FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Just Another Cafe Hey Day

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Let me just start with…  It POURED today in Tampa!  So much so that I buckled a golf umbrella, spent 45 minutes driving four miles, and considered writing someone of importance requesting that Tampa now be called Atlantis.  And when it came time for lunch, I wanted only two things: something close and something cozy.

I speed dialed my favorite neighbor, Cafe Hey, and placed an order for the VLT sandwich and kale salad.  I butchered the VLT even more than usual (sorry chef!) by adding avocado (duh!) and nixing tomatoes and vegenaise.  The next modification would happen in the privacy of my desk…

I mile high piled the kale salad on my sandwich and went to town – cuban toast crumbs were a flyin’!  I didn’t care though, the dressing on the kale salad and the crunch of the lettuce and sunflower seeds were so darn good!

Here’s to hoping for a dryer tomorrow!

Thankyounomoreplease

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Hellooooo last night of take-out!  I was just as excited to see this smiling Urban Thai bag as it was to see me.  I can’t wait to get out of this hotel room!

Ginger broth with mushroom dumplings?  Get in my belly now, please!

Next up was Yum Tofu, which was yum, as advertised.  At first glance, the dish looked super dry and I thought to myself “at least the soup was good”.  But after my first bite it was apparent the tofu was far from dry.  The dish, composed of fried tofu, cashews, red onions, green apples, and spicy lime dressing, was perfectly soaked with spicy lime goodness.  I see a Yum Tofu recreation attempt in my future, for sure.

And lastly, mango with sweet sticky rice, which was… the jam.

These 15 dollar minimums for delivery are killing me.  Somehow the combination of being in a hotel room and leftover takeout staring me straight in the face is pure gluttonous danger.

See you tomorrow Tampa!!!

Bigger Byblos

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I last saw my mom when she dropped me off at the airport and took this awkward tourist photo before heading to LA.  That was twenty seven days ago.  And twenty seven days without mom time was starting to wear on me.

I shot her an email asking if we could do dinner after work and she politely declined.  Apparently this whole twenty seven day thing was affecting us differently.

No more than five minutes later, I had a new email from a completely different mom that was no longer tired and missed me equally as much as I missed her.  A new mom that had a Groupon for Byblos – hurrah!

The first thing I noticed when I walked up was a newer, larger outdoor seating area than what I remembered.  This triggered rumor memories of an expanding Byblos, rumors which were verified upon entering a gynorm, spruced up interior.

We ordered the salmon filet and vegetarian platter which consisted of hummus, grape leaves, baba ghanuj, tabbouleh, and falafel (i.e. heaven platter).  Everything tasted better this time too.  Perhaps the building wasn’t the only thing face-lifted during the renovation!

Schakolad

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I learned a few new things tonight, namely things about chocolate.  Like… Did you know that cocoa comes from nibs within those little pebbles and those little pebbles come from the oversized date looking thing?  I surely didn’t.

Tonight The Junior League of Tampa Cookbook Committee met at Schakolad for our first social of the year.  I prefer social gatherings that are focused around activities because it gives everyone something to talk about, even if their brains are fried from a long day at the office.

We mixed.

We dipped.

We decorated.

But most importantly, we sampled!  The owner kept asking “Who likes XYZ chocolate?” and I kept saying “ME!!” and heading to the front of the sample line.  The most memorable sample of the night, which also probably means it was my favorite, was the Key Lime Truffle.  This was totally unexpected because typically white chocolate isn’t my thing.