Palm Avenue Deli (Sarasota)

Back in November, I took my wife to Naples, Florida, to visit a friend who had traveled in from Maine.  Naples is almost four hours south of Orlando,  but it’s a hell of a lot closer than Maine, so we divided up the long drive by stopping for lunch in Sarasota.  I’ve never been to Sarasota in my life, so of course I did my research, and I decided to stop at a New York-style delicatessen restaurant that had a great-looking menu and enthusiastic reviews: the Palm Avenue Deli (https://palmavenuedeli.com/) in downtown Sarasota.  It was fabulous.  I’m so glad we chose to go there, and I wish I had opportunities to return.

When we arrived in the middle of the day on a Friday, I gushed about this being our first time, how we were passing through town from Orlando, and how excited I was to visit after reading their menu online.  Our lovely hostess and steadfast server must have thought they had a real live one here, but they had no idea just how much food we would order, or how much fun we were about to have.

We were seated near the open kitchen, and I was so tickled to see this old library card catalog behind our table, repurposed to add some flair to the dining room.  You can’t see it here, but each of the card catalog drawers was labeled for some kind of Jewish deli fare, like Bagels, Brisket, Chopped Liver, Corned Beef, and so forth.  You get the gist.  I’m a librarian, so I really knew we had made a great decision for lunch.  

The lunch menu literally offered a dish called “Pickles for a Nickel,” and they weren’t joking.  We actually got a couple of sour kosher dill pickles and a dish of cool, creamy, crunchy cole slaw for five cents, cinco centavos, whatever you want to call it.  For that alone, I would have to recommend Palm Avenue Deli, because where else can you get ANYTHING for a nickel, with or without a picture of a bumblebee on it?  Anyway, this is the cole slaw:

My wife and I both ordered egg creams, those fizzy, creamy concoctions from old-timey New York City soda fountains.  A place like this would certainly make them the right way, with Fox’s U-Bet syrups (which I have reviewed before), milk, and seltzer water, creating sweet and refreshing foamy drinks that contain neither eggs nor cream.  My wife got the classic chocolate egg cream, and I opted for a coffee egg cream, since I haven’t found coffee Fox’s U-Bet around Orlando in a long time.

We shared an order of excellent potato latkes, fried to golden-brown perfection and savory with onions and black pepper.  How do you like your latkes?  My wife likes applesauce with them, while I prefer sour cream.  But the ultimate question is, “Why not both?”  At Palm Avenue Deli, you don’t even have to choose.

My wife is a sucker for the Ashkenazi Jewish dish kasha varnishkes, which is kasha (buckwheat groats, toasted and then boiled until they are soft and tender) served with al dente bowtie noodles.  I’ve never had a strong opinion on the dish one way or another, until now.  Palm Avenue Deli went hard with caramelized onions, and let me tell you, that made all the difference.  I get it now.  Those caramelized onions added savory flavor as well as sweetness and brought this carb-fest to life (to life, l’chayim!).

She also ordered a smoked fish platter with sablefish, cream cheese, butter, and a toasted everything bagel.  The sliced onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers come standard on almost any deli or appetizing store’s smoked fish platter, along with salty capers and fresh dill.

Close-up on the sliced sablefish.  Also known as Alaskan black cod, it is a rich, buttery fish that is rubbed with spices and then smoked.  If you’ve ever had nova, lox, or gravlax (different kinds of smoked salmon), you know how delicious those are, especially offset against creamy, tangy cream cheese and some fresh vegetables on a good bagel or bialy.  Is your mouth watering yet?  Well, think about how tasty nova salmon is, and sablefish is somehow even better.  Many years ago, I introduced my wife to its glory at our beloved Ess-A-Bagel in Midtown Manhattan, and now she is a member of the Sable Squad with me.

I ordered a classic sandwich that is a great benchmark to gauge any deli: a combo sandwich with sliced pastrami and corned beef on rye bread with caraway seeds.  It was excellent quality.  I’ve certainly had more ridiculously overstuffed deli sandwiches, but I can’t complain about the quality or the flavors of this one.  I still prefer pastrami to corned beef, and I still prefer my pastrami hand-sliced (like at Katz’s in the Lower East Side, Langer’s in Los Angeles, and The Pastrami Project here in Orlando), but I can’t take anything away from this lovely sandwich.  The rye bread here at Palm Avenue Deli was certainly better than Katz’s, and the meal was so much more leisurely and relaxing, as opposed to Katz’s chaotic atmosphere.

I opted for a side of potato salad with my sandwich, since I already got to sample the cole slaw in my “Pickles for a Nickel.”  For sharp-eyed Saboscrivnerinos who are eagerly awaiting my next set of Cutting the Mustard reviews, I was thrilled to try a new (to me) mustard here: Sy Ginsberg’s New York Style Deli Mustard.  It was perfectly good — very similar to Gulden’s, but not as good as Ba-Tampte, which is pretty much my go-to deli-style mustard.

As long as we were tearing things up at this deli and just passing through town, I figured “Why not try the chopped liver too?”  I was able to order a bissel of chopped liver — just a small side portion to taste it.  It was very rich, thick, and savory, with a pleasant consistency — smooth with some little chunks for texture.  I’m very glad I tried it, because chopped liver is a decadent treat that even a lot of delis don’t serve that regularly anymore (at least not here in Central  Florida).  I wish they had served it with some extra rye bread and caramelized onions, but I could say that about almost anything.

My wife feels as strongly about desserts as I do about delis, although she has definitely come around to appreciating delis like I do.  She saw flourless chocolate cake on the menu and made sure to save some room for it.  It came with a glistening dark chocolate glaze, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a puff of fresh whipped cream (not the canned stuff), and fresh diced strawberries, and she loved it.  

I did not intend to order dessert at all, but I might have made a comment like “Mmmmm, blueberry cheesecake.”  Much to my surprise, our very friendly server brought out a slice of blueberry cheesecake on the house, which we neither needed nor requested, but I certainly welcomed  it enthusiastically.  It was “New York style” cheesecake — rich, thick, dense, and a little bit tangy — more like the legendary Junior’s than the familiar Factory, but made in-house.  What a delightfully unexpected end to this epic road trip lunch!

Even the restrooms had character and style.  The men’s room had a framed photo of Marilyn Monroe and Andy Warhol-inspired Elvis wallpaper.  My wife reported the ladies’ room had an Elvis photo and Marilyn wallpaper.  Who were you expecting — Joan Rivers and Jackie Mason?   

So I says to my wife, I says, “I wish this place was in Orlando, because we would be regulars for sure.”  She agreed.  Sadly, Sarasota is nowhere near home, and I can’t imagine returning anytime soon, as good as our Palm Avenue Deli experience was.  It’s amazing that this small city on Florida’s Gulf Coast can support three Jewish delis (Palm Avenue,  the Meshugana Deli, and the newly opened Wolfie’s), which is definitely more than we have here in our progressive and cosmopolitan City Beautiful.  I have some strong opinions about dangerous and disquieting things happening elsewhere in Sarasota, but a food blog is no place to get into that kind of editorializing.  That said, for our first visit ever and probably our only one for the foreseeable future, I could not have chosen a better restaurant for our own meal in town.  If you’re anywhere close, drive into clean, welcoming downtown Sarasota, park in the nearby garage to avoid having to parallel park along the busy streets, and check it out.  You won’t be sorry.  You can tell them I sent you, but even though I ordered half the menu, they probably won’t know who you’re talking about.

Briskets BBQ Shack & Grill

Briskets BBQ Shack & Grill (https://www.brisketsbbq.com/) is a literal shack in quiet Oviedo, Florida, slightly off the beaten path but well worth the schlep.  I met some of the nicest, sweetest people — a true family operation — serving some of the best barbecue I’ve ever had in the Orlando area. 
Needless to say, just discovering a new barbecue joint is pretty exciting, especially since I work odd hours now and rarely get out to eat during the work week.  Briskets opens at 10 AM, and since I don’t start work until noon (the joys of working on Pacific time), I made sure to be there right when it opened to bring home plenty of delicious takeout.  My wife and I got several meals out of this barbecue bounty from Briskets.

You order inside the small shack, where you can see everything ready to be portioned and served.  Briskets serves two kinds of house-made smoked sausages, wrapped in natural casings for that perfect snappiness that causes momentary happiness.  Did I try them both?  Have you ever read this food blog before?  What do YOU think?!?!

Sides are on display: elbow macaroni in the front left with creamy smoked cheddar cheese sauce behind it for mac and cheese, green beans topped with crumbled bacon in the back right, and in front of that, awe-inspiring cornbread casserole.  (More on these soon enough.)

Here we have smoked corn and the best baked beans I’ve ever had in the back (more on dem beans in a bit), and something else next to sweet potato casserole in the front right — possibly loaded mashed potatoes topped with cheese and bacon?  I did not try that one, so apologies. 

These are savory brisket and cheese hand pies, with a nice, flaky crust.  Of course I had to try one!  I don’t have a picture of it cut open, but it was really good, like everything else from Briskets.  They also offer pulled pork hand pies sometimes, but not on the day I visited.  I would have preferred that, because pulled pork was one of the only meats I did not bring home, but the brisket pie was excellent.  (I didn’t detect any cheese inside the pie with the shredded brisket, but it came with an additional ramekin of the smoked cheddar cheese sauce for dippin’, so maybe that’s where the cheese comes in.)

This was the highlight, the glorious beef rib, something my wife and I have both craved for far too long.  Charismatic barbecue boss Chuck Cobb blessed  Central Florida with Git-N-Messy BBQ before passing away in early 2022.  In in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, back in the spring and summer of 2020, when Chuck served his barbecue out of a convenience store in Winter Park, I brought home many flawless beef ribs that each lasted us multiple meals.  They were one of the only highlights of those weeks and months of isolation, fear, and uncertainty.  Finding out Briskets served wonderful beef ribs of their own was my main impetus for visiting it in the first place.  There is so much meat, you won’t believe it if you’ve never had one.  If you’ve had “kinda big” pork spareribs, forget it.  Those don’t even compare.   While this is not the cheapest item on Briskets’ menu, one rib is more than enough for a meal, even for Chris Rock in I’m Gonna Git You, Sucka.  The beef is so tender and juicy with lots of marbling from fat and a nice outer bark made from rubbed spices, and the rib easily pulls off the Brobdingnagian, brontosaurus-sized bone in one piece.  Briskets serves their beef rib with whole smoked jalapeño peppers and a mound of really good bread and butter pickle slices, all atop three slices of white bread that soaked in all those juices and flavors.  We both loved this beef rib, and I loved everything else that came with it.

Beyond that, I selected a Texas three-meat plate, which came in those great plastic containers that are dishwasher-safe and microwave-safe, with a clear lid that snaps on.  I wish more restaurants would use those.

For our meats, I selected brisket (you have to try the namesake meat!), pork spareribs (excellent in their own right, just don’t expect them to equal the beef rib in size), and the smoked sausage.  I mentioned there were two kinds of smoked sausage on the day I went: Texas beef sausage and jalapeño cheddar sausage.  I would have had a hard time choosing, but they were kind enough to let me try both together as one of my meat choices!  Of course, both were excellent, and that snappy bite you get from the natural casing really elevates them above and beyond most other sausages.The brisket also had some nice marbling — not too lean nor too fatty — and was very tender and packed with flavor from smoking it low and slow.  The pork spareribs had a slight sweetness from the sticky glaze to counterbalance their salty smokiness.  Every single one of the meats amazed and astonished, but that’s not all!  The Texas three-meat platter came with two sides, and because this was my first visit, I brought home a couple of others, too.

Here is the macaroni and cheese.  The smoked cheese sauce ladled on right before packing it up in the to-go container really sets it apart.  I think adding something else to it might put it over the top, like diced pimentos or other peppers for some acidity to balance out the smoky richness, or a seasoned bread crumb topping for a bit of crunch with all that silky smoothness.

I loved the creamy potato salad, which had a slight crunch from bits of celery(?) and tanginess from yellow mustard.  Yes, this was a Southern-style potato salad, and it was damn fine.  My constant readers, the stalwart Saboscrivnerinos, may be noticing that I try to sample potato salad and macaroni salad wherever they are available, and this one did not disappoint.

These are Bob’s country beans, and they were the most perfect, most glorious, and most beautiful barbecue baked beans I’ve ever had in my life.  Just from one glance, you can see they aren’t your typical brown baked beans, swimming in a sweet, sticky sauce.  There are multiple varieties of beans at play here, and my wife and I could not identify all the different shapes, colors, and sizes.  I took to Facebook to ask what kinds of beans were included, and someone from Briskets (Bob himself?) told me “it took oh maybe half my life to figure that particular recipe out I’m not too quick to share it if that makes sense.  I’ve had a lot of people make a lot of guesses of what’s in there and none have gotten it yet.”  I get it, and I appreciate that.  Unless you are Penn and Teller, most magicians don’t reveal how their tricks work either, and I am perfectly happy to be caught up in the mystery of it all.   

I chose this sweet potato casserole for my wife specifically, although I ended up eating most of it after she first tried some.  (She doesn’t dig on leftovers quite as much as I do.)  It was your typical Thanksgiving style — very rich and sweet from butter, brown sugar, and pecans, but no marshmallow topping here.

And this was the magnificent cornbread casserole, which was topped with a drizzle of honey.  It was sweet — not savory at all — to the point of it practically being a dessert, and so rich and satisfying.  This was a huge hit with both of us.  

I also had to get some banana pudding for us to share back at home.  It was creamy and cool and refreshing, and I strongly recommend it.  Banana pudding goes so well with barbecue, Nashville hot chicken (it might have saved my tongue at the legendary Hattie B’s in Nashville), and so many other Southern meals.  This one was no exception.

While I have every intention of returning to Briskets BBQ Shack & Grill and becoming a regular, I feel like I definitely tried enough menu items on my first visit to write a comprehensive review.  This is still a new business (and did I mention it’s a small, family-owned business?), and I want word of mouth to echo from computers and phones, resonate from the rooftops, and spread throughout the Orlando area.  We are two weeks out from Christmas, and Briskets is even offering a special Christmas menu for feeding huge parties.  In the cooler months ahead, you may want to trek out to Oviedo and enjoy your food al fresco, at those picnic tables they provide, before the humidity becomes unbearable (in March).  But Floridians love good barbecue year-round — I know I do — and at this moment, I can’t think of any better barbecue around here.  Trust me, you need to discover this place for yourselves before everyone else in town does, because long lines of loyal customers are inevitable.  Why not join me in becoming a loyal customer before the lines get out of hand?  You won’t regret it!

Cow & Cheese

I am thrilled to report that Cow & Cheese (https://www.facebook.com/cowandcheese), Orlando’s newest burger establishment, officially opened TODAY (Friday, December 1st) in Maitland, and it is GOOD.  People, I have been waiting over a year to write this review!  If you like your burgers smashed on the flattop grill, full of flavor, with crispy edges, melted cheese, and deeply caramelized onions, this is the place for you.  I am a convert to smash-style burgers, and this is one of the best I’ve ever tried anywhere, not just in the Orlando area.

Cow & Cheese is the latest restaurant in the growing empire of Kwame Boakye, the owner-operator of the beloved Chicken Fire in Orlando’s Milk District (a personal favorite of mine since his earliest food truck days) and That Wing Spot south of downtown Orlando.  Now open in a convenient location along Highway 17-92 in Maitland, Kwame is keeping his latest menu simple, with four burger variations, crinkle-cut fries, and Stubborn brand craft sodas.

Here’s a shot of the menu, above the counter where you place your order on a touch-screen.  If it is too small to read, right-click the image below and open it in a new tab for a larger photo.

But first, I need to flash back a little over a year.  Kwame first previewed Cow & Cheese in a series of three pop-up events at his Chicken Fire restaurant back in 2022, and I was lucky to be able to attend one of them, last August.  I ordered The Doc ($9), an Oklahoma-style burger, featuring “thinly sliced onions smashed into two angus beef patties, each topped with premium American cheese, CC sauce, and deeply caramelized onions, all on a fresh baked toasted brioche bun.”  That’s poetry to my ears and to my soul, and the actual Doc burger was poetry to my mouth:It looks messy, because it IS messy.  But I like a lot of stuff on my burgers, specifically melty American cheese, cooked onions (so much more pleasant than raw onions), and a nice sauce or condiment to bring it all together.  I’ve had dry, bland, sad smash-style burgers that taste like burning, but this one definitely tasted like high quality beef, done well but not “well done,” and it had a nice texture from the edges crisping up.  All the ingredients harmonized together to make a damn tasty burger, and I hoped against hope that Kwame would open Cow & Cheese in a permanent location sooner rather than later.

These were the crinkle-cut fries, which you can never go wrong with.  I got a little ramekin of creamy, zingy CC sauce (a little thinner and not quite as tangy as the delightful soul sauce from Chicken Fire) to dip them in.

And for those of you who don’t like your burgers covered with stuff, you are not alone.  My wife is the exact same way, but don’t worry — the staff at the Cow & Cheese pop-up made her a plain burger, which she devoured with gusto, along with those fries (still hot even after getting them home).   Long-time Saboscrivner subscribers may recognize our green placemats, which we’ve had since 2009.  I can’t stand them, because they have teeny tiny holes all over them, so they do absolutely nothing to protect our table from crumbs, spills, and stains.  Thanks for nothing, Crate and Barrel!

But I digress.  Fast-forwarding back to this past week, Kwame contacted me on Facebook and invited me to a special Friends and Family preview evening at Cow & Cheese, a few days before Friday’s grand opening to the general public.  This was a way for his staff to get comfortable with the cooking and serving processes for a forgiving crowd, but they were all extremely friendly, welcoming, and at the top of their game with customer service.  Just like at Chicken Fire, the food is great, but Kwame and his crew always make me feel valued.  Not every local restaurant does this, but it sure makes a difference!

As a result, I must now make a disclaimer that all the food I received at the Friends and Family preview was complimentary.  I did not pay for anything in the next part of this review, nor was I asked to write a good review in exchange for the free food.  I am writing a good review because the food was absolutely delicious, and it is a terrific value, especially for the Maitland area.  And yes, in case you were wondering, I will absolutely return.  But even more than the stellar burgers (which are some of the best in the Orlando area), I think the world of Kwame Boakye and want to support him any way I can.  He is a skilled entrepreneur and talented chef who treats all people the way he would want to be treated, from his own staff to a bald, bearded, bearlike blogger who went crazy for his spicy chicken back in 2019 and became a semi-regular customer ever since.  The dude always recognizes me, even when I show up in an N95 mask, even when months have passed since my last visit!  I get the distinct impression he remembers all his customers.  That’s the kind of guy he is — a good man doing a great job in a very hard business.  I could not be happier to see him succeed, nor to help boost the signal for him in my own small way.  Good things don’t happen to good people nearly often enough.

Anyway, gushing aside, here is the aforementioned Stubborn soda fountain, so we have moved on to more gushing.  I happen to like the root beer, the pineapple cream soda, and the agave vanilla cream soda.  At the preview, I sipped on those three flavors as I waited for my orders to be ready.  Separately, not together, I should add, but you may want to play soda jerk chemist and mix them together to create your own crazy combinations.   

I returned to my old favorite cheeseburger from the pop-up, The Doc (still making it funky enough!), which I chowed down on, hot and fresh, in the restaurant.  By the way, those crispy edges on the meat are due to a chemical process called the Maillard reaction that gives browned foods like grilled meats, toasted bread, roasted vegetables, caramelized onions, and even coffee their distinctive, delicious flavors.  You need to start out with dry raw ingredients (pat your meat dry) and very high temperatures, and the proteins and sugars will go buck wild and make things taste like heaven.  As always, Serious Eats does a much better job explaining the science behind the Maillard reaction better than I can, so give it a read.  SCIENCE! And it works so well, because these burger patties had lacy, delicate, crispy corners and edges that added to the melange of flavors and textures.  It makes such a difference that the fresh brioche buns are lightly toasted on the same cooking surface, for that extra crispy firmness to hold up against the CC sauce and other toppings.  On this Doc burger, I also requested kosher dill pickle chips (slices, not pickle-flavored potato chips), which were fine, but I thought they were unnecessary.  I prefer pickles with Kwame’s incendiary hot chicken at Chicken Fire, dulling the burn with their cool, sour saltiness, but that’s just me, and I could be wrong.

Unfortunately the fryer was malfunctioning on the Friends and Family Night, or you can bet I would have gotten another order of those crinkle-cut fries, this time topped with beer cheese, CC sauce, and caramelized onions, almost like the legendary Animal Style fries at California’s cult fast food chain, In-N-Out Burger.  (I happen to love In-N-Out, but it isn’t nearly as good as this singular, locally owned and operated restaurant.)  I’ll just have to come back for the fries, which won’t take me long.

Kwame insisted I don’t leave empty-handed on that memorable evening, so I brought home another Doc and a Triple Cow x Triple Cheese.  Both burgers normally cost $9 each, and the major difference is that the Doc is only two burger patties and the Triple Cow is three, but the Doc has the onions pressed into the cooking meat, while the Triple Cow doesn’t.  If you are torn, you can always order the Triple Cow x Triple Cheese and pay the reasonable $2.50 upcharge for deeply caramelized onions on it.  Those onions make such a difference, taking something already brilliant to the next level.  That’s probably what I will do on future visits.  And if you’ve ever tried caramelizing onions at home, you know it takes a stupidly long time for the Maillard reaction to occur — far longer than most recipes are willing to admit!  You might as well leave it to the professionals and enjoy their hard work and patience.
Somehow, I ate one of these that same night, of course standing up over my kitchen counter, and wolfed the other one down the following day.  It was just as good, by the way.

I can’t say enough good things about Cow & Cheese or its owner, Kwame Boakye, and not just because he invited me to the Friends and Family preview.  As you can see, these burgers and fries are well worth the extremely reasonable prices.  Maitland is a lot closer to us than Chicken Fire, out on the corner of East Colonial and Bumby, so I’m sure I will make the trek semi-regularly, whenever we feel like tasty burgers that have undergone the Maillard reaction.  There are a few burger chains that specialize in these same smash-style burgers, including a popular national chain just down the road from Cow & Cheese, in Winter Park.  You’ve probably tried it before, especially if you’re hanging on my every word in this review.  It rhymes with “Snake Wack.”  Don’t even bother returning to “Snake Wack” for your next burger and fries craving.  Instead, support a brand-new, one-of-a-kind, Black-owned local business where the food is even better, and where the owner will probably remember your name and face with every visit and make you feel like a friend.

D’Amico & Sons Italian Market & Bakery

After a long wait (which probably felt much longer for the owners than people like me looking forward to the opening), D’Amico & Sons Italian Market & Bakery (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093695793933) has officially soft-opened in the Oviedo Mall.  Sometimes I go to the Regal movie theater in that mall, and it desperately needs something else to keep bringing people in.  I am pleased to report that D’amico & Sons should flourish there, if the enthusiastic crowds on the second day of its soft opening continue.   Its hours are 7 AM to 7 PM, Monday through Saturday, and 7 AM to 3 PM on Sunday.

I am thrilled to have another Italian market in town, especially one that is much closer to me than my beloved Stasio’s and Tornatore’s.  It is a much larger space than either, having completely refurbished the old Chamberlin’s health food store, bright and clean and spacious, with plenty of natural light and ample parking.  There is even a covered patio with tables under an Italian flag awning, for those who want to enjoy coffee, gelato, pastries, and sandwiches on the premises.

Like any good Italian market, you can order a variety of coffee drinks.  I am happy to see any locally owned and operated coffee shops to combat the Starbucks stranglehold.

There is a gelato counter too, although it was too crowded today to get a photo of it.  It looked like they might have twelve or 16 different flavors, and I’m sure my wife and I will work our way through them eventually.  Of course I like ice cream (who doesn’t?), but I like gelato even better.  I prefer the texture, the intensity of the flavors (especially fruity flavors), and somehow, it is even healthier (or less unhealthy, if you will).

When I arrived around 12:30 on its second day open, there was a long line just to get up to the bakery counter.  I managed to snap this shot of  beautiful macarons and pastries in a glass case, but there were other cases to behold on each side of it, with cakes to the left and cookies to the right:

Here is another vertical refrigerated case full of gorgeous gelato cakes: chocolate raspberry, triple chocolate, and pistachio.

I ended up bringing home two lobster tail pastries that were so flaky and crispy — the top one filled with rich Bavarian cream, and the bottom one filled with cannoli cream and tiny chocolate chips.  Below that are two zeppoli, fried pastries dusted in powdered sugar.  Those were my wife’s favorites.  

They also sell these Italian wedding cookies and black and white cookies, which I highly recommend.  I have bought this brand of black and white cookies before (Bakery Boys of New York), but I brought home the Italian wedding cookies because she loves those, and she was really happy with them.  I don’t think they sold individual Italian wedding cookies at the cookie counter, but one would not have been enough!

There are plenty of savory foods to choose from too, including golden-brown arancini, rice balls coated in bread crumbs and lightly fried, for a texture that is crispy-crunchy on the outside and soft and yielding inside.  If you’ve ever had a papa rellena from a Cuban cafe or bakery, these are similar, but with rice instead of mashed potatoes inside.  There are original, cheese, and cheesesteak arancini to tempt you.  D’Amico & Sons definitely have a lot of balls.

I brought an original rice ball home for my wife.  The thing is the size of a baseball!

A butcher case of fresh sausages was tempting, but I passed on this first visit.  I’ll definitely be back to try some.

They also offer pizzelles, which are pizza-like flatbreads, sold by the slice (and possibly also whole).  They looked great, but I treated myself to a pizza yesterday and still have leftovers.

You can also get sandwiches made to order, and I took great care to get a legible photo of the hanging menu, since it is not listed on the Facebook page yet.  Right-click this image and open it in a new tab for a larger, more legible photo.   
I was really surprised they don’t offer a traditional Italian sub with salami, ham, and other deli meats, plus the typical provolone cheese, veggies, and a vinaigrette, so I ordered what seemed like the closest approximation: the Italian Cubano, with Boar’s Head prosciutto Riserva, porchetta, Swiss cheese, pepperoncini peppers, tomato, deli mustard, and Boar’s Head Pepperhouse Gourmaise (a really good mayo-based condiment) on a sub roll.  It was ready pretty quickly, despite how slammed they were at the deli counter.

This is the Italian Cubano sandwich, unwrapped back at home.  I would have preferred the pepperoncini peppers to be sliced or chopped rather than whole, but at least they removed the stems.  The bread, prosciutto, and Pepperhouse Gourmaise really made this sandwich, but it was a little light on ingredients, and the bread was not fully sliced all the way across, so the ends didn’t have any of the good stuff on them.  I didn’t get a taste of the porchetta by itself, but at least I saw it in there.  I wonder if they would consider getting a sandwich press for more of a traditional Cubano experience.

I would absolutely try other sandwiches from here, even if they’re not going to dethrone Stasio’s (and my favorite sandwich in the city, the namesake Stasio) anytime soon.

There is a separate counter next to the gelato for ordering fresh-baked bread, and I wisely bought two different loaves to bring home.  The sub roll was great, but this sesame seed-studded semolina loaf was even better — warm and fluffy inside, crackly crust outside, and so wonderful when spread with some of our room-temperature butter back at home.

I also bought a pull-apart olive batard, which didn’t have a crunchy, crackly outer crust, but was also warm and fluffy and full of salty, chewy, pungent black olives, baked in.  I’m not the biggest olive guy in the world, but I like them as olive salad on a muffuletta sandwich, and I liked them in this bread.  My wife really loved this one, and olive her.

Over by the pizzelles, there is a refrigerated case brimming with different Italian cheeses, including ricotta, fresh mozzarella, and even some delicious-looking smoked cheeses.  I abstained this time, but I’m glad to know they have all this variety.

And since I am infamous for documenting my love of sardines with my ‘Dines List reviews, I could not leave without a can for this Cuoco brand Seasoning for Macaroni with Sardines.  I’ve made the Sicilian dish pasta con le sarde before, with fresh fennel, but I look forward to trying this ready-made combination of sardines, oil, fennel, onions, raisins, and salt the next time I cook up some high-quality imported pasta.  Of course I will review it in a future installment of The ‘Dines List!  Good for Kaley Cuoco for choosing to diversify, selling sardine seasoning while still performing the animated voice of Harley Quinn.  Beauty, talent, and business savvy!

While D’Amico & Sons does not have a full-service Italian restaurant next door like Tornatore’s (probably my favorite Italian restaurant in Orlando), and while the sandwiches may not be Stasio’s quality just yet (definitely my favorite sandwiches in Orlando), Central Florida’s newest and most spacious Italian market, bakery, cafe, and deli is already off to a terrific start, and Seminole County residents are lucky to have it.  I know I am.  I strongly encourage all my regular readers to make a pilgrimage out here ASAP and consider getting Christmas and New Year’s Eve goodies for any entertaining you have planned.  Heck, Hanukah celebrators should find a lot to love here too!

Pigzza

Pigzza (https://pigzza.com/) is described as “An Italianish joint” on its website.  The creation of Thomas Ward, the chef-owner of Orlando’s beloved Pig Floyd’s Urban BBQ, Pigzza combines Ward’s love of barbecue with Italian food, specifically pizza and pasta, the same way Pig Floyd’s combines barbecue with Latin and Asian flavors.

I met one of my best foodie friends for dinner there in May, and we shared a lot of food, as we usually do whenever we have out.  We started with a beautiful order of oven-roasted chicken wings that were crispy but very juicy and tender, not greasy at all.   The plating elevated these even further, garnishing the wings with arugula, chewy craisins, and an artistic flourish of green goddess dressing.  Not many restaurants oven-roast their wings, but I always love these as an alternative to fried versions, which are more likely to get dried out.  Glancing at the menu on Pigzza’s website, it looks like these specific wings are not available anymore, but now you have a chance to get Calabrian chili and orange double-cooked wings instead, and that sounds pretty spectacular.

We also shared the Rhode Island-style calamari, crusted with cornmeal and tossed with garlic-herb butter, spicy pickled cherry peppers and banana peppers, and fried capers.  These were terrific too.  So chewy!  Such good breading!  I always appreciate cherry peppers on or in anything.  The calamari came with tangy red sauce and garlic aioli for dipping, and dip them I did, but they were so good that they didn’t even need the condiment.

For a pizza, we chose the CBW, topped with Alabama white barbecue sauce, barbecue chicken, bacon, smoked mozzarella, candied jalapenos, cilantro, and green onions.  Usually I’m a pizza purist who prefers red sauce to “white pies,” but since we got to taste Pigzza’s red sauce with the calamari, I was happy to try something different and unique.  And this isn’t any ordinary white pie, as you can tell.  These are 12″ pizzas, more Neapolitan-style than New York, and ideal for sharing between two people.The crust was very good, but I prefer the crispier crunch of New York- and Sicilian-style pizzas.  With this CBW, it was the combination of toppings that set it over the top.  Everything was fresh, high-quality, and combined so well together.

We also shared the spicy sausage tortiglioni pasta, which I learned is very similar to rigatoni.  The pasta was tossed in a vodka sauce, so it was tomatoey and creamy all at the same time, topped with grated Parmesan cheese and fresh oregano.  The sausage had a nice heat, and my only wish was that there could have been more of it in the dish.  I could have easily eaten it all myself, but I am always happy to share food with friends.

I returned to Pigzza in late July to meet two former co-workers, right after leaving my old job after 15 years.  We started with the Rhode Island calamari again, which was just as good this time (although my photography wasn’t).  My former supervisor went to school in Rhode Island, and this calamari earned her seal of approval too.

This was the pizza she ordered for herself, topped with pepperoni, Pigzza red sauce, smoked mozzarella (the smokiness makes such a huge difference), pecorino romano cheese, oregano, and marjoram.  We didn’t share each other’s pizzas, but she seemed very happy with it.

My other colleague, a vegetarian, got a pizza that I believe is called the Big Mo.  If this is it, then it was topped with roasted mushrooms, pink pickled onions, caramelized onions, and chives, along with vodka sauce and smoked mozzarella.  She was also really happy with her choice.  It wasn’t this blurry in real life, I swear!

And perhaps saving the best for last, this was my pizza, the Meat Me at Floyd’s, named for Pig Floyd’s just up the road.  It was topped with braised beef brisket, grape jelly barbecue sauce, smoked mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, pickled onions, green onions, and cilantro.  I loved this combination, even better than the CBW I shared on my previous visit.  But if I see brisket, pickled onions, and smoked cheese, I am going to be happy no matter what.

I’ve been sitting on this review for a while, half-written, hoping to visit Pigzza for a third time.  Working from home until late these days, it is much harder for me to get to the side of Orlando with all the great restaurants clustered together, plus parking is kind of abominable there unless you arrive super-early.  I will absolutely return, but I figured I should let everyone else know about it sooner rather than later, even though by now, probably — hopefully — everybody does.  It is a fine addition to the Mills 50 District and Orlando’s pizza scene, and Thomas Ward has done it again!

 

Chain Reactions: JINYA Ramen Bar

JINYA Ramen Bar (https://www.jinyaramenbar.com/) was first founded in California by second-generation restauranteur Tomo Takahashi, after he had already opened a JINYA restaurant in Tokyo in 2000.  There are multiple JINYA Ramen Bar locations around the United States, including two in the Orlando area — the first in Thornton Park near downtown Orlando, and the second just opened in Oviedo.

I had never been to the Thornton Park JINYA location, but always meant to try it after reading rave reviews and rhapsodic recommendations.  When I heard one was opening closer to me, I was excited, and when co-owner Taff Liao invited me to a “friends and family” preview over Facebook, I was overjoyed.

I just got home from that lunch, where I ran into foodie-about-town and all-around good dude Ricky Ly, founder of the Tasty Chomps! food blog and the really terrific Orlando Foodie Forum Facebook group, arriving at the same time to dine with his family.  It was a great experience, and I am here to tell you that JINYA Ramen Bar will be an asset to Oviedo and East Orlando.  Don’t hesitate to check it out.

***Before continuing with my review, I must note that even though I fully expected to pay for my meal, I did not realize that the “friends and family” preview would be comped by the restaurant, like a dress rehearsal for the staff before its grand opening for the general public.  I don’t get invited to stuff like that often, and I honestly would have felt more comfortable paying.  Still, I was honored to be there, loved my meal, and left what I hope was a generous tip for the friendly staff.  But in the spirit of full disclosure and candor for my constant readers, you stalwart Saboscrivnerinos, I was not charged for this wonderful lunch.***

The restaurant is on the ground floor of the Ellington apartment complex, one of the many new developments in Oviedo.   

The dining room is a gorgeous, modern, dare I say sexy space with nice light fixtures, brick walls, that trendy and ubiquitous plant wall, and lots of natural light streaming in through floor-to-ceiling windows.  

An open kitchen overlooks the dining room.  There is an outdoor patio, but you will be inhaling exhaust from busy Mitchell Hammock Road if you sit out there, and it was already hot outside when I arrived just before noon, even in late October.

Being a solo diner, I sat at the bar, where two friendly female bartenders hustled, making gorgeous, artful cocktails while keeping my Sprite glass full.  One of them patiently explained the menu in detail, and I did not have the heart to tell her I studied it in advance.  The entire staff is warm and welcoming and well-trained during this soft opening, so expect excellence when you arrive in the days and weeks to come.

I started with an order of crispy rice with spicy tuna, from the Small Plates section of the menu.  I have loved these at other Japanese restaurants, including the late, lamented Kabuto, which closed back in December.  This order came with three small rectangular bricks of rice, coated in panko breadcrumbs and fried to light, crispy perfection.  Each crispy rice brick was topped with a puree of mildly spicy tuna and tiny, cute jalapeno pepper slices.

I tried one plain, one dipped in the zingy seasoning sauce, and one dipped in the gyoza sauce (it ain’t just for gyoza anymore!), and no matter what I did, every bite was magnificent.  I could see ordering these every time I return to JINYA Ramen Bar in the future, which will hopefully be often.  In fact, if they ever decide to offer a larger order of ten or twelve, I would probably order that.

I could not go to JINYA Ramen Bar without ordering a bowl of ramen, even if it was unseasonably hot outside.  JINYA makes its own ramen noodles from two different kinds of flour, then ages them in a special noodle-aging machine, which proves that we truly live in an age of technological marvels.  I ordered JINYA’s version of my standard ramen order at any Japanese restaurant, tonkotsu ramen, which features a rich, creamy pork bone broth.  Specifically, I got the JINYA Tonkotsu Black, with a slice of savory, fatty, tender pork chashu, green onion, two sheets of dried seaweed called nori, a seasoned soft-boiled egg with a perfect runny, creamy yolk, garlic chips,  garlic oil, fried onion, and “spicy sauce.”  It was served with thin noodles, but different bowls of ramen come with thicker noodles.  I like ’em thicc, so I will try that next time.

It was masterful.  All the ingredients harmonized so well.  The broth was delicious enough to slurp even without anything else in it.  It wasn’t spicy-hot, but it sure was temperature-hot, enough to make me sweat and blow my nose.  The noodles had an ideal springy chew, and the nori sheets softened as soon as I dunked them into the steaming broth.  It was one of the better versions of tonkotsu ramen I have enjoyed in Orlando, but different enough from mainstays like Oviedo’s underrated Ramen Takagi and Baldwin Park’s trendy Domu that you still must dare to compare.

I could have kept going, and in fact, I thought long and hard about topping off this luscious lunch with two salmon poke mini-tacos on crunchy rice “tortilla” wrappers.  But when I found out I was being comped, I felt guilty taking advantage of the JINYA owners’ generosity and opted against ordering anything else.  I will absolutely return — with my wife and with friends — as soon as I can.  It is a straight shot east from our home, and if this was just a preview while the staff was training, I can’t imagine how much it will improve as everyone gets more experience, because it already felt like a well-oiled machine that had been operating for a while.

Thank you to Taff Liao for inviting me, and I’m sorry I did not get to meet you.  I did get to chat briefly with Eric, another one of the owners, who was very friendly.  Trust me, folks — you are in for a treat.  Having not been to the Thornton Park JINYA Ramen Bar before, the new Oviedo location did not disappoint in any way.  In fact, it is almost too cool for Oviedo and East Orlando, but here’s hoping everyone discovers it and enjoys it as much as I did.

Smoke & Dough (Miami)

I try to visit Miami at least once a year.  I always enjoy it a lot more as a visitor than I did growing up down there.  On my last trip down in late July, my BFF (best foodie friend) and I went out to two different restaurants, which were both great.  But I could not wait any longer to rave about Smoke & Dough (https://smokeanddough.com/), which just this week made the New York Times’ 2023 Restaurant List, “the 50 places in the United States that [its reporters, editors, and critics are] most excited about right now.”  It was one of only three Florida restaurants to make the prestigious list, so it is in rarified company.

Smoke & Dough (not to be confused with Smoke & Donuts BBQ, a newer Orlando restaurant) is located in West Kendall — hardly the “cool, fun, sexy” Miami you are envisioning, but a pretty typical suburban area.  However, it is totally worth the drive from wherever you may be staying (or partying) in South Florida.  It is a barbecue restaurant first and foremost, but like so many things in Miami, it blends Latin and Caribbean flavors together to set it apart.  Owners Harry and Michelle Coleman opened its doors in January 2022, next door to their previous venture, the acclaimed Empanada Harry’s Bakery and Cafe, serving savory empanadas from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru, as well as gourmet signature empanadas, vegan versions, and sweet ones too.  Unfortunately, Empanada Harry’s was closed when we went to Smoke & Dough for dinner, or we would have tried it as well.

But Smoke & Dough was a marvel, a singular restaurant that amazed and astonished in every way, and not just because I had just driven down from Orlando and was starving.  We started out with ultimate loaded nachos, topped with smoked pulled pork, avocado-cilantro sauce, pickled red onions, pickled jalapenos, tomatoes, cilantro, salty cotija cheese, and nata, a Brazilian dairy product that is similar to sour cream, but is a little sweeter on top of being creamy and rich.  The tortilla chips were freshly fried, and all the ingredients sang in hot harmony, backed up by spicy Latin rhythm.  These were easily some of the best nachos I’ve ever eaten in my life.

Next up we shared some cafecito-rubbed brisket.  We got three huge, thick slices of USDA Prime Angus brisket, smoked for 15 hours and rubbed with spices blended with Cuban espresso (maybe Cafe Pilon or Cafe Bustelo, the Marvel and DC of Cuban coffee).  It was so tender and juicy, with great fat marbling — not too lean or too fatty — and practically melted in my mouth.  The Cuban coffee flavor really came through and blended with the rich, smoky meat.  If you ever have a chance to try this, or anything like this, like a coffee-rubbed steak, I definitely recommend it.  The brisket came with piquant, vinegary chimichurri sauce that it didn’t even need, but it was delicious anyway, as well as more of those pickled red onions and house-made dill pickle slices that were also top-notch.

I ordered a side of platanitos to share, sweet plantains (one of my favorite foods in the world) topped with more cotija cheese and a drizzle of nata.  These were even better than they look.

Smoke & Dough only serves its smoked burgers as specials on Friday, and we were lucky enough to go there on a Friday.  These are half-pound patties made out of smoked brisket, ground in-house and served on beef tallow-toasted potato buns, accompanied by a choice of fries or cole slaw.  We could not refuse!  The only question was which burgers should we get?

Well, there were so many things on the menu we wanted to sample, including pork belly and pastrami.  Luckily for us, one of the burger specials was an al pastor burger, topped with smoked pork belly, smoked pineapple, smoked gouda cheese, pickled red onion, and chipotle mayo.  Those are all things I love on their own, so how could they go wrong combined on top of a smoked burger? 

We cut it in half to share, and it was a truly inspired burger.  The al pastor pork belly was so rich and luxurious, and the sweet, crunchy pickled onions, sweet and smoky pineapple, and tangy chipotle mayo added so much depth of flavor.  Here’s a cross-section:

And here are the fries, which were fine, but better when dipped in the house ancho chile-guava barbecue sauce (which we had to ask for, but you can also buy it by the bottle).

I was thrilled to see a Reuben burger was another option, this one topped with pastrami made from smoked, house-cured brisket, Swiss cheese, thousand island sauce, and sauerkraut.  I asked for slaw with mine, to get two kinds of cabbage on one plate (practically a salad at this point!), and to try as many things as possible.  

This was another winner — a beautiful burger with all those great Reuben ingredients.  Even though corned beef is much more common on a Reuben, I will take pastrami over corned beef pretty much any chance I get when it is an option, and this was top-notch pastrami.  It was sliced thin and had plenty of peppery bark and marbled fat.  The sourness of the sauerkraut helped break up all the salty richness, and the slaw had a nice vinegary crunch to it.

I wasn’t going to bother with dessert after a meal like that, but my buddy ordered smoked flan (something that would never even occur to me to make, much less order), and it was killer.  I usually don’t even care for flan, but this was the best flan I’ve ever eaten, and it did have a light smoky flavor.  I ended up a big flan! 

If Smoke & Dough was in some trendy part of Miami, like Wynwood or (God help us all) South Beach, it would probably have lines out the door all the time.  Instead, on a Friday night in the humble ‘burbs of West Kendall, we only waited 15 minutes for a table.  But the legend is growing, even beyond Miami, thanks to making the New York Times’ 2023 Restaurant List, and here’s your friendly neighborhood Saboscrivner, boosting that signal even further (although let’s face it, probably not that much further).

This was one of the best meals I’ve eaten in 2023, and one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten in Miami.  That’s high praise either way.  Next time you’re hitting the beach or da clubs, take a detour to 4013 SW 152nd Ave (right off Bird Road), a part of Miami you never would have ventured into otherwise.  Consider making a reservation first!  By the time you finally make it down to Smoke & Dough, you might need it.

Z Asian Vietnamese Kitchen

Z Asian Vietnamese Kitchen (https://eatzasian.com/) is one of the nicer, more upscale Vietnamese restaurants in Orlando’s Mills 50 district full of Vietnamese and other Asian restaurants, markets, and shops.  That said, as someone who does not love high-end, fancy, luxurious dining, it is still very accessible and welcoming for all.  It is also unique because it received prestigious Michelin Bib Gourmand awards in 2022 and 2023.  To clarify, that does not mean it has a Michelin star, like some of the highest-end eateries, but rather it was recognized for its “good quality, good value cooking.”  Chef and co-owner Huong Nguyen focuses on street foods from Saigon, but her menu offers several dishes that Orlando’s other Vietnamese restaurants do not serve.

I first went to Z Asian with a former co-worker in late July.  She and I both left our workplace for new opportunities this year, so it was a chance to catch up and chat.  She is vegetarian, and Z Asian has so many vegetarian and vegan options on its menu, I thought it would be a perfect choice for dinner.

We started out with an order of two vegan summer rolls (goi cuon chay), with tofu, vermicelli noodles, and shredded lettuce rolled up in transparent, sticky, chewy rice paper and served at room temperature with a side order of peanut sauce.  My wife loves summer rolls with peanut sauce from other Vietnamese restaurants like Little Saigon and Pho 88, but they are usually not my favorites.  I’m not a big tofu guy either, but I’ll try anything once, and this was an excellent summer roll!  The tofu had the consistency of a firm omelet with a slightly crispy exterior, balancing against all the chewy ingredients. 

I also chose an order of pan-fried rice flour (bot chien), something I always see on Vietnamese menus but had never tried before.  It always looks good, and I thought my vegetarian friend would like it too.  It came served on a blanket of lovely fried eggs, although there is a vegan option too, without the eggs.  It was served with a side of crunchy, sweet pickled carrot and daikon radish, with a sweet chili soy dipping sauce.   This was AWESOME.  We both loved it.  This was another dish with a crispy exterior and soft, yielding interior, kind of like fries or tater tots — not in taste, but in “mouth feel.”  They were terrific with the sauce, and I liked the pickled vegetables (necessary ingredients on any banh mi sandwich) a lot.

My friend ordered stir-fried garlic noodles with tofu.  I didn’t try this, but she seemed to like it a lot.  In addition to the fried tofu (similar to the pieces in the summer rolls), it came with bok choy, carrot, and plenty of crunchy bean sprouts.

I ordered special rice noodle soup (hu tieu thap cam), with thinner rice noodles than you usually find in bowls of beefy pho.  Instead of being a beef-based soup like pho, this soup included pork, shrimp, squid, fish cakes, and krab sticks, in addition to aromatic herbs.  It was a nice, light soup and a pleasant change from the pho I’ve ordered so many times elsewhere.   Somehow, I managed not to splash my clothes, which was a minor miracle.My research tells me hu tieu is a Chinese-Cambodian invention that was adapted to Vietnamese tastes in the city of Saigon, and that I could have also ordered a “dry” version with a small bowl of soup on the side to protect my work clothes in the future.

Before leaving, I ordered the pan-fried rice cakes (minus the eggs) to bring home for my wife to try.  She was dazzled with them too, and they did not lose their subtle crispiness on the drive home. 

And I also brought home a dish I had really wanted to try, after seeing so many people post photos of it.  My vegetarian friend would not have been into this at all, but I knew my wife would share my appreciation of Z Asian’s grilled jumbo squid (muc nuong sate).  You can get squid at lots of restaurants (Italian, Greek, Chinese, steakhouses, and so forth) in the form of breaded, fried calamari, but I had never seen such squid served in such a beautiful presentation as this.  If your fellow diners aren’t averse to eating cephalopods (so that counts out my in-laws), this will be a real attention-grabber at your table, and I strongly recommend it.   
The menu says the grilled jumbo squid is marinated in “house sauce,” and it is served with house-made jalapeno green sauce, but it did not need to be dipped in anything.  Squid can sometimes get chewy and rubbery, but this was so tender and flavorful, with slight spicy and sweet flavors balancing out the taste of the ocean (but not a fishy taste).

It wasn’t long before I returned to Z Asian with my wife, who ordered a Thai milk tea (tra Thai) that was rich and cool and creamy and sweet, with a slightly smoky flavor. 

For some reason, I could not decide what to order.  Normally I am not intimidated by a large menu, but for this second visit, I just couldn’t choose.  I eventually picked something pretty random, the seafood stir-fried noodles in garlic sauce, which came with tail-on shrimp, squid, fish cakes, and the usual bok choy, carrots, and bean sprouts.  I chose egg noodles instead of rice noodles, but I had completely forgotten that this was essentially what my friend ordered on our first visit, minus the seafood. To be completely honest, this was okay.  I feel like I did not make the best choice.  I might have been happier with pho or bun bo hue, but I kept thinking about how hot it was for soup (on a scorching August afternoon in Florida), and how it would be hard to beat Pho Huong Lan, maker of the best pho and bun bo hue I’ve ever had anywhere.  Plus, with Z Asian’s huge menu, I wanted to challenge myself and step out of my comfort zone, trying something new instead of something familiar I’ve had dozens, if not hundreds, of times over the years.  But there wasn’t anything wrong with the dish; I blame myself for being uncharacteristically wishy-washy and not choosing wisely.  I was kind of hoping the garlic sauce on the noodles would be more like the awe-inspiring buttery garlic noodles at Kai Asian Street Fare, but not knowing any better, I just set myself up for disappointment.

As always, my wife was smarter than I, choosing a favorite from other Vietnamese restaurant menus: slices of tender grilled beef, tail-on shrimp, and a crispy fried spring roll cut in half, served over rice vermicelli noodles, with shredded lettuce, julienned cucumber and carrot, diced scallions, and crushed peanuts.  This was not a noodle soup, but a very refreshing, summery dish with warm and cool ingredients.  Sometimes you can’t go wrong with a classic!   

So that’s Z Asian Vietnamese Kitchen.  I would absolutely return and try something different next time — maybe something with clams or snails, or maybe even sample the bun bo hue or the pho.  But I really don’t think you can go wrong, and if you are a vegetarian or vegan, you have a lot more options here than most other restaurants in and around Orlando.  And if you don’t want to take my word for it, a certain tire company also really recommends the place.

Sanaa

This is a review of a wonderful meal I ate back in May, with five wonderful former co-workers.  (I started a new job six weeks ago, so I’m still getting used to referring to the job I held for 15 years as my old job, and my co-workers as former co-workers.)  After attending the lovely graduation ceremony for our students every May, we had a nice unofficial tradition of going out to lunch somewhere afterwards, usually a fun place somewhere on Disney property, where we would never have the time to go on a normal workday.

Last year we had an awe-inspiring lunch at Jose Andres’ huge Jaleo restaurant at Disney Springs, and this year we went to Sanaa (https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/animal-kingdom-villas-kidani/sanaa/) at Kidani Village, part of the beautiful Animal Kingdom Lodge resort hotel.  You do not need to purchase admission to the Animal Kingdom theme park to eat here, or I probably would have skipped out on this one.  Sanaa serves African food with Indian influences,

Like everything at Walt Disney World, the theming of the restaurant is beautiful.  It is a popular place, and my Disney-experienced colleague booked a reservation for our party weeks in advance, which was a wise move.   You can actually see zebras, giraffes, and other wild animals out those windows… just not in my photo.  (Sorry.)

If you ask me, the highlight of dining at Sanaa is the Indian-style bread service.  This is a dream for vegetarians and people who are at peace with consuming carbs.  It costs $21, and you get five different breads and a whopping nine different accompaniments.  The six of us shared everything and were very polite about it, but in the future, I would totally order this just for myself, possibly even as my main meal.  If you come to Sanaa and don’t order the bread service, you are missing out on something spectacular.

The five breads are supposed to be traditional naan, garlic-ginger naan, spiced naan, onion kulcha, and paneer paratha.  I only see four in the photo below, and I could not possibly begin to guess which one was which, but trust me when I tell you that they were all fluffy, soft, buttery heaven.  If you haven’t had naan or roti or paratha or kulcha before, I encourage you to find the closest Indian restaurant on your way home from wherever you are and pick some up to go, even if you don’t order anything else!   Imagine the softest, fluffiest pita bread, and you’re still not even close to how good these clay oven-baked flatbreads can be.

Of course I got a lousy photo of the beautiful dips, sauces, and chutneys, trying to capture them before my colleagues dove in, but they were a real treat for a fan of condiments, sauces, and dips like me.  I wasn’t always sure what I was dipping into what or spooning onto what, but there wasn’t a bummer in the bunch.  They included cucumber raita (cool and creamy yogurt in the top right), roasted red pepper hummus (top left), mango chutney (second from top right; similar to a chunky mango salsa), tomato-date jam (I loved this one, whichever it was), tamarind chutney, coriander chutney, garlic pickle, red chile sambal, and spicy jalapeño-lime pickle. This was such a crowd-pleaser, and it was definitely the highlight of the meal for me.  Like I said, whenever I get around to returning, I’m gonna get this just for myself, and then suggest anyone else I am with share one.

One co-worker ordered samosas, which were plated beautifully.  These were potato and pea samosas in what looked like perfect pastry shells, served over mango and tamarind chutney.  I didn’t ask to try hers because that is all she ordered for herself, but have you ever had a bad samosa?  I don’t think that is possible, kind of like the nonexistence of bad empanadas.

I ordered the potjie (referring to food slow-cooked in small cast-iron pots), which I was drawn to because the menu presents several options to choose from.  You may choose one from the “journey” (meat-based dishes): Goan seafood curry, butter chicken, braised beef, or pork vindaloo, and then one from the “harvest” (plant-based dishes): rajma masala, chickpea wat, sukuma wiki, or lentil daal.  Our server was very patient, answering our questions and making suggestions.

I can try butter chicken at any number of wonderful local Indian restaurants, since that is my wife’s favorite Indian dish, and even though I love a good vindaloo, I knew our group was headed to Epcot next, so I did not want to ruin a rare, fun afternoon out by sabotaging my stomach with something really spicy.  I thought the most interesting and offbeat choice was the Goan seafood curry, so that’s what I got.      

It came with shrimp, fish, and scallops in a rich curry that was mildly spicy, probably much more mild than the vindaloo.  Luckily, it came with plenty of fragrant basmati rice, and I mixed them together liberally.

My plant-based choice was sukuma wiki, an East African dish of collard greens stewed with tomatoes and spices.  I love good collards, and even though these were purely vegetarian (rather than being cooked with any smoked pork, smoked turkey, or ham), they were so full of flavor.  No regrets here!  Even though this dish is from Kenya and Tanzania, it made me realize it has been more than a decade since I’ve had Ethiopian food (another cuisine that handles collard greens very well).  It is also really damn good, and I need to get some again soon.

My one male colleague at the lunch also ordered the potjie, but with completely different options.

He opted for the braised beef, which looked and smelled really fine:

And he also chose rajma masala, a curry dish of kidney beans cooked with onions, tomatoes, herbs, and spices.  It looked and smelled great as well, but he was not joining us for Epcot, so the rest of us dodged a big bullet that afternoon.
At this point, I was already pleasantly full, but people in my party insisted on ordering three separate desserts to share.  Let it never be said that librarians don’t know how to party!

This was serradura, which was butterscotch pudding, almond coffee  streusel, fresh pineapple and mango, and Breton shortbread (which I didn’t try because it looked like a biscotti, God’s joke on people who like cookies).  The little spoonful I had was very nice.  It was cool, creamy, not too sweet or rich.  

This was kheer, a plant-based dessert of coconut-rice pudding with cashew streusel and saffron-poached fruit.  I tried a tiny taste because sometimes coconut and nuts betray me, but I liked it more than I expected to.  I would never have even considered ordering this dessert, but it was delicious.  

And this was a dessert special that was like a fancy version of a chocolate candy bar with nuts.  I left that for the other five people to devour, because I was very content at this point. 

As my friends and regular readers (the stalwart Saboscrivnerinos) know, I am not what you would consider a “Disney adult.”  I have nothing against Disney, but my wife and I just aren’t theme park people.  That said, I had a blast at Epcot after lunch with my former co-workers, awesome people I am proud to call friends, as well as professional colleagues.  (Frolleagues?)  I especially want to thank one frolleague who also left that same institution over the summer, one of the dozens of stalwart Saboscrivnerinos, a wonderful woman who used a guest pass to get me into Epcot.  Next time I see you, I’m treating you to something — and you know who you are!

My wife and I end up at Disney Springs every so often, usually visiting people who are staying at or near the parks, since you don’t have to pay admission to go there.  There are good restaurants at Disney Springs, but it was a blast to go somewhere new on the sprawling resort property, somewhere I had never been before, and to enjoy new dishes and flavors I had never even tried before.  I would strongly recommend Sanaa to any adventurous tourists and locals alike.

While I have favorite Indian restaurants in Orlando (Bombay Street Kitchen chief among them), not a lot of places serve African-Indian fusion dishes, aside from occasional specials at the casual Oh My Gyro in Longwood.  There is nothing quite like Sanaa, and especially nothing like that breathtaking bread service.  You don’t have to pay park admission to eat here or even pay for parking, so consider adding it to your list of Disney dining destinations.

Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant (Los Angeles)

Any of my friends, family, and long-time readers know I am a huge fan of delicatessens, whether they are Jewish or Italian.  I am thrilled to say that I recently got to visit the city of Los Angeles for the first time, and on a short, three-day work trip, I still managed to fit in meals at two separate Jewish delis.  I’ll write about the first one I visited a little later, since it was part of a magnificent food hall, but this review is about the second L.A. deli I went to, which happens to be second to none.

Founded in 1947, Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant (https://www.langersdeli.com/) is a timeless classic, probably the L.A. equivalent of the legendary Katz’s Delicatessen in New York’s Lower East Side.  I have been to Katz’s a few times and reviewed it after my latest trip there, in 2019.  The atmosphere at Katz’s is chaotic, like so much else in New York City, but the pastrami is so good, it is worth the high prices and less-than-relaxing meal.  However, my admonition to anyone going to Katz’s is to request their pastrami sandwich on a club roll, since the rye bread sucks.  It is essentially an edible napkin, although it doesn’t work much better as a napkin than it does as bread.

I have no such grave advice to offer about Langer’s Deli on the left coast, aside from just making sure you go to Langer’s.  I would rank the pastrami on par with Katz’s — equal, if not better, but that makes it god-tier pastrami that is better than just about anyone else’s from anywhere.  We all got a kick out of the description of the pastrami from Langer’s menu, especially the last part: “Hot pastrami is a select cut of beef, sugar-cured and seasoned as corned beef, then slowly smoked for tenderness and tantalizing taste and flavor, then covered with choice and costly spices.”

I am also thrilled to report that the rye bread at Langer’s is terrific, and it is also a lot more of a chill vibe there, without the bedlam of the Katz’s experience.  I went with two of my new co-workers who are both based in L.A., but none of us had been there before.   Located on the corner of 7th and Alvarado that has seen better days (man, that sounded like a bit of inter-song banter on a ’70s Tom Waits record), Langer’s is near another Los Angeles landmark, MacArthur Park, a once-beautiful park where someone once left a cake out in the rain, but it is kind of sketchy and foreboding today.

Anyway, we all had a very pleasant lunch, and being smart people (librarians all), we stuck to the house specialty, that perfect pastrami.  My new supervisor ordered the French dipped pastrami sandwich, which came on a roll with au jus on the side.  Apparently, L.A. is the place to be if you’re a French dip fan, with the famous Philippe the Original as another destination for sandwich aficionados that I hope to visit in the future.
He seemed to love his sandwich, even if he expressed a bit of cognitive dissonance over our other colleague’s choice.

She ordered the iconic #19, Langer’s most popular sandwich, with pastrami, Swiss cheese, creamy cole slaw, and Russian dressing on rye bread, which was a very smart choice.  I could not get over how soft the rye bread was, yet it had a crispy, crackly crust that you never get with supermarket rye.  

As for me, I could not decide between two sandwiches on Langer’s menu, so in true Saboscrivner style, I ordered both of them, to eat a half of each at the restaurant and enjoy the other halves later.  This was my #6, with hot pastrami, chopped liver, and Russian dressing on that same perfect rye bread.  You can see that the pastrami is hand-carved into thick slices, and it was so juicy and moist and tender and rich and fatty, I cannot rave enough about it.  The chopped liver was savory and creamy and perfect, and a squirt of mustard brought some acidic brightness to this sensational sandwich.  

My other choice was the #44, with hot pastrami (of course), sauerkraut, and Nippy cheese, served on grilled rye.  It was essentially a pastrami Reuben, except the Swiss was replaced with Nippy cheese.  What the heck is Nippy cheese?  I loved the sandwich, and yet I’m still not entirely sure.  I was too distracted to ask our patient server, but my research shows that Kraft used to sell a processed cheese spread called Nippy cheese (before my time), but the stuff at Langer’s is more like a tangy American cheese that had melted into the grilled rye.  It was such a rich and salty sandwich, almost any cheese would have gotten a bit lost in the shuffle, but I like American cheese more than most, and I have zero regrets about my choice.  It was the best Reuben I’ve ever had, especially because I prefer pastrami to the standard Reuben filling of corned beef, and because almost any cheese has more character than Swiss (fit for Reubens, Cubans, and that’s about it).  The pickles were pretty classic deli-style kosher dills, by the way.

Even though I order macaroni salad almost anywhere that offers it to compare and contrast, I can say that the macaroni salad at Langer’s was nothing special, and I think my co-workers agreed.  The mayonnaise-based dressing was a bit thin and runny, and I think there was yellow mustard in there too.  I had been curious about it, and I’m not sorry I ordered it, but I would not get it again.  If I ever make it back to Langer’s, I think I will try their chili next time, perhaps in the form of chili cheese fries.

As a mustard aficionado (see my past Cutting the Mustard features for more mustard reviews than you ever dreamt of), I was a little surprised to see Langer’s uses good ol’ Gulden’s Spicy Brown, but that’s the mustard my dad always bought, and it’s a classic for good reason.  
My colleagues were good and drank water, but I had heard Langer’s has its own cream soda available as a fountain drink, so I couldn’t resist.  It was much better than that deli staple Dr. Brown’s — sweeter, more vanilla-ey, and more refreshing.  It was a hot August day in L.A., and I definitely took advantage of the free refills.

I had such an amazing time on this trip to L.A., especially getting to meet my co-workers in real life and visit the beautiful school I work for remotely.  Aside from the professional stuff, this magnificent meal at Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant was a highlight of this too-short visit (the first of hopefully many).  Not only did the pastrami live up to its legendary status, but I had wanted to eat here for many years — ever since I read journalist David Sax’s 2009 book Save the Deli.  I had planned to go there alone as my first act in Los Angeles, on the way from the airport to work, before even checking into my hotel.  However, sharing that experience on my second day in the city with two new co-workers, getting to know them better over sandwiches, and considering them friends from here on out, made my Langer’s lunch that much more profound and unforgettable.  (And unlike Katz’s, it was a relaxing lunch on top of everything else good about it!)