Kara’s Cupcakes – Napa CA

Nov22

Kara’s cupcakes has locations through San Francisco and Napa. I went to the one located in Oxbow Market place in Napa. You have to pass the cupcakes to get to the real food. But while you are trying to concentrate on whether you want tacos or chicken or beef, you are really thinking about what cupcake you are going to order for dessert. Maybe that is not what happens to you, but that is what happened to me.

I LOVE sweets.

Kara’s Cupcakes has mini and regular sized cupcakes. All of them look so pretty and delectable. The chocolate with chocolate frosting was filled with caramel and topped with sea salt. The cake was moist, soft, but not too crumbly. The creamy caramel mixed well with the chocolate cake and frosting with a tiny bite of saltiness from the sea salt. Mini Perfection and Decadent Delight!!!! I heard singing when I bit into it. And I think I eyes rolled back into my head a little bit while time stood still. Or at least that is the way it seemed.

Once I finished that one, I wanted to save my coconut cupcake for later. Well, the frosting was calling me. I took a little of the cream cheese frosting on the tip of my finger. I did not expect it to be so creamy. This was LITERALLY the best cream cheese frosting I have ever had at from a bakery. Yes I said literally. I meant it.

As you can imagine, the cupcake did not last long.

It is a good thing I do not live closer to Kara’s Cupcakes because I would be so chubby from eating cupcakes every day.

Miami Airport Hilton

Nov22

I stayed at the Miami Hilton Airport location. As for the room, it met my standards for a Hilton location. Immaculate clean room, comfortable bed, and relaxing good pressure shower head. Internet was $13 a day. Valet parking was $20 a day.

I was in town for business. It was raining and I did not feel like leaving the hotel to eat.
First of all, food at the hotel was very, very expensive. I chose this hotel because the per night rate was lower than the Marriott. But I think I ended up spending more on food here than I would have at another location.

Maybe I am being cheap, but I thought the Room service surcharges were outrageous: $5 delivery fee and 22% service charge.

Dinner
None of the entrees appealed to me so I ordered a few things appetizers. I had wings, yucca fries, and key lime pie. The wings were average. I did not like the buffalo sauce that came with them and I was glad it was on the side. It tasted like half a bottle of Texas Pete mixed with a stick of butter. As a result it left a greasy film in my mouth- not an appetizing feeling. The yucca fries were not good to me. It was mashed yucca in the shape of cheese sticks and fried to a crisp. My problem with this was that the yucca was over fried. The fries were so saturated with grease, that it made my stomach upset.
The bright side to this meal was the key lime pie. It was a 1 part tart, 1 part creamy, and 2 parts sweet. A delectable combination.
As you can see in the picture, I ate all the wings, key lime pie, left the hot sauce, and most of the yucca. I am used to eating fried food, but when there is too much grease, it does not sit well in my stomach.

Breakfast
I had the buffet because I figured that would be the best bargain for the money. The buffet had a lot of tasty choices but no bacon >cue my
sad face and sad music<. What is a breakfast without bacon?!?! I decided on the breakfast potatoes with chorizo, made-on-demand omelet,

some fruit, cheese, and pastries. The fruit was big and pretty, but not very sweet. The omelet was as tasty as I imagined it would be when I
chose the ingredients. The breakfast potatoes with chorizo were okay but needed salt and ketchup.

Everything was okay, not spectacular.The quality of of the customer service was on par with what I would expect from a Hilton. If I had had another option for food, I would have taken it. But since I was at the hotel and it was a distance to downtown, I had to make do with what I had. And although I was disappointed with the food, I did not complain because I ate it (I was too hungry to complain and have to wait for another order).

Old Main Catering

Nov17

One does not expect to find delicious gourmet food from the same group that cooks in the cafeteria of a college. But that is the case at Lander in Greenwood, SC. Old Main Catering provides the food for the university and events around Greenwood. It was so delectable that I decided to take pictures and share with the world. I wish there was a way you could taste the flavor, but you can at least SEE how good it looks.

On the left – Italian Cream Cake decorated with edible flowers – The cake was moist, but not gummy in texture. The cream cheese frosting was not overly sweet but was a perfect complement to the cake. And there were just enough pecans to tie it all together. Very delicious!

On the right – Prosciutto wrapped asparagus, pita chips with hummus, Basil mozzarella tomato salad, and kalamata olives. Saltiness of the prosciutto along with the crunch of the asparagus was on point. Pita and hummus is my new favorite snack. One can never go wrong with basil, mozzarella, and tomatoes. To top it off, the olives had just enough briny flavor.

I really liked Old Main Catering’s tapas offerings and I would suggest them for any catered event.

Jamaica Kitchen

Oct26

Guy Fieri talked about this Jamaican restaurant in Miami Florida on Diners Drive Ins and Dives (http://www.foodnetwork.com/diners-drive-ins-and-dives/index.html). Of course I knew the next time I was in MIA, I was going to check it out. The food looked so good on TV.

When I got there, I was surprised that it was smaller than I expected. From the outside, it looked like an unassuming little store next to a Winn Dixie. Unless you know ahead of time, you would not think it was a restaurant. They had retail items like a mini Jamaican Wal-mart in addition to serving food. I wondered how did Guy get his camera crew in there to record the episode. Once I got over the size of the location, I was like a kid in a candy store in overload (see picture).

I got a menu but really wanted one of everything. I ordered curried oxtails (comes with rice and beans, plantain), curry chicken patties, rum cake, and ginger beer. Everything was DELICIOUS. It was just like I imagined it would be. The oxtail meat was falling off of the bones. The pastry dough of the patty was light and flakey. The patty filling was finely minced and full of balanced spicy flavor. To top it off, while I was eating, the owners/cooks came out of the kitchen and stood near the entrance. I approached them and said that I found out about the place from Triple D. They were really nice and friendly. I wanted to ask for a picture, but was too shy (that is saying a lot about me). I told them that I wish they had a restaurant that was closer to where I lived.

This is my type of comfort food and the next time I am in Miami, I am definitely going to eat here.
http://www.jamaicakitchen.com/

Brasa – Raleigh NC

Oct24

Brasa is a Brazilian steakhouse located in Raleigh, NC. This was my first time at a Brazilian rodizio style restaurant. Dinner with the rodizio service was $37.95. They offered other options, but why go to a Brazilian rodizio restaurant and not order the all-you-can-eat meat?

After I was seated and they took my drink order, they explained the set up. I had a rock that was painted red on one side and green on the other side. Green means to keep passing by with over 12 different cuts of meat (pork, beef, lamb, chicken, etc). Red means stop. In addition to the copious amounts of meat that was being offered, there was an extensive salad bar. I did look over the bar just to see what was being offered. I picked over one plate of food, and since I was there for the meat, I did not want to fill up on salad, rice, and bread.

My rock show GREEN and I was ready to eat. At this point, the service was a little slow. I am guessing it was because they had to cook the food. I am not sure. Maybe the time passed slower because I was so hungry. It seemed like I was waiting a long time to eat. It was not as I imagined, person after person passing by the table with different meats. The waiter would come with chicken and ask if I wanted some. If so, he would slice a piece for me. Then he would move on to the next table. Five or ten minutes later, he would come by again with another meat. One time he came by with chicken hearts. I decided to leave that alone. He was stingy with the lamb, slicing very small slivers (see picture). I kept asking him for more until he gave me what I thought was a sufficient amount.

When I was at the point that I felt I had enough, I turned my rock over to RED. Then the waitress asked if we wanted dessert. Grilled pineapple coated with cinnamon sugar was served. The caramelization of the grilled sugar gave the pineapple a little crunch exterior. On the inside, it was warm and juicy. I never had grilled pineapple before, but it was a satisfying end to a delicious meal.

They are little stingy when serving the meat, but if I kept asking for more, they kept cutting. They were also slow to come around with the more expensive cuts. Everytime I turned around, they were trying to serve chicken and sausage. This was another reason why I tried to get what I wanted when they had it because I did not want to have to wait a long time for them to return. Overall, I would eat here again.