The Best Fish I Ever Put In My Mouth - Elephant Bar Restaurant

"This is the best fish I ever put in my mouth!" That is how my wife described the Macadamia nut crusted Mahi Mahi we were eating. I had to agree with her. We had first tried the Elephant Bar Restaurant located at the Westfield Shopping Center on Monroe Street in Toledo about one year ago. We were sent there by my friend Sheri. Whenever she would go to an interesting restaurant, she was nice enough to bring a take-out menu back. I was kind of reluctant to try this one, because we don't get into Chinese food. This menu had something called Pacific Rim Specialties that looked somewhat Chinese to me. I showed it to Rebbel though, and she wanted to try it.
The first thing you notice is the surroundings. Very colorful and anything but dull.
I tried the Shrimp Adventure Platter, and she went for this Mahi Mahi dish. I have to laugh now whenever we have Mahi- Mahi, because when we were visiting Key West with Rebbel's Mother, she mistakenly ordered it as Mahottie Mahottie, and another memory was made.
Anyway, Rebbel ordered it, gave me a taste of it and I was sorry for not ordering it, not that the shrimp was bad, but this was way better.
We went back in the summer and were horribly disappointed to find out that they only have this dish at certain times. So if you want it, you better get it now. What makes this dish so fantastic?
First the fish is deep fried and encrusted in the Macadamia Nut coating. Crunchy on the outside, juicy and moist, mild fish on the inside. They put mango salsa on the ends of the fish. It was served on a bed of rice. They also put a French Macadamia Nut Beurre Blanc Sauce in the mix and a green spicy dipping sauce on four corners. The dish was colorful in presentation, and the sweet, spicy, crunchy, soft combination was out of this world! You probably wouldn't want to order one of their mouth watering deserts even if you had room, because you would want this taste in your mouth as long as possible. There are probably many great things on their menu, but when you find something as good as this, its hard to let go. You can see this chain's page at http://www.elephantbar.com/

Adventures in Florida's Oldest City- Santa Maria Restaurant, Cafe De Hildago, St. Augustine,Florida

Santa Maria-St. Augustine

St. Augustine, aka Florida's oldest city. We were visiting this place with Rebbel's Mom, and my son Michael. Because my wife is hypoglycemic, and I am always hungry, we thought we would look for a place to eat. Being a fan of many travel and eating shows, we explained to Rebbel's Mom that we would find the best place to eat by asking a local as suggested on the shows.

We went to the public restrooms, and as we were coming out, we saw a person coming at us on a bicycle. This person looked to be indigent to Rebbel and me; but to Rebbel's Mom, he looked like the perfect local to ask about a good place to eat. As Rebbel and I looked on in astonishment, there she was getting the information. When she came over to us, we laughed at her and kidded her. We asked her what dumpster he suggested. She told us that he had told her that we should eat at the Santa Maria Restaurant. Then a really strange thing happened. We took his advice and tried it !!

I don't remember the food. I believe I got the Grouper, Michael was on a hamburger for every meal kick, and it seems that Rebbel and her Mom got some kind of fish. The food seemed o.k. but the neat thing about this restaurant was that it was right on the water.

The waitress brought over a basket of old bread and told us we could feed the fish. For some reason Rebbel wasn't paying attention, and started eating the bread until we told her what it was for.

The Santa Rosa had little windows that you could feed the fish or the hungry gulls. It was really neat watching the birds go after the bread with almost as much gusto as my wife did when the waitress brought it. In fact, my brave teenager was afraid to try it for fear the birds would bite him. You can find a history of the landing and menu at http://www.oldcity.com/sites/santamaria/more.html

After the restaurant we went browsing at some of the shops and stopped by for the best gelato at the Cafe de Hildalgo. It was a very enjoyable day.

gelato-Cafe De Hildalgo

Follow That Guy, Eat At Joe's!!! - Joe's Gizzard City, Potterville,Michigan

Our weekend plans were modified on Friday. We were watching the Food Network,of course, and they were having a Diners, Drive Inns and Dives marathon. They had featured a place in Michigan. The place was located in Potterville near Lansing. Did you guess it??? Yeah, that's right...we ate at Joe's Gizzard City!!!!

Now Joe's isn't really a diner or a drive inn so we weren't thinking we would be eating at the Ritz. The staff seemed really friendly, and our waitress had a great sense of humor in spite of being deluged by foodies that had watched the same episode. We should have known it would be busy because we tried to check out their web site and it was crashed.

When our waitress came to take the order she had mentioned something about the food we saw on the show. Rebbel asked her how did she know that we had watched the show. This lead to an impromptu poll by our waitress. She said, "Raise your hand if you are here for some reason other than seeing us on the Food Network." Nobody raised their hand, and the place was full.

We had to try the gizzards,the Triple D burger that was developed by Guy, and fish. I haven't had many gizzards in my life,but of all the gizzards I have had, these were definitely the best!

The Triple D consisted of a hamburger with lettuce, tomato,onions,lettuce and pickle. That's all

normal, but then they deep fry the whole thing, which is abnormal but juicy and tasty! The fish was good too. We didn't have any room to try the desserts which includes deep fried cheesecake,

deep fried Oreos,and a deep fried Twinkie called a Frinkie plus more!

If you like quirky and fried this might be your kind of place! See them at http://www.gizzardcity.com/index.html .

I Want You To Put Me On A Plane and Fly Me Home!

We were really looking forward to our first trip to California together,and our first "real" vacation. We carefully went over all of the stops we would be making in the state. There was of course; Hollywood, Pink's Hot Dogs, the Chinese Theater, the ocean, Universal, friends and family

We had already been to Arizona and visited Rebbel's family. Everything was going smooth as we headed for San Diego with no signs of trouble and then.....there it was. A sign of trouble. It came in the form of an elevation sign. The first one wasn't too bad, but they kept bragging about the elevation every few thousand feet. I was really enjoying the view. The mountain we were going through looked like some kind of weird moonscape in places. Big boulders were strewn by the roadside along the way. My wife hated every minute of the travel down the mountain. She was freaking out. We pulled over at the first rest stop we found and my wife said something I will never forget. She said, "I want you to put me on a plane and fly me home!" Evidently the trip down the mountain was a little too much for her, I surmised as I got my only peek at the Pacific I would get on this trip.
Needless to say, all of our plans evaporated like water in the Death Valley. We decided to go to our friend's house in Bakersfield. Little did we know that we would pass through another place called the Grapevine on our way to Bakersfield, and it happened again. This time she also had her first panic attack. Her arms became numb and breathing heavy. I thought she was going to pass out. Did I mention she was driving?

Our dream trip to California turned out to be a short visit with our friends and family. Thankfully, they lived in lower elevations that you could get to without going through any mountains. We left California through the dessert and went relatively flat to Nevada. The next day, she drove on Hoover Dam without any real problems. The big problem was going down the mountain gave her an out of control feeling, yet she had to drive or she would feel even more out of control. I know what she means, sitting in the passenger seat during her panic attacks made me feel the same way!

Take the trip down the Grapevine http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7600703408514447465&hl=en


Picture on right: Going Down the Grapevine 1947 from the
California State Site

Big Heads - No Beds

Entering South Dakota on our way to the Big Heads, otherwise known as Mt. Rushmore to most the country except us, we were viewing the flat somewhat boring prairie countryside. This was the first time either one of us had been in South Dakota. We had been through a harrowing time in Chicago the day before thanks to the fact that they wanted to keep stopping us and making us wait up to 30 minutes every few miles to collect a small toll. We wasted more time and gas than the toll they were collecting. Why, oh why, couldn't they be like Ohio and collect one toll at the end. Better yet, why couldn't they be like my state of Michigan and let you go through without a toll? I have often thought that my state should set a toll for those people from the toll states so we could get some of the money back! We had wanted to make it to Minnesota but ended up just crossing into Wisconsin. But, I digress.
We were traveling on I-90 when we came to a sign telling about a scenic view as we came to the Missouri River. We looked at each other as to say yeah,right! We came over a hill and all of the sudden it was like someone had flicked a switch! What a change !
By the time we got to the heads, it was almost dusk. Not being one to linger, Rebbel gave her customary once over and was ready to hit the road. If you ever watched Vacation and saw Chevy Chase at the Grand Canyon, then you know the kind.
We got something to eat at a tourist restaurant in a nearby town and was ready to find a place to sleep. We hardly ever make reservations because we never plan to be in a certain town by a certain time. Now this was the fourth of July weekend and it really never occurred to us that it might be a bad time to find a motel room near the Big Heads, it was! We stopped at two or three motels and they were all saying the same thing. There are no rooms for over 100 miles.
We were so tired at that point that we really thought we were going to spend the night in the car. The last motel we stopped at had said that he would call and check at a place called the Iron Horse Inn. We aren't bikers, so all types of images popped into my head, but from where we were this place seemed like heaven. It looked like it was new. We were escorted to our room by a fellow in a golf cart, and all went well.The guy behind the desk was bragging about being tipped a six pack the day before.
The next day, we came upon the best breakfast sandwich we had ever experienced at a Maverick Gas Station at the Sturgis exit of all places.
South Dakota license plates may say; Great Faces, Great Places, but for us it will always be the land of Big Heads and No Beds! except for the Iron Horse Inn in Whitehead.





Whitehead,South Dakota
home of the Ironhorse Inn

Amarillo By Morn...Make That Evening - The Big Texan - Amarillo, Texas

There we were, back in Texas. We traveled across Texas a couple of years before, and traveled,and traveled.. At that time we entered at Texarkana and went to Dallas. After trying to find the perfect place to find a steak in Dallas, we somehow struck out and landed at an Iron Skillet late at night. I know your probably thinking what kind of people can't find a steak in Texas? The answer is, the same people that couldn't find a cheese steak in Philadelphia! That's another story. Anyhow, this was going to be different. This time we had a place all mapped out in Amarillo Texas. The Big Texan!
We arrived in Amarillo after some rain. I wanted to see the world famous Cadillac Ranch. The travel c.d. had been preparing us for the visit. First there was Amarillo by morning and then Bruce singing Cadillac Ranch. What more could you want??? We finally arrived after we had traveled past it. How could we have missed it the first time?? Its not every day you see all those cars buried hood - deep with fins sticking up in the air. I couldn't wait to get a picture by them. My wife, being the girly girl type, wanted nothing to do with it. You see the cars are out in the middle of a field, and like I mentioned before, it had rained. To this day I still can't believe she would pass this great opportunity up just because of a little mud. I ended up having to hold the camera and taking my own picture. Sure I had to spend some time scraping mud off my shoes, but I touched the cars that the Boss had sang about. What could be better than that???
After that, we made our way to the Big Texan. This place is famous for the big 72 oz steak. You eat that and the rest of the dinner, you get it free. The thing looks like a chuck roast. Its that big! You have a time limit that clicks off as you sit at a table on a small stage. I passed on it and we just got steak dinners. After we ate, our waitress asked if we would want dessert. She said she would buy it because she thought the service was a little slow. We didn't think it was too bad, but she insisted so we got it. It was the best cake we ever had. This multi-layered beauty was moist and chocolatey. To this day, I haven't found a cake that compares. I have tried numerous times. If you are ever in Amarillo you have to do two things. Go to the Cadillac Ranch and get out and touch a piece of America, then go to the Big Texan! If you want to try the steak in the privacy of your own home, buy it on-line. The link is on the page.

The Windy City and the Wasted Wrap

Chicago....the Windy City, the Second City. A city of great food. Rebbel and I have made several trips to Chicago. There was the search for the best Chicago style hot dog, the day we went with our friends from church; and got a great deal on a great hotel room complete with bathroom telephone and robes, the time we were going to tour the Sears Tower with the kids but we somehow lost it , and the time we went with Rebbel's Mom.
I don't know what it is, but the most memorable times are usually involving the Mother aka
my Mother-In- Law.
We arrived in Chicago by Amtrack. It is a nice trip from Jackson. I recommend sitting in the dining car. The seats are comfortable and the windows bigger. You might have to buy something to eat, but it is well worth the view.
We walked for what seemed like miles from the train station all the way to our motel room by the John Hancock building. It was the fourth of July and the fireworks show had just ended. We walked through the throngs of people coming from the opposite direction. Didn't see any cabs except the one we passed up by the train station.
After we got settled in our room, we decided to go for some food. There was a hotel restaurant across the street and we decided to eat at that establishment. Our food was good, but Rebbel's Mom was eating "THE BEST WRAP SHE EVER HAD TASTED!" She couldn't eat anymore of it and wanted to save it. Rebbel talked her into getting rid of it. After all, there was no way to refrigerate it and by the time she ate, it would be spoiled. With great sadness, she let go of it, and we returned to our hotel room where we discovered that we had a refrigerator. OOOPS!!!
To this day, "THE BEST WRAP EVER" that Rebbel made her throw out weighs heavy on her mind.
So,if you are ever by the John Hancock and have a chance to eat at a Hotel Restaurant across from it, make sure you get the wrap, and whatever you do don't throw the leftovers away, you might still be regretting it 4 years later.

Hi There!!

We have enjoyed traveling around this country over the past few years. We love finding new places to eat, and my wife likes trying to copy the good food we find; of course, I love eating it!

We have been to most of the states and have tried a lot of food along the way.

Last year, we tried our first cruise. We had a blast! Rebbel's Mother came with us, and at 78 years old she climbed the rock wall!!

From the time we boarded the ship, there was constant food!+In fact, we were going to kill some time and look for someplace to eat, but the guy at the dock told us that once we boarded there would be food, and he wasn't kidding!

We sailed to the Bahama's on Royal Caribbean's Sovereign Of the Seas. What a great time! I highly recommend this cruise to any first timers.