The Saboscrivner

Baltimore, Part 1: Attman’s Deli

I am in Baltimore, Maryland for the next few days. When I am lucky enough to take work trips, I always try to explore, eat, and soak up the local culture as much as I can on my own limited time. I despise driving in unfamiliar places, so whenever I travel, I walk when I can, take public transportation if it’s available, or rely on ride-sharing services or cabs. Luckily, Baltimore has a fantastic public transportation system. I took a light rail from the airport to my hotel for $1.80, and took a free bus to and from my first restaurant destination. Figuring out the public transportation systems when I travel makes me feel more like a “man of the world,” and not just a lifelong Floridian who has to drive everywhere to get anywhere. I was last in Baltimore on a short trip with my wife in 2011, but even before that, the city was already close to my heart.

My favorite television show of all time is The Wire, David Simon’s Baltimore-set epic that unfolds like a great American novel with a cast of hundreds, about the failure of the war on drugs, the struggles of cops and criminals alike, the collapse of blue collar jobs, the failing public school system, the decline of print journalism. It’s about how institutions always tear down individuals who try to change things for the better, but how you still have to try, to fight the powers that be. It’s often bleak and grim, sometimes heart-wrenchingly sad, occasionally uproariously funny, and incredibly well-written and well-acted. The cast members, primarily actors of color, have gone onto higher-profile roles in more popular shows as well as movies, and I’m always happy to see them pop up. The Wire ran for five seasons on HBO, from 2002 to 2008, and you can still watch it by streaming on Amazon Prime or HBO Go. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Here’s the offical website with a trailer for the series: https://www.hbo.com/the-wire

To make this food-related, I discovered The Wire after it had ended, like so many other fans — but better late than never. Long before the show was available to stream online, one of my former students always raved about it, and she had been discussing shopping around for a Crock-Pot. We worked out a deal: I traded her my Crock-Pot in exchange for borrowing her DVDs of the complete series! She changed my life for the better (and now I own my own DVDs), and I hope she had better luck with that Crock-Pot than I did.

Anyway, back to Baltimore! My first stop, after checking into my hotel, was to take one of the city’s wonderful free buses to Attman’s Deli, a legendary Jewish deli founded in 1915. (https://attmansdeli.com/) I’m a sucker for the food, culture, and history of Jewish delis, and for any restaurants with that kind of resilience. In this era where everything is ephemeral, I am drawn to those institutions that are obviously doing everything right in order to last decades, whether they change with the times or are so good at what they do that they don’t have to.

To my surprise, Attman’s isn’t a table service restaurant. You enter and line up in a long, narrow corridor at the deli counter, place your order, pay for it at the end, and then take it to a dining room or to go. The sandwiches and other options are listed above the counter, but the menu is overwhelmingly long, so I suggest you study it in advance, as I did, or grab a paper menu when you enter (since that includes the prices, whereas the listings above the deli counter don’t).

I chose the Lombard Street (named for the street Attman’s is on), a double-decker sandwich that comes with pastrami, corned beef, chopped liver, and Russian dressing on rye bread, for a pretty fair $14.95. I figured that was a good way to try a lot of deli staples at once. I also ordered a potato knish, because those are so rare nowadays (as are delis in general), and because this is The Saboscrivner, I had to get an order of onion rings so this review could also be a RING THE ALARM! feature.

The knish was good. For those who don’t know a knish from kishka, it’s a baked or fried dumpling stuffed with savory fillings, usually mashed potatoes seasoned with onions, but sometimes kasha (boiled, seasoned buckwheat grains), ground beef, or even spinach. This was a baked knish, the more common variety, but the legendary knishes made by Gabila’s in New York are fried. The doughy outer shell was soft, but held up firmly enough to properly contain the potatoey filling, and the potatoes had a rich, oniony flavor. It was everything a baked knish should be. I like my knishes with lots of deli mustard. (Stay tuned for CUTTING THE MUSTARD, another planned recurring feature when I start reviewing mustards.)

The sandwich was delicious. Not as hugely overstuffed as Katz’s infamous deli sandwiches in New York, which is fine, because I didn’t have to deconstruct it or dislocate my jaw in the process. I sampled the corned beef, pastrami, and chopped liver separately, to fully appreciate them, as well as together in the sandwich as a melange of salty, juicy, beefy flavors. I consider myself a connoisseur of the salted, cured meats, and I was glad to have chosen wisely from that long, almost intimidating menu. (https://attmansdeli.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Attmans-Carryout-menu-2018_web.pdf) In fact, I was so wise that I saved half of the sandwich for later, and I am thrilled that my hotel room has a fridge AND a microwave!

And the onion rings? Well, they were fine, but not my favorite kind of onion rings. They were a little thicker than optimal, with a coating that was kind of like crispy bread crumbs, with that unmistakable jagged surface. The coating stayed on well, which is always appreciated, but beer battered onion rings are still my Platonic ideal. Ring the Alarm!

Well, stay tuned for more Baltimore food reviews in the days to come.

CLOSED: Jade Sushi & New Asian

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jade Sushi & New Asian closed for good on November 5th, 2022.

***

For a guy who writes about food, I rarely leave work to go out to lunch, even though I work near some of our city’s best restaurants. Nope, I pack mostly-healthy lunches in a lunch box with baked chicken, sometimes cans of sardines, hard-boiled pickled eggs I pickle myself, big salads, vegetables, berries. Everyday stuff. Boring stuff. And I eat alone in our break room and usually choke it all down quickly so I can get back to work. Not festive, folks. Not blog-worthy. This Onion article hits really close to home for me: https://local.theonion.com/man-brings-lunch-from-home-to-cut-down-on-small-joys-1819577433

But today was a rarity, because not only did I go out to a nice lunch, but I met a lot of super-cool people from the Orlando Foodie Forum on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/orlandofoodieforum/), the community that keeps me in the loop and eating well in the first place. If I’m any kind of authority on local food (and I am, at least for friends, co-workers, and students), it’s thanks to that place.

Seven of us assembled at Jade Sushi & New Asian (http://jadenewasian.com/) in the College Park neighborhood near downtown Orlando: myself, Foodie Forum and Tasty Chomps food blog (http://tastychomps.com/) founder Ricky Ly (who I’ve known online for years but never met), and other super-cool people who probably don’t want me to list their full names: Krystle (another fellow blogger, of http://www.theorlandogirl.com/ fame), Monica, Mia and Aranya, and Lani (who I owe a debt of gratitude to, for welcoming me into the world of pie championship judging earlier this year). I always feel awkward in social situations, like I’m not going to belong, but this was a very friendly and welcoming group, and I like to think I clicked with them.*

*Speaking of “clicked,” I’m sure at least one careful Foodie Forum reader at this gathering was like “Really? This is the guy who elected to take the group picture?”

We ordered lots of food, and everyone was very generous and laid-back about sharing. We tried fried chicken wings in spicy-sweet Korean red sauce, pork belly bao, and they brought out thin slices of hamachi (a fish similar to amberjack) for us all to sample, which was really nice.

A few of us ordered spicy tan tan men, which is thin, ramen-like noodles served with ground beef in a spicy, oily red sauce. I love a similar dish at Chuan Lu Garden with ground pork, but this might have even been better because it also came with soft-boiled egg halves like “fancy” ramen (to me, that’s any non-instant ramen), beautiful chili threads as a garnish, and I opted for a bit of sliced cha shu pork with mine as well.

I’m pretty sure Ricky took this picture with my camera phone:

And here’s my terrible photography again!

Ricky has been promising to give me a food photography tutorial, so today was our chance. I felt extremely relieved and vindicated when he quickly concluded that my phone camera is just the worst, rather than my eye or my talent as a photographer. Hey, it’s not a fancy phone, but you would plotz if you knew how little it cost, and how little I pay for my plan per month. That allows me to go out to eat slightly more often and write about my experiences here. The downside, dear readers, is you have to look at my blurry-ass food photos from time to time.

Well, I can never resist a deal on sushi, and Jade has some great lunch specials, including two rolls for $11. I opted for two standards, intending to share them: a spicy tuna roll and a bagel roll with smoked salmon and cream cheese, because that is the food of my people. I haven’t had sushi in a long time, and they totally hit the spot.

Other people ordered some beautiful-looking bento boxes and ramen bowls. Jade Sushi & New Asian has a huge menu (http://jadenewasian.com/menu/), so take your time looking it over so you can make the best choices. Better yet, go with a bunch of friends (or friendly Internet strangers) and share everything!

I have been to Jade twice before, and from those prior visits, I strongly recommend the “sizzling evil ribs” (great name, even greater dish) and the Stormtrooper roll, with smoked salmon, asparagus, and fried jalapeno, wrapped with escolar, spicy mayo, and eel sauce.

So today was better than most days. I left work, ate a terrific lunch at a restaurant I love, and hung out with some friendly fellow foodies for the first time.

Remembering Anthony Bourdain

A big reason I started The Saboscrivner is because of local celebrity Ricky Ly, founder of http://www.tastychomps.com, published author, and one of the biggest food writers in Orlando. Ricky and I both used to be regular, prolific posters on the Florida forum on Chowhound.com, but when he founded the Orlando Foodie Forum on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/orlandofoodieforum/), I followed him there and became a part of that incredible community. I have not yet had the opportunity to meet Ricky in real life, but he has definitely been an influence on me. I feel more connected to Orlando because of him, and I’ve learned a lot about our rich restaurant scene and food in general thanks to him. Through his Facebook group, I’ve received a lot of encouragement about my writing, inspiring me to finally create this blog, which I should have done a long time ago.

However, maybe the biggest reason I got into this food blogging game was Anthony Bourdain. His death last month hit me much harder than any other celebrity deaths I can think of, because I was such a huge fan of his. Through his TV shows, his food writing, and even his novels and graphic novels, I felt like I knew the guy, and I thought the world of him. He really inspired me to think more about the food I ate, where it came from, who made it, and the stories and culture behind it all. He was a saboscrivner too — when you listened to his voice or read his words, you were along for the ride with this very cool, but very tortured, tour guide. The sights, the smells, the tastes — he made them real. You were there. That’s what I hope to do, on a much smaller scale.

When I learned of Bourdain’s suicide almost one month ago, I wrote what I hoped was a worthy tribute on Facebook, and Ricky included my piece among other local culinary luminaries on his food blog, Tasty Chomps. I was honored to be included among well-known chefs and much better-known food writers. So here’s his compilation of eulogies from several different writers, including mine:

http://tastychomps.com/2018/07/in-memoriam-orlando-remembers-anthony-bourdain.html

Bosphorous

On Sunday evening, I met a friend at Bosphorous, the beautiful Turkish restaurant on Park Avenue in Winter Park. (https://www.bosphorousrestaurant.com/) It is one of my favorite restaurants in Orlando, and it never disappoints. This time was no exception.

My friend had never been there before; I suggested it because she is vegetarian, and other vegetarian friends I’ve brought there thought they died and went to heaven, with all the delicious options to choose from.

We shared the mixed appetizer platter with puffy lavas bread, which is almost a requirement when you eat there. The soft, pita-like bread will arrive at your table puffed up with hot air, and you need to pierce it with fork tines to deflate it to avoid being burned. Then rip off pieces and go to town with the cool, refreshing dips in the platter.

I have said that everything tastes better in sandwich or dip form, and these dips are among the finest around. The platter also comes with one of Bosphorous’ stuffed grape leaves, sliced in two, and a few kalamata olives and cornichons (tiny pickles, which I love, even though I’m normally not big on pickles). You have to order the lavas bread separately, but you’ll regret it if you don’t!

One of my favorites is the savory tomato and sauteed eggplant dip called soslu patlican. I could eat a whole jar of that stuff in no time. I should really learn how to make it myself! The platter also includes babaganoush (smoked eggplant dip), tabbuli (similar to couscous), ezme (a spicy salsa-like dip with tomatoes, onions, jalapenos and other peppers, and walnuts), and haydari (a thick, creamy yogurt dip with walnuts).

My absolute favorite, which my wife loves too, is taramosalata, which is a creamy, salty, fish roe concoction. Unfortunately, it wasn’t included this time, replaced with a thin, creamy dip called cacik, with yogurt, cucumber, mint, and dill. (My brilliant brother, one of my most loyal readers, suggested cacik might be etymologically related to the similar Greek yogurt sauce tzatziki, and he’s probably right!) I guess without the taramosalata, the whole platter is vegetarian, so that makes some sense. It doesn’t even seem to be on the menu anymore!

If you don’t want to spring for the whole platter, you can always order any of these dips separately, but for first-time diners, I strongly recommend trying them all, so you can pick out the ones you like best. My least-favorite is the hummus, because it’s just plain hummus, which I eat all the time. I wonder if they let you mix and match. It never occurred to me to ask!

While my wife and I usually share the mixed appetizer platter and an order of doner kebap (similar to gyro meat, and served on a bed of rich and buttery rice pilaf, perfect for wrapping up in the lavas bread), this time I tried something new to me: the lahmacun, which is like Turkish pizza — flatbreads that were at once both crispy and soft, covered with ground lamb in a piquant sauce. It comes accompanied by shredded, pickled red cabbage, beets, and red onions (love it!), plus some mixed greens and sliced tomatoes. You put the vegetables on the lahmacun half-moons, pour on a little of the incredible vinaigrette dressing, fold it, and eat it like a sandwich. I loved it.

My friend ordered the spinach and feta pide, a pastry “boat” that was warm and soft, stuffed with sauteed spinach and melty, cheesy goodness, topped with sliced tomatoes. She was suitably impressed.

Unfortunately, my wife was down for the count with a migraine to end all migraines, which is the only reason she didn’t join us for dinner. But I ordered another mixed appetizer platter and a whole lavas bread to bring home to her, which she appreciated. (Except they forgot the stuffed grape leaves on this one — First World Problems Alert!) This is one of the ways you make a marriage work, you guys.

Buttermilk Bakery

This morning, my wife wanted croissants, and I agreed they sounded good. But we couldn’t get ourselves out of bed at a reasonable time to go out, and I was plagued by nightmares about vacationing with friends to an unfamiliar beach that turned out to be a dystopian hellscape, with crumbling, graffiti-strewn hotels and roving gangs of punks straight out of an ’80s movie, daring vacationers to pass their flaming barricades and swinging chains to catch a glimpse of the ocean. But enough about my inner turmoil!

By the time I got up and dressed, I figured most bakeries would be slammed by the brunch crowd, so I went off to bring home croissants from Buttermilk Bakery, a newish Winter Park bakery we’ve only been to once before, but I never reviewed. (http://www.buttermilk-bakery.com/)

I was lucky to find the last parking space in the back, since they were doing bang-up business, with every table full and a line almost out the door. But once I got up front, I was greeted by friendly bakers and a dazzling array of croissants and other pastries:

Since we rarely make it out there, I ended up bringing home two plain croissants (although there is nothing “plain” about them), a morning bun, a monkey bread croissant, and a cinnamon sugar brioche doughnut. They definitely made my wife’s morning, especially after I brewed up some cafe con leche for her. After dreaming of seaside terrors and a fight for survival amid Art Deco ruins, the flaky, buttery, rich croissant and vaguely floral-accented morning bun helped me find my center as well.

We are so lucky to have access to a plethora of awe-inspiring bakeries here in Orlando. At this point, I don’t even mess with anything from the Publix bakery. We have so many better local options, for the rare times I indulge in sweets. (My wife is the one with the sweet tooth!) We’re the hugest fans of Se7enbites, especially for pie, and we’ve had great experiences at Benjamin French Bakery and now Buttermilk Bakery for croissants. Heartsong Cookies and Gideon’s Bakehouse both make some of the best cookies I’ve ever had, and The Gourmet Muffin specializes in… well, you can guess. These are all baked goods — no baked bads among them!

My First and Only Professional Food Writing Gig (so far…)

For years, I’ve been a regular poster on the Orlando Foodie Forum on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/orlandofoodieforum/), which is a pretty great community. That led to me being invited to contribute a piece to the Orlando Weekly at the end of last year, listing my five favorite local dishes of 2017. So here it is:
https://www.orlandoweekly.com/orlando/orlandos-best-new-dishes-of-2017/Content?oid=9614809

Getting published as a real, professional food writer was one of the proudest moments of my life, and I still stand by this list of local favorites.

Bravo Supermarket

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a big fan of grocery stores and grocery shopping. It’s the only kind of shopping I enjoy, in fact. I regularly stop at multiple stores to pick things up: Aldi (my favorite), Publix, Costco, occasionally Trader Joe’s, Fresh Market, and Target if I’m near them.

We recently had a Bravo Supermarket open near us, which is aimed at the Latinx community and specializes in groceries and prepared foods from Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. (https://www.bravosupermarkets.com/)

The prices are fantastic, and as you would expect, they carry all kinds of stuff Publix doesn’t. I got my wife an assortment of coconut waters, since they have over a dozen different brands and varieties: some with pulp and some without pulp, some roasted, some “young” coconut, etc.

The hot foods counter is set up like a cafeteria line, where you can get a styrofoam box stuffed to bursting with the rice of your choice (white, yellow with pigeon peas, or a specialty rice) with an entree and a side, for $7 and change. I’ve been twice so far. Last week, I brought home roast pork over yellow rice with tostones (crispy-fried plantains) for my wife and stewed goat over fried rice with maduros (sweet plantains) for myself. Today being a Friday, I remembered they had rabo (oxtail) as a special of the day, and I always love oxtail. I got mine over moros rice (white rice stewed with black beans and onions) with maduros.

bravo_oxtails

It was really good oxtail, but nothing beats when I get it at the Jamaican restaurant Golden Krust, one of my favorites. I’ll have to go back soon and review it.

The prepared foods counter also has quesitos, empanadas, pastellitos, Jamaican beef patties, some desserts, and they will make you Cuban coffee, too. Their quesitos (pastries stuffed with sweetened cream cheese) are very tasty, but much doughier and chewier than I’m used to. The quesitos from the Cuban restaurants back home in Miami were usually made of a flakier, crispier, almost croissant-like dough that often shattered when you bit into them. Both are good, though.

The Hangry Bison

We tried the new Hangry Bison (https://thehangrybison.com/) in Winter Park Village for lunch this past Wednesday. Directly across from my favorite movie theater in town, parking is usually at a premium there, so it seemed like a great off-time to go. That space has been a few different restaurants, and I can’t imagine how high the rent is there. The Hangry Bison has been open for less than a month at this point. The location is great, the space is nice (lots of mason jar lights, which I guess are a thing now), and I wish them the best there. Love their name, too!

We ordered the pretzels and beer cheese as an app, and the pretzels were awesome. Very rich, buttery, and soft, with the slightest crispness from their shiny exterior, they reminded me of my mall guilty pleasure, Auntie Anne’s pretzels. The beer cheese had the slightest tangy bite. Very good stuff. hangrybison_pretzelbites

They have several different burger options on the menu, including bison, short rib, spicy Italian sausage, and vegan Impossible burger patties to choose from. My wife chose the short rib burger on a pretzel bun. I couldn’t decide between the bison, short rib, and sausage, so I went with the Haymaker for $25, a monstrosity with one of each patty. The best of all possible worlds! It is meant as a challenge meal, so huge that you win a T-shirt if you can conquer it in one sitting. But I’m too old for that shit, to quote Roger Murtaugh. I knew I could get three meals out of it, and I’m already at four meals!

hangrybison_haymaker

Yes, the Haymaker comes with two grilled cheese sandwiches on thick Texas toast in place of a standard bun, with lettuce and tomato, jalapenos, onion straws, bacon, pepper jack cheese, “bourbon sauce,” and a vast field of fries. Ridiculous. At the restaurant, we focused on sharing the fries, and I deconstructed it and took a couple of bites out of each patty.

The menu says you can get them cooked medium, medium-well, or well done, so we opted for medium, but we both wished we had asked for ours medium-rare. They were all on the dry side, with a strong char-grilled taste to the meat. Medium-rare would have been a lot juicier and better. I gotta be honest: I didn’t notice the bourbon sauce or the pepper jack cheese, although it did come with a lot more of the beer cheese on it. Not complaining, just giving my assessment. Also, the cheese in the grilled cheese sandwiches was cheddar, and it didn’t melt very well, as you can see. There’s no shame in using American cheese, folks — especially on a burger or in a grilled cheese sandwich. Few cheeses melt better.

Since hauling our leftovers home, I’ve had the rest of the bison patty on one of the grilled cheeses, the rest of the short rib patty on the other grilled cheese, reheated the enviable amount of bacon in the toaster oven and served it to my wife with a homemade blueberry pancake the next morning, and chopped up the sausage patty and cooked it with some onions and roasted red peppers to serve over pasta last night. So I definitely got my money’s worth!

Remember: get the pretzels, and ask for medium-rare!

Who is The Saboscrivner?

I love food. Love eating, love cooking, love discovering, talking about, recommending, and reviewing food. Food is everything: culture, history, art, science, politics. In these uncertain times, I think sharing a good meal is something everyone can find common ground over, even if they’re diametrically opposed foes on every other topic. So here’s one more food blog that can possibly even contribute to the shared human experience in this tumultuous world.

I live in the Orlando, Florida area. Orlando has been unfairly dismissed for far too long as being “chain restaurant hell,” a destination for theme park tourists and not much else. But I’ve lived here since 2004, and I love our rich, diverse, multicultural city, which has a TREMENDOUS culinary scene. We have amazing restaurants far from the gates of the parks (and a few that are closer), so the main point of this blog will reviewing my local food experiences. I am lucky enough to travel for work once in a while, and occasionally I even visit friends out of town, so rest assured that when I do, you bet I’ll review whatever I eat in more exotic locales.

I might also share recipes I create or find, or even review groceries that everyone needs to know about. (I am obsessed with mustard and tinned seafood.) And occasionally I’ll just want to recommend or review something else: a good movie, TV show, band, comedian, book, or comic book. I’m a librarian by trade and a lifelong nerd, so I tend to get enthusiastic about the stuff I like, and I want to share information and tell stories.

I’m a mediocre photographer with an even more mediocre phone camera, so I’ll try to share my culinary adventures with you as best I can, primarily using my words. Hopefully you’ll read and follow this blog and feel inspired to try something new for yourself. There’s so much good food out there, and you need to eat anyway, so why not treat yourself to something awesome? Sometimes a good meal, or even a snack, can be the highlight of the day — either something to help you celebrate or cheer you up. You might not always agree with me, but I look forward to hopefully building a following and a community, with all the constructive feedback that goes along with those.

Just a few warnings:
1. I don’t drink and I’m allergic to mushrooms, so don’t expect booze-and-shrooms content.
2. I don’t like hashtags. This will be one food blog where you can always expect complete thoughts in complete sentences.
3. Nobody is paying me to do this, so everything I write is my own opinion, which I stand by with a clear conscience.
4. I have never used generative AI to write this blog (or anything else), and I never will.

So what’s the deal with the title? What the heck is a saboscrivner? Well, I’m also a lifelong comic book reader (“This guy? The hell, you say!”), and one of my favorite comics of the last decade was Chew, written by John Layman, drawn by Rob Guillory, and published by Image Comics. The whole series is complete, and you can buy the volumes from your local comic book store or on Amazon, or check them out from your public library or on the Hoopla service. It’s an action-adventure-crime-horror-sci-fi-comedy, set in a food-obsessed world where most of the main characters have food-related super powers. Everyone’s powers receive a polysyllabic name and a description, and one of my favorites, a restaurant critic who is a main character in the Chew saga, served as a bit of a personal inspiration.

John Layman introduced the character in Chew #3: “Amelia Mintz is a saboscrivner. That means she can write about food so accurately, so vividly and with such precision – people get the actual sensation of taste when reading about the meals she writes about.”

That saboscrivner ended up playing a key role in saving the world, but I’m just a regular guy trying to impart information as a food blogger, hoping to share the same sensory experience with my readers. I hope you’ll decide to follow The Saboscrivner and turn to it for restaurant reviews and recommendations in Orlando and beyond.

CLOSED: Orlando Meats

EDITOR’S NOTE: Orlando Meats CLOSED permanently in August 2022.

***

My wife and I had an awesome lunch at Orlando Meats (http://orlandomeats.com/). Today I got their new “Snackriligious” sandwich, chicken-fried lasagna with ricotta on a roll, which is as good as you would think. Better, even.

orlandomeatsplatter

orlandomeatssandwich

My wife got a delicious-looking beef and mushroom blended burger called the Smurf House, cooked to a perfect medium-rare. I can’t do mushrooms, but still tasted a tiny morsel, and it was excellent. I didn’t get a picture, but trust me, she is still raving about it. Their regular burger, though not gigantic (neither was this one), is still extremely satisfying and might be THE best burger in Orlando.

Orlando Meats is a treasure. They have the best chips (fried in beef tallow!) and cole slaw, too. The chips are the PERFECT consistency — not as crunchy as kettle chips, not as thin, crumbly, and inconsequential as something like Lay’s — the ideal middle ground.

They make their own doughnuts too, probably fried in lard. But they were surprisingly light and fluffy. My wife liked the churro doughnut with cinnamon sugar best. I still prefer Donut King, but I’m really glad we tried them.

orlandomeatsdonuts