in the evening for dinner, Kimonos also features another time honored Japanese tradition – nightly karaoke.
By Ricky Ly of TastyChomps.com on Oct 05, 2015 10:59 pm
This isn’t your typical ice cream shop. It’s a modern style ice cream making process that was first made popular through a youtube video of an Ice cream street vendor making ice cream rolls in Thailand.
It’s quite popular in Asia, particularly in Korea.
Guests choose their flavors and milk / non milk base, then it is poured on top of a steel plate. Some theorize that the steel, placed atop a 10 lb block of dry ice, or a quick freeze machine, which can cool down from room temperature to -9.4 °C / 15 °F in 10 minutes.
As the cream liquid begins to solidify, you can make ice cream with personalized mix-ins such as nuts and other ingredients – all without setting up an ice-cream maker or liquid nitrogen. It literally freezes in front of your eyes.
In New York, visitors are waiting three hours in line for this ice cream.
Taiyakis are a Japanese dessert – basically a fish shaped waffle usually filled with red beans, but here you can fill it from a long list of options including fruit and chocolate.
Five F(x) Ice Cream and Taiyaki
688 N Alafaya Trl, Ste 104
Orlando, FL 32828
Phone number (407) 930-7181
On September 18, 2015, Dunkin’ Donuts began to sweeten the season with new exciting items from sandwiches to donuts and beverages. Of course, most of these beverages involve pumpkin. All baked goods of Dunkin’ Donuts are made fresh every day at each store with a kitchen. For locations without a kitchen, they have their donuts brought in every morning from a location that has a kitchen.
To kick off this season, we took a bite out of the new Tailgater Breakfast Sandwich, which includes sausage, peppers, and onions. The sandwich will surprise you with its variety of tastes ranging from sweet to savory to spicy.
After breakfast, we had dessert. As Dunkin’ Donuts recently partnered with The Hershey Company, they are trying out new recipes, including the REESE’S Peanut Butter Square. The seasonal donuts at Dunkin’ Donuts include the REESE’S Peanut Butter Square (front left), Pumpkin Cheesecake Square (back left), and a Pumpkin Donut (center right). The REESE’S Peanut Butter Square is nice with a thick butter cream that had a touch of peanut butter to create a likeness to REESE’S candy. The Pumpkin Cheesecake Square is tasty, but the cheesecake overpowers the pumpkin; the only seasonal taste I could draw out was a little nutmeg. My favorite is the Pumpkin Donut because it is very simple, yet delicious.
Next on the list, we have the Pumpkin Muffin and Apple Fritter. The Apple Fritter is basically an elephant ear pastry filled with apple pie filling. It is addictively delicious, but it is only around for this Fall season and only available in certain Dunkin’ Donuts, so call up your locations and hunt them down.
The Pumpkin Muffin is not as moist as you imagine a muffin to be. The only moist part of the muffin is the very center. Other than that, it is very dry unless you let it rest in your mouth for a minute, which it will then stick to the inside of your mouth for another minute.
From left to right, we have the Hot Pumpkin Spice Latte, the Pumpkin Pie Coolatta, and the Iced Pumpkin Spice Coffee. My favorite, out of these three choices, is the Hot Pumpkin Spice Latte; not only do you taste a hint of pumpkin and Fall season, but you can taste the espresso to see how well the Dunkin’ Donuts family treat their espresso.
The Pumpkin Pie Coolatta…do you know how it is to walk into a candle store around Fall season and the smell of diabetes and pumpkin smacks you in the face? That’s how the Pumpkin Pie Coolatta tastes with bits of Graham crackers inside of the drink. It makes me question if the inventors of this coolatta make candles for Yankee Candle as well.
The Iced Pumpkin Spice Coffee was more like water than coffee. Maybe that is why I favor lattes more than coffee because it contains a little more pick-me-up.
From left to right, there’s the Iced Pumpkin Macchiato, Iced Dark Roast coffee, Hot Pumpkin Macchiato, and Hot Dark Roast Coffee. I really like the Iced Pumpkin Macchiato for a hot day in Florida to cool me down and wake me up at the same time. However, this did not taste like pumpkin at all. It tastes like an iced Macchiato/Latte that is lightly caramelized for flavor. You can taste the espresso more in the iced version of this Pumpkin Macchiato than the hot version, which can happen from time to time.
The Dark Roast coffees are rich in flavor and nice for an on-the-go pick-me-up. You can grab a free medium Dark Roast at any Dunkin’ Donuts on September 29, 2015, while Dunkin’ Donuts is celebrating National Coffee Day!
A small group of Orlando Food Bloggers and I were invited to sneak preview of the Second Annual Couple’s Cook Off at Aggressive Appliances and it was so much fun! I would definitely recommend this event to everyone. Whether you are competing or spectating, the entire family will surely enjoy the experience.
About The Couple’s Cook-Off
The Couple’s Cook-Off is a fast-paced, hands-on cooking competition in a state-of-the-art kitchen showroom hosted by Edible Orlando Magazine and Orlando Date Night Guide. Five couples will compete against one another on October 9 and October 23.
The winning couple from each preliminary round will compete in the final round on November 14, along with a wild-card couple. One lucky couple will walk away with the Grand Prize.
Contestants pay $150 per couple for preliminary rounds; there is no charge to compete in final round, but friends may come to observe and enjoy cocktails, beer and samples from local vendors for $15 per person. Proceeds to benefit the Culinary Training Program at Second Harvest Food Bank.
This is my first cooking ‘competition’ and quite frankly I did not know what to expect. However, I’ve always loved watching Chopped and other food competitions, so the thought of participating in one was super thrilling to me.
We arrived at Aggressive Appliancesand I was mesmerized by their showroom. They’ve been here for about 30 years and is always changing with the new and improve state-of-the-art appliances.
We were greeted with the friendliest staff and immediately felt at home with their welcoming environment.
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They even provided us with snacks, and overload us with carbs to prepare us for what was about to come.
We mingled with the other food bloggers aka our competitors of the night and at this point Jonathan (my guest) and I had no idea what we were in for. but of course we calmed our nerves with some bubbly wine.
We made our choice of which kitchen we get to work with (don’t be fooled by the smile, we were super nervous) – Celebrity Chef for You – Irina Pabis and I shared a kitchen.
At this point we were told we had a secret ingredient that we all have to incorporate in our dish, and it was eggs (shouldn’t be too hard right?). However, we only have 45 minutes to prepare 3 small plates for the judges to taste and score. (we we’re freaking out by this point.)
The competition has begun!
The judges lift the blanket off the ‘limited’ ingredients table. We had a short amount of time to scatter and gather what we wanted to cook with.
I had no idea what I was doing….I just literally picked up what ever looked good.
The judges & coordinators were thoroughly entertained by our chaos.
At this point…I still don’t know what I was doing…and Jonathan was as lost as I was.
He kept looking at me asking so….what are we doing? while I’m just staring at a packet of turkey patties.
(As you can see I kept the glass of wine nearby because – obviously – I need a drink from all this anxiety.)
We figured we should start chopping stuff, and Jonathan was on cutting/chopping on duty.
Here he is meticulously chopping bell peppers, garlic, and ginger.
The other couples started doing so as well.
Fast forward to many blank stares at the ingredients and the kitchen appliances later…
We finally started to put something in a hot pan!
Pan frying some rustic potatoes in olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme.
At the same time Irina had started cooking her meatballs in the skillet, and potatoes in the pan as well.
Lauren and her husband has got some bacon going! Lisa had started something fancy in her pan.
The competition is more than halfway through and we’re still trying to figure out how to work the touch pad on the induction stove top. But- we have our main entree cooking up in some sunflower oil!
The other competitors were still going strong with their entries.
With minutes left, the entire place was building with anticipation.
We’re still incredibly shaky and nervous as we have no idea how our food tasted since we didn’t even get a chance to taste it during the process. Before we knew it, the final products were brought over to the judges table as soon as it was plated.
Here is our finished plating!
Scotched eggs, pan fried potatoes, and a side of baby tomatoes in a balsamic vinaigrette topped with sharp parmesan, fresh basil, and sprinkles of ginger.
we wanted to counter balance all the fried stuff with a sweet palate cleanser.
and of course there’s always a little mishap during the competition ):
Irina’s team: meatballs with grilled asparagus, tomatoes, and figs.
Lisa’s Team: grits and something fancy, I honestly forgot what she called it… but it had pancetta, bread, figs, and goat cheese. It was delicious!
Lauren’s Team: serving breakfast for dinner with eggs, toast, BACON, cheese and everything tasty.
The Judges are hard at work, tallying up our scores.
and the winner is……. Nhi & Jonathan!
I’m proud to say we took home first place & the grand prize!
I will be returning to the main Couple’s Cook Off competition as a JUDGE in November!
which I’m thrilled about!
I want to thank all the amazing staff at Aggressive Appliance and everyone there that helped us create such a fun, exciting, and memorable preview night.
Also for cleaning up our mess….yikes!
2nd Annual Couples Cook-Off
Presented by Edible Orlando and the Orlando Date Night Guide, the contest will give couples the chance to compete in one of 2 qualifying rounds, with 2 winners from each semi-final cook-off advancing to the finals on Saturday, November 14, 2015.
** ONLY five couples will get the chance to compete in each semi-final round.
There will be two winning couples from each qualifying round. Each semi-finalist winning couple receives complimentary admission to the finals.
There are five prizes to give away to winners, the value of which total over $2,500:
The 1st place couples will win the Grande Lakes giveaway + their choice of culinary prizes. The 2nd through 4th place winners will win their choice of the remaining prizes.
**Entry is $150 PER COUPLE with a portion of proceeds supporting Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. Entry includes all food, sit-down dinner with wine after semi-final rounds + a fabulous swag bag filled with surprises.
For more information on the competition and to sign up visit the following link below.
