cookies and code

The early bird price (~$35) for registration to FlashCamp Orlando 2009 has been extended until May 15, 2009! Let’s face it, in this economy, every little bit helps. If you weren’t able to make it out to 360|Flex or cf.objective this year, or you can spare a Friday out of the office, come out to support a local developer event sponsored by Adobe and Universal Mind. Lunch, parking, door prizes, great sessions, and lots of great networking opportunities come with the registration price. The best part of it all is at the end of the day, you can drive home instead of staying in a dank motel like you do with most events. Tampa and Melbourne are still what I consider within driving distance, but you may still elect for the motel/hotel.

If you haven’t seen it yet, an interview has been posted with Adogo’s very own Jason Madsen about his session at FlashCamp. Hope you can make it out!

A little belated, but registration for FlashCamp Orlando 2009 opened this weekend with early bird expiring on May 1st at $35. Fear not though, the standard registration price is a mere ~$50 which, IMO, is a significantly small fee to attend a one day event.

FlashCamp (formerly FlexCamp) is a one-event day sponsored by Universal Mind and Adobe in which developers and designers can take a deep dive into topics ranging from introductory to advanced from the Flex world. This year Adogo’s very own Maxim Porges and Jason Madsen will be presenting along side Greg Wilson, of Adobe, as well as David Tucker, Andrew Powell, and Christian Saylor, of Universal Mind, and Carl Smith from nGenWorks. The event will take place on May 29th from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. Registration includes free parking, lunch, door prizes and lots of great networking.

If you have the time available, I definitely suggest signing up for a spot, availability is limited. I won’t be able to attend, or speak at, the event since we’ll be welcoming our 1st child into the world this month, but I would definitely be there otherwise. Hope you can make it out!

During acts_as_conference, a few of us decided to grab lunch at a local Thai place that I’ve been hearing my co-workers rave about for months, but have yet to try. Now I’ve tried some pretty great Thai food in Melbourne (I’d recommend Thai Kitchen on Aurora and Wickham), but most of the places I’ve tried in Orlando have left me a little dissapointed. G & G Thai Cuisine is definitely not one of those places.

G & G Thai Cuisine is located next to Jersey Mike’s in the Conroy/Turkey Lake plaza. The restaurant is cozy with a great lay back and modern atmosphere. G & G’s menu has the classic dishes you come to expect from Thai dining, but it’s the twists on those classics that set them apart from their competitors. For some strange reason, I am obsessed with anything pumpkin, so once I saw the Pumpkin Chicken Curry ($9.50), I had to order it. The food arrived within 10 minutes or so and mine was piping hot. The Pumpkin Chicken Curry came with thinly sliced pieces of chicken placed in a flavorful mixture of coconut milk, spices, green pepper, chunks cut from a small pumpkin, and red curry. The meal also came with a large portion of white rice. This was probably one of the best red curry dishes I’ve had in a long time. It is always so hard to find a good balance between heat and flavor when it comes to preparing spicy food, especially Thai. G & G has found that perfect balance; my meal was oustanding. Some others at the table had the Pineapple Chicken Curry and said it was just as good. Someone else ordered the Panang, which also looked really tasty. Did I mention they split the check 7 ways without any issue, because they did, which another plus in my book.

Please keep in mind, I went for lunch on a Saturday, so there were no specials. G & G’s does have lunch specials however, from looking at the menu, and they seemed to be reasonably priced. I eyed the Green Curry ($7) as something I’m going to have to try next time I go back. I definitely will have to thanks my co-workers again for making this recommendation. If you haven’t tried G & G Thai Cuisine, make it a point to do so; I promise you won’t be disappointed.

G & G Thai Cuisine is located at 6700 Conroy Rd, Orlando, FL 32835.

NOTE: Jackamo’s has shut it doors and stopped the flow of bread pudding to the Orlando area. It is a sad day.

When I went off to college, I had a lot of hard realizations to deal with. My laundry needed to be done more than once a month, class was intended to be attended at every session, and the homemade Cajun dishes my Mom made didn’t make themselves. After 6 years and way too many attempts to find a reasonably priced, tasty Cajun restaurant, I returned to the Central Florida area to find Jockamo’s New Orleans Kitchen. After one visit, all of the greatness of my Mom’s cooking was relived. Even better, a rotating menu every day of the week has guaranteed my return for as long as I live in Central Florida.

Jockamo’s has a small spot in a strip mall next to a Dunkin Donuts and Five Guys and is always packed for lunch. Their menu has a great selection of po’boys including crawfish, oyster, catfish, and grouper. Jambalya and red beans and rice, with or without sausage, are also available daily. Now don’t get me wrong, their regular menu is great, but it’s the daily specials that’ll make you go back. Different types of etouffee, gumbo, fish, and bread pudding are available. For lunch, I ordered a large crawfish and shrimp etoufee (~$6) and the banana foster’s bread pudding (~$5) with a regular drink ($1.50). The roux they use for their all of their dishes reminds me of Mom’s home cooking and that’s pretty hard to do. I’ve also tried the cherries jubilee and peach bread pudding and they don’t disappoint either. Additionally, they have a homemade strudel, but I haven’t seen it on the menu in a while.

With the start of crawfish season, Jockamo’s doesn’t miss a beat. They’ve started their seasonal boil every other Saturday from 11:00 AM until the supply runs out. Each order comes with bucket of boiled crawfish and some traditional sides (potato, corn, etc). The first boil starts on January 12th and then January 19th, after that they resume their bi-weekly schedule. I haven’t had a chance to make it out to one of these yet, but I will this year. It’s been too long since my last one.

The way that Jockamo’s runs their restaurant makes me proud to be a Cajun in Central Florida. Jockamo’s does a great job at exposing the rustic nature of Cajun cuisine to the masses at truly reasonable price. For anyone who hasn’t visited Jockamo’s New Orleans Kitchen, you are missing out. Patronizing them will be one of the best decisions you’ll ever make about dining … “I GARONTEE!” (the late, great Justin Wilson).

Jackamo’s New Orleans Kitchen is located at 3042 W Sand Lake Rd, Orlando, FL.

Bucky over at 2ndPlayer.net has been raving about Izziban Sushi for the past few months. Never to be one to turn down the potential for good sushi, we headed over for our typical “short” Friday lunch. My expectations for any new sushi restaurant are usually low, but in the case of Izziban I was definitely not disappointed. In fact, I think Izziban has some of the best sushi I’ve tried in the Orlando area to date.

Located in the shopping plaza with World Market, Izziban has taken over the the space formally occupied by Saucy Bella. The restaurant layout hasn’t changed too much, but the decor is simple and well done; I especially like the collection of designer saki bottles lining the back wall. It’s your typical “wait to be seated” place. We were seated right away, our drink and food orders were taken, and our food was received all within 20 minutes. The lunch menu was a single page, back and front, with a great sampling of dishes. They have a large selection of bento boxes and lunch-sized entrees as well as sushi, sushimi, and roll lunches.

The table ordered a pretty big diversity of items from the lunch menu as well as an order of gyoza (~$5 – grilled pork dumplings). The gyoza was very flavorful and came with a sweet/salty dipping sauce. I ordered hot tea ($1.50) and the Roll Combo A (~$14) which came with 3 different rolls, a choice of soup or salad, and a generous helping of ginger and wasabi. The miso soup could have used some more tofu and seaweed. A couple others tried the salad which came with a nice chunk of pineapple, fried noodles, and a mild ginger dressing. The tuna roll is the typical tuna roll, the spicy salmon roll is made with smoked salmon, cucumber, and spicy masago, and the shrimp roll was made with shrimp tempura, covered in salmon eggs, and topped with mayo. The quality of the fish used in the rolls was excellent; the tuna literally melted in my mouth. I also tried some of the tonkatsu that someone ordered and it was extremely tender; most places fry the pork to “bone dry” perfection, so I was shocked to taste how well it was prepared. I wanted to try their egg sushi as well, but unfortunately I just didn’t have enough room left after finishing my meal. In fact, I can’t believe that I even was able to finish all 3 rolls. If that doesn’t spell tasty then I don’t know what does.

I do wish the pricing at Izziban was a little more affordable for lunch, but all and all, Izziban delivers great sushi and Japanese food. I couldn’t find anything that I tried from the menu that I didn’t like. I was sad to see Saucy Bella go, but I’m really glad to see another great local restaurant take its place. Good call Bucky.

Izziban Sushi is located next to World Market at 1700 West Sand Lake Road, Suite D124, Orlando FL.

My colleagues and I have been looking for a good Chinese place near work. We tried 1-6-8 Chinese on Turkey Lake as well as a place down on Westwood Drive and I-Drive, but didn’t really find anything we liked. This week we tried Dragon China in the Publix plaza on Sand Lake Blvd. It’s a small location in the strip mall, but when you walk in the place is clean and the people are nice.

We kept it simple and went with the lunch combinations (~$6). Each combo has an A or B option; A is the meal and rice, B is the meal, rice, and an egg roll or soup. We ordered the Pork with mixed vegetables, pork egg foo young, Mongolian chicken, and bourbon chicken as well as the wonton soup, hot and sour soup, and an egg roll. Additionally, for $1.50 you can add brown rice to any meal. The egg roll didn’t seem to be anything too special. The wonton soup was your basic chicken stock with scallion and wonton. The hot and sour however was done pretty well; it was made with a nice variety of fresh mushrooms, bamboo, and spices and wasn’t too salty. The meals themselves were pretty good made with fresh veggies and lean meats. The brown rice was equally as good and a nice option with our meals.

The food came out quickly, was hot, and our glasses were always filled. Hot tea is free, so that is a huge plus for me. Overall Dragon China makes lunch easy while tasting great. If you’re in the Dr. Phillips and need a good Chinese restaurant, definitely keep this one in mind.

Dragon China is located in the Publix plaza in Dr. Phillips at 7538 W Sand Lake Rd, Orlando, FL

One of the reasons I starting blogging about local restaurants in the Central Florida area was because I can never find any decent reviews for local places online; this is especially true for the Melbourne area. I really feel like chain restaurants and franchises don’t need the press, good or bad, because they have marketing initiatives that can do that for the them, IMO local joints don’t. That being said, I think I’m going to have to break my own rule for this one post.

A favorite place of my wife’s is the Darden restaurant Season 52, particularly the Dr. Phillips location. We’ve always been for dinner and I’ve had some really fresh and tasty meals. They have really great fish selections and creative menu choices which change 4 times annually. Just as a note, I had a Curry Red Snapper dish that was so good, I wanted to take home another one for leftovers the next day. The concept for the restaurant is low calorie meals with fresh ingredients. They don’t even have butter in the restaurant which I find kinda funny, but holds true to their mantra.

A couple days ago, my wife and I had lunch at the Dr. Phillips location next to my office. I really like the price points for the lunch entrees, usually around $8, and that fact that each comes with a nice side salad (romaine, baby greens, a strawberry, and a slice of mango, with a sweet oil-based dressing). I had tried the Grouper sandwich, which was ok, but this time I felt like something more on the veggie side of things. We ordered the side salad (~$7), a chicken flatbread (~$9), and the Fresh Market Roasted Veggie Sandwich, which came with a side salad (~$8). I didn’t ask the waitress what came on the sandwich; I was just hoping it wouldn’t be wimpy, simple, bland tomato, lettuce, and zucchini sandwich like I’ve gotten in the past from other restaurants. Boy, was I wrong. I think this was the heartiest vegetable sandwich I’ve ever had. I was so full after eating everything, I felt like I had consumed a lot more than the 400-whatever calories the meal was supposed to be. The sandwich had a stack of grilled zucchini, asparagus, grilled red onions, grilled mushrooms, a thick cut of tomato, and some type of three cheese blend that tasted like a mild version of goat cheese. What a sandwich! It was so good as were the other items we ordered. We didn’t do dessert, which for this restaurant is a must, because we were so full.

My only gripe about this restaurant is the fact that their beer selections are dismal as best. The food however is really great. Dinner has the best selection of food, excluding the sandwich I mentioned above, but it is a bit pricey and a little pretentious at times with the whole “we’re a wine bar, why wouldn’t you like wine with your meal” deal. Darden did a good job with this concept restaurant in Orlando (we didn’t like the Galleria location in Fort Lauderdale at all). We’ll definitely go back.

Season 52 is located in the Dr. Phillips area at 7700 W Sand Lake Rd, Orlando, FL.

Ok, let me start out by saying, this will not be a positive review. Memories of India used to be a place that I enjoyed going for lunch. They have some decently priced lunch specials that can come with or without a somosa and all lunch specials also come with dessert (mango ice cream or rice pudding). So those are the things I liked.

What made me decide to never go to the restaurant again were two things: the service and the re-use of food (that’s right, you heard me). For lunch, anywhere from 4 to 8 of us from work would go out. Each and every time we’d go, we had the same issue with splitting up the check. The conditions under which they could split up the check always changed and when we finally got our bill sorted out, it would take over a half hour to pay so we could leave. As far as food re-use, the waiter took a bowl of rice pudding that someone took a bite out of and didn’t like, and served it to another table where it was promptly gobbled up. Whether he knew it had been eaten from or not, wow, that sucks. I know plenty of you will probably tell me that it happens all the time and it’s probably happened to me, but I saw it this time.

So with that I’m not going back to Memories of India in Dr. Phillips ever again. Maybe other have had better luck, but that place is off my list.

Memories of India is located in the Dr. Phillips area at 7625 Turkey Lake Rd, Orlando, FL

RANT : So many of you out there may be saying, “So what about splitting the check.” and maybe you’re right; for big parties there are usually issues at local places when splitting the check. The food however is not the only thing that motivates me to go back to a restaurant. Why small restaurants will turn away potential business by having poor practices for handling the bill is something I will never understand. And don’t give me that, “the software won’t handle it” BS; ring us each up separately or hold onto the original ticket and re-enter it. Good customer service with respect to stuff like this is something people remember and respect. If you’re too busy to be bothered with these luxuries for the customer, then don’t worry, I probably won’t be back. I could understand the argument that says the wait staff deserves the guaranteed 18% tip for large parties, but why not just charge this on the individual bills? I’ve have had this done plenty of times and in fact left over 18% most times. I have the utmost respect for the people who prepare food and wait on me when I dine at a restaurant. My quarrel is not with these people, my quarrel is with the owners and managers who adopt practices like what I’m describing. Maybe I’m alone on this, but I really have respect for the local places that I can go to, with a large party, and there is never an issue splitting the bill. It may be possible that these practices are in place to make it easier on the waiter/waitress, but I would challenge the owner/manager by saying, why is it hard in the first place for the wait staff to split the check? My mother, brother, and sister-in-law have all waited tables for years at different times in their lives and have the same gripes. Maybe I’m setting myself up for a lot of spit in my food, but the bill thing just “grinds my gears”.

Woodlands Indian Cuisine is a vegetarian Indian restaurant on OBT that is truly a great spot to eat. I was first introduced to it by a co-worker of mine for lunch and have been hooked ever since. It’s funny that a few days later, I spoke to a friend of mine who knows some great Indian establishments, and mentioned the Woodlands to her. Not only did she know about the Woodlands, but she was pissed (well as upset as she never is) that I had to opportunity to eat there more recently than she did. Slowly but surely I began to realize that this particular Woodlands location was a pretty big favorite amongst Orlando locals. In fact, I’m still amazed at the number of people who already know about this place. I will admit, I do have to be in the mood for Indian food, but most of the time the mood is available. I think it’s because I’m Cajun, but I’m not sure. I’m used to a lot of stews and sauces with varied contents so when I can’t find a good gumbo or etouffee, Indian food is a great substitute.

Lunch at the Woodlands offers a very high-quality buffet (~$7.99) with a good assortment of sauces, stews, salads, rices, and breads. Additionally, I’m not sure if they charge for it, but they serve this pancake thing with your meal that tastes great (especially with the coconut chutney). I’ve had no issues with the service since I’ve been going. The restaurant may appear a bit rundown from the outside, but inside it feels relatively clean and well kept. For what it’s worth, we’ve never had an issue splitting checks either.

I really like the Woodlands for lunch; I hear dinner there is just as good. I didn’t think I’d consider vegetarian cuisine an ample substitute for the other Indian restaurants I’ve visited, but the Woodlands definitely surprised me. I’d suggest it to anyone who is willing to try a great restaurant that doesn’t already know about it.

Woodlands Indian Cuisine is located at 6040 S Orange Blossom Trl, Orlando, FL

NOTE: Pup’s is now closed.

For lunch today a bunch of us from the office decided to hit up what has become one of our regular places, Pup’s. Pup’s is a hot dog, burger, gyro, sandwich shop that I’ve come to really enjoy when I want to get a quick American-style meal. We’ve been going to Pup’s for almost a year now and they’ve undergone quite a transformation during that time. In addition to some new cool tables, Pup’s got a larger menu and started serving drinks (wine and malt beverages) and $1 drafts.

Since it was lunch, I reluctantly passed on the beer, but I did order the gyro, homemade Parmesan potato chips, and a soda ($~8). They have the cylinder of lamb(?) spinning in the roaster, so the meat is always tender and the chips are good, but a little salty because of the cheese. 2 of my colleagues ordered the latest addition to the menu on the hot dog side, the Dominator. It’s a fried hot dog with chili, cheese, onion, sourkraut, and bacon on what looks like an herb-flavored hoagie roll because it’s a foot long (not sure about the price). I’m 100% sure that about now they have the meat sweats.

I’ve had the classic dog with assorted toppings and its always a good eat. I’m not too much on the turkey burger or the fries, but otherwise it’s tough to find something you won’t like. The food along with the friendly staff give Pup’s it’s great “mom and pop” feel that always keeps me going back.

Pup’s is located at the Marketplace next to Starbucks in the Dr. Philips area at 7600 Dr Philips Blvd, Orlando, FL 32819.