Silent All These Years: The Red State

Friday, March 02, 2007

The Red State

Finally, things are back to norm, not quite the same but calm enough for me to wanna blog. I cannot stress how the 2 days off after our return from Florida helped cuz if I had to go back to work rightaway, I would surely have taken my own life. Florida, Florida....what can I say? It's just Florida. I wanna rave about it but I can't. It didn't have much to offer. Orlando is one huge amusement park. And the freaking tolls everywhere you go on the highway and the frequency of it is insane. All we needed to do was to drive less than a km from airport and we hit a toll, make that 2. As we just landed, we had no US cash on us except for a pathetic 75 cents Canadian. Each toll costs 75 cents. We had to beg our way and promised an IOU note, they took pity and let us go. Whew! Also the line up of cars behind us must have been stressing the toll booth attendant out. Seriously, why can't you install a credit or debit card machine, what day and age do we live in carrying cash around. One thing though, Floridians are nice and friendly.

What can I say about dining in Florida, who would've thunk it that Orlando would have good seafood? Our lobster and crab feast was to die for at The Crab House, finger lickin good seafood. Ponderosa was such a delight, such fun. The famous Nobu was a tad disappointing to say the least. Nothing like the one in Milan. First it was hard to find, not on the main strip of Ocean Drive at all, almost had to crack the Da Vinci Code just to find it. Madonna was rumoured to have dined there more than once but I doubt she'd be impressed. The menu was stupidly expensive. 2 slivers, yes u read that right, 2 paper thin slivers of tofu tempura was $4. After I dipped them into the sauce, they could not been seen, they sunk to the bottom as it was tiny. Sad. Fresh seafood for certain but worth the $40 for 8 pieces, nah. Glad to have experienced it but I am Nobu-ed out. Bring on Shiro anytime or any izakaya. I was introduced to a chain restaurant called Ponderosa that I love. Beyond inexpensive and so much food I could not partake another morsel. Wonder why we don't have one here in Vancouver, possibly as we have too big of an asian community and that would kill any buffet restaurant within a month.

I did enjoy the shopping but the sales were nowhere to be found. Seattle definitely ruled in this area. And where are the smaller sizes, why is everything on the rack almost a XXXXL, do I look like the old Carnie Wilson to you, or the current Kirstie Alley? Whoever said shopping rocked in Florida lied to us!

Well, having said that, it was still a fun trip, would I go back again, nah, it's a been there done that sorta place, not like NYC.

Ocean Drive looks like a scene from Grand Theft Auto game, I kid you not!

Yacht that's named 'Bad Girl', guide refused to disclose owner, me thinks its Madge

Gloria's Miami home during our 2 hour Star Boat Tour, she was nowhere to be seen. We were expecting her to be selling her Conga/Let It Loose CD on the pier for 99 cents a piece and also let the tourists touch her bionic back? Where were you Mrs. Estefan? Making salsa in the back?

posted by movetothis @ 3:36 pm

2 Comments:

At 3:51 pm, Anonymous said…

Those slivers of tofu tempura sounds like Norway prices! Cheap! LOL

Let see...at asian grocery stores here, I pay 12 nok for a chunk of firm tofu (they don't have any other kind)...that works out to about $2 cdn. Since the chunk is about half of a regular tofu package at T&T, that's double YVR prices.

Ponderosa...I wonder if it is the burger-Denny-like chain that I used to redeem coupons for in Ohio. LOL I'm not kidding about the coupons. All the public libraries had this reading program to encourage kids to read and they gave out coupons for free burgers if you read 50 (100?) books in one summer.
At 9:27 am, Brand New W said…

LOL! Gloria selling her wares oceanside! I love it. did you see Versace's house???