Soba Noodle - Jap cooking

I just got noodle bowl!
I was looking for right size and shape for a while.
So, I had to cook some asian noodle dish.
It's actually small serving bowl. I found in Target.

Soba Noodle 








Soba = Buckwheat flour


Straight from Japan! I smuggle all types of food from Japan when I go there.
When my family come here, they bring me suits case full of food and stuffs.




I made with dashi and soy sauce soup, scallion, daikon, ginger, and egg.


Simple
Definitely my comfort food...




When I was high school in Japan, We took school trip to Nagano.
We had soba making class from scratch.
What we have to watch out is, some people are allergic to soba.


If you have chance to eat soba at japanese restaurant, try it!
Very light healthy food.

Quick Easy Banana Desert

We buy banana every week to bring to work to snack on.
I love little green banana. I don't eat brown banana. 


oh, no. I have many banana that brown, I do not like to wast any of my food!
What I'm gonna do is...


Make


Banana milk shake
Eat with yogurt
Banana bread
or
This fabulous dessert...

Banana with ice cream




















1. warm fry pan and melt butter (1/3 of stick)
2. add brown sugar (2 spoon) and turn heat to medium
3. add rum little bit (any kind is fine, I used Chambord )
4. add cinnamon and nutmeg if you have
5. cut 2 bananas and add to this fabulous liquid, stir around gently
6. serve with vanilla ice cream (you can put on top of pancake)


fast and easy! only one pan to cook.
try at home.


Yummyyyy~~~!

The Frog Pond

Egg Benedict lover!
10+ different kind of egg benedict.


The Frog Pond
7390 Gulf Boulevard, St. Petersburg, FL 33706(727) 363-7205 ‎

16909 Gulf Blvd
North Redington Beach, FL 33708

(727) 392-4117

I went there because they have all different kinds of egg benedict!
As a egg benedict lover, I needed to try.


As soon as I opened the door, they took me to booth.
and not even 10 seconds later, coffee was served. FAST!
I had massive headache from not taking any caffein. (I must drink coffee before 10am!!)
so, fast coffee service was great!
Coffee boy was refilling cup all the time. No time to be less than half cup!


Egg Benedict, it was ok...
Hollandaise Sauce was disappointing to me. Cause it was too vinegary.
Creamy and nice, but vinegar was overwhelming.
Egg was nicely done, English muffin was crunchy, but not too crunchy.
Home fries were decent too.
But sauce through me off.


I'm not sure, everyday is like this, but I won't order egg benedict anymore.
Seems like, deep pan dish and omelet is popular item, so I will order that instead.


I got little disappointed, but I will give one more chance with different dish.





• Parking space: good, no problem parking in busy time.
• Interior decor: cute! Frog decoration!
• Service: fast
• Timing: fast, coffee is always filled
• Menue: easy. different kinds of food to pick from
• Presentation: OK nothing special
• Taste: hollandaise sauce is too vinegary
• Price: average
• Over all: 6 (out of 10)

Pete & Shorty's Tavern

Burger and Beer spot...
But, my favorite thing to eat in here is, Turkey Ruben.
Pete & Shorty's Tavern

When I just came to Florida, I didn't know where to eat good food around my neighbor.
I went to watch my friend play soccer. After the game, whole team went to celebrate the victory. It was Pete and Shorty. Everybody ordered mini-burgers. (slider)
I order turkey ruben. Cause I never had before.


Before I moved to florida, I lived in Vermont.
Food in north and south is different. Made me re-think the US is big country.


First time ruben....!
it was soooo good!!! this special sauce was dripping, crispy rye bread is earthy, swiss cheese is melting, good turkey and warm sour kraut. Whole sandwich is little sour, but this special sauce made everything come together.
Simple grilled sandwich, but whole combination of what they picked for ingredients are perfect.


I tried mini-burger, too. It's good. But I always go back to this turkey ruben.
I ate turkey ruben at different places, cause I had such a great first ruben.
BUT, this is still #1 Ruben to me.

$1 for mini-burger.










O, they have good fries, too. I like skinny crunchy fries.

Fabulous Balsamic Vinegar

Mm mm mmmm~~~!

This balsamic vinegar is just tasty.

Fruity, tangy, just perfect vinegar for anything.
Florida Olive Oil Company

I got this from St. Armand's Circle. 

They have different kind of olive oils and balsamic vinegars.

Awesome part of going there is, you can try all of them.

It's like a wine tasting.

Different ages, fruits, etc.

I picked The traditional balsamic vinegar.

Because you can use for variety of cooking.

It's great to just dip bread and eat. 

I make salad dressing, marinade meat, etc.

This pic, I made green bean with it.

Steam or boil green beans.

Drain the water.

Add, salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic.

Stir well. done!

Easy!

Balsamic vinegar is good for...

•acts as a natural suppressant of appetite

•assists in producing greater disease fighting oxidants

•The amino acids may work to slow the ageing process

•aids production of digestion enzymes thus improving metabolism

•It may act as a natural pain reliever that can assuage headaches

Wildflower Cafe

I'm introducing special hidden secret breakfast place.
Wildflower Cafe


What's good about this place is, just so different than any other diner style breakfast.
Menue is small, cause each plate is special. They serve only great dish that they are confident to serve.


They have awesome biscuit with honey butter and strawberry jam.
I'm egg benedict freak. 
This croissant goes with running yolk, mm mmmmmm!!!! soooo good. Hollandaise is not too heavy or light. 
Just perfect combination.

Left: Yogurt dish (Granola, Cranberry in it, just perfect)
Right: Waffle (Crunchy, kinda gooey inside with REAL maple syrup)






They also makes good pastry daily, and 2:00 Tea Time
For more info, Wildflower Cafe




You got to try this place!!
It's cute place, great for breakfast meeting with girlfriends, couples, families...
not really guys get together, but food is awesome!




• Parking space: it's business complex, so plenty of space on weekend, weekday not sure.
• Interior decor: inside is ok, but outside, nice and open feeling.
• Service: nice and homy feeling. People works there is all girls/women. Friendly.
• Timing: great. coffee is constantly filled. food is quick enough, before getting grumpy.
• Menue: small, but great. each dish is very interesting. wanna try all!!
• Presentation: cute! plenty of color and decoration. All their fruits is fresh and sweet.
• Taste: no questions ask, good. I mean very good.
• Price: a couple dollar more than regular breakfast, but it's worth it to me.
• Over all: 9 (scale of 10)

Welcome!

Hello and thank you for visiting my site.

My name is Hiroko. (Plz read "about me" for more background info)
I use internet so much, and read blog a lot, and shop a lot.
Of course, I love eating.  I do a lot of food searching, recipes, restaurants info...

Me and my boyfriend love eating out around Tampa bay. We always rates by different categories, compare with other similar restaurants.

• Parking space
• Interior decor
• Service
• Timing
• Menue
• Presentation
• Taste
• Price
• Over all

It's been a year since we are thinking about to make our blog.
I have tast skills, my boyfriend has 10+ years of server experience.
so services are very important too, not just food.


Here we are.

We are not rich people, but we are willing to pay money to eat good food.
Since I can't drink alcohol, I drive anywhere to eat good food.

I need your help.

Let me know where is good food at, and what to order.
Good recipes that anybody can try at home.


O, almost forgot,
My grammer is not so good, cause English is my second language.
Thank you for your patient and guessing skills.


See you next time!