Driving Me Crazy

It's driving me nuts not to keep up on the blog. With just over 2 weeks until wedding day, I'm just too busy! I figure I'll have all winter to catch up, and enjoy summer memories! Stay tuned!!

Universal Orlando

The next day we headed to Universal Orlando to check out the new Harry Potter land. (Separate post, too many pictures) It was the hottest day in FL so far, temperature was over 100*.We got there bright and early to try to beat the crowds, but weren't the only ones with this idea.
Wish we had time to eat here!

After visiting Harry Potter land, we explored the rest of the park. It was all broken down into different "worlds" with different exhibits.
My favorite (other than Potterland) was Dr Seuss world. Universal couldn't even compare to Disney in any way, but was still fun anyhow.
Dr Seuss land was cool because everything was made to look straight out of the books. There were a ton of topsy turvy poles, signs, and funny characters. We went on this ride, which was a monorail around Seuss land.
Isn't he cute?!
This was the top of the merry-go-round.
And the inside of a line for a ride.

Here are some Dr. Seuss trees.
And Dr. Seuss store
The next land was Jurassic Park, but there wasn't much to do here. We looked at some dinosaur eggs hatching, tried to look through broken dinosaur eyes, and walked around some shops to take advantage of the air conditioning.
Another land was Toon Land. This land had several water rides, which we were tempted to cool off in, but didn't want to be soaking wet in tennis shoes.
We ate our lunch in this cool comic strip cafe
After lunch, we tried to stay cool in the shade of this theater where we watched a pirate stunt show. It wasn't cool in there at all. All of the heat was trapped in there, and we were boiling!
The Lost Continent was a pretty cool land. I think it was supposed to mimic Atlantis before it sunk.
The buildings were fantastic!
We went on a ride/show where we got trapped in an archaeological dig, and Poseidon had to save us. It was a pretty good show, air conditioned the whole time.
This was the entrance to the ride. It really looked all old and falling apart.
This is a view of Marvel land from across the water.
We didn't go on this ride. Robb and I are old people now, and can't handle all the upside down twisting of these roller coasters, but it looked so fun!
We went on a spider man ride in Marval land, walked around some more shops, and found an air conditioned restaurant to eat dinner in.
It was a fun day at Universal, but our feet hurt, we saw all we could see, and we were sick of being hot, so back to the hotel we went!

Tchoup Chop

So, when we were looking at Orlando brochures, we happened to stumble upon a very special restaurant! It was called Tchoup Chop, by Chef Emeril Lagasse! We figured we'd splurge on this once in a lifetime dining experience, since we didn't spend any money our first two days in FL. I'm so glad we went. BEST FOOD OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!The restaurant was located inside one of Universal's Polynesian themed hotels. When we got there, we were amazed by the gigantic bamboo that lined the walkway into the restaurant.
It was really neat to see this growing in person.
Must've been at least 40 feet tall, and made this cool breezy wooden wind chime sound whenever it caught a breeze.
There were also BEAUTIFUL flowers all over the grounds. I'm glad we got there a little early and could walk around and see the beautiful Florida foliage.
Everywhere you looked in Florida you saw color. From bushes to flowers everything was vibrantly colored.
I love the palm trees! Sadly, we heard that coconut trees are very sensitive palms, and many have died because of the frost Florida got last winter. This is not normal for them, and quickly kills the tree.
I loved this flowering bush plant! It was my favorite color, purple, and a really unique shade!
OPI, if you're listening...I'd love a nail polish this color!!!
We walked down this mysterious path and saw...A sea plane!! I wonder if this plane has ever been to Maine? And now it begins... my favorite meal EVER!!! We were there for 3 hours!!The restaurant was so cool! It had sculptures for lights, walls with moving water, bamboo, and absolutely wonderful ambiance. The lighting of orange and blue was fantastic! Even the bathrooms were decorated!
Our first food was shrimp chips, and the most amazing mystery sauce to dip them in.
Emeril's food was so amazing to me, and here's why. I'm very good at eating food and tasting ingredients that make them up. So much so, that I can usually duplicate recipes easily by taste. At Emeril's everything I ate was a completely new taste that I could never ever replicate. This is amazing to me. I remember looking up some of Emeril's recipes before, and never ended up making one (except a cocktail) because they had millions of ingredients! Now, knowing me, if I say this, there truly are a million, because many ingredients don't scare me. But his were ridiculous. Now, I know why the tastes were indescribable...all those ingredients!
Really, isn't the decor great?!
I love this chandelier!

The funny thing was when I called for the reservation, they asked if we were celebrating anything special... I thought about what that meant (special treats, extra nice treatment), and it came to me. We were celebrating our engagement (two months ago, but they didn't need to know) Technically, it was still a relatively new event.

Because of our engagement, we were treated to complimentary champagne, a fancy chef's amuse bouche, and a bit of fancying up on our dessert. Good call!
The restaurant was far eastern mixed with New Orleans. Very unique! Seemed like a good place to sample some sake!
I took pictures of everything. I never want to forget this night.

Our first appetizer was miso soup. Delish!

Miso Soup
Scallions, Wakame, Tofu and Udon Noodles
with a Pickled Garlic Chili Sauce
After that we had these wonderfully scrumptious spring rolls!

Crispy Kalua Chicken Egg Rolls
Orange-Chile Dipping Sauce
After appetizer round one, we found our taste buds so happy, we didn't want the meal to end too soon, so we had appetizer round two!

We got steamed dumplings...

Steamed Pork & Asian Vegetable Dumplings
Sake-Soy Dipping Sauce
And this tasty grilled peach arugula salad that was a special creation that night! Heavenly!
Love it!
This was my meal. I decided to try something that I never make myself, and ended up picking a savory duck dish. I've never had anything like this ever. The meat melted in my mouth, and the sweet potato and stone fruit compote was the perfect accompaniment. It was so good! But, this meal made me really switch gears on becoming a vegetarian, even though I'm having the hardest time about seafood... (more on that after the delicious food photos)

Pan Roasted Maple Leaf Farms Duck Breast
with a Sweet Potato Gratin, Summer Stone Fruit Chutney and Umeboshi Plum Glaze
Robb got this yummy bunch of short ribs. Again, this just melted in your mouth! Bam!

Tender Sake Braised Beef Short Ribs
on Caramelized Onion Mashed Potatoes with Hoisin-Honey Infused Veal JusHere's the happy newly engaged couple! ;o)
After dinner, we headed over to the kitchen seats to watch the magic happen. We had our dessert here, and watched the cooks make this beautiful food.
They were really strict. They had this one lady making sure every single creation went out of the kitchen absolutely perfect. It couldn't be messed up at all, or it was sent back! I guess you never know who could be a food critic.
We topped off our meal with a special dessert made only for the evening. It was a mango lychee cake with coconut and cream on top! I love lychees so much, this dessert was really something else! Look how cute the pastry chef was to write congratulations in melted chocolate on our plate!
Thumbs up Emeril! Everything was incredible!
Here we are, full and extremely happy!