310 Lakeside

We have another wedding to-do item checked off the list! We have found our rehearsal dinner location! I’m really lucky because Kevin took the lead on this project and did all the research on available menus and pricing. The staff at 310 Lakeside couldn’t have been easier to work with.

They are owned by the same company as 310 South on Park Avenue in Winter Park, which I had been to a few times before. This location is right on Lake Eola in downtown Orlando and is a go-to location for power lunches. Their interior is very elegant, and they have a back room for private events. Their prices were very reasonable compared to other restaurants, and they didn’t try to nickel and dime us every step of the way. They were extremely flexible and easy to work with.

Last weekend, Kevin and I met up with his family to grab some lunch and to make the final decision about the location. We started out with bruscetta for the table, Kevin’s sister’s favorite.

I really liked their spin on bruscetta. Everything was sweet from the balsamic, and they also incorporated onions and chopped black olives. The bread soaked up all the juice from the toppings.

I ordered their salmon burger with a side salad.

I ordered it thinking it would be on the lighter side, but it was very hearty and very delicious. The salty bacon accompanied the salmon perfectly.

Also ordered at the table were a couple burgers and a hot Italian sandwich.

Of course 310 Lakeside’s lunch menu isn’t exactly the same as their catering menu, but I have a pretty good feeling the food will be delicious. They said their pastry chef can pretty much prepare anything we’d like for dinner, which started getting my imagination jogging.

I’m so excited to have another big item checked off our list. I know our rehearsal dinner is just a preview of the wedding, but it’s such a heart-warming feeling to think about your closest friends and family together in one room.

Whitewood Mediterranean Grill

Thursday marked my two-year anniversary at my job. I can’t believe it has already been two years. Sometimes I still feel like I just started because there’s always so much to learn. I left my last job right before my two-year anniversary, so this officially marks my longest job with one company (post college). To celebrate the milestone, my team went out to lunch at Whitewood Mediterranean Grill in downtown Orlando.

I love Greek food so was excited to try this quick service Greek café. The atmosphere feels like a big city. All the windows are open, so the entire corner café is open air, complete with the breeze going through and all the noises of the street.

All three of us ordered the falafel platter, which comes with your choice of two sides. I chose French fries and stuffed grape leaves for my sides.

I was a little disappointed with my falafel. I think it was overcooked. The falafel patties were just dried out and very hard. The sides, however, were very good. The stuffed grape leaves were my favorite. They were bright with flavor. The fries were topped Greek seasonings.

My dining companions chose hummus and baba ganoush and hummus and tabbouleh as their sides.

I was disappointed by the falafel but do want to return to try their gyro pita. I saw one go by and it looked massive and full of vegetables and meat. This weekend has been full of watching the Olympics. I love hearing our national anthem!

What is the longest you’ve been at one job?

Shakai Sushi

Sometimes when I go out to eat, I want the bang for my buck. I tend to eat pretty healthy at home, so I’ll splurge when going out. Other times, I try to keep my calories and portions a little more in control as to not regret the meal later.

When Everyday Health, a website dedicated to all sorts of healthy living resources, reached out to me to share their guide to The Healthiest Choices at the Sushi Bar, I immediately found it applicable to my life. After all, I love sushi and eat it often. Everyday Health has MDs medically review their articles, which adds a layer of credibility.

I grabbed some of my friends/coworkers to accompany me for a sushi lunch today so I could put Everyday Health’s guide into action at Shakai Sushi Lounge in downtown Orlando. Shakai used to be Ichiban, where I celebrated my last birthday. They revamped the space and menu to be more of a late night destination and expanded the bar.

As the guide suggested, I started out with an appetizer of edamame to avoid over-ordering the sushi. Broth-based soup is another good option they mentioned.

Now for the main event. Everyday Health suggests ordering rolls heavy on the vegetables and swapping out white rice with brown rice. They also said to avoid battered rolls and ingredients, cream cheese, mayonnaise-based sauces and chili oils.

Shakai does serve brown rice, but they were unable to make rolls with it, so I decided to just leave the rice out altogether.

I ordered the sashimi platter, which had a nice variety. The guide lists salmon, tuna and halibut as prime sources of Omega 3s, but you also have to be careful of the amount you consume in your diet due to mercury concerns.

The guide suggests avoiding the salty soy sauce and using the wasabi and ginger for flavor instead. Skipping the soy sauce was hard. I used the wasabi and ginger but missed the taste of it all mixed with the soy sauce.

With the absence of the rice, I was afraid my lunch wouldn’t fill me up, but the protein in the edamame kept me full for the rest of the workday. It felt great to not feel like I was in a food coma when I had to go back to work for the rest of the day.

My dining companions ordered an assortment of rolls and seemed to really enjoy them.

Everything at Shakai Sushi tasted very fresh, and the menu had a variety of options. They offer hot dishes in addition to sushi, and I’m excited to check out their evening scene. They also have some very reasonable lunch options.The décor inside is very reminiscent of a spa. Everything felt very tranquil.

I’ll also have to revisit on a splurge day.

What are your tricks to eating healthy when eating out?

Freshfields Farm

I have a new love.

Freshfields Farm is a produce and meat market in the Delaney neighborhood of downtown Orlando. They sell fresh, local items at pretty great prices. They are not a grocery store, so you’d still need to go somewhere else to get non-perishables.

It’s actually two stores in one. One side is the produce side. Their produce comes straight from the farms, and their selection changes from week to week depending on what’s in season and available.

All of the produce always looks fresh and vibrant. To get to the meat side from the produce side, you actually have to cash out and exit so you’d end up with two transactions if you shop on both sides.

The meat side has a little bit of a smell, but the prices make it worth it.

All of the meat is packaged the day it’s received, and it contains no additives or preservatives. They also sell organic varieties.

Even though having to go to two different stores for our weekly groceries can be annoying, it’s been worth the cost savings. We’ve been saving anywhere from $10 to $30 off our weekly grocery bill.

Freshfields Farm also offers deli meats and has an ice cream shop out front. It’s very small so gets crowded easily. I try to go during the week to have some breathing room.

How many different places do you go to for your groceries?

Maxine’s on Shine

There’s an old house on Shine Avenue in Thornton Park that was turned into a restaurant. It’s nestled among other historic houses in a really cute neighborhood, but for some reason the restaurant occupying the home never sticks. Each iteration had a similar theme: Italian comfort food. Kevin and I first went there on one of our first dates when it was called Bravissimo. Then it became Shine Neighborhood Kitchen, which we loved. Now it has become Maxine’s on Shine. Kevin and I tried this third version with our friends Daniel and Alia who just moved downtown from Avalon Park. (Alia is my friend who instructs at The Pilates Loft.)

Maxine’s was hopping on Saturday night, and the entire street smelled like garlic, making my stomach super excited. After ordering a round of drinks, we started our meal out with bruschetta.

The bruschetta was delicious. You could taste the freshness of the mozzarella on the thick French bread. I really enjoyed all of the flavors and the freshness of the ingredients. Unfortunately, the bruschetta would be the highlight of the meal.

I actually ordered an appetizer for my main dish because they had mussels, which sounded delicious at that particular moment.

The menu described the sauce as a white wine garlic sauce, which I didn’t really get from what was presented. I didn’t taste any garlic, and the sauce just tasted like tomatoes. I actually prefer the mussels at Bonefish. I’ve come to the conclusion that Bonefish’s sauce on their mussels is unbeatable.

Overall, I felt like everything we had, besides the bruschetta, was under seasoned. Everything tasted very bland and didn’t match the wonderful aromas that perfumed the neighborhood.

Kevin ordered the Chicken Maxine’s, which is their version of chicken marsala.

I really liked the creaminess of the sauce and the variety of mushrooms in the dish, but it still fell short in terms of seasonings. Some extra flavors would have really brought everything together to make a full flavored dish. I also tried a bite of Alia’s chicken parmigiana, which had the same verdict: lack of flavor.

Daniel, on the other hand, loved his dish. He also ordered an appetizer as his main dish. It also happened to be a special of that evening: fish quesadillas.

My favorite thing about Shine Neighborhood Kitchen was their cheesecake. It tasted so fresh and light. After trying it, I constantly craved it for a week. I needed to know if the desserts at Maxine’s were as tasty. We ordered a bacon chocolate cheesecake to share.

The flavors were really interesting. I actually liked the crispy bacon with the dark chocolate shell over the top of the cheesecake. It made for a nice sweet and salty combination. The cheesecake, however, was not as good as Shine’s cheesecake. It was very dense. If you like a denser cheesecake, you would probably enjoy this. I just prefer lighter cheesecakes, and Shine’s had a really homemade taste.

The ambiance at Maxine’s was also odd. They have musical entertainment, but the restaurant is very small, so the music overpowers any hopes of conversation. It would work great if the space was bigger so the noise could diffuse, but it just bounced off the ceiling and walls and pounded our eardrums.

Overall, I’d recommend Maxine’s on Shine for some drinks and maybe appetizers. They have a great wine list. I just wasn’t thrilled about the dinner or atmosphere.

Have you ever tried bacon for dessert?