Pasta – The Saboscrivner

Pizzeria Del Dio

In my review of Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza from earlier this year, I mentioned it is one of my top three favorite pizzerias in Orlando, alongside Pizza Bruno and a third I’m finally getting around to writing about: Pizzeria Del Dio (http://pizzeriadel-dio.com/). Located at 3210 East Colonial Drive in Orlando (near the Maguire intersection, across from the Fashion Square Mall), Del Dio is not visible from busy Colonial. It is still a bit of a secret after ten years in business, but it shouldn’t be.

While Anthony’s Coal Fired bakes really terrific coal oven pizza and Pizza Bruno specializes in Neopolitan-style, Del Dio quietly serves up Orlando’s best New York-style AND Sicilian-style pizzas. However, I argue that both kinds of pizzas are best enjoyed hot, crispy, and melty right out of the oven, at the restaurant. They’re perfectly fine if you get them to go (as I have done countless times), but any pizza loses something on the drive back home or to the office. Trust me on this. In this age of delivery and instant gratification, not enough people appreciate going out for pizza anymore.

So this is my regular order when I go to Del Dio, conveniently ten minutes from work: a slice of regular and a slice of Sicilian. The regular NY-style pizza is thin and crispy, meant to be folded. They have a wide range of toppings, and I tend to like meatballs on my pizza (sometimes sliced, sometimes crumbled), but it’s great just plain, with a dusting of parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes.

Sicilian pizza, for the uninitiated, is thick, cooked in a rectangular pan and cut into square or rectangular slices. It’s not a “casserole” like Chicago’s deep dish so-called pizza. Sicilian very clearly meets the definition of pizza, just different from what most people are used to. Some are a little softer, others are crispier. I like mine somewhere in between, and the edges of Del Dio’s Sicilian slices are always nice and crispy with the slightest char, especially when I dine in and they take it right out of the oven for me. But once you get to the middle of the slice, it’s pillowy-soft. The cheese is always fresh and melty, and it contains more sauce than your typical NY-style slice. It’s a thick, hearty sauce that seems chunkier than the sauce on their regular pizza. (I think sauce is the most underappreciated ingredient on a good pizza, almost an afterthought too often.) But mama mia, they’re so good!

I’ve always heard Del Dio has really good wings, and I am hard to please when it comes to wings. A lot of the time you get maximum mess, minimal meat. Crunchy, greasy, dry sports bar-style Buffalo wings are my least-favorites. But I gave Del Dio’s wings a chance recently and was pleasantly surprised. These were mild, and they had plenty of meat and a nice, crackly crispiness to them. They were so hot (temperature-hot, not spicy-hot), I burned my fingertips and my mouth a little.

They also make excellent meatballs, which you can get as a side order like this, in a sub, or even as a pizza topping. Like I said, I’ve had them show up both sliced and crumbled on my pizza in the past, but here they are whole — a lot more photogenic this way.

They also serve surprisingly fantastic onion rings, with the golden-brown battered coating that I love. They are totally “my type” of onion rings. Unfortunately, I didn’t photograph or order them for this review, so it isn’t an official Ring the Alarm! feature.

We often order Del Dio at work, either for pizza parties for our staff or to reward the students in the evening classes I occasionally teach. We are inside their regular delivery range, but for our latest staff luncheon, I picked them up:

Plain cheese:

Pepperoni:I have thoughts and feelings about pepperoni on pizza. If you’re gonna get it, get it from a place like Del Dio that is generous with the pepperoni, laying out lots of flat slices like on the above pie. I don’t love it when pepperoni slices curl up into crunchy little grease traps. Honestly, I like pepperoni best served cold, salami-style, sliced thin in an Italian hoagie alongside its cured meat brothers and sisters, adding a bit of pleasant spiciness. But if you’re gonna put pepperoni on pizza, this is definitely the way to do it.

But this was the crowd-pleasing favorite: thin-sliced, breaded eggplant cutlet and roasted red peppers! People grabbed slices before I could even take this photo. It was fabulous, and almost everyone agreed we’d order this again in the future. I was thinking the only thing that could possibly improve it (aside from eating it at the restaurant for maximum crispness) was to add some ricotta.

And the obligatory salad that some people shared (actually quite good):

So yeah, that’s Del Dio. I crave that Sicilian pizza far too often, and don’t indulge often enough. But just FYI, if you are ordering pizzas for a large group, they will “double-cut” the pizzas to turn a classic NY-style from 8 large slices into 16 thinner ones, or to subdivide the Sicilian from 8 large, rectangular slices into 16 smaller squares. Your family, friends, co-workers, and students will thank you. And if you really want to enjoy Pizzeria Del Dio as it should be enjoyed, venture forth to the actual pizzeria and eat your pizza right there, at the scene. The difference is night and day!

Mediterranean Deli

My wife doesn’t share my fascination with certain foods. Sandwiches, cured meats, cheeses, anything in tomato sauce, flavored chips, dips, sauces, condiments, spicy stuff — I love all that, and she leaves them to me. That said, she is way more into chicken wings, chocolate, and other sweets than I am, generally. But one thing we can always agree upon is a good gyro. We love gyros, and we’re always on the lookout for good ones, since it’s almost impossible to duplicate that salty, garlicky gyro meat at home, whether it’s beef, lamb, or a processed blend of both. I buy ground lamb and make it into a gyro-flavored meatloaf of sorts, but it still isn’t the same as that salty, garlicky meat sliced off a spit.

(FYI, the father of processed gyro meat was a Jewish guy named John Garlic. I love that so much.)

Well, after hearing about its wondrous gyros on the Orlando Foodie Forum for years, we finally sought out the Mediterranean Deli, west of I-4 at 981 West Fairbanks Avenue, Orlando, FL 32804, but this one was not easy to find. I drove by it twice since it’s a small location in a tiny plaza that was half under construction, and there was no sign easily visible from the road. I always panic a bit when I can’t find what I’m looking for, but we eventually figured it out. I am so glad we didn’t get frustrated and give up on this mission, because it is my new favorite gyro spot in town.

For the purposes of this review, I went twice, a few weeks apart, and ate pretty much the same stuff, because all of my photos came out horribly the first time. (I only had my terrible phone camera on me, and not my halfway-decent camera.) To help get people enthusiastic about trying Mediterranean Deli instead of inadvertently turning them off to it, all of these photos are from my second visit, when I brought everything home to share with my wife.

This was my huge gyro, sliced off a spit and served on soft, warm, lightly grilled pita bread with shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes and red onion, and cool, creamy, garlicky tzatziki sauce. It is stuffed beyond belief, and a smart person might keep it wrapped in its paper and foil wrap, unpeeling just enough for a few bites at a time to avoid it falling to pieces. But to get a proper photo just for you, dear readers, I opened it up. No regrets.

My wife’s equally enormous gyro, hold the tomatoes and onions. She got three meals out of it!

The gyro meals come with a side salad for something like $8, including a free canned drink. My wife said she didn’t want any sides, so I picked two for myself: a vinaigrette-based pasta salad (left) and an absolutely delicious mayo-based seafood pasta salad, with imitation crabmeat and medium-sized, perfectly al dente shell pasta. I always love any kinds of pasta or macaroni salad, but the seafood version will become my new go-to side. They also offer fresh Greek and Mediterranean-style salads, hummus, and tabouleh as options, but I make green salads all the time at home, buy hummus often, and don’t like parsley enough to get into tabouleh.

This is a nice rectangular slice of spinach pie, AKA boreeka, with sheets of flaky dough layered with sauteed, tender, perfectly-seasoned spinach and feta cheese, then baked to a golden brown. It is soft, warm, crispy, flaky perfection. I could easily and happily eat the entire large pan my slice was cut out of.

I love stuffed grape leaves, often called dolmas or dolmades. Sometimes they are stuffed with ground meat and rice and served warm, but I honestly prefer the vegetarian versions that are just stuffed with seasoned rice and served cold, marinated in oil and occasionally vinegar. These are the latter, and I could eat dozens of them, too. The side order comes with a generous helping of extra tzatziki sauce, which is very thick and perfect for dipping them.

Mediterranean Deli is a tiny little restaurant in a tiny little strip that looks like it has seen better days. The restaurant isn’t fancy at all, but it is awesome, and locals know it. I never even drove west of I-4 on Fairbanks before until I heard this place existed, but I’m so glad I went a little out of my way to discover it for myself. I will argue they serve the absolute best gyro in Orlando, and everything else I ate was awesome as well. It’s a real bargain too, for the amount and quality of food you get. With any luck, you will meet the owner, warm and welcoming Walid Ali, who greets everyone as “My friend.”

By the way, Mediterranean Deli doesn’t have a website, but the phone number is listed online as 407-539-2650. There are also photos of the menu on that inexplicably popular review site that rhymes with “help” and occasionally provides some.

Sette (pre-opening media event)

Well, folks, your friend and humble narrator The Saboscrivner has finally done it! Tonight I attended my first-ever media event to review a new restaurant: Sette (https://www.setteitalian.com/), the Italian restaurant owned and operated by Orlando’s beloved Chef Trina Gregory-Propst of Se7en Bites and her wife Va Propst. Located at 1407 N Orange Ave, Orlando, Florida 32804, Sette is across the street from scenic Lake Ivanhoe, in a spot where several restaurants have come and gone. This one is going to be different because of the people behind it, their vision, their hospitality, and their sheer culinary talent.

Chef Trina flexing her mussels in her spacious open kitchen:

This was an auspicious beginning for what I suspect will become one of Orlando’s hottest restaurants. Sette opens this Friday, March 22nd, and I suggest you get in as soon as you can. It will be open for dinner Tuesday through Thursday, 5:30 to 10:00 PM, Friday and Saturday, 5:30 to 11:00 PM, and Sundays 1:00 to 8:00 PM. You can call 407.704.7771 for information and reservations in the meantime.

The restaurant seats 150, and they have regular tables as well as high-tops, both inside and outside, and seating at the inside bar as well. I am pleased to report they have a parking lot (a rarity along that stretch of Orange Avenue near downtown Orlando), but I suspect it will fill up quickly.

Dig the homey, retro decor that screams “Italian restaurant!” without going into cliche territory. You won’t find any red and white checkered tablecloths, candles melted into Chianti bottles, or artwork of stereotypical Italian chefs with Super Mario mustaches.

The spacious and inviting outdoor patio:

Even the musical selections fit the vibe perfectly: mid-century standards by the Italian-American triumvirate of Frank, Tony, and Dean, two of the three major Louies (Armstrong and Prima, but no Jordan), some jazz, nothing grating or out of place.

A welcoming bar well-stocked with wine, staffed by friendly bartenders serving up incredibly creative cocktails:

Plenty of reds and whites I didn’t drink, but I was assured they have a great selection:

Most of the evening I nursed this blood orange Italian soda, which was crisp and clean and refreshing, and not cloyingly sweet like most store-bought sodas. The bartender made this using one of several Italian syrups. It looked like lavender, rose, and pistachio were among the other options, and I know they employ these in making cocktails as well.

I don’t always get excited about salads, but this Caesar salad, with garlicky dressing and garlic parmesan croutons, and shaved parmesan cheese over romaine, was one of the best Caesar salads I’ve ever had, and well worth getting pumped over.

I didn’t get to actually sample this beautiful Cucina salad, with romaine, cucumber, tomatoes, goat cheese, pine nuts, champagne dijon vinaigrette, and more of the garlic parmesan croutons, and I regret that.

Trina and Va make their pastas from scratch. I learned that all their extruded (shaped) pastas are vegan (think spaghetti, linguini, bucatini, etc.), but the flat pasta sheets, like their lasagna noodles, are not vegan due to containing eggs. I can say that the pasta dishes I sampled tonight are easily some of the finest pastas I’ve ever had the pleasure of trying, and I LOVE pasta, and I’ve been to Babbo in New York (long before we knew what Mario Batali was really like).

Their lasagna was one of my favorite dishes, made with one long pasta sheet, painstakingly folded and assembled with layers of beef bolognese sauce, ricotta cheese, and pecorino romano, on a bed of creamy bechamel sauce. Look at it! Bellissima!

This was my favorite of all the pasta dishes, though. These were so perfect, so chewy and thick. I loved every bite, every morsel. The sauce was so fresh and tangy. It was an unfamiliar noodle to me called paccheri (kind of like a thicker rigatoni), in my favorite Italian sauce of all: amatriciana, the slightest bit spicy and a little bit salty from cured meats like guanciale, or in this case, pancetta. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I love thick, chewy, fresh pasta, and this bucatini carbonara was so good. Tossed in eggs with crispy pancetta (bacon’s superior cousin), grated pecorino romano cheese, and peas, it was heavy and rich and oh so satisfying. I never understand why carbonara isn’t more popular across the U.S. as a breakfast dish, considering it’s pasta served with eggs, bacon (although pancetta is always betta’), and cheese.

More pasta: wonderful pesto linguini next to a stack of crispy fried eggplant, topped with a dollop of ricotta cheese, shaved pecorino romano, and fresh basil. I’m usually not the biggest fan of eggplant, but this was one of two eggplant dishes tonight that totally won me over and made me a fan.

I absolutely loved the clam linguini, served with small neck clams, crispy pancetta, fennel, and a thick, rich lemon white wine sauce.

Continuing with delicious bivalves, the Prince Edward Island mussels were on point, served in a lemon white wine sauce with fresh basil and grilled crusty bread. Hard to eat neatly while standing up, but totally worth it.

This antipasta dish was maybe the greatest surprise of the night: Italian sausage served with fennel and… it ain’t new potatoes, it ain’t olives, and it ain’t what I was expecting, always-disappointing grape tomatoes, ready to explode and burn the hell out of my mouth. Nope, this sausage and fennel is served with blistered GRAPES, and they work so well together, the savory saltiness and the sweetness and tartness of the grapes. I never would have thought of it, but that’s why Trina and Va are the visionary restauranteurs and I’m a librarian who writes about food as a hobby.

Despite all appearances, these are crispy eggplant “meat” balls, completely vegetarian, topped with sauce, dollops of ricotta cheese, and fresh basil, and served over polenta. This was the other eggplant dish I loved:

They served a similar preparation of actual beef meatballs too. I tried and enjoyed a few of them, in fact, but didn’t get a good photo. Trust me, if you like meatballs, you’ll love Sette’s meatballs.

This is another vegetarian dish, sort of a ratatouille, with tomatoes, eggplant, and zucchini served over rich risotto.

And these were arancini, crispy fried balls stuffed with risotto, tangy gorgonzola cheese, and figs, served over a pesto cream sauce, and topped with crispy pancetta (which can easily be left off to accommodate vegetarians) and a balsamic glaze drizzle.

Sette’s desserts were out of this world, as you would expect for the culinary wunderkind behind Se7en Bites. My favorite was their unique take on the classic Italian tiramisu, a semifreddo (semi-frozen), cool, creamy concoction with a thin layer of ladyfingers that reminded me more of the graham cracker crust in a good pie, texture-wise, with espresso and dark chocolate ganache along the bottom.

They also served us amoretti cookies, very soft and chewy almond cookies dusted with powdered sugar and served with the most delicious and delightful little glasses of milk. I thought there was something in the milk to make it sweeter, and it turned out it was “spiked” with white chocolate liqueur! I don’t drink, but once I found out, it was so tasty I at least had to finish my little cup. My wife will LOVE these cookies, since she loves anything almond-flavored.Almond lovers, they also serve a cocktail called “That’s Amore-etti,” with Real McCoy rum, almond syrup, DiSaronno amaretto, and almond milk. I can imagine these cookies pairing very well with it.

Tonight they also served an olive oil cake with rosemary-accented lemon curd and lemon mascarpone buttercream icing, moist and tangy and fresh-tasting. Loved it!

And while I’m not the biggest chocolate guy, this dense, brownie-like chocolate cake was garnished with fresh orange marmalade, candied oranges, and fresh chantilly cream. The chantilly cream was my favorite part, and I would happily eat an entire bowl of that as a dessert!

This was a particularly special night for me because it was the first media event I’ve ever attended at a restaurant. I’ve been reviewing and recommending restaurants and writing about food online for many years, on the Orlando Foodie Forum on Facebook and on the old Chowhound.com website before that. Despite all that, it took me forever to gain the self-confidence to match my passion for food writing — I didn’t start The Saboscrivner until last June, 2018, so as usual, I’m a late bloomer.

While I’ve met several Foodie Forum members at various lunches over the last several months, tonight was the first time I met many of our serious and devoted Orlando food and lifestyle bloggers. Of course everyone seemed to know and be friends with each other already, but I always feel like the odd man out, even when I attend professional conferences with my own colleagues in my field. Just about everyone I met tonight was warm and friendly, though. We were all caught up in sampling these delicious dishes at Sette, and I like to think I bonded with some people and didn’t embarrass myself or cramp anybody’s style.

I’ve been a fan of Chef Trina ever since she made her signature dark chocolate sea salt caramel pies for sale at Pom Pom’s Teahouse and Sandwicheria, years before Se7en Bites even existed, long before Guy Fieri helped make her nationally renowned by featuring her on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and Guy’s Grocery Games. I couldn’t be happier for her or prouder of her, and I was honored to be one of the local luminaries invited to chronicle Sette’s pre-opening event. Every dish I tried was better than the last, I found myself saying more than once tonight. Even though I was thrilled to be one of the lucky people to get this early look and taste, I would be raving about Sette no matter what. In fact, as I write this at 12:30 AM, knowing I have to be awake in three hours to catch a flight to one of those aforementioned professional conferences, I’m already planning to take my wife to Sette as soon as possible upon my return, to enjoy it as any guest surely will.

Trust me — Sette is going to be Orlando’s next big thing. Brava, Trina and Va! Brava.

Chain Reactions: Cooper’s Hawk

My BFF (Best Food Friend) who is actually my lifelong best friend, has been recommending Cooper’s Hawk (https://chwinery.com/) to me for a while. It’s an upscale chain restaurant, and he has raved about the location in Doral, Florida (near Miami) before. I’ve been meaning to get back out to Waterford Lakes with my wife so we could try our local location, but between the heavy traffic and the sprawling, Fury Road-invoking parking lot, we typically avoid the east side of Orlando.

But my wife was hungry, and after going through the usual litany of all our regular restaurants, we decided to try something new and treat ourselves a little. Cooper’s Hawk is a winery on top of being a restaurant, but even though we don’t drink, the menu was huge and intriguing. If you do like wine (and going through my friends’ Facebook pages, it sure seems like most people love wine!), you should definitely check it out. It looks like they offer a huge selection, all from their own label, so you wouldn’t find any familiar wine brands there. But you enter through a wine retail store with a busy bar, and I’m sure oenophiles will find something to love on the way into the restaurant, or even while waiting for a movie at the Waterford Lakes Regal theater.

It was seriously hard to choose. The menu is close to the legendary Cheesecake Factory with regard to choices. There are steaks, seafood, chicken, and pork, Italian, Asian, and Mexican-inspired dishes, burgers and sandwiches, and more. I strongly recommend studying the menu in advance, but I recommend that for most restaurants.

I’ve never been a pork chop fan. Most of the ones I’ve had are relatively bland and dry, especially compared to all the other wondrous things you can do with pork: a world of sausage, salami, ham, prosciutto, capicola, pulled pork, al pastor, ribs, cochinita pibil, roast pork with crispy skin, pork belly, pancetta, bacon, osso bucco, German eisbein, chicharrones.

But my wife loves a good pork chop because her family used to eat them a lot, so I wasn’t surprised she selected one of the two different pork chop dishes on the menu: a maple-mustard-pretzel-crusted pork chop, served with Mary’s potatoes (whipped with butter and cream), an assortment of oven-roasted vegetables (including mushrooms, my old nemesis), and crispy onion strings I knew I would be eating, because she hates onions and I love them.

When it arrived, the plating was beautiful, and the pork chop was the thickest either of us had ever seen! She thought it was the tastiest pork chop she had ever eaten, and even I, the pork chop skeptic, was absolutely blown away by the few bites she shared with me. Pure perfection, dear readers. She doesn’t even like mustard, but aside from a few bites that really startled her and cleared out her sinuses (she probably bit down on whole mustard seeds), she loved the flavor. And it was so tender and juicy, despite not being a fatty piece of meat at all. It was easily the best pork chop I’ve ever tasted, and I would totally order it myself on a future visit, as long as I could substitute the vegetables for another side. (Our lovely server assured us the kitchen can usually substitute anything, since everything is made from scratch in-house.)

As much as my wife is drawn to hearty steaks and chops, my greatest meat loves are usually cured, smoked, braised, or stewed in a sauce until rich and tender. I always love short ribs, even though I rarely cook them at home (although I should). Cooper’s Hawk offered a braised short rib dish, as well as another dish with gnocchi pasta in a short rib bolognese sauce that also included pancetta (yes!) and San Marzano tomatoes, the best tomatoes. When I make my own sauce at home, I use canned San Marzanos. It makes a difference! Anyway, they make everything from scratch here, even the pasta, so I was sold. And even though I was experiencing major cognitive dissonance by choosing that over so many other tasty-sounding dishes I love, I’m so glad I did. To paraphrase the old knight guarding the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I chose wisely.

It was a better pasta dish than most that I’ve ordered from Italian restaurants, rich and hearty and extremely well-seasoned, with nice tomato chunks (sometimes I get turned off by huge, slimy tomato chunks in sauce), fork-tender short rib pieces, a bit of additional salty richness from the pancetta (a secret weapon I use in so many good recipes), and wonderfully chewy gnocchi dumplings. The white stuff on top is creamy burrata dolce, a fresh, buttery cheese made from mozzarella blended with cream.

I saw that a few of the dishes come with buttermilk onion rings, even though they weren’t listed on the menu as a side dish. I asked our server if I could order onion rings as a side, and she said yes, but they are big, so the order would only come with three of them. But since I have a little recurring feature I like to call RING THE ALARM! (AIR HOOORRRRRRN!), I had to try them. And guess what: they were magnificent onion rings. She wasn’t kidding when she said they were big. They were the size of sour cream glazed “old-fashioned” doughnuts! If I’m lyin’, I’m flyin’.

The onion rings (more like onion bracelets!) were battered, not breaded (thank all that’s good in the universe), with a rich, thick, crispy golden crust that stayed in place, with the slightest hint of sweetness and not greasy at all. I’ve never had such puffy, fluffy onion rings, but they were a marvel to behold. They weren’t served with any dipping sauces (shame, because I’m sure Cooper’s Hawk has some good ones), just sprinkled with some kind of salty seasoning that I must admit made they way too salty. I think they’d be damn near perfect if you ask them to hold the salty seasoning. Normally I enjoy salty fried foods, but it was a little much and took away from how great they were, otherwise.

Well, we couldn’t go to such a nice new place and not order a dessert! I was stuffed and didn’t even finish my gnocchi, but my wife loves chocolate and really wanted to try the chocolate cake. It is made with Valrhona chocolate, with layers of hazelnut ganache and served with vanilla ice cream, all made fresh daily in-house. I had one bite of ice cream and one bite of cake, and even though I’d probably never order chocolate cake as my dessert, both were great. The cake was very moist and the ice cream was rich and creamy, not icy at all, and no greasy mouthfeel. My wife seemed to love it, but she finished the ice cream and brought the majority of the cake home.

A funny thing we do at every single restaurant we visit is for me to ask my wife, usually rhetorically, if her parents would like the place. Most often, I could answer the question myself with a big fat “no.” They don’t go out to eat as much as they used to, and her mom is a relatively picky eater. Great lady, I love her to pieces, but she likes what she likes, and one thing she doesn’t like is trying new foods! (My own parents and brother read The Saboscrivner, and they often comment on how they probably wouldn’t go where I go or order what I order, but I appreciate them along with all my other readers. There are dozens of us! DOZENS!)

But anyway, when I asked if her parents would like Cooper’s Hawk, we both agreed that they probably would. So a week later, when we were celebrating my wife’s birthday, we were able to wrangle them out of the house for a celebratory dinner there — the first meal the four of us have had out at a restaurant since her birthday the previous year!

My wife doubled down on the masterful pork chop, getting it as one of the Build Your Own Surf and Turf options, pairing it with pistachio-crusted grouper (one of her favorite fish). She loved both, devouring the grouper on the spot and saving most of the pork chop for the next day. It came with the same Mary’s potatoes and vegetables as last time.

My father in law ordered the same pistachio-crusted grouper and seemed to love his.

My mother in law ordered crab cakes, one of her go-to dishes anywhere, and swapped the fries and Asian slaw for Mary’s potatoes and excellent macaroni and cheese. She has high expectations for her crab cakes, and these did not seem to disappoint. They were mostly lump crabmeat, with very little filler. (She asked and they answered!)

And after recently reading an article about Nashville hot chicken, which I enjoyed so much on a trip to the legendary Hattie B’s in Nashville last year, I decided to try Cooper’s Hawk’s version, served open-faced on a buttermilk biscuit with blue cheese slaw and a side of rich, creamy macaroni and cheese, which was one of the better mac and cheese dishes I’ve enjoyed anywhere in Orlando. The slaw wasn’t creamy and intense with blue cheese like I was hoping; the multicolored shredded cabbage was mostly dry.

I think the hot chicken was perfectly good, but it didn’t have the intense crunch, flavor, or heat of Hattie B’s, so my quest continues. It was barely spicy at all, but Hattie B’s hot chicken was practically too spicy for me, so I think it would be a little much for most unsuspecting Cooper’s Hawk diners. It came with a lot of sliced pickles, and I ate them all. I’ve traditionally never been a fan of pickles, but I’m trying to develop an appreciation for them by sampling all the different kinds of pickles I can. I love almost all other pickled vegetables (peppers, onions, giardinera), so I figure it’s only a matter of time. Readers, feel free to recommend pickles, whether they’re store-bought or from certain restaurants!

I am fully aware this is an awful picture, despite bringing my “good” camera. Sorry. Mea culpa. I think my photography has been better in general lately, but pobody’s nerfect.

My wife and her parents are big dessert people, so we were all psyched to see what Cooper’s Hawk might bring out in honor of my wife’s birthday. This is what she got: a lovely chocolate-covered strawberry and a white chocolate truffle. She wasn’t really into either, so I got to enjoy both:

After that, they went to town and shared a few desserts:

The same good chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream:

Very good, tart key lime pie in a graham cracker crust (my mother-in-law’s choice, and I only wish I had taken more than one bite):

And banoffee pie, which is a rich pie made with bananas and a gooey toffee filling, all nestled into a graham cracker crust. Very sweet, rich, and heavy. I should note that the fresh whipped cream on all these desserts had vanilla bean specks in it, and it was delicious. I could easily and happily just eat a big ol’ bowl of that whipped cream with a spoon and consider it a swell, satisfying dessert.

Trust me, the fact that we got my wife’s parents out to dinner at a new restaurant, and that they liked it, speaks volumes right there. Dear readers, if your parents visit Orlando and they balk at anything too unfamiliar, this would be a fantastic place to bring them. It would be a great date night restaurant, a happy hour spot with friends, or a place to kill time before or after a movie at Waterford Lakes. It’s not cheap, but every single thing we tasted was remarkable, and the service was superb on both of our visits. And if you like wine, then face it, Tiger, you just hit the jackpot! If I had to compare it to anything, it would be the ambiance and upscale feeling of Hillstone with the expansive depth of the Cheesecake Factory menu (but better quality across the board). My Best Food Friend has never steered me wrong, and he was completely on the money with Cooper’s Hawk.

Trevi Pasta

This was a stressful week, but it ended well. I was able to pick up my wife from her job on Thursday evening (after an unexpected emergency that ended up working out). That was nice, because I almost never get to do that. As usual, I suggested going out to dinner to decompress, and as usual, I offered her a bunch of options. She is a much pickier eater than I, and too often, her catch phrase when trying to choose a restaurant or even a type of food to eat is “Nothing sounds good.”

But that night, she was craving fresh pasta, ideally squid ink pasta. I’m not typically the biggest fan of going out for pasta because let’s face it — restaurant pasta dishes are expensive, and I buy good-quality DeCecco pasta, cook it perfectly al dente at home in well-salted water (with no oil, ever!), and either make my own sauces or doctor up a good commercial sauce like Mezzetta or Rao’s. But I’m not hardcore enough to make fresh pasta from scratch, so it’s a rare and worthwhile indulgence. There was only one possible place to go: Trevi Pasta in Orlando’s hip College Park neighborhood near downtown. https://www.trevipasta.com/

Trevi Pasta is a very small, family-owned operation famous for fresh, homemade pastas and sauces. They also have delicious gelato and other Italian desserts, and some Italian groceries.

Get this — they didn’t have squid ink pasta that night, but they told me they would have it this weekend. But the chef had a very small amount in the kitchen, and he brought it out for us to try, just to be a cool and good guy! It was served simply, with olive oil and herbs, and it was black as the night, briny, and al dente AF:

Trevi Pasta regularly changes their offerings, so don’t be like us and ask what they have, since they post a huge menu right near the entrance:

Here’s another version of the menu:
https://www.facebook.com/TreviPasta/app/1637598386514901/

My wife chose the potato gnocchi, usually a favorite of both of ours, but this gnocchi blew away the starchy store-bought kinds we usually get. She got hers with alfredo sauce and a huge, soft looking blob of burrata, that smooth, soft blend of fresh mozzarella cheese and cream.

I went with the spicy “inferno” pasta, and I chose tagliatelle — wider than fettuccine, not as wide as papardelle. I paired it with amatriciana sauce, my favorite pasta sauce, which I often make at home from scratch with San Marzano tomatoes, pancetta, onions, and lots of crushed red pepper flakes. I opted to get mine with meatballs too, and I ended up with four delicious little meatballs with a dense, spongy consistency and lots of flavor.

We both agreed they were the best bowls of pasta we’ve had in a very long time.

The only thing that didn’t blow us away were the rolls, which were on the hard side:

Then for dessert, we went back to look at some of those beautiful gelato flavors, and the nice lady at Trevi Pasta allowed us to sample a few.

My wife chose two scoops: panna cotta and cookies and cream (sorry about not having a photo), and I went with pineapple (I’ll always try anything pineappley) and passion fruit. Both were rich and intensely-flavored and refreshing. Passion fruit is not a fruit or a flavor I usually try, but it was so good — maybe even better than the pineapple!

Each gelato came with a tasty wafer cookie stamped with “Buon Appetito,” which was a nice touch.

I can’t say this was a cheap meal, but it was one of the more delicious restaurant meals either of us have had in a long time, and I don’t mind paying for very high quality. Trevi Pasta’s pasta, sauce, meatballs, and gelato were all masterful, and I have zero regrets. They will also sell any of their fresh pastas by the pound so you can prepare them at home.

In fact, I went back earlier today and picked up some freshly-cut squid ink fettuccine pasta, since we only got a tiny taste the other night. It was beautiful, delicious, and the same perfect texture after cooking for three and a half minutes in boiling water as salty as the sea.

Orlando Meats

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

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

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

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

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