Disney World Gets Better With Age

So guess where I got to go?

Disney World!

It was so much better at the age of 26! I felt so much more powerful than the 5 year olds. I had no problem bullying my way to get my picture taken with Alice in Wonderland.

There are so many pictures that I would love to post but I am going to keep it mostly on the food! I was just so excited because I got to take so many picture with my mom and we haven't been on vacation in such a long time that I am happy we have a lot of memories now!

Here's just one.... right as we stepped out of the Orlando airport:


And here's our view from our room at the Wyndham Grand Orlando Bonnet Creek. 10th floor. Holy schnitzel!


DAY ONE
We ate as soon as we got to the hotel because our Jet Blue complimentary snacks of Pop Corners and Terra Blue Chips were not sufficient. We ate at the Poolside Bar/Restaurant called Back Bay Pool Bar. It was good. Nothing special but it was good.

Quesadillas


The Floridian Salad

Then for dinner, we went to the Swan Hotel to check out where my mom's dance competition was being held. There we decided on Kimono's, a Japanese restaurant.


Octopus Kimchee Salad


Stuffed Eggplant with Crab and Chicken


Banzai Roll- Spicy Tuna, Avocado, and Eel

DAY TWO
We followed up the next morning with a buffet breakfast in the hotel at Tesoro Cove. I'm typically not the biggest fan of buffets, unless it's Indian food, but this one was fabulous!

TONS of fresh fruit, an omelette station, a waffle station, oatmeal, sausage, french toast (which sucked), pastries. They had EVERYTHING! The only bizarre turn-off is that you have to pay extra for pancakes. WTF? Not that I really wanted pancakes but why do you have to pay extra only for pancakes? Weird.



After breakfast was my mom's dance competition where she did very well in the Nationals. Congratulations mama!


We celebrated at Deep Blu which is the more upscale restaurant inside the Wyndham Hotel. This place was top notch! Everything from the very nice waiter to the food was perfect!




They started us off with "Foccaccia" bread. I don't know what kind of Foccaccia Floridians are eating but it def was not what I'm used to! The bread was good nonetheless. It came with eggplant+garlic butter :-D



We got the Crab Cakes as a recommendation... the waiter was like "it's 88% crab and 12% breadcrumbs" I was totally like you had me at Crab!


Then we had the Mixed Green Salad which had pear, gorgonzola, and walnuts. Fab!


For entrées, I got the Parmesan and Herb Crusted Cod with Mushroom Risotto and Asparagus:


Mom got the Filet Mignon:


I was stuffed but definitely had room for dessert!

Creme Brulee with Fried Bananas!


And of course a cappuccino!



DAY THREE
We started with the buffet again!

Then, we had a light lunch at the Magic Kingdom at a place called Tony's. I was very confused here. Why is everyone 106 years old? How did the food come out in under 3 minutes after we ordered it?

Anyways, I had a Salad with Grilled Chicken, and mom had the Eggplant Parm with Spaghetti.

Both were pretty bad, but I was surprised at how photogenic the food was.



At the last minute, we decided to go see my mom's favorite dancer Yulia Zagoruychenko at around 9:30. We weren't out of there until about 1:30AM!.

Because I was starving, I was ready to eat as soon as we left, so when we got home, we got the Room Service! The food was SO good!

Ceasar Salad


Turkey Club!


Wings

DAY FOUR
We skipped breakfast because we were running late to get to Epcot but no worries because all you really do in Epcot is eat foods from different counties.
They started us off with a Baguette


Then, we got the Fried Goat Cheese Salad

We also got the Crepes Florentine to share!



For dinner, we went to Tesoro Cove since we only had breakfast there.
The food here is really really good. We got the Surf and Turf since we couldn't make up our mind!

By this time, my camera had died so I don't have any pictures....


Then came day FIVE where we had to check out and come back to NY....

2012- Intro To Brazil

2012 has definitely been the year of the Brazilians according to Miki (me). I don't know why I just referred to myself as the third person.

I am a personal trainer, and I trained 2 Brazilians. Like native Brazilians. Like, they had just come over from Brazil. I tried to learn some words but I don't remember anything. Some words sounded Japanese, it was cool! I once babysat a Japanese girl whose family lived in Brazil. They said there is a huge Japanese community there.

So this past weekend was the first time I had Brazilian cuisine! Can you imagine?! Where have I been?! Of course of heard things... "It's all meat!" "They just don't stop serving you all these different kinds of meat!" Blah blah blah. So I knew it would be a lot of meat.

But o-m-g! This little place USA Brazilian Grill in Mt. Vernon was so awesome! It seemed very authentic (but what do I know? I don't know anything about Brazil). It wasn't unlimited meat because you have to go to the counter and ask for what you want and then pay for it by the weight, but they sure did have a ton of meat! All different kinds too! I mean, I guess you could eat unlimited amounts of meat, but because I was somewhat rational about how much I could eat, I got a little bit of a few things.

So here's the counter. The guy is standing in front of the huge meat rotisserie rotator thing.


You ask for the meat that you want and the guy cuts whatever part you want, however much you want.


Pre-couunter however, you go to the salad bar area to get whatever vegetables and side dishes you want. I got ceasar salad, broccoli, and plantains.

Here's my plate:


Sirloin in the middle, Strip Steak at the top, and Heart... I think they were surprised when I got excited that they had heart!

OMG... look at this color... it was so perfectly cooked. (You can of course ask for a more well done piece... it's all about choices here!)


Awwwww look at how cute these hearts are! They were delish as well!



We also had pão de queijo which is like a roll with cheese baked into it. They heated it up for us because my dining partner (who has been here a bajillion times and knows his Brazilian ish pretty well) insisted that it has to be fresh out of the oven so the closest thing we got was for it to be reheated! It was awesome... but he said it's even better when it's right out of the oven.

And we finished with FLAN!!!!! It was so good! I love flan. And this was good flan!

Of course I don't have pictures of the last two because I was too excited to start eating and wasn't patient enough to get a decent picture...

I think price wise it was decent too. It came out to like $15.00 and I ended up taking a decent portion of the meat home because it was too much!

USA Brazilian Grill
145 Gramatan Ave
Mount Vernon, NY 10550
Phone: (914)-668-4088

When in HIllsdale...

Do as the Walsh's do....

The Walsh's know how to party.

Luke's Aunt's 60th + Walsh Reunion= Lots of Booze and Food!


The party was up at their gorgeous house in Hillsdale, NY. There were SO many people, and SO much food, and SO much drinking! It was like a frat house haha!

Anways, these two Walsh women are crazy. They are always preparing the nicest meals and dishes and their cooking/baking skills are phenomenal. So as everyone is getting wasted, I am right by the food table taking a little taste of everything.

The beginning was a meatball attack!!! There were about 10 different kinds of meatballs!



So there were Barbecue, Pulled Pork, Lamb, Teriyaki, Italian, Meatloaf, etc.

I love balls! So this was a lot of fun... trying all these different balls!

Then came more food. Cheeses, olives, bread, bread with cheese melted in it, etc... I was in heaven!






And there was more stuff for breakfast such as an Eggs Benedict casserole but I was too excited to eat and forgot to take pictures!

The part I went nuts on was the dessert table of course....



One of the Walsh's is getting married in two weeks and the wedding is being held at the same location, and the food is being provided by the same people (Luke's mom and his aunt) so I know there will be amazing food! So pumped!!

Oh... and very close by, there was a PIG FARM! I am obsessed with pigs! It was called PIGasso Farms! It's got a punny name too!


Look how cute they are!