Category: Seafood

Tuun (at Sea Thai)

Tuun (https://www.instagram.com/tuunorlando/) is essentially a restaurant operating within a restaurant, at Sea Thai (https://seathaiorlando.com/), located at 3812 E Colonial Dr, Orlando, FL 32803.  Sea Thai has been in that location near the Fashion Square Mall and Orlando’s Milk District neighborhood since 2007), so it was still new in the early days of my old job, when I had lunch there a few times.  I don’t know why I never worked it into my regular rotation, because it was always solid.

But I had been dying to get back over there to try the special menu offered at Tuun, coming out of the same kitchen as all of Sea Thai’s regular dishes.  It’s the brainchild of Chef Jack Jone Tawa Chavitranurak, the brother of the owner of Sea Thai.  He started Tuun in 2020, so it took far too many years to finally try it, but better later than never.

We got together with a super-cool couple for dinner (literally the coolest people we know), and it was the first time we’ve ever had a chance to sit and eat and chat, all four of us.  You see, I would run into them on the rare times I go anywhere cool or do anything fun in Orlando, first meeting them at a Kyle Kinane show at The Abbey in Thornton Park, then at Neko Case at the Beacham in downtown Orlando, then at J.G. Thirlwell at the Timucua White House, and I saw him flying solo at a Surfragettes show at Will’s Pub and a couple of comic conventions.  We’ve also had lunch at Black Bean Deli and Isan Zaap Thai Cafe before.  I’d always come home raving about how cool they are, and my wife finally met this mythical couple when we all saw Fred Armisen perform at The Abbey last year.  We’ve been wanting to hang out with them in a place we could talk and hear each other ever since, and we finally made it happen at Sea Thai!

Our friends ordered these spring rolls off the regular Sea Thai menu to start with.  They are filled with glass noodles and mixed vegetables, fried in their tightly rolled wrappers until crispy, and served with plum sauce for dipping.

And here is a shot of the Tuun menu, since it isn’t on the Sea Thai website, and there isn’t a Tuun website:

This is the watermelon salad, two round watermelon slices topped with lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, fried shallots, and chili watermelon dressing.  Both couples ordered a watermelon salad to share, and I think everyone liked it a lot.  My wife enjoyed it even more than I.

This was the roti, a crispy, crackly fried savory pastry topped with boneless beef short rib curry, chili oil, kaffir lime, and fried shallots.  It felt so much more delicate than the flaky, buttery roti canai that everyone always orders at Hawkers Asian Street Fare.  I’m not convinced the roti at Hawkers isn’t a frozen version, since I’ve bought very similar ones at Asian and Indian markets around Orlando.  But there is nothing like this roti anywhere, I promise you that!My wife has really been expanding her palate since some surviving some medical issues earlier this summer, and she loves trying new foods more than ever before, which is a joy to watch.  She was undaunted by the short rib curry, something she never would have messed with before, but it wasn’t spicy, just flavorful.

The roti was served with cool, crisp cucumbers and some thin-sliced red onions pickled in sweet vinegar.  As a fan of so many things pickled and vinegary, I just loved this.  It worked well for cutting the salty, fatty, spicy qualities of the other dishes. 

My wife is always an octopus lover, and she chose this beautiful, lightly grilled octopus tentacle, served with mango salad, fried shallots, cashews, and garlic lime dressing. 

I ordered the Tuun noodles, assuming we would split them, but she didn’t really want any.  They were very similar to drunken noodles, also known as pad kee mao or pad kee mow, one of my all-time favorite Thai dishes, and these were served with spicy braised beef, bell pepper, basil, and a big fried egg in the middle.  They come with mushrooms too, but I asked our server to hold the mushrooms.  I’m sorry I didn’t take another photo to include a view of the flat, wide noodles, but you can kinda-sorta make them out around 6:00.  Funny thing, my wife and our friends thought I ordered “tuna noodles” and were surprised when I mentioned beef.  I remember eating tuna noodle casserole as a kid, but these Tuun noodles are a world apart from that.  Drunken noodle lovers (by which I mean lovers of drunken noodles), don’t sleep on these.

And now, seared duck confit, a dish my wife and I both loved.  She’s a superfan of it now, served with more of those fried shallots and tangy-sweet tamarind sauce.  I now realize it was supposed to come with fried eggs, but they left them out.  We didn’t even notice at the time, but the duck legs were so rich and decadent, cooked to perfection, that we were distracted. 

A few weeks later, we had to return to Sea Thai ourselves to go through that Tuun menu again and revisit some of those killer dishes.  My wife started with a creamy, smoky Thai iced tea, and this time I remembered to get a picture of it.

This was very much a “greatest hits” meal, because we couldn’t stop thinking about it.  I think my photo of the watermelon salad came out better this time.  But she loved it so much, I let her have it all.

I think my roti photi (sorry, photo) came out better this time as well.

And the sweet, pickled cucumbers were even more delicious and refreshing this time.

She got the duck confit again, and this time they included the egg, which were jammy in the center and lightly fried. 

Me being me, I had to switch it up this time, so I tried Tuun’s stir-fried soft shell crab, with tom yum powder, kaffir lime, fried garlic, and fried shallots.  I always like crispy soft shell crab, especially at Thai restaurants, and I was not disappointed.  The sauce had a bit of tangy sweetness, maybe also from tamarind (I think the menu was the same on this second visit, but it didn’t mention it), and I swear I tasted ginger as well.   

Here’s another angle on the soft shell crab dish:

We will definitely keep returning to Sea Thai for those Tuun specialties, and next time, I might actually order some things off the regular menu.  I noticed they have khao soi noodles, which I fell in love with at Thailicious in Longwood last year.  But I tell ya, if you go to Sea Thai on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday evening, you are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t sample some of the dishes off the special Tuun menu.  We are huge fans now, and I can’t imagine anyone could sample these gorgeous plates and not be blown away by their presentation and perfection.

Kaya

Kaya (https://www.kayaorlando.com/) is an upscale Filipino restaurant in Mills 50, Orlando’s best foodie neighborhood.  It is owned and operated by Chef Lordfer Lalicon and General Manager Jamilyn Salonga Bailey, who first made names for themselves with Kappo in Orlando’s East End Market food hall, then launched their award-winning omakase sushi restaurant Kadence.  I have not been lucky enough to go to either yet, but I’ve been aware of them for the longest time, and they seem like incredibly nice, hard-working, talented people who deserve all their accolades and local love.  Kaya first opened in 2022, and while I’ve been wanting to try it ever since, I finally made it there for the first time a few weeks ago.  Better late than never, because I had an unforgettable experience that I’ve been replaying in my head ever since.

I was actually meeting a friend for dinner on a rare weeknight I was off work: someone I also consider a mentor and a role model, Amy Drew Thompson, the food writer for the Orlando Sentinel.  This was my second time meeting Amy Drew in real life, and she is a delightful person who is so nice, so knowledgeable, and an amazing writer.  Kaya is one of her favorite local restaurants, and I was thrilled she was willing and able to meet me there.  Of course everyone at Kaya knew her, because she does so much for Orlando’s local food scene.  Jami came by to check on us a few times, and even Chef Lalicon (who everyone calls “Chef Lo”) popped out of the kitchen.  We sat at the bar, and the two bartenders, Daniel and a nice lady whose name I’m blanking on, took wonderful care of us.

They started us out with a mocktail called Hiraya, with white peony and marigold tea, pineapple juice, and lime juice, sprinkled with Sichuan peppercorns.  It was so refreshing!  It started with the unmistakable sweet taste of pineapple, but that quickly faded to something more botanical.  I’ve never tasted anything like those tea flavors, but it tasted like my wife’s shampoo smells (in a good way). 

The first dish to come out was Lumpiang Shanghai, an order of three very long, very crispy spring rolls, stuffed with seasoned pork and chicken and served with hibiscus sweet chili sauce.  I knew these as lumpia, and I’ve had them before (including when a very sweet student made them and brought me some, years ago), but with all due respect to her, I’ve never had anything close to these.  They set the tone for a multi-course meal where each dish was the most interesting thing I had ever tasted, until the next one came along and supplanted it.   

Kinilaw is a raw fish-based dish somewhat reminiscent of ceviche in Latin American countries, except where ceviche uses citrus juices to “cook” the fish, kinilaw utilizes vinegar for a similar purpose.  This gorgeous kinilaw incorporated madai, the Japanese word for red sea bream, a whole new fish I had never tasted before (although some of my research tells me the term is used interchangeably with red snapper, usually when it’s served as sushi).  Delicate raw slices of the madai were served with peaches, paper-thin slices of crunchy radish, coconut, and chili flakes, all arranged artfully on separate little crispy islands of puffed rice.  You can see five little radish slices, each one topping a piece of the madai, and there’s puffed rice under each one.  You would scoop up the whole little stack, and it is a perfect bite of food with so many textures and flavors.  Chef Lo used pinakurat, which is a spiced coconut vinegar (made from coconut sap).  I’ve bought the Suka Pinakurat brand before, at Orlando’s many Asian markets, since I love experimenting with different vinegars almost as much as I love mustards, but I never dreamed anyone could use it to create a dish on this level of complexity and beauty. 

This beautiful dish was Bicol Express mussels, served in a broth of coconut cream, Thai chilis, shallot, garlic, and bagoong, served with thick slices of pandesal toast for dipping in the rich broth.  I love mussels in any form, and this dish was the most unique way I’ve ever eaten them.  Bicol Express is a Filipino dish traditionally made with cubes of pork, rather than one of the best bivalves.

Bagoong, by the way, is a Filipino condiment made of fermented shrimp or krill cured in salt, which makes a  salty, savory, umami flavor.  It sounds intense and funky, but I didn’t notice anything intense or funky standing out to distract from the mussels or their creamy, spicy, coconutty broth.  But I like intense and funky!  (I’ve been told that I AM intense and funky!)

I wrote about pandesal, literally “bread of salt,” when I reviewed the Filipino-American fusion bakery-cafe The Baker’s Son in Kissimmee, this past December.  It is some of the most delicious bread I’ve ever tasted, similar to buttery brioche, Japanese milk bread, and French pain de mie, sharing their subtle sweetness.   As I’ve gotten older, and especially as I’ve cut way back on carbs, sometimes I just really appreciate good toast, and this pandesal toast was no joke, especially when used to sop up the broth and flex a couple of mussels.   

This was Ningang’s rigatoni, a take on the Filipino style of spaghetti, which is traditionally served with cut-up hot dogs and Spam in a sweet tomato sauce.  On my one trip to the Filipino fried chicken chain Jollibee, I was most excited to try a side order of that spaghetti, but I didn’t think it was anything special.  Kaya’s menu describes their version of the dish as “Filipino beef Bolognese, Spam, aged gouda, a touch of sweetness, a lot of love.”  You can taste the love in it, along with in everything else Chef Lo makes.  I love a good pasta dish, especially a meat sauce, and I really loved this rigatoni.  I would have a hard time returning to Kaya and not ordering this every time (among other things, natch).

I’ve written often about how one of my favorite meats is oxtail, whether it’s in Jamaican or Trinidadian cuisine, American soul food, or even in a steaming bowl of Vietnamese pho.  I was curious about trying Kaya’s oxtail kare kare, served in a rich peanut sauce with eggplant, bok choy, and a little dipping bowl of bagoong (in the top right, so you can see it by itself), but I’ve never tried or even seen oxtail like this.  Usually eating it is a messy affair, as you’re holding the irregularly shaped bone segments and chewing the tender meat and unctuous fat off them, and the bones are slippery enough that they can slip right out of your hands and go flying.  If my dad ever dared to eat oxtail, he would probably add it to his list of foods to not eat on a date, including most other hand-held meat with bones, and anything you have to “fight with” too much — crab legs that need to be cracked, shrimp that need to be shelled, and so forth.  But Chef Lo deboned all that rich meat and pressed it into a brick, then seared the outside to crispy perfection.  It was not only delicious and not only gorgeous, like everything else we were experiencing at Kaya, but he made it EASY.The oxtail kare kare was served with a side of buttery garlic rice called sinangag, which you must order separately (for $5) if your entree doesn’t come with it.

Because I was dining with a culinary luminary, Jami and Chef Lo sent us out these gambas: huge Cape Canaveral white shrimp, served with the heads on as well as the tails, in rich garlic butter, kalamansi verde, and preserved lemon.  Now these were messy, but what a festival of flavors and textures and colors! 
Kalamansi (sometimes called calamansi or calamondin) is a small, round citrus fruit, a hybrid of a kumquat and a Mandarin orange, and their juice is used in a lot of Filipino recipes.  Ripe ones are orange, but because the ones used in this recipe were kalamansi verde (green), they added sour notes because they weren’t ripe yet, perfectly balancing the richness of the garlic butter.  My wife says I love sour and tangy flavors more than anyone she’s ever met, which is one big reason I’m so crazy about Filipino cuisine.  (I also jokingly call myself the “acidic Jew” because of this.)  I have enjoyed kalamansi juice in cool, refreshing beverages before, including from the aforementioned The Baker’s Son (not that different from lemonade or limeade), and after a dear friend with a green thumb hooked me up with kalamansi from her own garden, I squeezed enough juice out of them to make my favorite dessert ever, a variation of Atlantic Beach pie.  (If you’re curious, drop me a line, sweet-toothed Saboscrivnerinos!)

Speaking of dessert, we were about to be blown away by the creativity of Kaya’s talented pastry chef, Chef Clarice Lam.  This was her Silvana Alaska, based on beloved Filipino cookies called Silvanas: two cashew-meringue wafers with a layer of buttercream between them, coated with cookie crumbs.  Chef Lam’s show-stopper was a gluten-free dessert with cashew meringue, ube French buttercream, blueberry compote, a dome-like layer of toasted Swiss meringue (hence the “Alaska” part, like the classic old-timey dessert baked Alaska), tiny cubes of blueberry jellies, and surrounded by a sweet, creamy moat of ube crème anglaise.By the way, ube is a purple yam that is definitely having a moment, being used in all kinds of desserts.  My wife loves the ube soft serve ice cream at Sampaguita Filipino Ice Cream, mere moments away from Kaya, but I’ve never had a dessert of this level of complexity, with or without ube.

Once we split into the meringue dome, this is what the Silvana Alaska looked like inside.  (I think my photo looks like a big fish opening its mouth, with the blueberry jelly cube as its eye, but that was not my intention.)

I am so proud of my wife, who has been trying all kinds of new foods lately.  Even though she wasn’t with us at this dinner (arguably having even more fun than we were, seeing her beloved Tori Amos in concert), I selected another tempting dish to bring home for her to enjoy later.  We both love squid ink pasta (I call it “Goth pasta”), and this was Kaya’s squid ink pancit: house-made spaghetti noodles topped with calamari rings, adobo sauce, black garlic aioli, and pandesal bread crumble.  It was magnificent.  We both sampled it later that night, after I picked her up from the concert, and she got two more whole portions out of it the next day.

Folks, I cannot stress how awe-inspiring this meal was.  I rarely go out to dinner because of my odd work schedule, but if Kaya was open for lunch (it isn’t), I’m sure I would have tried it years ago.  Instead, I’m late to the party, but this was, without a doubt, the absolute #1 best meal I’ve ever eaten in my 22 years in Orlando, and in the Top Five meals of my entire life.

I can tell you three of the others right now:

    • Babbo in NYC for our honeymoon in 2009, before we knew what a shit Mario Batali was,
    • Chef Michael Solomonov’s elevated Ashkenazi Jewish restaurant Abe Fisher in Philadelphia in 2023, which closed not long after our visit up there to see Le Tigre, so I never got around to writing about it, and
    • Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s Red Rooster Overtown in Miami, before seeing De La Soul in 2025.

But I was wowed by every part of the Kaya experience: not just the once-in-a-lifetime dishes my friend/mentor and I shared, but the professionalism of our bartender-servers, Jami’s warmth and kindness, the decor, the unbridled creativity of Chef Lo and Chef Lam, and the way the whole place — the whole experience — feels like a labor of love and a way of sharing a cuisine and a culture that too many Americans have yet to experience.  The website lists Kaya’s values with their names in Tagalog, and I really needed to share these, because you don’t see restaurants with a mission statement all that often, and they really exemplify all these beautiful, noble, lofty ideals:

    • Pamilya: We treat our team and guests like family. We practice radical hospitality so that our guests feel a sense of belonging and ease. We create space to be present for our families.
    • Kapwa + Bayanihan: We care deeply about community. We treat one another with love, look out for each other, and lift one another up. We build a model that allows us to be full, whole humans in right relationship with one another.
    • Utang Na Loob: We respect and honor our community, elders, and ancestors, as well as the land and its resources. We take a no/low-waste, sustainable approach, and we celebrate the beauty and richness of our heritage.
    • Mapanlikha: We move from a place of possibility, learning from the past and our experiences while actively creating our vision for the future. We pay close attention to how we can constantly improve while shaping the narrative of what’s possible.

Nothing about this epic experience was “mid” or forgettable, nor was it snooty or snobby or inaccessible.  Nobody was going through the motions.  Even with my own hang-ups about fine dining (that it isn’t meant for people like me), I never felt like an impostor or a sellout or a disappointment to my parents.  It was a close to perfect as a meal could be, and I had a blast!  Kaya has clearly earned its Michelin Green star for sustainability, and deserves to be in that rarified pantheon of top restaurants in Orlando, if not all of Florida, but I feel like it deserves a regular star as well, if not two.  By the way, according to the website, “kaya” means capable in Tagalog, and “kaya natin” means we can.   They are beyond capable, and not only can they, but they do.

And as much as I hoped to return to Kaya sooner rather than later, I surprised myself by returning just a few weeks later — yesterday, in fact!  But it wasn’t for another dinner, not this time.  Instead, Executive Pastry Chef Clarice Lam hosts an event called Kapé Kaya, a daytime bakery concept featuring her awe-inspiring pastries, every Saturday, from 9:30 AM until 12 PM.  I’ve seen pictures of her past creations, but this was a rare treat: the second of three Kapé Kaya events where she teams up with another local restaurant hero: Chef Tyler Brunache of SmokeMade Meats + Eats, my favorite barbecue restaurant in Orlando that won Michelin Bib Gourmand awards for “good quality, good value cooking” in 2025 and 2026.

This was like when Jack White teamed up with Norah Jones… or when Jack White teamed up with Alison Mosshart from The Kills… or when Jack White teamed up with Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest!  Or maybe like the too-rare team-ups between Daredevil and Captain America, a pairing that makes all the sense in the world even though you don’t automatically think of them as obvious partners.  I had to be there, so I arrived around 8:45 AM, and there were already about 30 people ahead of me, waiting in line outside Kaya.  The heat and humidity didn’t get too bad until around 9:30, but they moved things along pretty well inside.  In the meantime, we studied the menu:

Jami came outside to announce when they were finally opening up, and I couldn’t believe she recognized me after meeting me once, a few weeks ago.  (I was also somewhat incognito, wearing sunglasses and my “I Love Research” bucket hat under the baking morning sun, looking like the nerdiest rapper ever, and she still recognized me and gave me a hug.)  When I finally got in, they had all the gorgeous pastries on display on the bar, with labels and prices.  You order and pay up front, then wait for the staff to assemble your order in large pink bakery boxes. 

I thanked Chef Lam on the way out the door, and even though I had considered doing it, I refrained from doing my Anthony Hopkins-as-Hannibal Lecter impression, greeting her with “Hello, Clarice.”  She’s probably heard it before, and Mads Mikkelsen was the better Hannibal Lecter anyway, by far.  (I said what I said.)  I was on my way by 10:15, leaving me enough time to make it to donate blood in Altamonte Springs by my 11 AM appointment time.  As usual, I brought a cooler with me to keep my Kapé Kaya treats safe and cool in this awful summer heat.

Back at home, this is a close-up of my brisket bear claw, which had buttery, flaky layers like the best croissant you’ve ever had.

This was the longganisa sausage bun, and keep in mind this was all one interconnected thing!  I’ve been lucky enough to catch Chef Tyler’s longganisa sausage as a weekend special at SmokeMade, and I love how sweet and savory it is.  All his house-made sausages have a perfect crispy natural casing, and Chef Lam’s dough was kind of like a savory danish pastry, not flaky and layered like the bear claw.

I love macaroni salad and always enjoy the slightly sweet taste of surimi (imitation “krab”) in sushi and poke, so I couldn’t resist the krab macaroni salad puff pastry tart.  It was so refreshing, especially compared to the other two heavier pastries, and the tart shell was flaky and light.

Here they are on a plate, so you can see a cross-section of the brisket bear claw with all those laminated dough layers and smoked brisket, gouda cheese, pickles, and barbecue sauce inside.  Upon tearing into it, it reminded me of a cross between a croissant and the Cuban pastelitos I grew up eating in Miami, sometimes stuffed with seasoned ground beef called picadillo.

And here are my sweet choices.  One the left, I got the mango coconut croissant bibingka, because I thought it was something my wife and I would both like, whereas I figured the savory pastries above would be all mine.  This thing was so dense and rich, we’re both slowly working our way through it over 36 hours later, a bite or two at a time.  Like so many other Filipino dishes, bibingka is new to me, so I looked it up.  Serious Eats never lets me down: it is a “coconut-flavored, banana-leaf scented rice cake topped with caramelized coconut strips.”  However, not having had prior bibingka experience, I would have guessed it was more like a bread pudding, since that’s what the texture and consistency felt like to me.  I loved the mango puree on top.  It was so good, but a little goes a long way.The same could be said for Chef Lam’s “thick’em cookie,” the one thing my wife actually requested.  This is a huge cookie, even bigger than the ones from Gideon’s Bakehouse.  The edges were crispy, but the rest was soft and yielding, which I always prefer in my cookies.  There were chocolate chunks, corn flakes, and some fancy salt crystals sprinkled on top.  My wife was in heaven, and she has also been nibbling away at the cookie because you can’t just devour it.  This plate was surprisingly heavy with both of these on it.

So that was my amazing Kapé Kaya experience, just weeks after my first dinner at Kaya.  I am posting this NOW because there is one more scheduled Kapé Kaya crossover with SmokeMade Meats and Eats, and that is next Saturday morning, August 1st.  I’ll probably be seeing the next Spider-Man movie before the Internet can spoil it all for me, but all my dozens of readers should do whatever it takes to be at Kaya before the line gets too long and the heat gets too unbearable.  Spider-Man is supposed to team up with the Hulk and the Punisher, but the best team-up in Orlando is going to be happening right at Kaya, and you don’t want to miss it!

Wine 4 Oysters

Wine 4 Oysters (https://www.wine4oysters.com/) is a friendly neighborhood restaurant and bar with a nautical theme and a seafood-centric menu.  It has been on my radar for years, but it’s in East Orlando, at 1957 South Alafaya Trail in the Publix plaza, south of the sprawling Waterford Lakes shopping plaza and State Road 408, in a part of town I NEVER go to, so I had never made it… until two weeks ago.  I timed my visit with my wife for 4 PM on a very rare Friday off, to be there when Wine 4 Oysters opens, snag one of their few booths, and take advantage of their happy hour specials.

This is the counter.  I appreciate any blue decor in restaurants, which I find soothing and comforting. 

Here is the opposite side of the dining room.  There are two half-booths in the very front, up against the front window that lets in lots of natural light, and you can see the one other half-booth in the back. 

We both studied the menu in advance, but my wife was more prepared than I.  She knew exactly what she wanted, and she defaulted to two time-tested favorite dishes.  The first one was baked brie, which came in a ramekin, melty and warm, topped with walnuts.  They served it with toasted bread, cranberry sauce, and apple wedges on the side.  I love cheese, but brie honestly does nothing for me, so this was all her.  She doesn’t eat a lot, so she brought quite a bit of this home to enjoy the next day.

As for me, I love oysters, but they are such a rare treat for me.  I realize I haven’t had oysters in well over a year, but we’ve been dealing with some very stressful health-related situations lately, and I also had some good things happen at work that we haven’t had a chance to celebrate or even acknowledge.  Since we were finally at Wine 4 Oysters during their happy hour, I said “screw it” (actually, I said something a little more adult) and ordered 30 plump Gulf oysters for the excellent price of $35.  My wife doesn’t like raw oysters, so I ate them all myself… and I’d do it again.  They were so cool and refreshing, and so far, I am not regretting it. 

The oysters came with accompaniments: the lemon wedges and cocktail sauce above, plus hot sauce, a French mignonette with shallots in red wine vinegar, a different mignonette with jalapenos and lemon, and grated horseradish in the cylindrical container.  I tried them all in various combinations and permutations, and it was nice.  It was just nice being there, out on a rare Friday date with my wife, who has been through so much lately, enjoying a huge platter of one of my favorite “sometimes foods,” going through the ritual of topping them with various acidic accoutrements to enhance their fresh, briny flavor.

At happy hour (which is 4 to 6 PM, Monday through Friday), in addition to the 30 Gulf oysters for $35, Wine 4 Oysters also offers 30% off James River oysters from Virginia, oyster shooters, and cocktails.  And on Wednesdays, I believe they run an all-you-can-drink wine special, so bohemians, wine moms, and UCF students, just be careful, that’s all I ask.

I am always a sucker for smoked fish dip, that Old Florida standard that has infinite variations, but it’s almost always great.  Like Italian subs, chili, and onion rings, I will almost always order smoked fish dip if I see it on a menu, so I was immediately drawn to the house smoked tuna dip at Wine 4 Oysters.  It was presented as a large scoop over a spring mix salad with wasabi dressing, accompanied by long, thin, unsalted flatbread-style crackers (Sixty Vines serves similar ones).  I was a little disappointed that the “dip” was more like the consistency of tuna salad, rather than a creamy dip.  It tasted good because I happen to like tuna salad a lot, but it wasn’t what I expected or hoped for.  I blame myself rather than the restaurant.  The taste and texture made me think it was made from regular canned tuna fish rather than ahi tuna or some other higher-grade tuna.  I’ve made similar-tasting tuna salad at home, sometimes with a splash (or more) of liquid smoke, so even though it was fine, and I ate every morsel, it didn’t blow me away.

One thing my wife will always order on a menu is octopus.  She loves those tender, brainy cephalopods!  This lemon garlic octopus came with one large, heavily seasoned, super-garlicky tentacle, plus a mountain of white rice with some seasoning on top, a scoop of relatively thin baba ghanoush, and a mixed greens salad with pomegranate dressing, probably made from pomegranate molasses.  She loves baba ghanoush too (and she orders that anywhere it is available), so this was a winning combination for her. That said, since she was pretty full from the baked brie and doesn’t eat that much to begin with, she only tried a tiny bit of the octopus at the restaurant.  We (mostly she) brought home a bunch of leftovers, and she had more of the octopus the following day, just chilled, straight out of the fridge.  She said it was much tastier the following day, eaten cold!

Finally, I thought we would both enjoy the Russian beef pelmeni dumplings, and we did.  They were pretty much what I hoped for, with thin, chewy dumpling wrappers, similar to Chinese wontons and the wonderful, beautiful manty dumplings we enjoyed so much recently at Uzbek restaurant Chayhana, but with seasoned beef filling.  They were served in a pool of melted butter and topped with a dollop of rich sour cream and plenty of parsley.  Both of us enjoyed these quite a bit.  I don’t know if they were handmade (because you can buy frozen pelmeni from multiple brands at Green Hills Supermarket, the huge Russian and Eastern European grocery store in Altamonte Springs), but it doesn’t matter, because they might have been my favorite part of the entire meal. 

I don’t know when I’ll make it back to Wine 4 Oysters, but it’s the kind of place more people should know about, so here I am, boosting the signal.  I love oysters so much, and even though I’ll always sing the praises of High Tide Harry’s and The Osprey, two of my favorite restaurants in the entire Orlando metropolitan area, it is always good to have options.  Wine 4 Oysters is another fine oyster option, especially for people living on the east side of town.

Summer Breeze Roti Shop

Summer Breeze Roti Shop (https://summerbreezerotishop.com/) is a brand-new Trinidadian restaurant that opened in April 2026 in Longwood, at 215 W. State Road 434, Unit 203 (right next door to the second location of Dough Boyz Pizza).  I have been there twice now because I love Trinidadian and other West Indian food, and it is much closer to me than other Trinidadian restaurants in and around Orlando.

The menu is on the website, but I snapped this photo of a menu at the front counter to show you prices and selections for June 2026, in case it changes.  

This is a doubles, a popular Trinidadian street food that consists of curried chickpeas called channa served on two flatbreads called bara, which are soft, chewy, and fluffy, but a little greasy on the outside from being fried — kind of like the old Chalupas from Taco Bell, but softer.  Depending on how it’s folded, a doubles could be structured similarly to a sandwich or a taco, but I find them far messier to eat than either of them.  It is absolutely delicious, though.  Vegetarians would love it, but I think most people would love it. 

Here’s a look inside the open doubles.  Kaye Mohammed, the owner-operator of Summer Breeze Roti Shop, adorns them with cucumbers sliced paper-thin and house-made sweet sauce and tangy pepper sauce, kind of like chutneys. 

On my first visit, they didn’t have my first choice of meat.  I wasn’t planning to order stew beef, but it looked really good, so I went for it.  The beef was flavorful and tender, and it was easy to remove the bone fragments.  It came with a heaping portion of channa, the curried chickpeas.  All the meats at Summer Breeze Roti Shop are halal, by the way!

When you order a meat dish, you get a choice of roti skin to go with it.  Roti skins are huge, soft, fluffy flatbreads, and you tear off pieces of them to pinch and scoop up the meat and sop up the savory sauces, like Indian naan or Ethiopian injera.  Summer Breeze offers two varieties, which I have always enjoyed in the past, so I had to try them both.  One came with the meat, and I paid $5 for the other, a la carte.  On the top is the paratha, sometimes called a “buss-up shut” (Trinidadian dialect for a “busted-up shirt,” like ripped to rags).  It is served steaming hot and wrapped in a paper bag, but when I unfolded it back at home, it was wider than this entire green plate.  The buss-up shot is thicker than a flour tortilla or the Malaysian-style roti they serve at restaurants like Hawkers, but not quite as thick as Indian naan.  It is about as chewy as naan.
The roti skin at the bottom is folded too, so it is much larger than it looks.  This is the dhalpourie (sometimes called dhal puri), another Indian-inspired Caribbean flatbread, and it has a golden hue from turmeric and is stuffed with ground yellow split peas for an interesting texture and flavor.  Just be careful ripping it apart, or the split pea fragments will go flying everywhere and make a mess.

I called Summer Breeze Roti Shop before heading over for a second visit, around 11 AM this past Saturday, to ensure they had oxtail, one of my favorite meats.  I was excited to try Kaye’s version, and it did not disappoint.  It was so savory, unctuous, and tender, and the rich, flavorful meat separated so easily from the bone fragments.  I usually love oxtail with rice and peas at Jamaican restaurants, topped with plenty of extra oxtail gravy.  But Summer Breeze only had plain white rice, so I opted for another buss-up shot roti skin instead.

On this second visit, I also tried an aloo pie, a soft and savory potato fritter.  You usually get these cut open and can add whatever you want inside — meat, vegetables, channa, you name it. 

Ashley, a really nice young lady working for Kaye, added the traditional doubles ingredients to my aloo pie: more channa, the thin-sliced cucumbers, and Kaye’s pepper sauce and sweet sauce.  It was so good, I think I liked it even more than the doubles on my first visit, and I really enjoyed the doubles!

I was all ready to check out, but then I noticed they also had bake and saltfish buljol, so of course I had to order one of those too!  This is a common breakfast food in Trinidad and Tobago, with shredded salted cod (some know it as bacalao) mixed with vegetables and served inside a “bake,” a different kind of soft, deep-fried dough.  It was kind of like a deep-fried pita bread!

Here’s a shot of the lovely saltfish buljol inside, with plenty of crunchy, colorful hot peppers, onions, and tomatoes.  There is some lime juice in there too, which really brightens it up.  It was so delicious, and it is a nice option at any time of day, especially if you don’t want heavy, saucy meats.  I am always a fan of smoked, cured, and pickled fish in any forms.  Growing up eating nova salmon and pickled herring with bagels, I am always delighted to discover other cultures’ culinary traditions of curing fish and serving them in different ways.  In Trinidad and Tobago, “bake and shark” is another common street food, and yes, they use actual shark meat.  But I was perfectly happy with the bake and saltfish.

There are a few tables inside Summer Breeze Roti Shop for dining in, and a family was enjoying the heck out of their food when I arrived on my second visit this past Saturday.  Kaye Mohammed runs a tight ship, but I’ve only seen her with one additional worker each time I’ve come in, so they may not have every dish listed on the menu.  You may want to call before showing up if you’re looking for something specific (I haven’t caught their macaroni pie or potato salad yet), but you can’t go wrong with anything there.

I may not be “Trini 2 De Bone,” but I am a huge fan of Summer Breeze Roti Shop, and I know I’ll be back.  Please give them a chance, even if you’re not previously familiar with Trinidadian food.  Especially if you’re not familiar with it!  If you know and love Jamaican food, you’ll feel very much at home with it, and if you like Indian food, it will be interesting to try some Caribbean variations.  There is a lot for vegetarians to be able to enjoy, and practicing Muslims will also appreciate that all the meats are halal.  Enjoy, and tell me what you like there and what I should try next time!

Canter’s Deli (Los Angeles)

Canter’s Deli (https://www.cantersdeli.com/) is a legendary Los Angeles delicatessen, a Hollywood hotspot that has been in business since 1931 and in the same location at 419 North Fairfax Avenue since 1953.  The decor is pure 1950s-style Art Deco, which I associate fondly with Los Angeles delis and diners, and with the City of Angels in general.  I wish everyplace was decorated this way, including my own home.  Like so many other timeless restaurants I’ve enjoyed in L.A. like Langer’s Deli, Philippe the Original, HMS Bounty, The Prince, Bob’s Big Boy, and Pann’s, Canter’s retains all its old-school cool as it approaches its hundredth anniversary.  I regret not taking any photos of the interior, but I was a little distracted on my one and only visit.

I visited Canter’s on my second work trip to L.A., where I met an Internet friend for the first time after knowing him online for over 25 years, along with his lovely and talented wife, who many of you may recognize.

These free pickles were delivered to the table, as any good deli should do, and they were great.

Instead of a soda or egg cream, I ordered this chocolate phosphate, kind of like a creamy chocolate soda — so not really that different from an egg cream.  I just thought it would be nice to try, like an old-timey soda fountain favorite that you never see on menus anymore.  Now that “dirty sodas” are a whole thing, I wish people were willing to go more retro and bring back the whole soda fountain concept.  With all the jerks out there, maybe some of them could find work as soda jerks.

My friend’s wife is an actress you would have seen if you watched the first season of The Pitt, the wonderful HBO Max hospital drama that was my favorite show of 2025.  She ordered a lox benedict, a classic brunch dish with a toasted English muffin topped with salty, smoky salmon, poached eggs and velvety, creamy hollandaise sauce.  I didn’t try any, but it looked like a perfect version of eggs benedict.  Personally, I never order benedicts at restaurants, but sometimes I make them in my own kitchen because there is no place like home for the hollandaise.   At the top, she chose potato pancakes (also known as latkes) for her potato side.  They are usually served with sour cream, applesauce, or in this case, both.  I always recommend both.

Los Angeles is a big pastrami city, between its historic delis like Langer’s and Canter’s as well as the pastrami French dip, a more localized sandwich that hasn’t spread out of the city.  (I tried one of those at a “deli-adjacent” spot more recently, and I will get around to reviewing it eventually.)  Local fast food joints like Original Tommy’s and The Hat even load up burgers and hot dogs with pastrami.  Somebody call Randy Newman, because I too love L.A.!

My friend, an accomplished film critic, ordered this terrific-looking pastrami Reuben sandwich with grilled pastrami (my preferred alternative to the traditional corned beef), Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing on rye bread grilled to perfection.  It looked perfect, and so did the fries.

I got the Canter’s Fairfax sandwich, with generous portions of corned beef AND pastrami on rye.  Just like I did at Sarge’s in NYC and Attman’s in Baltimore, when I visit a deli in a faraway city, I usually order combination sandwiches that allow me to sample as many different tastes as possible.  They loaded up the sandwich higher than the pastrami sandwiches (plural!) I tried at Langer’s, but I give Langer’s the edge for the exquisite quality of their thicker, hand-sliced pastrami.  Not that this was bad, by any means.  It was terrific!  That’s potato salad in the background — the Canter’s Fairfax comes with a choice of that or cole slaw.  The good conversation distracted me, because for a mere dollar more, I could have ordered the Fresser, an identical sandwich that would have come with potato salad AND cole slaw.  Oh well!  At least the potato salad was excellent.

Because I’m me, I had to RING THE ALARM and try onion rings while I was at Canter’s, and I’m so glad I did.  These are some of the most perfect onion rings I’ve ever had in my life.  There’s something about Jewish delis just nailing the batter, the frying process, and onion rings in general.  Junior’s and Sarge’s Deli in New York City both serve a very similar style.  They all share rich, thick batter that holds up and doesn’t separate from the onions, and they are the perfect light, crunchy consistency that never has any burnt spots. 
Yup, those are my Top Three onion rings of all time (and no others even come close): Sarge’s, Junior’s, and Canter’s.  I’ve never had any quite like them here in Florida.  I guess Jewish delis in major metropolitan cultural centers are the lords of the rings.

I can’t imagine how many famous, talented people have hung out at Canter’s Deli over the past 95 years, although the website drops a few dozen names.  (I loved Guns ‘n’ Roses back in 8th and 9th grades, and I know they hung out at Canter’s all the time back in the late ’80s.)  It is staggering to think how many genius ideas were born there, how many deals were struck there that helped shape our culture, and how many delicious deli dishes were devoured during those acts of creation and negotiation.  We certainly enjoyed the heck out everything we tried.  Even though there are other delis I have yet to discover in L.A., I would totally return to Canter’s on a future visit.  Whenever I do, what should I try next time?  I’m thinking some kind of smoked fish, but it would be hard to turn down those top-tier onion rings again.

Talay

Talay (https://www.talayorlando.com/) is one of the newer and more upscale Thai restaurants in Orlando, located in the “North Quarter” on 861 Orange Avenue, right before you cross East Colonial Drive into downtown Orlando.  I took my wife there for lunch a few weeks ago, and we had a nice meal in the spacious dining room, which was surprisingly empty.  I’m sure it gets crazy crowded later on, though.  Everything is light wood and creamy colors, making the space feel modern and elegant.  There are some booths inside, and there is even more seating outside, on an inviting covered patio.

As usual, my wife started her with a creamy and refreshing Thai iced tea:

We ordered four different things, intending to share most of them and end up with leftovers.  A few were relatively small portions, so it all worked out.

This was salmon chae nam pla, an appetizer with thin slices of raw salmon (each garnished by a paper-thin slice of pickled garlic), two little clusters of salmon roe, and mint leaves, all displayed on a sea of spicy cilantro chili-lime dressing.  The dressing was too spicy for my wife, so I ended up eating most of these.  I must be part bear (I definitely look like a bear), because I never tire of devouring raw salmon.   

We also shared goong ob woon sen, a dish neither of us had ever tried before, or even noticed on any other Thai menus before.  It included plump shrimp served with their tails on, glass noodles (traditionally made from mung bean or sweet potato starch, which turn translucent), thin slices of bacon, black pepper, sesame oil, celery, ginger, “Talay’s signature wok sauce,” and cilantro chili relish served on the side.  Those leaves in the middle are a tiny celery stick garnish sticking out.   

You wanted a noodle pull?  Well here’s a noodle pull! This was a good dish, and the noodles had a nice chew to them.  I didn’t pick this one, and I didn’t know what to expect (other than “bacon is always good”), but it all came together.

I finally got my wife into my favorite Thai dish that I used to order all the time as a benchmark of any new Thai restaurant, pad kee mao (sometimes spelled pad kee mow, and also known as drunken noodles).  As long as she orders it mild, she loves it as much as she loves her old go-to, pad Thai.  This was Talay’s pad kee mao, a stir-fried sensation with flat rice noodles (always so nice and chewy), green and red bell peppers, Thai basil, chili, and Talay’s spicy wok sauce, which they surely toned down for her.  She chose crispy duck as the protein (for a small upcharge), and the duck was wonderful — tender, juicy, battered and fried to perfection.  We are both big duck fans.   

And as for me, I panicked.  So many things sounded good, and I know for a fact I won’t make it back to this spot very often.  Instead of going with a familiar favorite, I wanted to try something more unique off Talay’s Signature menu, since they have so many elevated dishes you can’t find just anywhere.  I decided to go with something I always love on any menu, whether it’s a seafood shack or a Thai restaurant, soft shell crab.  This was pu nim tod kra tiam, crispy soft-shell crab served with garlic, pepper, and a savory brown sauce.  It ended up being a new twist on an old classic, and it was much less heavy than it looks here.   

It came with white rice on the side, which I mixed in to gather all the sauce under the crab, and I asked to try the roasted chili relish, which costs $3 extra.  All I got was the little ramekin on the right, and it was interesting.  It definitely had some sweetness and funky umami, maybe from fish sauce.

Due to the location, I don’t expect we will become regulars at Talay, especially since I bring home takeout much more often than we dine out.  But Talay is definitely one of the nicer Thai restaurants in Orlando, and it would be a fantastic place for a date or a big night out.  It reminded me of Lim Ros Thai Cuisine that way, another Thai restaurant that is a little more elegant and elevated than usual.  Both feature lush, sexy vibes, rather than the “hominess” of the more old-school Thai restaurants we honestly end up at more often (like Thailicious in Longwood).  But I can’t say anything bad about either of them, and if you already know Talay, I’m sure you can’t think of anything negative about it either.  If I ever do make it back, what should I order next time?  I’m always happy to try anything new!

Aloha Hawaiian Kitchen

I love Hawaiian food, and I had been excited to try Aloha Hawaiian Kitchen (https://alohahawaiiankitchen.com/) for a while.  Aloha is down near Orlando International Airport, so I don’t see it becoming part of my regular restaurant rotation, but when I finally made it there in December, it did not disappoint.  Hawaiian cuisine evolved from a combination of Native Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Portuguese, and mainland American ingredients and influences due to the diaspora, but it is very much its own thing.  It is one of my favorite regional American cuisines, up there with Ashkenazi Jewish delis and appetizing stores and the grand tradition of barbecue.  But while I’ve tried amazing delis in New York City, Los Angeles, and South Florida and barbecue in Texas, Memphis, and right here in Orlando, I have yet to visit Hawaii, so I take our local Hawaiian restaurants at their word.

Because I always love sampling multiple things, especially when I know I won’t be able to return to a restaurant often, I ordered the Surfside Sampler, which comes with three meats: marinated and grilled beef short ribs (kalbi), crispy marinated and fried ono shrimp, and marinated and pulled luau pig.  However, I asked if I could substitute the mochiko chicken instead of the luau pork, since it is the same price when they are sold separately.  They were kind enough to allow me to get that substitution.  This heaping tray came with scoops of white rice and Hawaiian macaroni salad, which I am a huge fan of.  It was probably more than enough calories for the full day, with more to spare.  I think the Hawaiians perfected mayonnaise-based macaroni salad, which I have recreated at home.  The secret, which I found in a few different recipes, is to let slightly underdone macaroni noodles absorb a lot of milk, and then stir in your mayo.  (They recommend Best Foods, which I think is the same stuff sold as Hellman’s in the eastern U.S., but I’m a Duke’s man.)

I first tried mochiko chicken at the first Hawaiian restaurant I ever visited, a place called Hawaiian Grindz that used to be on State Road 434 in Oviedo.  It didn’t last very long, perhaps in part because the laid-back owners didn’t always open on time… or at all, despite posted hours.  But I loved the little pieces of fried chicken thighs, which were lightly breaded and then tossed in a sweet sauce.  While these mochiko chicken pieces at Aloha look a bit dark, I can assure you they were fried to crispy perfection.  They weren’t overly sweet, either.  It was a nice blend of sweet and savory — much less sweet than the mochiko chicken at the old place that closed. 

Here’s a close-up of the kalbi, those wonderful marinated and grilled Korean-style beef short ribs, cut against the bone  These also had a savory-sweet marinade,  and the grilling process added some great flavor from caramelizing sugar on the surface.  The meat was tender, but not exactly falling apart or off the bone.  Kalbi (sometimes called galbi on Korean menus) always has a pleasant chew, and you can usually tear or bite the meat near the bone and pull it right out.  That area is even chewier, but the texture is nice. 

Here is an extreme close-up of one of the crispy, garlicky-fried shrimp.  It had such a nice flavor and crunch, and just like at my beloved Poke Hana, it is fried so well that you can eat it crunchy tail and all.  Look at all that garlic! 

While I wanted to try more, I limited myself to a Spam musubi, which I enjoyed later, back at home.  These are the ultimate in simple comfort food: a slice of fried Spam (which is actually delicious, snobs and skeptics!) on a bed of sushi rice, rolled tightly in a sheet of nori (seaweed, the same stuff in sushi rolls), and often served warm.  I’ve seen these musubi referred to as “Hawaiian protein bars,” and they do have just enough protein and carbs to give you a burst of energy when you need it.

By the way, Spam is a product of Minnesota, but it became closely associated with Hawaiian cuisine when the U.S. military used it to feed troops stationed in Hawaii in the 1940s.  That’s how it found its way into saimin (a Hawaiian take on ramen), Spam fried rice, and of course, the musubi.

We are lucky to have a few wonderful Hawaiian restaurants to choose from in Orlando, including the aforementioned Poke Hana, OverRice, the new Moa Kai Hawaiian Diner, and Hanalei Shave Ice for a cool, refreshing dessert.  Aloha Hawaiian Kitchen is in great company.  Sadly, Aloha is much further away from me, but even though I don’t foresee going back as often, it was very good, and I’m so glad I tried it.  If you find yourself down near the airport, or coming or going from the 528 or the Lake Nona area and you don’t feel like awesome seafood at High Tide Harry’s or Orlando’s best Cuban sandwich at Vicky Bakery, check it out.  Aloha features a large menu, including meat-centric combo meals like I ordered and customizable poke bowls, if you want something lighter than the smorgasbord of meats I enjoyed.  Nowadays, as I continue slowly losing weight from eating less and eating healthier, I would have gotten two or even three meals out of that Surfside Sampler, but I  housed it in one sitting at the time, thinking that dangerous thought of “Well, it won’t be as good heated back up later!”  I’ve come a long way over these past four months.

Holbox (Los Angeles)

Holbox (https://www.holboxla.com/) is the first actual Michelin-starred restaurant I’ve ever dined at, although I have visited several Michelin Bib Gourmand award winners and Recommended restaurants here in Orlando.  It specializes in Mexican seafood dishes, and in all my research on Los Angeles restaurants, it is one of the most popular and highly recommended destinations for Angelenos and tourists alike.  However, even though the food is crafted and plated with elegance and style, tasting as beautiful as it looked, it is a humble stall inside Mercado La Paloma, a Mexican food hall in South Los Angeles, surrounded by five more casual food stalls — at the time of this writing, four other Mexican restaurants and one Thai place.

Because you can either eat at the counter or communal tables, I would say Holbox is casual and accessible too, which makes it kind of a novelty for a Michelin-starred restaurant, and extremely unique.  They offer an eight-course tasting menu that surely sells out weeks in advance, but I shared a magnificent feast with a good friend on a work trip to L.A. back in November, just sitting at the counter and ordering off the regular menu.  I’m so glad we got to experience Holbox for ourselves, after reading so much hype and love online.

(By the way, Holbox is pronounced “OL-bosh,” like the “ol’ swimmin’ hole.”  Maybe that wasn’t the best example.)

This was my sparkling lemonade, and we shared these fresh tortilla chips and salsa.  Since my friend and I take eating seriously, we almost skipped the chips until I realized they are only $1.  How could we say no to $1 chips?  That would be worth it anywhere, and especially at the legendary Holbox.  They were good chips — so light and thin and crispy! — and the salsa was magnificent.

All four of these fresh hot sauces were stellar: Chile Kut with roasted habanero, Habanero, Arbol-Guajillo, and Chile Morita.  The roasted habanero had an almost creamy consistency, and the Arbol-Guajillo and Chile Morita were deliciously smoky.  I wish they sold them in jars like these, but I would not have been able to bring them home with me on the plane anyway.

This beautiful, intricate creation was my tuna tartare tostada, with Baja bluefin tartare, Sinaloa-style salsa negra, pickled carrots and onions, dollops of pureed avocado, and fresh cilantro on a thin and crispy fried corn tortilla (like an open-faced taco). 

And my friend got this smoked kanpachi tostada, kanpachi being a type of fish.  His tostada also included Hokkaido scallops, shrimp, the aforementioned arbol-guajillo hot sauce, dollops of avocado, and cilantro. 

Since I am obsessed with smoked fish, I got this house-smoked kanpachi taco for myself, with queso chihuahua, salsa cruda, avocado, and peanut chili oil on a fresh blue corn tortilla.  Every bite was fabulous.

You can see the smoked fish interior better in this shot:

In the photo below, the taco on the top is the Baja fish taco, with crispy battered local Vermillion rockfish, crema, mayonnaise, salsa roja, and pico de gallo.  I got a perfect bite of the fried rockfish, and it might have been my first time trying that fish (a second new fish on a trip to L.A., after discovering sand dabs at H.M.S. Bounty!).On the bottom is the pan-seared Hokkaido diver scallop taco, with three scallops, chile x’catic sauce, caramelized onions, tomato, and marinated fennel on the same blue corn tortilla.  I got a scallop, and it was as perfect as a scallop can be.

Finally, we shared the filete al carbon, a mesquite-grilled filet of branzino served over cilantro rice with black beans, more of that x’catic sauce, avocado, and pico de gallo, with rolled-up tortillas in that foil off to the left side.I think we settled on this dish because they were out of something that interested us both more, but it did not disappoint, despite seeming a little more ordinary than the other creations.

Every time I hang out with this friend of mine, we always fit in an epic meal.  We enjoyed Langer’s Delicatessen, Pann’s, and Genghis Cohen on three of my previous L.A. trips, as well as a few other L.A. restaurants (including a famous, iconic Hollywood classic) and an awe-inspiring indigenous restaurant in Portland, Oregon, that I have yet to review.  He’s a stand-up guy, a great professor, and a fellow adventurous diner, so I am always happy to catch up with him when I’m on the other coast.  Holbox was one of our greatest discoveries to date, and if you don’t want to take my word for it, that tire company loved it enough to give it a coveted Star.

Barkhaven

“D’ya like dags?”
“Dags?!?”
“Yeah, dags.”
“Dags!”
“Ohhhh, dogs.  Yeah, I like dags.”
(Name that movie!)

Barkhaven (https://barkhaven.com/) is a combination dog park, dog grooming facility, restaurant, and bar in Orlando’s Ivanhoe Village area at 724 Brookhaven Drive, Orlando, FL 32803.  To put everyone’s minds at ease, don’t worry — there are no dogs in the dining room shedding, drooling, making noise, or trying to steal people’s food.  There is a separate entrance for people to bring their dogs outside to the fenced-in dog park, but there are windows to watch dogs romp and frolic while you eat inside the restaurant, or there are outside tables separated from the dog park with a fence.

Full disclosure: we don’t have a dog.  I am super-allergic to them, and I am much more of a cat person (more like I’m totally obsessed with cats and want to be best friends with every cat ever).  But my wife grew up with Yorkies and one wonderful Yorkie/schnauzer mix and misses them terribly.  When I recently found out Barkhaven existed, I thought she would appreciate a chance to watch some dogs make with the romping and the frolicking while enjoying lunch out after a nearby hair appointment.

The restaurant and bar area is a large, wide-open space with tables and a few half-booths up against one wall.  All the food is served in disposable paper bowls and plates, with plastic utensils, which is fine with me.  It’s a very casual place.  The menu says they don’t use any seed oils, and they do all their frying in beef tallow, so look out, vegetarians.  I don’t know when seed oils became public enemy #1 or beef tallow started being considered a healthier option, but I remain skeptical.  I’m seeing this sentiment so often, I expect it’s some political agenda.  Unlike the wonderful smokiness that comes from frying in reserved bacon grease, I don’t think beef tallow adds any particular flavor to foods, just kind of an oppressive heaviness.  Would I end up changing my mind after this lunch at Barkhaven?  Read on, stalwart Saboscrivnerinos.

My wife is obsessed with hummus, especially since our recent discovery of The Hummus Guy food truck.  Aside from the dogs and the proximity to her stylist, the other reason I suggested Barkhaven was because I saw they serve hummus, and I knew she would want to try it.  It’s a very nontraditional hummus, though — mixed with balsamic red peppers (I loved ’em, she didn’t), topped with crushed crispy chickpeas (not sure if they were dehydrated or fried in beef tallow?) and paprika, and served with thick-sliced cucumbers and pita chips (definitely fried in beef tallow, maybe a moment too long).

She usually likes wings, and I’ve been thinking a lot about delicious Korean-style crispy chicken wings recently.  As a result, we were both intrigued by the honey mustard crunch wings, glazed with fermented honey mustard,  sprinkled with green onions, and drizzled with scratch-made ranch dressing.  These were meaty wings, not those tiny, sad sports bar wings I hate, but they were a little dry.  The wings were suitably crispy without being breaded (there’s that beef tallow again), and as a mustard aficionado, I liked the honey mustard flavor that wasn’t too sweet like so many honey mustards that I call “dessert mustards.”  My wife doesn’t like ranch and didn’t care for the ranch being drizzled on, so I ended up eating most of the wings in three separate servings, mostly back at home. 

This was definitely the best thing I tried at Barkhaven, the arayas, also known as a Lebanese burger.  Rather than a traditional burger patty that might just be sprinkled with salt and possibly pepper, this beef was heavily seasoned with delicious spices, and it actually had some heat, which I enjoyed.  It was stuffed into a pita and grilled to get a crispy exterior, then drizzled with garlic tahini and rosemary pineapple hot honey.  It was terrific — savory, spicy, and so messy and greasy.  It reminded me of a spicier, greasier, messier version of the hawawshi I enjoyed so much last summer at The Cairo Express, although that was crispier because it didn’t have any condiments or sauces on the exterior surface. 
The crunchy red cabbage slaw on the side was pleasant, even though I usually prefer the creaminess of conventional cole slaw.   And I didn’t realize this arayas was going to come with fries, but I’m trying to be good and avoid fries.  These were pretty conventional crinkle-cut fries, despite the beef tallow, so I wasn’t terribly tempted.  I dipped a few in the ranch that came with the wings and dragged a couple through whatever tahini, honey, and meat juice dripped out of the arayas, but I left most of the fries behind and only felt a little guilty about the unexpected food waste.

Even though I’ve been eating less and eating healthier (this meal being an exception), and even though I didn’t devour all the fries, I saw Barkhaven offered onion rings, so I had to try them.  I try onion rings anywhere and everywhere, since I have a recurring feature on this food blog called Ring the Alarm!  These were described as “Thick-cut onions dipped in a crisp, golden beer batter and fried to perfection,” but they were not the kind that I am always delighted to find in the wild, at restaurants like The Whiskey, Christo’s, Build My Burgers, bb.q Chicken, and even Culver’s.  The batter on these was dry, kind of tasteless, and had several burnt, scorched spots.  Maybe it was the beef tallow.  

Barkhaven also serves wood oven pizzas, fish and chips, salads, a hot dog (natch), desserts that include deep-fried pound cake (I guess they have to put that beef tallow to use!), and a whole menu for dogs.  When I saw the combination of “beef, pumpkin, and broccoli” on the menu, along with “frozen carrots,” I thought “those are certainly some choices,” until my wife pointed out that those are options for dogs.  But again, the dogs would eat outside.  They also have a large selection of beers, wines, cocktails, coffee, tea, and other non-alcoholic beverages, all for humans.

Once we boxed up our ample leftovers, we adjourned outside to watch the aforementioned romping and frolicking for a little while.  Those good boys and girls were having a grand time, and we saw some beautiful huskies and even a rascally shiba inu.  It was a nice way to decompress mentally and physically after what turned out to be a heavy meal.  So that was Barkhaven.  If you like dogs, drinking, and beef tallow, you’ll be in absolute heaven!

Sushi Island

Sushi Island (https://sushiislandwinterpark.com/) is a new all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant in Winter Park, at 227 S Semoran Blvd, just south of University Boulevard near Full Sail University.  The owner completely remodeled what used to be a (bad) sports bar/restaurant called Arooga’s, and the dining room is modern, spacious, and welcoming.

I met a good friend and former work colleague for lunch here on a recent Saturday, and we had a grand time, catching up after far too long.  He has lost a bunch of weight doing the low-carb, high-protein keto diet, and I recently started a weight loss plan myself, trying to eat fewer carbs and smaller portions.  We both figured we would do our best to “be good” here, and neither of us ate ourselves into uncomfortable food comas (which I usually do in all-you-can-eat situations).  I figured that alone is decent progress for me.

That freezer in the front contains single-serving cups of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream for dessert, but I can’t imagine saving enough room for ice cream.  My friend and I definitely didn’t.

Sushi Island launched its website after our lunch a few weeks back, but I made sure to take clear, legible photos of the menu since they weren’t widely available online yet.  Since we went for lunch on a Saturday, we got the dinner menu and dinner price of $34.95 per person.  In addition to all the sushi on the other side, you can order appetizers, soups (including udon noodle soup), fried rice or noodles, tempura-fried chicken, shrimp, and vegetables, hibachi-grilled meats and vegetables, and breaded, fried chicken, pork, and salmon katsu. 

Here is half of the sushi menu, including salads, appetizers, sushi and sashimi, and simple rolls, which are also available as cone-shaped hand rolls (which I’m never as big a fan of). 

And here are all the sumptuous specialty rolls:
Just as an FYI, there are a few sushi rolls on this dinner menu that aren’t available on the weekday lunch menu, so check the website for the differences.

My friend started out with an order of three crispy fried gyoza dumplings.  He offered me one, but I passed.  He liked them!

He also got this hibachi steak, a relatively small portion of cubed grilled steak with teriyaki sauce.  I had one piece, which was more done than I prefer, but I didn’t come to Sushi Island for the steak.  

I picked some of the fishy apps for us to share, starting with yellowtail jalapeno.  This was just two thin slices of yellowtail over mixed greens with a dash of dressing and two slices of fresh jalapeno on top.  We each had one piece of yellowtail, and it was a nice start to the feast of fish to come.

This was the similar tuna jalapeno, which we also liked:

This was tuna tataki, two lightly seared pieces of tuna with a peppery crust:

And this was the delicious mango salmon appetizer.  I love raw salmon and I love mango, and I could have ordered a few of these.

This was the snow krab salad, made with shredded surimi (artificial crabmeat made out of pollock or cod), mixed with some mayonnaise and topped with crispy panko bread crumbs, served chilled.  I really enjoyed this, but I already like the sweet taste of surimi a lot.

These were two green mussels, topped with spicy mayo.  Mussels are one of my favorite shellfish.  Don’t worry, these were cooked, not raw. 

I ordered four pieces of smoked salmon sashimi and four pieces of saba (mackerel) sashimi, which is one of my favorites.  When it comes to sushi or sashimi, mackerel is always lightly pickled, so it has a sweet, vinegary tang like my beloved pickled herring.  I’ve never seen any sushi or sashimi garnished with a strawberry before, but I’ll allow it!I was expecting just the thin slices of fish because that’s what I recognize sashimi to be, but these were served with small balls of sushi rice underneath each one, so they were more like nigiri.  I ate the rice because I ordered them, and I never like wasting food.  Now that I know, I will request sashimi without the rice next time.

We each ordered two rolls.  My buddy got the top two, and I got the bottom two.  The top one was the Cow Boy roll, with shrimp tempura and spicy krab, topped with paper-thin slices of medium rare steak and scallions.  The second one down is the Bubba Gump roll, with tempura-breaded and fried shrimp and snow krab inside, topped with steamed shrimp, avocado, spicy mayo, and jalapeño sauce.  He was kind enough to share a piece, and it was a good combo with a blend of nice textures.  The bottom two were mine, both recommended by our lovely server Leah: the Fat Boy roll and the Spicy Girl roll, which could be perfect descriptions of me and my wife.  The Fat Boy roll (third one down) contains spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, and cucumber and is topped with tuna, salmon, avocado, spicy mayo. and eel sauce.  The Spicy Girl roll (last but definitely not least) contains spicy yellowtail, spicy tuna, and avocado and is topped with spicy salmon, masago, white sauce, and eel sauce.  I absolutely loved them and could have eaten far more than I did, but I really am trying my best to eat less these days, folks.

Finally, this was my last hurrah: the Naruto roll, with spicy tuna and avocado served in a beautiful, paper-thin spiral of cool, crispy, peeled cucumber, topped with masago, scallions, and ponzu sauce.  This was such a nice treat, and since I already ate more rice than I hoped to, I was glad to find this good roll without rice.  When I return to Sushi Island (and I WILL return), I will probably order several of these Naruto rolls.  You can get them with different fish, too: regular tuna, salmon, yellowtail, or krab. 

I was so glad to catch up with this friend of mine, who I have watched progress from dedicated law student to esteemed attorney to beloved law professor and head of an important department at my previous institution.  He is one of the best people I know, and I kvell with pride to consider him one of my friends (and to be one of his!) — and that doesn’t even get into his skills as a drummer!  And we could not have chosen a better place than Sushi Island, especially since we’re both eating less and eating healthier these days.  I know I could have eaten a lot more sushi, but we both left satisfied, without being uncomfortably stuffed and bloated.  That means we are making progress in every aspect of our lives!   But Sushi Island was so good, and I am thrilled to have a place like it on my side of town, without schlepping down to International Drive for very similar all-you-can-eat sushi at Sushi Yama.