As I visited my friends in Florida and we enjoyed Orlando and its attractions, we also went to Tallahassee, where they actually live. I like Tallahassee a lot as it has a southern flair with its trees with Spanish moss and the humidity. Also, I can't complain about the place where they live either as they have a huge pool area that belongs to the apartment complex :)
During my stay they arranged for a babysitter and took me out one night. As they know how much I love food, they took me to a very special place, Osaka Steakhouse. This restaurant doesn't just have amazing Japanese food, the way it is prepared is the actual experience. If you have ever watched How I Met Your Mother, there is this one episode ("Ducky Tie", season 7 episode 3) at a teppanyaki restaurant where Barney places a bet with Marshall that he can prepare the food better than the cook. I do not want to go into too much detail of the episode but the point is, that Osaka Steakhouse is also a teppanyaki restaurant where the cook prepares the food on an iron griddle on the table in front of you... He starts by cleaning the griddle with actually putting it on fire! Then he adds rice, cracks some eggs, fries some noodles, vegetables and the meat of your choosing (steak, chicken, shrimps, etc.).
Each person gets a full blown menu with so much food that you have to take home a box (and I actually couldn't stop myself to order an additional side dish, some sushi california rolls, despite my friend's warning):
- A bowl of soup as a starter (and the broth of a japanese soup is just delicious in flavor)
- A fresh salad (but not with any kind of dressing, it was unusual but very tasty)
- Fried rice (your first course from the actual griddle)
- Fried noodles
- Grilled vegetables
- Your choice of meat
We had a fun time with the most amazing cook. He looked a little frightening but he was hillarious. He actually tricked me and played a little joke on me, pretending to squeeze ketchup on me (it was just a fake bottle with some yarn it it). We were about 7-9 people on the table surrounding the iron griddle plate and it was one person's birthday. For that occasion the cook cut up an onion in rings and put it together as a pyramid and put it on fire.
But this wasn't the end of the night... My friends then actually took me to get some desert, because even if you are full, there is always space for chocolate! We went to the Melting Pot, a fondue place. They let me pick the desert fondue and I chose the "Flaming Turtle" (for the recipe look here). I did not know that there is actually similar candy out there that you can buy in the store (DeMet's Turtles). The fondu consisted of milk chocolate with caramel and candied pecans. It came with strawberries, blondies, bananas, pineapple, marshmallow, pound cake, rice crispies and brownies. What I didn't read, was, that this dish was "flambéed". This means we ended the night with another meal on fire! Perfect ending and I have to give my friends a big fat THANK YOU! It was an amazing night :)
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| The Birthday Onion |
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| The Flaming Turtle |
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| My friends' pool :) |
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| At Tallahassee's Museum... yes, "Museum" :) |
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