Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Hot Pot!


Chubby Cattle is a Mongolian style hot
pot restaurant. The difference between 
Japanese and Mongolian hot pot is in the
broth. Japanese is generally simple with
minimal flavorings where Mongolian has
bold,  spicy flavors. Chubby Cattle has a 
great variety of items from simple to exotic.
Everything we have experienced is very
fresh and flavorful. As you are eating a 
refrigerated conveyor brings selections
for your hot pot by. You grab what you
want and are charged by plate numbers
and colors at the end. They also have a
sauce bar where you can custom make
your dipping sauce. This is one of Dawn
and I's favorite new restaurants and we
highly recommend it
Beef and mushrooms...my favorites.
―――

We discovered East West Shabu Shabu 
while on a Disneyland vacation a few years
ago. It's only about 10 miles from Disneyland 
and definitely worth the drive. We've been
back several times since. It's one of our
favorites.
―――

The top left and mine on the right below is
sukiyaki. Sukiyaki is cooked in a skillet 
with a much more flavorful cooking liquid.
The sauce is usually made from soy sauce,
mirin, sugar and water. Mirin is a Japanese
rice wine with a low alcohol content and a
high sugar content. I tend to like sukiyaki 
more then shabu shabu. To me the flavors 
are bolder.
Swish is a solid Japanese hot pot restaurant 
that we have been going to for years. They
specialize in Shabu Shabu and Sukiyaki.
The meat we've gotten over the years is
generally high quality as are the vegetables.
Prices are reasonable for what you get, and
they also have a menu of sides and sushi. If
you are in Las Vegas give them a try...I recommend it. Click here for
a short video overview.
―――


Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot is an all
you can eat hot pot restaurant in Calgary.
They have a good selection of items and
everything came out fresh. The broth
was tasty and we both enjoyed it. Being all
you can eat we were both stuffed at the
end. This generally doesn't happen with
hot pot. The only negatives were no ponzu 
sauce or onions. Other then that it's definitely 
worth checking out.
―――


Sushi Maru serves Sushi/Shabu Shabu in
Northgate, just north of Seattle. There is
also a location in Spokane. I don't think the
Spokane branch has hot pot though. It's 
been a few years since we've tried this 
restaurant. It's a conveyor type sushi 
restaurant that also does Shabu Shabu.
It was good, you may want to check out
some newer reviews before trying it though.
Here  is a video of our experience there,
which was around four years ago.


And finally we come to our homemade 
hot pot. Ours is always tasty and fun. The
only thing we struggle with is getting the
meat sliced thin enough.


These are our favorite hot pot restaurants.
We have tried a few more (Shanghai Lilly
comes to mind), but these are the best. I 
encourage everyone to give hot pot a try.
Get out of your comfort zone and try 
something new. Hot pot is flavorful to
eat, fun to partake in and also pretty 
healthy. Give it a try!




🔗Links...🔗


Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Wrapping up the Trip at Universal Orlando!


A very nice day for early February!


The beautiful Royal Pacific Resort.
Breakfast in the Island's Dining Room at
the Royal Pacific. I had the Eggs Benedict 
 and Dawn had the buffet. This is a great spot
for a tasty, relaxing breakfast.

Lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. Dawn had
the Ploughman's and I had the fish and
chips. We shared the Scotch Eggs. Everything 
was good but honestly this place is more about
the atmosphere. If you are a Harry Potter fan 
it is very cool.


Hogwarts Castle 
The Sweet Shop...check out all the cool
candies below. Can you find the chocolate 
frogs?

Cheers...gotta love butterbeer.

Going to Universal brings out the caveman 
in me. I have to get one of these huge, smoky 
delicious turkey legs. I think Michael had one
too....Yum!
This has to be the highlight of the day.
Michael and I love Beetlejuice and were
thrilled to see him on the way out of the
park. He couldn't have been any cooler.

Ahhh..the legendary Lard Lad donut. If
you're at Universal Orlando it is a must
try. The Lard Lad big pink is a giant donut.
It will easily feed two to three people. The
best I can describe it is a cross between a donut 
and a cake. Either way it's delicious. Try one,
you won't be sorry.
Michael hanging with his good buddy, Milhouse.
A few of our favorite rides. The Hollywood 
Rocket...You pick your own music to listen to
on this roller coaster. The Incredible Hulk
is another wild coaster. Spiderman is one
of my all time favorite rides. Here is a video 
of Dawn, Michael, Yosh and Logan on
Storm Force Accelatron. As fast as they were
spinning I thought they would all be sick.
Men in Black...this is a fun ride. You
compete against other riders. As you
go through the ride you shoot aliens 
and it tallies your score. At the end it
displays every one's scores and the
highest wins.

For the last meal of the trip Mom and Dad
bought everyone dinner at Toothsome 
Chocolate Emporium. It's a steam punk
themed restaurant that specializes in
desserts and huge milkshakes.

Pretty tasty food. The french onion soup
was really good. I had the forest mushroom 
flatbread. It was good. I think Dawn had the
shrimp and lump crab macaroni and cheese.
That's a big bite Yosh!
Dessert is the real star at Toothsome. I had
the banana cream pie sundae. It was very
sweet, but tasty. Dawn had some kind of
brownie sundae.
Michael and Dawn in front of Mel's Diner.
Giordano's Pizza, just down the street
from the Royal Pacific. Look at all that
cheese!
Citywalk at night...



And that brings to a close a wonderful 
vacation. Universal Studios was a great
way to wrap it all up. For thrill rides it's 
hard to beat Universal. The two Harry
Potter rides are cutting edge. The Hollywood 
Rocket is one of the wilder rides I've been
on and you can't forget Spiderman and
Jurassic Park. Unfortunately Jurassic Park 
was closed for renovation while we were
there. Simpson's land is another very
cool thing about Universal Orlando. The
food at Universal is quite good. I would
say they are giving Disney a run for their
money. All in all a great vacation that our
entire family will always remember.

Links...



Otter's Fizzy Orange Juice 


Saturday, February 9, 2019

Disney World!


Our day started early with a mad dash to the new
Flights of Passage ride in Pandora at Animal 
Kingdom. We only had to wait in line about 20
minutes so our plan worked. The ride is amazing,
everyone needs to check it out. I would say it's in
my top 3 amusement park rides.
After Flights of Passage we ran over
and got in line for Na,Vi River Journey.
I think that line had around a 35 minute
wait. The river journey is visually stunning 
but is over pretty quickly and may not be
worth waiting over an hour for.
The work that went into creating Pandora
is amazing. It really seems like you're on
a different planet.
Dawn and Melissa grabbed a drink
and a snack at Pongu Pongu. The drink
is the Night Blossom. It's layers of fruit
juice with boba balls. Dawn liked it. I
thought it was good but very sweet. The
snack is Pineapple Lumpia. Pineapple 
Lumpia is cream cheese mixed with 
pineapple, wrapped in a lumpia wrapper 
and deep fried. Dawn didn't care for it
but I thought it was really good.
The floating islands of Pandora.
After checking out Pandora we ran
over to Dino Land to hop on Dinosaur.
This is always a fun, exciting ride. Very
interesting line before the ride too. I 
spotted several fossils on display that
were on loan from Montana State
University. After the ride we decided 
it was time to head to Disney Studios 
and EPCOT.



A nice view down Hollywood Blvd.
This was right before the March of
the First Order. Captain Phasma leads
a squad of stormtroopers up Hollywood 
Blvd. To watch a video I took of it click
Dawn's favorite ride. I still can't 
believe they got rid of it in California.
Lunch was at the ABC Commissary.
I had a chicken club and Dawn had the
shrimp. I think Michael had a burger. My
chicken club was ok, nothing special though.
Dawns shrimp, on the other hand, were great.
     If you're a fan of Aerosmith you
will love this ride!
           
Quack...

In EPCOT we headed straight for
World Showcase to check out the
festival of the arts. Every country
puts out a special menu for this
festival. We were eager to see what 
we could find. Above was my first
stop, The Refreshment Port. There I
found an amazing looking bloody mary
and delicious Canadian cheddar
cheese soup. The bloody mary was the
Stow Away Mary. It was garnished with
celery, blue cheese olives, tomatoes and
a big fried chicken nugget. It was all
good, I did give Michael the chicken 
nugget thought. At $12 it was a bit
pricey but probably worth it. The
cheddar cheese soup was cheesy,
creamy and very good. I think it's 
available all year at the Refreshment 
Port now. Previously you could only
get it at Le Cellier.
Dawn's favorite...the caramel shop
in Germany.
My dad, Michael and I love Mission
Space. No one else will ever go on it
though. It's a very cool simulator of a
mission to mars complete with g forces
and simulated weightlessness. Very fun
but it is somewhat intense. The picture 
below is from inside the cockpit. Click
here for a short video I took.

Dawn had to try out the sushi in
Japan. It was good. The texture of
the dessert was a bit odd but the
flavor was good.
Below was Dawn's favorite item.
The Deconstructed Strawberry 
Cheesecake. I didn't try it but she
said it was amazing. Sure looks
Good.

The Spiced Beef with pine nuts, dried
cherries and hummus above was probably 
my favorite item of the night. Everything
was perfectly balanced in it. The
Mediterranean Flat Bread was also tasty.
If I recall correctly Melissa bought these
for us to share...good choice.
Below is Dawn's  Charcuterie board.
Meats and cheeses...can't go wrong
with that.

Above and below are menu items
Mom and Dad tried. My mom had
the chicken and lamb shawarma
platter. She loved it and said the
tzatziki sauce really stood out. Dad
had the Roasted Pork Roulade and
said it was very good.
The Almond Frangipane Cake on
the bottom was good but nothing
special and the Pop'tArt was really
good. I wish i had tried it.

Enjoying Kaki Gori (shaved ice)
from Japan. I had tangerine and
cherry.

We stayed at Shades of Green this
Trip. Melissa is retired military so
we were able to stay with her. The
grounds are very nice as is the entire
resort. It has a little less Disney theming
 then the other resorts. We didn't 
really have time to explore, but we
did eat at the buffet, which was good. I 
basically had a Thanksgiving dinner...
Yum!
The best gas station ever has the best
breakfast sandwich ever. It was so
good. When I think about the trip
this is one of the things that stands
out to me. Funny.....


I didn't think it was possible to pack as
much into one day as we did. It was 
tiring but so worth it. Animal
Kingdom, Disney Studios and EPCOT 
all in one day. Not to mention looking 
around and trying all the food at the
Festival of the Arts. We were dragging 
by the end of the day. What a great way
to get a vacation started though. At this
point we still had a seven day cruise on
one of the biggest cruise ships in the world 
and a couple days at Universal Studios to
look forward to. Coming up next...
Universal Studios.


A fun group in Morocco 


Links...
Click here for a ride on Spaceship Earth.
Click here for the morning rush at
Animal Kingdom.