Category Archives: Mexican

July 1, 2012 · 12:57 pm

Garibaldi

Thank you for all the support for my friend. It has been a long week, but every day there has been small victories. I believe in the power of positivity and prayer, and I really think he’s going to pull through this in part due to how supportive everyone in his life is. Thank you so much for your kind words and thoughts.

Last week, a few of us went to Garibaldi Mexican Restaurant on Semoran Boulevard after hearing that people love it. I learned that there are two Garibaldi restaurants in Orlando, but they are no longer affiliated. This was supposedly the better of the two.

The restaurant looks authentic and had all the makings of a good Mexican restaurant. It’s a small hole in the wall, and the menu had a lot of variety.

Kevin ordered steak fajitas (minus the peppers), which he really liked.

Gardibaldi - Steak Fajitas

I actually took his leftovers and ate the steak with scrambled eggs the next evening for dinner. There was a lot of seasoning and flavor, which made the steak taste even better the next day.

Our friend Bryan ordered cheese enchiladas that were topped with shredded pork. He really enjoyed the flavor of the pork.

Garibaldi - Enchiladas

I ordered an enchilada platter that had a variety of different types of enchiladas: cheese, bean, chicken and beef.

Garibaldi - Enchiladas 2

I think I may have misordered because my food was not nearly as flavorful as my dining companions’. The fillings in the enchiladas were very bland. The cheese enchilada ended up being the most flavorful. There was also really no enchilada sauce, which contributed to the blandness. I was really disappointed in my meal, but it seems like they do have some good items on the menu. I just need to find them next time.

I’m still on the search for a good Mexican meal that hits the spot.

I hope you had a great weekend. This workweek is a little different because we get Wednesday off for 4th of July, which will be a nice mid-week break but I’m sure it will feel strange.

How will you be celebrating the 4th?

9 Comments

Filed under East Orlando, Mexican

June 12, 2012 · 8:26 pm

Tako Cheena

Tako Cheena is a tiny eclectic restaurant off Mills in the heart of the Mills50 district that melds together Asian and Latin American cuisines in unusual ways. This is another restaurant that everyone seems to rave about. We headed over on Saturday evening for dinner, and the place was packed. There aren’t many tables in the restaurant so it fills up quickly. We had to wait a little while, but the wait staff was incredibly friendly and brought us drinks while we waited for a table.

They serve bottled sodas, which is fun.

Tako Cheena - Diet Coke Bottle

They always have empanadas on the menu, but the filling changes daily. Their special that day was an Italian (cuisine type #3) empanada with sweet roasted red peppers.

Tako Cheena - Italian Empanada

The crust around the empanada was nice and flakey, however the red pepper sauce was a little too overpowering for the ground beef.

Kevin ordered two braised beef tacos. He wasn’t a huge fan of the flavoring on the beef. It was very sweet, and I found the meat to be a little dry.

Tako Cheena - Braised Beef Tacos

I ordered the panang curry burrito with tofu.

Tako Cheena - Panang Curry Tofu Burrito

The burrito was huge, and I really liked that it was pressed. The browned areas of the tortilla had a lot of flavor. Although I liked the flavor of the filling, it didn’t taste like the Panang curry I was used to. It almost tasted more like a peanut sauce. I found it to be overpoweringly sweet. Most of the burrito contained rice. I would have enjoyed more tofu throughout the burrito, since the tofu bits I did get were delicious. I ate half of the burrito then unrolled the rest and picked out the tofu.

Everyone seems to love Tako Cheena, but I only found my experience to be mediocre. I think I need to give it one more shot based on all the rave reviews and try a few other menu items.

I love the concept, the atmosphere and the location. Hopefully next time I’ll love the food as well.

If you could mash up two of your favorite cuisines, what types would you choose?

5 Comments

Filed under Asian, Mexican, Mills50

May 6, 2012 · 4:59 pm

Avenging the rest

I can’t believe the weekend is already just about over. It’s been a fun but busy weekend. As planned, on Friday evening, Kevin and I headed out to go see The Avengers. All factors were in place for me to have a miserable time. I was tired, it was opening night, there were loud people in the theater, and my dinner was disappointing.

First: dinner. We were catching the movie in Winter Park Village so decided to pop into Lime for dinner. The place was crowded since it was Friday evening. I ordered a Tijuana taco with chicken, which is a hard taco wrapped in a corn tortilla with beans in between.

Lime - Tijuana taco

I also ordered a fish taco.

Lime - fish taco

The food tasted fine, but for some reason I remember them serving more chips as accompaniment.

chips

The girl taking our order was also very rude. I’ve never had bad service there before, so I’ll attribute it to the fact that it was so crowded. After dinner, we headed to the theater to see The Avengers. We bought our tickets online earlier so got to bypass the crazy lines.

The Avengers ended up being great. It’s just as much of a movie for girls as it is for guys. The cast is extremely good looking, and the script was actually very funny.

Source Source

Source Source

Source

The girls even managed to hold their own, and I’m not a huge fan of either Scarlett Johanssn or Cobie Smulders, but they were pretty tolerable here. I’m also a sucker for epic movie crescendos, which this was full of. If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to stay through to the end of the credits. There’s two scenes in there (although I only understood one of them).

The rest of the weekend was full of errands and catching the Orlando City soccer game.

What was the best movie you’ve seen recently?

9 Comments

Filed under Mexican, Winter Park

April 7, 2012 · 7:57 pm

Good Good Friday

Thank goodness for long weekends. My office was closed yesterday for Good Friday, but Kevin did not have the day off, which gave me the chance to get some things off the to-do list done. I finally joined a gym. After my week of testing out and comparing gyms, I decided to go with the less expensive option. Although it doesn’t offer any group fitness classes or as much fancy equipment, it also doesn’t have a cancellation fee, so if I miss those things, I can upgrade. I’m happy to finally be a gym member again.

After hitting up the gym, I met up with my friend Bryan for lunch. Bryan is actually Kevin’s really good friend from college and a groomsman in our wedding. We met up at Lime in Winter Park Village. Bryan ordered a quesadilla, and I ordered the La Paz salad.

Lime - Quesadilla

Lime - La Paz Salad

On my first trip to Lime, I ordered their tacos, which were delicious. The salad wasn’t quite as good as their tacos. It had grilled fish, which was a little sparse. The salad dressing was a little too mayonnaise-y for my taste so I loaded up at the salsa bar and used a combo of their salsas for my salad dressing, which gave the salad some flavor and kick.

After lunch, my inner five year old kicked in, and I needed to have froyo, so we headed next door to Menchie’s.

Menchie's

(Red velvet cake froyo with coconut shavings, Oreos and blackberries.)

After a nice, long lunch, I got a bunch of stuff done at home before Kevin got home from work. Our day ended with a trip to the movies with Bryan and Kevin’s brother Nick.

American Reunion

We saw American Reunion at the Plaza Cinema in downtown Orlando, which offers a full bar and a full menu of foods (not just your standard popcorn and candy). I already ate dinner, so I just stuck with popcorn, and the boys shared a bucket of beer.

Plaza Cinema - Popcorn

Plaza Cinema - Beer

Those buckets of beer are the reason why Kevin will only see chick flicks at this theater.

I didn’t quite know what to expect from American Reunion, but it was actually really funny. The plot line wasn’t very sophisticated (as with most of the movies in the series), but it gave me some laughs and some unexpected warm and fuzzies.

What was the last movie you saw in theaters?

9 Comments

Filed under Downtown Orlando, Lunch, Mexican, Winter Park

March 29, 2012 · 8:51 pm

Trying new things

Last night, I completely stepped out of my comfort zone and attended my first blogger meet up, hosted by Central Florida Lady Bloggers. I get super anxious whenever I’m in situations where I don’t know anyone, which in the back of my mind I knew was irrational for this particular group of people. Everyone I met was just as genuine and amazing as represented on their blogs. I had a great time meeting the great girls and chatting about the usual: self hosting, running, food, weddings, etc.

Photo is courtesy of Carolina, who put up a great recap of the night, including a list of all the attendees. I appreciated seeing others taking photos of their meals and requesting more than one picture being taken of a subject. I’m not alone!

The meet up occurred at Mucho Tequila and Tacos in downtown Orlando. I started out with a mug of sangria (to make myself less awkward when meeting new people) and then ordered the crispy fajita salad.

Mucho - Crispy Fajita Salad

I ordered the cilantro salad dressing on the side, but I ended up not even needing to use it. The salad was loaded with flavor from the grilled peppers and onions, beans, rice, salsa and cheese. I think there may also have been lettuce somewhere in there. I really loved it, but I was so busy chatting with the wonderful company that I didn’t even eat half of it (alert the media!). If you’re in the Orlando area, please join us for the next meet up next month! It truly is a great group of girls.

Since I left Kevin on his own last night, I decided to try a new side dish tonight for dinner. Most people know that Kevin is a true steak and potatoes guy, so I decided to try this recipe for hasselback potatoes. I had never even heard of hasselback potatoes, but when I saw this recipe on Pinterest, I figured Kevin would be all about it.

slit potato

I cut slits into two potatoes but got a little knife happy. There was a slight casualty.

whoops

I think I could have let them bake for about five more minutes, but as usual, my hunger made me impatient.

baked

Despite the photo, the potatoes were actually really delicious…although not as beautiful as the original recipe. If you like crispy potatoes, this is definitely a must try.

Have you ever attended a blogger meet up? Are you also super awkward when meeting new people?

11 Comments

Filed under Blogging, Downtown Orlando, Eating In, Mexican, Sides