Dining Reviews 9/28 - 10/8 - I Started A Blog

More great reviews not sure about that breakfast pizza though!!!!
It tasted better then it looks. Plus this picture was taken with my new camera, that was not taking the greatest pictures.
 
It tasted better then it looks. Plus this picture was taken with my new camera, that was not taking the greatest pictures.
It wasn't the photo just the description, I guess being British I'm a bit too traditional :rotfl2: DH would probably like it though!!! BTW I think your photos are great :thumbsup2
 
It wasn't the photo just the description, I guess being British I'm a bit too traditional :rotfl2: DH would probably like it though!!! BTW I think your photos are great :thumbsup2
Thank you, I am however, dissapointed with my photos after day six.
 

Day Eight - Tambu Lounge

We had dinner reservations at Ohana that night at 5:00, but we got to the Polynesian early, at around 4:00, so we decided to get drinks at Tambu Lounge. I am not usually a drinker I do however like sweet mixed drinks, and I knew most of the drinks at Tambu were the tropically type I liked.

My mom got the pomegrante splash.

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I believe that's what it was called anway. I know it was pomegrante something, but I'm not sure exactly what was in it. I did try a sip of it, but I didn't think it was that great, not sweet enough for me, and a little on the tart side, my mom liked it though.

I ordered myself an Island Sunset.

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The island sunset was a blend of spiced rum, Malibu coconut rum, melon and peach, combined with guava passion fruit juice. It was very good, and I liked it better then the Lapu Lapu I had the last time I was there.

Cost - $16 (OOP, after DDE discount & tip)
 
Day Eight - Ohana

I want to start this by saying that I was a little worried about eating here. I had recently read a lot of very negative reviews, and had debated changing my reservation to eat somewhere else. I decided not to however since I had really liked it the last time I had eaten here, and didn't want to change my ADR just based on some negative reviews.

I checked us in while we were enjoying our drinks from Tambu Lounge, and we were seated at 5:00 exactly. We were allowed to take our drinks into the restaurant with us.

Our server for dinner tonight was Brigid, and she was excellant. She had a very nice conversation with my mom, though I forget about what. I think it might have been about getting kids to try new foods, and about the food at Ohana.

We were served the appetizers right away;

the wonton chips and sauces,

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the salad,

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the shrimp,

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and the chicken wings.

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The wonton chips were very good, and better then the ones I had the last time I had eaten here. They were crisp and very addictive. The three sauces that came with the chips were peanut, harissa, and chimi-churri. I always forget which sauce is which in the picture, but I do know that the peanut sauce, which is my favorite, is in the front. The red one, (I'm not sure if that's the chimi-churri or the harissa,) is a red pepper sauce, and the one in the middle is an oil-based herb sauce, which I believe had thyme in it. Our assistant server, whose name I can't remember, and didn't write down, (Miguel maybe?) explained all of the appetizers to us very well.

The salad was good, but I could barely taste the dressing, which last time had a much stronger presence. That's a shame since I'm not really a big salad eater, but I do like Ohana's, mainly because of the dressing.

The shrimp were very good, and better then last time. They had a sweet and sour glaze, and had pieces of pineapple mixed in. They were peel and eat shrimp, which wasn't a problem exactly, but I probably would have eaten more of them if I didn't have to peel them myself. My mom really enjoyed them though.

The chicken wings had a honey and corianer glaze, and were topped with toasted sesame seeds. I know that a lot of people say they are the same ones that are served at Kona Cafe, but I've had Kona's once before, and these twice, and they just don't taste the same to me. Yes, they are similar, but I don't think they're the same. I'm not complaining though I prefer Ohana's to Kona's, and I ate several of these, they were very good. My mom, who usually does not like or eat chicken wings liked them, but only ate two.

We were also given hot damp washcloths to wipe our fingers with, which between the chicken wings and shrimp, were definatly needed. I've always thought that the cloths were a nice touch, and added to the quality of the service, which in my opinion, is not lacking.

We were then served the potatoes,

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and the stir-fried vegetables.

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The potatoes were just as good as I remembered them, and I ate most of the plate we were given of them myself. My mom liked them too, but she was trying to eat healthy, and she didn't eat many of them, something about starchy carbs and creamy cheese sauce, whatever.

The vegetables were much better then the last time I had eaten at Ohana. Before they had been bland, but this time they were crisp and very flavorful. By mom ate a lot of them, and I ate a quite generous amount too.

We were then served the meats.

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The four different meats served at Ohana are marinated sirloin steak, which was my favorite of the evening, though my mom thought the steak we were served was too salty and rare, Asian-barbecued pork, which was okay, but had been better last time, Hawaiin sausage, which was okay, but I've never like Ohana's sausage, and mesquite-grilled turkey, which was good, but not as good as the last time, though it was still the best next to the steak. I especially like the turkey dipped in the peanut sauce.

Our dessert was bread pudding a la mode with banana fosters sauce, which has been the dessert at Ohana for years.

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My mom is not a big fan of bread pudding or banana fosters, so she only had a little bit, but she thought it was good. I on the other hand, love bread pudding and bananas foster, so this was, and still is, one of my favorite desserts at Disney.

Cost - $64.72 (Used Two TS Credits)
 
Glad you enjoyed 'Ohana.:goodvibes We went in August and loved it. I was a little worried too after some of the negative reviews, but my boys wanted to try it so we went. Our server was fantastic and the bread pudding was to die for.:love:
 
Glad you enjoyed 'Ohana.:goodvibes We went in August and loved it. I was a little worried too after some of the negative reviews, but my boys wanted to try it so we went. Our server was fantastic and the bread pudding was to die for.:love:
I would never not try a restaurant just based on other people's reviews. Every restaurant, in my opinion, deserves to be tried at least once. Though I will probably put off trying a new negativly reviewed restaurant to revisit a favorite.
 
Day Nine - Main Street Bakery

Today we made it to the park at opening, but instead of going straight for the rides, like we had on other mornings, we decided to get breakfast at Main Street Bakery first. I knew that lines were always long there in the morning, and that there are also very few tables usually, though seating has improved a bit, there are still more patrons then seats.

Even though we went straight to the bakery there was still a short line when we got there, at about 9:05, five minutes after the rope drop.

We decided to use two counter-service credits this morning, since we only had two days left, and nine credits. So for those of you keeping track, we had started on day one with twenty credits, and on the first eight days of our vacation, only gone through half of those credits. We also still had eleven snack credits, though that's a story for day ten's review of the Food and Wine Festival's booth. The only credits we had basically used up were the table-service credits, of which we only had one left. Even though we had gotten the plan for free with the bounce-back promo I was very insistant that I didn't want to go home with unused credits, so my goal for the next two days was to use up as many as possible.

So anyway, we were told that we could get one savory item, one sweet item, and a drink for each counter-service credit.

My mom got the fruit and cheese plate for her savory item;

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and I got the turkey and brie sandwhich.

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My sandwhich was not very good, I thought it was dry, and had way too much arugula in it. I just picked out most of the turkey from the half of it I ate, and ate that. We saved the rest of the sandwhich, which my mom ate later, since she liked it better then me.

The fruit and cheese plate was a much better selection then the sandwhich, and I ate some grapes and walnuts from it.

For her sweet item my mom ordered what I believe was the almond bear claw;

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and I ordered the apple charlotte.

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Where my sandwhich was a complete dissapointment, (probably my least favorite thing all week,) I absolutly loved the charlotte. I ate the whole thing except for a small slice of it my mom tried. Her bear claw was very good too, which of course I also had to sample.

With breakfast my mom also had coffee, and I had a bottle of diet coke.

Cost - $24.10 (Used Two CS Credits)
 
Enjoying your reviews. I can relate to using up those credits, we had a bunch left and ended up coming home with 2 boxes of goodies from Boardwalk Bakery.
 
Enjoying your reviews. I can relate to using up those credits, we had a bunch left and ended up coming home with 2 boxes of goodies from Boardwalk Bakery.
Yeah, we definatly had trouble using up the credits. The next day, day ten, we had twelve "snacks," which should have used up our credits, but twice they charged my credit card, which I had added on my room key, instead of the dining plan, so we still had a snack credit left the last day.

We also had four counter-service credits left the day we went home, but we had breakfast, and then three lunches between checking-out, and getting on the DME bus back to the airport.

More on that though in my reviews for days ten and eleven.
 
Day Nine - Cosmic Ray's

After our breakfast at Main Street Bakery we spent the morning in Tomorrowland. We decided to have lunch at Cosmic Ray's since it was close by, and also since it was the only place at Magic Kingdom we hadn't been to yet that I really like.

We decided to use one counter-service credit and split a meal, since we had just eaten breakfast about two hours before that, and we did have Party for the Senses that night, so neither one of us wanted a big lunch.

We ended up getting a bacon double-cheeseburger.

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Unlike when we had eaten at Pecos Bill's, my mom had successfully found the toppings bar while I ordered, (there is hope after all.) So we topped our burger with pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, and I added some fried onions to mine.

The burger was very good, I thought it was better then the one we had at Pecos Bill's, but it was probably about the same. The fries were also very good. I swear, we had the best luck with getting fires fresh out of the fryer this trip.

For dessert we got the carrot cake.

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It was very good. It was very similar to the one at Pop Century, (perhaps they have the same cake,) except the packaging was different, and this one did have a lot more icing on, which my mom wasn't too fond of, but I like a lot of icing.

We got really good seats at lunch too. We sat out on a deck next to the water, with a view of Cinderella Castle, and we could hear Dream Along with Mickey, which was doing a show while we ate.

Cost - $13.70 (Used One CS Credit)
 
Day Nine - Party for the Senses

Tonight was the night that I had been waiting for. Even with all of the food we had eaten up to that point, I was very excited to be going to Party for the Senses tonight.

We had spent the afternoon resting back at Pop, I had gone for a swim, which always makes me hungry, and napped, and my mom had napped for a few hours before we headed into Epcot.

We got to Epcot at about 5:00, but they were having some kind of problem with the turnstile and it took us awhile to get in to the park. When we did it was almost 5:30, but instead of heading to World Showplace first, where Party for the Senses is, we headed to the Odyssey to check the menus for the next days cooking demonstrations. (There was one I wanted to see, but we never did get to it.) So by the time we did get over to the World Showplace it was closer to 6:00.

We checked-in immediatly, and they did ask to see my ID, I'm not sure if it was to make sure I was the one who had booked, or because I look young. Let's say it was for both reasons since I do want to think that Disney won't just let anybody give them a name and let them check-in, though besides the person who made the reservation it would be very easy to take anyone else. For instance, they knew it was for me for two adults, but they didn't ask for my mom's name or anything, so if my mom hadn't been able to go it would of been possible for someone else to go instead. I also would like to think it's because I look younger then 21. I'm not, but the other day a seventeen year old called me "old," so I need to feel as young as possible right now.

Anyway, after checking-in we joined the mob, which at that point was quite large, and just getting larger. We found a small spot to stand by the coffe cart though.

At around 6:00 they let us in to the small holding area in the building with some tables and chairs, and we were able to get seats at a table with another couple while waiting for them to let us into the main area. My mom talked to them while waiting, but I was completely absorbed into reading what was being served tonight to pay much attention.

After my first Party for the Senses two years ago I wanted a stragedy of to how we were going to sample as much as possible. My goal for the evening was for us to try as much as possible. Looking through the menu I decided I'd like to start in the yellow section.

For those of you who don't know Party for the Senses is in a huge room divided into six different sections, pink, red, yellow, purple, green, and blue. In each section the lighting and tablecloths are different colors. I'm gald I decided on yellow since we stayed at the same table all night, and it was slightly easier to take pictures in the yellow lighting then it would of been in another section.

When the curtain opened we headed straight to a yellow table. We ended up getting one that had no seats, but that didn't matter to me, I just wanted to be able to have a base to return to. It was decided that one of us would stay there at all times, so we'd always have a place to eat. Some of you may consider that rude, but when I went to Party for the Senses two years ago solo it was very annoying to never have a place to eat for a moment. And it's not like we didn't share the table, we did, we met many, many, people throughout the night who would stop and eat at our table. We just wanted to be able to have a spot to return to.

At the begining of the night we took turns going for food and wine, but after about halfway through the night I was the only one who went looking for food, and my mom only left the table when she wanted to find wine.

I'm going to talk about the wines I tried first, before I talk about the food. I only drank two different wines all night. I'm really not a big wine drinker, so if I find one I like I'll stick to it. Well, turns out we had ended up at a table right next to the Mission Hill Winery's table, and I knew I liked their ice wine. You can see where this is going, can't you? I had three glasses of that, before deciding that I had enough and trying a different one. My next wine was also in the yellow section, this one was Piper Heidsieck's Rose Sauvage. Now, if you think I was bad with having three glasses of ice wine, by the time I drank this my mom had sampled all the wines from Piper Heidsieck, and she had told me that I'd probably like this one, so that's what I got. She was right, I did like it.

Now I don't remember what all my mom drank, she did make dashes in the program next to the ones she tried, which of course, I can't find. But I do know that I counted her dashes, and she had a grand total of thirteen different wines, and she may have had seconds of some.

But I don't go to Party for the Senses for the wine, I go for the food. Now I said that the yellow section was slightly better for pictures then the other sections, but in my opinion these pictures are still pretty bad, and dark, and blurry, but I spent so much time keeping track of the pictures as I was taking them I'm going to post them anyway.

These are not in the order we ate them, they are in the order the appeared in the program, except I am going to list all of the savory items first, and then the sweets. The picture will be first followed by the description. Oh, and we did manage to try everything that night.

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Pumpkin amaretti ravioli with braised rainbow swiss chard, wild mushroom ragut, and sage beurre noisette. This was excellant, except I didn't try the mushroom ragut, I just kind of shoved that part over to my mom's side of the plate, (we shared every dish,) the rest of it was so good. It was made my Debra Valle, who is a chef at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary resort.

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Chicken samosas with afritude. This was okay, not one of my favorites. Actually compared to the other dishes of the night this was one of my least favorites. I wasn't suprised though, since I have never liked the potatoes with afritude at Boma, so I just don't like afritude. I have no idea what afritude is though, I did a search on it, but all that came up was links to information on Boma. This was made by Jenny Sly who is a chef at Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

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Sizzle and spice rack of lamb with mango chutney and an Indian papadum crisp. This was excellant, but I really like lamb, my mom however, who doesn't really care for lamb, though will eat it if she "has" to, said it was good too, though I definatly liked it better then her, and ate much more of it then the bite she had. This was made by Allen Susser, who has a restaurant in Aventura, Florida; Chef Allen's. He also, if you remember, made a shrimp dish at a cooking demonstration my mom and I had attended on day seven that we had also liked.
 
We liked O'Hanas too and had similar views as you re the sausage! I love your use of CS credits at the bakery your dessert did look nice, we also had the left over credit problem we were there 14 days and on about day 12 I let my DD's spend 7 SC's each in Goofy's they thought they were in heaven :rotfl:
 
We liked O'Hanas too and had similar views as you re the sausage! I love your use of CS credits at the bakery your dessert did look nice, we also had the left over credit problem we were there 14 days and on about day 12 I let my DD's spend 7 SC's each in Goofy's they thought they were in heaven :rotfl:
I heard Ohana's menu might me changing again. There's a thread on the main restaurant board that the skewered shrimp are coming back, as well as the wontons, and the sausage and potatoes are going. I'll be sad to see the potatoes go, but happy to see an end to the sausage. At least the bread pudding is safe, or so I've heard.
 
Day Nine - Party for the Senses - Part Two

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Louisiana crawfish etouffe. This was good, but not something that was that memorable to me. I thought it would be spicier then it was, but it wasn't, not that that was necessarly a bad thing, as I don't like overly-spicy foods. This was made by Jeff Tunks, who is a chef at DC Coast, which is in Washington DC.

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Tangine of lamb with artichokes and peas. This was okay, it seemed very plain and basic compared to the other foods served this night. It tasted all right though. Visually it was also somewhat basic, since most of the other dishes had amazing set-ups to, and this seemed to just be kind of thrown on the plate. It was made by Lahsen Abrache who is from Restaurant Marrakesh, which is the Moroccan restaurant in World Showcase.

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Moo yang pork with Japanese sticky rice, and stir-fried bok choy. This may have been my favorite thing all night. I do have a small regret though. This was served with a flower, and I know that just got thrown away. As an afterthought I should have tried it, since it may have been edible. This was made by Tim Creehan from Credhan's Copper Grill, which is a restaurant in Miramor Beach, Florida.

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Grouper cheeks with micro arugula, fire-roasted red and yellow peppers, shaved fennel, citrus vinaigrette, and ice wine nectar. This was good, but I think it had just a bit too much going on flavor-wise. Still, the tastes worked together, but it was very difficult to pick out any individual flavor. This was made by Chris Epmer from Shutters, which is a restaurant at the Caribbean Beach Resort.
 
Day Nine - Party for the Senses - Part Three

I wanted to add that looking through the menu for the first time I was very pleased to notice that there was a lot of meat being served the night, as well as some more unusual things like quail and buffalo, both of which I like, but rarely eat. I was also pleased to notice that everything on the menu sounded good. There were some dishes I was more excited to try then others, some I thought I would really like that I ended up not liking too much, and some that I did not make a priority to try, that I ended up really liking.

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Boneless seared breast of quail, with eleven-root hash, and a carrot drizzle. This was excellant, one of my favorites of the night. It was made by Matthew Arbuthnot, from Crystal Palace, which is a must-do for me every trip for breakfast, at the Magic Kingdom.

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Slow-braised pork belly with rustic lentil ragout and stone-ground mustard jus. This is one that I didn't try until closer to the end of the evening, when we were just trying to get what we hadn't tried yet. I didn't think I'd like it that much, since I'm big on neither lentils or mustardy things, but this was another favorite of mine from that night. Made by Daniel Sicila from California Grill at the Contemporary Resort.

I find it quite ironic that this dish, as well as one I had at the 2005 Party for the Senses I attended, that I both thought I wouldn't like due to certain ingrediants, both ended up being favorites of mine from both of the parties I attended. Both of those dishes were from chefs at California Grill, which unfortunatly we didn't get to this trip, but I do have it on my list for next year, I did eat there in 2006 though.

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Pan-seared striped bass, with roasted corn and chive pudding, dugness crab relish, and sweet pea puree. The piece of bass I recieved was cold and bland, but the accompiaments, especially the crab relish, which was more like a small crab cake, were excellant. I was tempted to eat the whole crab thing myself, my mom would of never missed it, but I was good, and she did get her half of it. This was made by Wade Cramer from the Concourse Steakhouse at the Contemporary Resort, which I'm sad to learn is closing before I get a chance to try it.

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Seared sea scallop with watermelon-mint chimichurri oil, ricotta salata, and smoked sea salt. This was excellant, it seemed on the menu like a very odd combination, but it all worked very well together. It was made by Sam Talbot who was a finalist on the TV show Top Chef. (Which is a show I really want to see, but we do not get Bravo at my house. Why can't they release a DVD?)

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Duck breast with butternut squash gnocchi and pomegrante port sauce. This was very good, although my mom thought it was a little too salty. (She thinks a lot of things are too salty, but that don't seem salty to me, like frozen pizza.) It was made by Lorene Vanette, also from the Concourse Steakhouse at the Contemporary Resort.

Is it just me, or does it seem like there were a lot of chefs from the Contemporary Resort there that night.
 
Day Nine - Party for the Senses - Part Four

I have to go to work soon, but I have a little time to try and get more of this posted.

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Cocoa-rubbed lamb chop with Asian-inspired pickled root vegetables and espresso reduction. This was good, but a little on the bitter side. It was made by Peng Leoi who is the chef at August Moon Chinese Bistro in Lexington, Kentucky. This is the chef whose demo I wanted to see the next day, but we never got to.

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Szechuan-seared beef filet with kimchi and sweet and sour glaze. This was good, but my mom and I agreed that it was a little too spicy. It was made by Keith Shockling who is a chef at Wolfgnag Puck Cafe at Downtown Disney.

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Butternut squash gnocchi in a sage-cream sauce with Asiago cheese. This was the first thing we sampled at the event. I thought it was one of the best things all night, and since we were at a table right near it, I had quite a few servings of it. This was made by Mike Reitzler who is the chef at Garden Grill at Epcot.

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Charred New York strip steak with a caramelized onion tart and orange marmalade. This is one of the things I thought I would really like, but it was probably my least favorite thing all night. It was very spicy, and I was not expecting it to be spicy at all. It was made by Albert Riviello who is a chef at Le Cellier, which is the Canadian restaurant in World Showcase. The chef from Le Cellier had made one of my favorite dishes at the 2005 Party for the Senses, and Le Cellier is one of my favorite restaurants, so that only added to my dissapointment with the dish. This is the only thing I ate all night that I remember truly disliking.

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Smoked buffalo with cherry demi glace and a chipotle-onion potato pancake. I liked this, but my mom didn't, she said it left a bad aftertaste in her mouth. It was made by Wendy Welcovity from Animal Kingdom. This was not listed in the program, I think it was there to replace something else.

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Crispy chicken and water chestnut lollipops with wasabi glaze and cilantro sauce. I thought this was good, but my mom really liked it. I thought it was better without the wasabi and cilantro sauces though. This was one of the funnest dishes to look at and eat though. It was made by Brooke Voshia from the Four Seasons hotel in Boston, Massachutes.

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Seared dried angus beef with fall squash puree and porcini mushroom ragout. This was excellant, except I didn't try the mushroom ragout, but my mom said that part was good. This was made by Albert Youngman who is a chef at Yachtsman Steakhouse at the Yacht Club Resort.

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Maryland crab, bay shrimp, and avocado salad. I thought it was good, but nothing spectacular, my mom on the other hand proclaimed this her favorite dish of the night. It was made by G. Garvin from the TV show Turn Up the Heat.

That's all of the savory items, I'll add the desserts in my next post, but right now I really have to go and get ready for work. Trust me, I'd rather be writing about the desserts.
 
Wow I didn't realise there were so many dishes and that's just the savoury :faint: Can't wait to read about the best part, dessert :cloud9: :rotfl2:
 














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