Grub Crawl - Mills Ave: Pop's Pizza and Conrad's Shanty *NM/TX/AZ Travel Notes

I tried these two places on Mills on Tuesday night. The first is near Tako Ckeeka. The second is near Hawkers (it was some bar with video games last).

Pop's Pizza - They are only doing take out. You park and order around back. Open for two years. No Monday. After 4pm. I had a regular pie at $10. It was 11" or 14". It was ok. Thin. Typical pizza cheese. Needed more sauce. It had a garlic taste. Crust had a sweet undertone. I also tried the Caprese salad at $7. Fair amount for the price. Mozz was ok. Tomatoes were a little refrigerated. Tasteless and spongy. I actually expected worse. Covered in olive oil and basil and salt and pepper. They sell other pies and a few other items. Limited menu. Seemed like one guy was doing everything. Said he can't get workers. Wonder what those 1.2 million "refugees' are up to?

Conrad's Shanty - Just grabbed a beer. $2.50 for a PBR. Small bar. Some table top games. Dark. Seemed like a good joint. No hard stuff. Closed Monday (I believe).

Travel Notes - NM/TX/AZ: I flew into Denver on Frontier for $148. Car (SUV) for two weeks at Budget was $750. Drove to Albuquerque. Stayed at Comfort Inn for $100 (Rack). Down the street they had a food court called Tin Can Alley. I had a brisket slider with Hatch chile mac and cheese at S-A BBQ. At Pho Kup, I had a beef banh mi. Did you know pho is from the French "pot au feu"? It's a beef stew. Had beer at Santa Fe Brewing Co. Drove to El Paso the next day. Stopped at Petroglyph NM first. Stayed at America's Hotel for $92. Went to Chamizal NP. Ate a great brisket taco and chicharron burrito with beans.at at La Colonial Tortilla Factory. On 3D. Taco shell was semi-hard. Had a wave to it. White corn. So good. Chicharron was soft. No meat. I also ate at Chio'c Tacos. It was a little north of the city center. Bad beef taquitos and worse cb. They were on Best Thing I Ever Ate. Which once again leads me to wonder why the show isn't called Some Shit I Tried. I drove back north to three parks that make up the Salinas Pueblo Missions NP. Slept at Green Tree Inn in Albuquerque for $76. Ate Almond Chicken and Won Ton Soup at China Luck. Had breakfast at Rebel Donut (Cheap Eats). Had an Apple Pie donut and Croissant donut with cherry jelly and chocolate chips. Drove nw to Valles Caldera NP. Ate lunch near there in Jemez Springs at Highway 4 Cafe. Had a pretty decent turkey sandwich with fries. Drove west to Chaco Culture NP. Twenty miles of unpaved roads in. Thirty miles of worse leaving. Don't know how they allow this. A private facility would be shut down. Drove south to Gallup. Slept at Sleep Inn on Route 66 for $85. Drove nw to Hubell Trading Post NP in AZ. North thirty miles to Canyon de Chelly. That was better than I expected. Stayed in the park at Thunderbird Lodge for $123. Drove to Page. Made detour past Vermillion Cliffs and Navajo Bridge to North Rim of Grand Canyon NP. It was 9k in elevation. Snow. Stayed at Sleep Inn for three nights in Page for $250. Ate at Gone West (pot roast with mp and bp). Saw Antelope Canyon. Took boat tour ($135) to Rainbow Bridge. This is why I came back. Tours were closed last time because of Covid. Can't get there by car. On Lake Powell. Drove to Vegas. That and the rest will be in next post. This trip was about checking off all the parks, monuments, etc I haven't visited. Now all done.

Moonlight Drive In, Titusville

I actually went here before the last post. For lunch. I grabbed what I thought was the two patty bacon cb. They gave me the deluxe bacon cb. It cost $9. It came with fries and a drink. Burger was ok. Bacon was good. Veg ok. Half the fries were good and half were under cooked. Soda came with ice. Asked for no ice. As I was the first and only customer, I think they could have done better. It's a old timey burger stand. From 1964. They also sell fried items like fish and chicken and other things you'd expect. Waitress service. You drive into a spot. Also, a tiny inside. Not sure if you can avoid the waitresses by doing that. It's kitschy.

*I tried the second parking area at the Canaveral Seashore this time. Think things are nicer farther down.

**I have a CO/NM/TX/AZ/UT travel update coming in the next post.

Grub Crawl - Maitland: Jalapenos and Pita

I tried these two places on 17-92 (N Orlando Ave) today. They are near each other. The first is in the location that was most recently Greek To Go. The second is in that new condo complex next to Publix. 

Jalapenos - Two women from Guerrero. Small menu. 7 items (2T, B, Q, N, Tamales and Fiesta Bowl). I tried the tacos Mex (carnitas and barbacoa) for $2.60 each. Just onions and cilantro on corn tortillas. The tortillas were made by somebodies hands. Meats were ok. I wouldn't complain if I had only these to choose from. Had better though. I also tried a chicken tamale. It was similarly acceptable. Order at the counter. Everything under a saw buck (just learned that another old timey term is a dixie). Open for lunch and until 8pm. Closed Sunday. Opened one month ago.

Pita - They say they started in Peachtree City Georgia. Map on wall shows this as only Florida location. Chain Med. Chain meh. A few fillers (gyro, chicken, beef, falafel, shrimp, salmon) in a pita or rice bowl or salad. But wait...there's less. Just kidding. They also have spreads and salads and fries and desserts. Hey, can I start a new "..." thing with commas? ",,," Not sure what it will indicate though. Might try and mine the whole symbol universe. Who made the period king? I tried a chicken shawarma bowl for $10. Lowest price point. The rice looks yellow in the pictures. In reality it was white. It was ok. A few chunks of chicken. Alot of ground up something or other. I believe it had a tahini sauce (gyro had tzatziki). Some veg tossed in top. Medium sized portion. White, modern interior. Lots of height. Order at a counter. A few, spaced tables. Not much of a draw. I believe there is even another fast food Med place down the street (if it hasn't shut down). I believe the opened recently too. 

*Saw a cool episode on Martin Yan show about Chengdu dim sum called xiao chi (small bites). And of course they can't phoneticize, so, it's pronounced sh-ow suh. Worth a search.

Nick Filet, Sand Lake and Dr Phillips *Nantucket Travel Notes

I tried this franchise in the old Lemon Shark Poke spot in the strip mall at the intersection of Sand Lake and Dr Phillips last Friday. They seem to think that slicing beef is a step too far. They sell sandwiches of beef loin. I suspect the "loin" is an inferior cut that qualifies as loin. Like the one you would get at a Sizzler et al. Needless to say, it was weird. A hunk of beef an a Kaiser roll. I had a classic for $12. It had some immemorable cheese and sauce. Too much. Sloppy. They had around four or five (predictable) styles. Call me crazy, but, I prefer my loin on a plate with a side of veg. It was also too expensive. They also sold another thing I prefer not to be in a sandwich. Lobster. Also, too expensive. Now around $25 and they said the cost was going up. Not that I would really trust a lobster sale in Orlando at a sandwich shop anyway. At best, it would be just pre-prepped, shell less, boiled, undersized lobster. They are out of Philadelphia. I asked and this "loin" thing isn't a Philly staple. They opened 4 months ago. Mostly open space. Spartan. Order at a counter place. 

*Travel Notes - Nantucket: I'll skip the sites and the commentary as I suspect you don't really read this section and are unlikely to travel here. Just the basics. Everything here costs double what it would anywhere else. Had a turkey and Swiss with a pathetic (well a little commentary) bun at Henry Jrs. At Millie's, I ordered striped bass tacos (that cost $24 for two) and there was no way they delivered striped bass. Maybe cod. Or worse. Overcooked too. Had an egg and bacon and cheese sandwich from Wicked Island Bakery. Had brownie batter ice cream at Jack & Charlie's. Had good swordfish tacos at 167 Raw food truck. At Nantucket Provision, I had the Terrific Turkey sandwich that Alex Guaranaschelli placed on The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Now, I've tried a few of the things on this show and I'm starting to think that they get kick backs or are pimping a friend's place or don't get out much. It was a Thanksgiving riff. CB sauce and stuffing. It was ok. That's all. At Nativ Made I had a chicken, rutabega, potato, etc Pasty. Chicken salad at Corner Table Cafe. Cheese and bacon cruffin at Born & Bread Bakery. Also a loaf of sourdough and focaccia. Very fresh fish (cod) and chips and ff at Town. Udon with shrimp at Bar Yoshi. Stewed chicken and rice and beans at Stubby's. Godfather (pep, salami, cap) sandwich at Walter's. Chicken salad and smoked blue fish pate at Green Market. Pizza at Sophie T's. Donuts at Downyflake Doughnuts. I ate at the cheaper joints. Price avoidance. IE - a tiny sushi place called Lola's had an app of salmon (a cheap fish) carpaccio at $50. Two interesting things I saw at a place called Gaslight were: pig ear salad with crispy egg and a burger with black garlic cheese. Flew on Jet Blue (delays each way and not weather related) through JFK. Just over $213. Didn't stay in hotel. They seemed to start at $300 (on week days). There is a bus that drops people around the island. Car rentals too.

Melao Bakery, Florida Mall Area

I tried this Latin (probably Puerto Rican) restaurant on S OBT and Consulate Dr last Friday at lunch. It's just past the Florida Mall and Sand Lake and 529 or 526 (I'm confusing myself). Traffic here sucks. The name has a Spanish and a Portuguese translation. I assume the Spanish is the one we want. It means heart of honey. It's melon in Portuguese. I saw it when I was looking for Moroccan Breeze a few months back. I thought it was just a bakery. They have that too. I ordered a la carte. Funny that they don't use (or there isn't an equivalence) a Spanish term. I tried the Mofongo with Chicken Cracklings for $10. Just trying to try something off script. For some reason I was just expecting fried chicken skins on top. I forgot that what they call skins (chicharron) are actually pieces of chicken. That justified the price a bit more. I liked it. The chicken was a little dry. It was fried of course. The mofongo (fried mashed plantains) was tasty. They have a LARGE menu. Breakfast (5), burgers (4), baked potatoes (6), hot cereal (was intrigued by those), sandwiches (26), salads (4), plates (8), mofongos (10) etc. Reasonable pricing. They also had a buffet. Not sure how much. It seemed like they decided at the register based on what you ordered. Too dicey for me. It was pretty full. Quite a few gringos too. Pretty big cafeteria like space. I was glad I finally tried it. Pain in the ass getting out of the parking lot. One of the main toll roads is between you and S OBT. The original is in Kissimmee.

Grub/Pub Crawl - South Orange Ave: Gatlin Hall Brewing and Willy's Original

I tried these places at lunch on Friday. I had meant to try them the night before, but, Jet Blue did their usual awful worst to make that impossible. They are near Le Coq au Vin. Next to the Porch. Worth a visit.

Gatlin Hall Brewing - I had samples of the NE Pale Ale and NE IPA. Both were good. Hoppy. 5oz pours had different prices. Started at $2.50. The place looks nice. TVs with sports on. Tables and a bar. They host the next place and a pizza place that is opening on Wednesday and a Da Kine Poke stalls. Open from 11am to 11pm. Opened around a month ago. Had customers at 11am.

Willy's Original - They sell five burgers and three chicken sands and salads and dogs. Also fries and curds. I had the All American (cheese, two patties, veg) for $10. It was fine. Big Mac-ish. But fancier. A little chewy. Veg were fresh. Bun was good. They put the meat on the grill as a ball and press it. I used to be able to comment on "the grind" when the burger thing became a thing. Now I'm not sure I can tell how they do it. 

Grub Crawl - New Smyrna Beach: Wake Up North, Island Roasters Coffee, Mason Bar and Touch of Italy

 I went to these places two weeks ago around lunch. The first three are on the road from downtown (on the mainland side) before the drawbridge to Flagler Ave. The second is in the strip mall with the Sentry Management offices (if you take the larger bridge and follow the road to the right).

Wake Up North - This is location two. I believe I reviewed the original. It is in the strip mall with the Publix on the beach side. Near Limoncello. I had Eggs Azules (bacon, blue cheese, spinach and tomato) for 11. They were good. Fresh veg. Properly timed fried eggs. Came with home fries and an English muffin. They offer waffles, ft, pancakes, eggs, sandwiches, soups, salads and lomito. The place has a South American vibe. Open four years here.

Island Coffee Roasters - I just grabbed an iced tea for the beach for $2 on the coffee side. They also have a separate area with sandwiches.

Mason Bar - I grabbed a tajin and lemonade popsicle for $4. Tajin is the chili and lime spice mix some places put on a Margarita. Or so they said. It was fine. They also sell acai bowls and drinks. 

Touch of Italy - I grabbed a pretty awful veal parm sandwich with chips at the $7 lunch price and ate it for dinner. Very tough. Cheese had no flavor. Average sauce. Carrots? Burnt hero. Typical Italian menu. The kind of place with a map of Italy place mat. Dark room. Guy who made (warmed) it was listening to heavy metal. Somehow open for 32 years. 

*There was one other place near the first three. Dough Girl. Didn't open at 2:30pm like the sign said. So I bailed. Saw another new place downtown on the mainland side. Something in Spanish. On a side street. Not open yet. Will fill you in some day.

**I just returned from Nantucket. I did four places today that I will break into three posts (probably M/W/F next week) and do a travel notes on the last one.