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