4 posts tagged “florida”

Late last night after the July 4th celebration at Disney world two monorails collided killing one of the drivers, 21 year old Austin Wuennenberg which marks the first death of the monorail system. So tragic, and such a young man, Disney will be collaborating with Orange county police and detectives to figure out the cause of the crash.

I'm very close to this story, my grandfather helped create the monorail system 34 years ago, he was brought out of retirement to help with the MGM Grande in Las Vegas, The monorail system is very safe, they have had some incidents though out the years, none fatal however.

Unfortunately I think this may be user error, unless one of the monorails failed to function correctly and reversed back into the on coming monorail. There are two tracks for the monorail each operates in different directions since these were on the same track one of the monorails was going the wrong way.

The monorail system at Disney World and Disney World resorts is down, meaning longer wait times for those trying to get into the magic kingdom or back to their hotels.

Also note that most of the time the monorails do not operate as late as this. It was only because it was a special occasion, July 4th. They usually stop running at about midnight or so, this incident happened at about 2 or later.

After reading this story my brain has decided that it wants to implode itself. WTF is wrong with this girl and her parents and these men, there only crime is not asking to see her ID. I can't believe they convicted these men. That little hussy needs to be picked up by her ear and sent off to boarding school.

http://www.dreamindemon.com/2008/05/21/alisha-dean-doesnt-look-or-act-13/

Over at Chow on the chowhound message boards they were asking about your area's signature dish. What your area is known for, of course there was much disagreement and yet for some places it was easier for them to agree on things. Philly, Chicago, New York all have very distict foods. You can't go to Philly without eating a cheese steak it's just blasphemy. ... and yet still, there were discussions and disagreements on where to go to get the best quality dish.

I live in Central Florida, Orlando to be exact. When people ask me where I'm from, the number one question is never anything such as "Have you ever been gator hunting on an airboat?" which I have, or "Seriously, how high is your electric bill in the summer, whats the highest it's been?" to which I would reply that in July it's around $300 and the highest it's been is $400, but we run the air condition most of the year, it is rare when we don't have to. No one stops to think about the local wildlife, insects, or the underground culture here.

The number one question I get is typically something about the attractions, usually Disney World,iIn which I snicker and say "Here we call it working for the rat", or how we tease that MGM Studios ( which is actually Hollywood studios now) used to stand for "Many Gay Men" or that Mickey mouse is often played by a spanish speaking petite woman. People seem to be astounded that actual people live here. Crazy right. Orlando is not what it tries to portray itself as. It is quite possibly the largest small town city in America, still trying to cling on to old fashion ideas and morals, yet sell itself like a cheap hooker on OBT* to anyone and everyone.

Tourism, love it or hate it, it is what keeps Orlando thriving. It's just like if you really want to check out what New Orleans is all about stay off Bourbon Street, If you want to get to know the Real New York City, don't bother going to Times Square. It's the same with Orlando if you really want to see what this city has to offer step away from the attractions.

Try spliting up your time to see some of the things Florida is famous for, and then go and check out something more locally known or off the beaten path type of things. It's really what I do on a trip. I want to see the reality not just the fluff.

With all of that said I really think people owe it to themselves to eat some of Florida's regional cuisine and drinks. On your next trip to Florida make a promise that you will not eat at any national chains, or buy fast food. Try something new and local, you won't regret it. Central Florida is home to many Puerto Ricans and damn they know how to party

and how to cook. Their culture is loud and bouistrous and others may dismiss them as being rude, but they are anything but. Caring, family oriented and did I mention they can cook? This is why I chose Arroz Con Habichuelas as a regional dish, but you can just call it what is is, Puerto Rican Rice and Beans.

Their food is of course latin in flavor but its not cuban or mexican its some where inbetween and it usually is a little more island in flavor.

There is a cuisine here called "Floribean". It's a mixture of Florida and the Carribean with all natural and grown foods from here.

We also have The Vi-Mi district, or as some call it, Little Saigon. The heart of the district is the intersection of East Colonial Drive/HWY50 and Mills Ave. Places like Viet Garden, and oriental markets. They just celebrated fet which is veitnamese new year , the last week of January. It's a good area to get a Bánh mì or shop for a wok.

Interesting enough when I think Florida Cuisine the first thing that pops into my head is Conch. Conch Fritters, or perhaps conch chowder. Few things in life beat drinking a beer and eat conch fritters while watching the sunset at a

cafe on Duval Street in Key West. Time is meaningless all of a sudden. Enjoying good food and brew and whating the sun melt away like butter. It is also in Key West where I had the most orgasmic fish taco. No, I wasn't getting it on with the ladies, although there was that one time where I watched a Key West Stripper take off the flip flop of my dear friend Leslie and then jamming her big toe into her twat, but that is a whole other story. What I'm talking about is a Grouper fish taco with lime and a little chipotle tangy sauce. It was easily food one of my favorite meals there.

 I've heard stories about how some restaurants will tell you it's grouper when it really isn't. I can't image someone being able to pass that off  unless you've never had grouper. I find grilled grouper sandwiches to be quite yummy. While my husband was shooting Marley & Me I'd go down to Miami to see him and there was this little restaurant  within walking distance at the marina. I can't remember the name but they made a killer grouper sandwich.

Miami is also know for Joe's Stone Crab, which was opened in 1913, by Joe Weiss. Turns out that even though Stone Crab is their most popular dish now the restaurant used to only serve fish.  When an ichthyologist asked Weiss why he didn't serve stone crabs, he answered that no one would want to eat them. He turned out to be wrong, as they found out soon after first cooking them. This place is upscale and the wait times are long because they have very few reserve tables, but it's worth it for the stone crab.

Miami is great but I'm not too fond of south beach either, it's the time square of new york and the bourbon street of New Orleans. A place packed with tourist and local douchebags trying to cash in on it. I quite like the hole in the wall places. Places were pretenciousness doesn't ooze from the ceiling and where you can get a martini for under 11 bucks.

Speaking of drinks every one knows Florida is famous for Orange Juice. Noble makes a great organic Florida Tangerine Juice, worth the splurge once in a while. I'm a fan of the Tangelo. Half Orange, half tangerine and very juicy. Since we don't have seasons here, the way we tell spring is coming is by the smell of the Orange blossoms. It's such a sweet smell and the honey bee's the polinate the orange blossoms make honey.

Orange Blossom Honey. Orlando Brewery makes an awesome Orange Blossom Pilsner from this honey.  We bought some orange blossom honey ourselves and made our own pilsner which came out very well. You just can't go wrong with a beer like this.

You can get this beer on tap at most establishments in town and if not just visit Orlando Brewing company they will hook you up with as much as you want.

Oh for some reason I am reminded about an actual question I got from a little girl on a plane coming back home. Her family was visiting Disney World but she was more interested in asking me if I had alligators living in my back yard. I explained to her that I did have a small ake behind my house but at current time no gators lived it but that it's common. The lake I grew up on is filled with gators, you can hear them croaking at night during mating season. you can see them sunning or chilling out on nice days. As a teen ager I was an idiot and went swimming in a lake which very name was "alligator lake". We were teen agers, we thought we were immortal but we'd never swim at night and we never really did swim out to any distance. My uncle took us out on his airboat and showed us how to gator hunt, gig frogs, and fish. He had

and annual fish fry which included frog legs and gator tail. Gator Tail has to be one of Floridas top regional cuisine. It's got this natural butter flavor and some how it manages to taste slightly like chicken without tasting like chicken at all. It's a favorite of mine, but unfortunally I don't get a chance to eat it all that often.

There was a story not to long ago about a 60 year old woman who lived in town and sometimes kept her sliding glass doors open when the weather was cool enough. I guess a 6 and a half foot gator was looking for some warmth and crawled right into her kitchen which she was in another room watching telvision. Hey it happens. Small dogs beware. Never walk your small dog by the lake, gators see them as appetizers and it happens more often than you think,

If gator isn't your style you can head back down to Miami and get some cuban expresso and a cuban sandwich. You can get a cuban sandwich anywhere, or so I thought, but for the most authentic cuban food head down to miami.  

 I need to go and get my passport. It's an all day event so I'll make a day trip out of it and grab some food down therewhile I wait. Plantains and a cuban sandwich for lunch.

 It is about a 4 hour drive from Orlando to Miami and then another 4 hour drive from Miami to Key West. It's a nice little road trip with dozens of stops you could make along the way. Ramrod Key always makes me giggle and there is something called the Duval crawl which if your actually remember doing the Duval Crawl you didn't do it right. Your supposed to be shitface drunk by the time your friends persude you to stick a few bills in that drag queens g-string. After all of this, where do the locals go to repent their sins? The Key West Key Lime Pie Factory.which is a little piece of heaven that is

 sinfully delicious and open until 4am. Key Lime Pie is the offical Florida Dessert. I think it's probably one of the most recognized florida dishes because, well it's pie and everyone likes pie right. What other dessert is more liked? Oh Ice Cream. Ice Cream is always a favorite. Well to get that you'd have to visit Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Every year my class would take a field trip there, with each grade we'd learn more and more about space travel and astronaut training. I wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger, I was in third grade and standing on top of the roof of my school when I saw the Challenger take off and saw the devistation in my teachers face when it failed to take off correctly. I was still optimistic and I was inspired by The Space Center, my astronaut barbie, and astronaut Ice Cream. The stuff was so good, It was a little chalky and fluffy at the same

but for an 8 year old girl it was the stuff dreams were made out of. A chance to do something that so few people get to do. To join the ranks of Sally Ride and drink tang. Yeah well, I was eight and tang was in.

I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot of other florida cuisine but this was just my thoughts regarding the subject.

I also wanted to mention to keep supporting the locally owned restaurants in your area. The are the gems in your city that make it unique and worth while. If money permits never eat fast food again. There is too much good food out there to waste your life eating garbage. 

What is your local cuisine? 

* OBT is an abbreviation for Orange Blossom Trail, which is a road made famous by the blantent solicitation of prostitution.

I'm finally back to what I consider normal tempetures. For a Florida such as myself anything under 70 degrees is FREEZING to me. I loved NYC but the cold wind just cut right through me. It didn't stop us from venturing out though. It felt like the wind that was hitting my face was actually burning it. We would get up early and go out during the day and then come back to the hotel room to dethaw, relax, and take a catnap. Then venture back out at night.

The real dethawing came the day I got home on sunday and on monday which I had off to give me a buffer between vacation and work. I had a navel orange from the groves still left when I returned and decided to have a shock top beer with it and enjoy being outside and not shivering and freezing. I took this pic with my iphone. I still need to get my photos of NYC off my digital camera.