Tag Archive | food

Miami Airport Hilton

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).

Crowne Plaza Philadephia Valley Forge

Nov17

I stayed at the Crowne Plaza hotel because I had a business meeting in the area. For those who do not know the area, the official name of the area is King of Prussia/ Valley Forge. It is about 30-45 minutes from downtown Philly and the Philadelphia airport. The location of this hotel was perfect for me because it was right across from the King of Prussia mall (one of the biggest malls in the northeast- great for a self proclaimed shopaholic).

The room was average for what I expected of a Crowne Plaza. The bed was comfortable. I had some trouble trying to get the water hot enough for my shower. There was a “trick” to the bath tub knob and I figured it out after 2 nights of taking tepid showers and one call to the front desk.

The full breakfast buffet was worth the price. There was bacon, sausage, eggs made to order, pancakes, breakfast potatoes, waffles, danishes, fruit, and granola. The only drawback to the breakfast was some of the wait staff service. When I entered the restaurant it was difficult to be served. One lady said that I need to wait for someone to seat me. But the lady that was in charge of that was moving so slowly, the two minutes that I waited for her to come show me to a table seemed longer. Since I was on schedule, I decided to find my own table and ignore the first lady. After seating myself, I had to find someone to give me some orange juice and hot water for my tea. One of the mornings, it looked as if they were running out of food by 7:45. Despite all of that, the lady at the omelet station that cooked my eggs was very friendly and she cooked it exactly like I wanted them.

The best part of my visit to this hotel was the AHI TUNA appetizer and cobb salad I order from room service. I was a little hungry and did not want a heavy meal. I thought that a little ahi tuna and a small salad would be light enough for me to eat before going to bed. The coarse black pepper seasoning mix on the tuna was absolutely to die for! The order came with the tuna, a mango relish, and pickled ginger. The tuna was tasty on its own that I did not eat the relish. I almost ordered a second plate since it was so good. Up until that point I have never had any ahi tuna that delectable and now I order it at every occasion trying to find something similar. I was wow-ed by it. Most of all, I was astonished because I was not expecting such high quality from room service food. Super!

After I regained control of my senses, I ate my cobb salad. It was mainly lettuce (Bibb, I think), cheese crumbles, and sugared pecans. If I had known the tuna was going to be so awesome, I would have skipped the salad and ordered double tuna. But since that was not the case, I satisfied my hunger with lettuce. Not quite as exciting.

Crowne Plaza Philadephia Valley Forge

260 Mall Blvd, King of Prussia PA 19406

Quaker Instant Oatmeal – Good Idea / Bad Idea

Oct26

Good Idea: Apple Cinnamon

If you like apples and cinnamon, you will love apple cinnamon flavored oatmeal. It tastes a little like apple pie. There are small chunks of apple that give the oatmeal texture. I also add pecans from time to time to enhance my breakfast experience. Of all the different oatmeal flavors, this is one my favorites. I think you will like it too.

Bad Idea (to me at least): Hazelnut Latte

I chose this because I like hazelnut flavored coffee. It did have the coffee, mocha, nutty flavor like I expected. I did not expect how sweet it was. It was like I was drinking the syrup from one of the gas station cappuccino machines before they mix it with the coffee. I double the amount of water in my oatmeal, but that did not help. I could not finish the bowl because it was so saccharin sweet. I ended up eating the few hazelnuts out of the cereal and throwing the rest away. On paper Hazelnut Latte seemed like a good idea, but the execution of that idea was not tasty at all. Unless you like drinking straight syrup, I would not advise buying this flavor.

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.