F.A.T. Food, Adventure & Travel

Homemade Valentine's Day Heart-Shaped Sugar Cookies

2013-02-13T00:22:00.000-08:00

VALENTINE'S DAY SUGAR COOKIES! YUMMY HEART-SHAPED TREATS! :) So for Valentine's Day I decided to go ahead and make Heart-Shaped Sugar Cookies from scratch! .. sort of! LOL I bought myself a powedery flour mix, just add eggs, water, etc to make the dough. Roll it out on a flat surface.. flour sprinkled beneath it and a lil on top.. crab your cookie cutters and have at it! I bought all different kinds of red and pink sprinkles and other edible decorative stuff to do some artwork a-top my cookies! Put everything on the raw cookies before you bake them (except for the icing as you will see I used to make smiley faces on a few). The finish product came out pretty good, at least I think so for my first try! Really like how the sprinkles, colored sugar and tiny candied hearts looks on top of the cookies too. :)

Heart-Shaped Sugar Cookies for Valentine's Day! <3

Muscles, Fried Calamari, Caesar Salad and a Pizza Pie @ Nick's Pizza!

2013-02-06T00:52:00.000-08:00

Nick's Pizza..

Muscles Red

A group of friends and myself decided to go for some Italian. Sometimes it's just a great idea to get a bunch of yummy appetizers and split with the group! As was the case here. Add a yummy pizza and you're good to go!

I have to say we had a very nice evening at Nick's Pizza! The atmosphere was modern but casual. The food was tasty and fresh. We loved how they made their 'regular' pie. Sure reminded us of more fancy pies! ;)

Fried Calamari w/ Lemon Slices & Marinara Sauce

Caesar Salad

Large Pizza Pie

Ciao Baby's

2012-09-05T19:43:00.000-07:00

Italian Bread with Parmesan Chunks, Olive Oil & Vinaigrette

So my bestie and I went to check out Ciao Baby in Massapequa, New York.

They have a Lunch Pre Fix Menu with a $12.95 category and a $16.95 category.

For this price, you get an appetizer, your main course and a dessert.

We both ordered the same exact trio. Go figure, lol.

For our appetizer, we ordered the Calamari Arrabiata Semolina. Yes we ended up with two orders, one for each of us. Yes, they were both a normal sized appetizer. Lots of calamari = 2 happy ladies. The calamari came with two dipping sauces: a yummy plum tomato sauce, and a more spicy one with hot Italian cherry peppers... Oww! :)

"Calamari Arrabiata Semolina: crusted calamari fried and pan sauteed with fresh garlic, hot Italian cherry peppers, finished with a plum tomato sauce" - Ciao Baby Menu

Eggplant Rollitini

For our main course we each ordered the Eggplant Rollitini. They come with macaroni, for mine I ordered the mashed potato alternative, and yes, they placed that rollitini right on top of the mashed potatoes. YuM!

"Eggplant Rollitini: egg battered thinly sliced eggplant with ricotta Parmigiano Reggiano and fresh herb filling, topped with plum tomato sauce, served over macaroni"

- Ciao Baby Menu

Dessert is important, and I'm glad with the choice we made!

We ordered the Homemade Ice Box Cake, two of them!

I can't even describe how delicious this was.

Graham Crackers layered with thick, rich chocolatey pudding,

served with a side of homemade whipped cream

(the lightest, fluffiest, more tasty whipped cream ever)

and a strawberry slice. So sinful but so good!

Maybe this picture *might* do it some justice:

Homemade Iced Boxed Cake

Kodiak's Burgers, Wings and Other Things..

2012-08-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

Kodiak's Signature Wings with the Memphis BBQ Rub

This is basically Part #2 to a previous post from last month. "Kodiak's Fried Chicken Wonton's & Lobster Fritters" where a group of us went to celebrate a friend's birthday! We ordered such a variety of food, now that I've sorted through all my saved pics, here's round two! What the rest of the table ordered...

BBQ Grilled Cheese

"BBQ Grilled Cheese: Texas Toast Memphis style pulled pork with melted Muenster cheese & our signature BBQ sauce"...

12oz The Colossal Steakhouse: Filled with smoke house bacon bits & aged cheddar, topped with Alpine lace swiss, fried buttermilk onions & drizzled with BBQ sauce on our Bavarian pretzel Roll"

- Kodiak's Restaurant & Bar Menu

12oz The Colossal Steakhouse Burger

Signature Stuffed Mountain Man Burger

"Aged blend of prime chop meat, grilled to perfection topped with
melted mozzarella, sauteed mushrooms, friend buttermilk onions & A1 sauce"...

- Kodiak's Restaurant & Bar Menu

Kodiak's Restaurant & Bar is located in Farmingdale, New York.

A Rainbow...

2012-08-22T18:05:00.000-07:00

A Rainbow...

How often do you get to really see a rainbow?

After a light rain shower on a super hot and humid summer day,

this is what appeared off into the distance...

Greek Soup & Salad at Panera Bread

2012-08-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

Greek Lemon Chicken Rice Soup

So I stopped at a Panera Bread during a little day trip. Yes it's a chain, but there's nothing wrong with that. Their food is awesome, and fresh, regardless! :)

I love their soups and salads. Every now and then they change up their menu to go along with fruits and produce better available during the particular time of year...

Greek Salad

Greek Lemon Chicken Rice Soup & some Greek Salad...

do you seen a theme yet?

For any of you who have been following my posts,

you probably already know how much I love Greek food.

My friend opted for a Turkey Sandwich and a Caesar Salad.

Turkey Sandwich

Caesar Salad

Mario's Bakery Casino Birthday Cake

2012-08-07T00:17:00.000-07:00

Casino Themed Birthday Cake

Once again Mario's Bakery hit's the spot with this winning birthday cake! :) This 2 tiered cake is so festive you almost forget it's an actual cake and not a centerpiece. Let me tell you though, this cake was so good.
The bottom tier, the larger tier, had 2 layers of vanilla cake with chocolate fudge in between. The top tier had 2 layers of vanilla cake with fresh strawberries, bananas, and vanilla pudding in between. The icing was a whipped cream icing (my favorite kind) which is light and fluffy compared to buttercream and other super sugary sweet types. Both layers were ridiculously yummy, and I'm not a huge cake-cake lover.

In case you're curious..
Previous Mario's Bakery Post:
http://foodadventuretravel.blogspot.com/2012/02/mario-cheesecake.html

Kodiak's Fried Chicken Wonton's & Lobster Fritters

2012-07-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

Fried Chicken Wonton's

So last month a group of us went out to celebrate a dear friend's birthday. We decided to make a reservation at Kodiak's Restaurant & Bar located in Farmingdale, New York. I have never heard of the place but one of my friends who was helping me orchestrate the event said it was awesome and we should go... so we did, and they were right.

Lobster Fritters with Avocado Slices and Mango Salsa

We started with drinks and appetizers and ended with a round of carving board sandwiches and burgers.

The Fried Chicken Wonton's & the Lobster Fritters were PERFECTION :)

I can still taste them.

The sandwiches and burgers are HUGE. I don't think anyone was able to fully finish their plate.

A lot of take me home containers were distributed around the table at the end of this event. With the sandwiches and burgers you get to pick your choice of fresh baked bread: Brioche Bun, Bavarian Pretzel Roll, Oat Topped Whole Wheat bun, Italian Hero, Flour Tortilla Wrap. Come on! A juicy burger on a pretzel roll! You know you want to try one! haha

Kodiak's isn't your typical Restaurant or Bar... Car Shows, Bike Nights, Jukeboxes,

Video Games, Pool Tables, 50 Flat Screens, Cooking Classes, a Concert and Events schedule

and DJ's on the weekends, and all kinds of beer, drink and food specials throughout the week..

There's something for everyone any day of the week. This place is pretty amazing and I can't

wait to go back sometime on the weekend when the joint is in full swing.

The All American on a Bavarian Pretzel Roll

The pics in the post courtesy of my bestie KLC :)

Sakura Sushi

2012-07-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

My bestie and I love Sushi! I think it may be starting to border obsession status, but we're not complaining. So she found a new sushi place for us to try called Sakura, located in Farmingdale, New York. We decided to order a variety of rolls and share, which is what we seem to always end up doing in these situations. This time we went for the Boston Roll, Philadelphia Roll, Spicy Tuna Roll, Regular Tuna Roll and a Salmon Roll.

Sakura is smack in the middle of the downtown area, where other joints I love, such as Croxley's Ales, is located. Come to this area during the day for a nice lunch and a stroll or in the evenings for dinner and drinks. Visit on the weekends for a late night bar crawl or to dance the night away. Either or, this place has something for everyone any time of day, or night.

We went to Sakura around lunch time and ended up getting a really great lunch deal! 2 rolls and either a soup or salad for $8, and 3 rolls with either a soup or salad for $11... so the 2 of us had soup and shared 5 sushi rolls for $19... with such great savings we decided to splurge and get ourselves a yummy dessert!

Fried Ice Cream with Fried Banana's

Athena Greek Cuisine

2012-07-02T21:22:00.000-07:00

Taramosalata (Greek Caviar Dip)

Looking for authentic, clean Greek cuisine, Athena Greek Cuisine was absolutely amazing! :) My best friend and I have a thing for Greek food. We <3 it so much and try to visit as many Greek spots as we can!

I wanted to try something different, something we never heard of or had before, so we started with Taramosalata (Greek Caviar Dip), which came with Olives, Tomato, Cucumber, Onion, Hot Peppers and Pita Bread for dipping. If you're looking for something interesting and unique, this ap is definitely worth a try. If you're a fan of hummus, try this! It's like a hummus dip with zinggg!

We also ordered the homemade Iced Tea, which came with slices of honeydew, lemon and a side of Greek Honey Sauce to add for sweetness. This was the best iced tea I've encountered so far in my life.

For the main course, we each had Gyro Platters. Lamb and Beef slices a top rice, served with Onion and Tomato with Fresh Pita Bread and some of the best Tzatziki Sauce on the side.

Gyro Platter

The Opa Grille is a classy, clean restaurant with great service and utterly delicious food.

Everytime a plate came out of the kitchen and brought to a table, we couldn't help but take a look. Everything that came out was fresh and spot-on perfect. I honestly can't wait to go back again and perhaps try the Mousaka or Spinach Pie.

Grilled Veggie BBQ

2012-06-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

Grilled Eggplant and Peppers

So my best friends family had a BBQ! This is my favorite place to do the whole outdoors/BBQ thing..

and for several reasons! First, I get to spend time with my best friend, and her family, whom I love. This is my #1 reason for going, the people in your life are always more important then places or things... or food, adventure & travel for that matter! The people who come along for the ride make it all worth while!

The Peppers before they hit the Grill!

Second, and most important for this blog

I suppose, is the fact that they are always making interesting food and grilling different and unusual things, compared to the ordinary BBQ. Don't expect to dine here and get your ordinary hotdogs & burgers! Not that there's anything wrong with hotdogs & burgers! I'd eat them too... lol. This time VEGGIES were the main focus!

So we cut up all sorts of peppers into nice hearty chunks. The eggplants were cut into thin slices. A little drizzle of olive oil and some spices were added before everything was placed on this grill.

The Eggplant before it hit the Grill!

Red Potatoes

The Red Potatoes were scattered in a pan, drizzled with olive oil and some spices. Then, they were placed in the oven to roast. Why I don't have an 'after' picture of this, I'm not sure! I guess by the time they came out I was too distracted actually eatting them to take the 'after' pic! Sorry guys, next time! :P

My bestie's mom made asparagus soup from scratch.
I have no idea what was put into it or how it was made, but thankfully she made a large pot of it. Everyone had 2nds, 3rds and 4ths! It was just that good... I believe this is a secret family recipe though, so we may never know what goes into this!

Homemade Asparagus Soup

Croxley's Wings

2012-06-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

Fried Wings with Mild Sauce

Fried Wings with BBQ Sauce

One of my favorite places to go!
Where can you enjoy 10cent wings and a large variety of international beers on tap!?!

Croxley's Ale House and Eatery!

That's where!!!

Nachos Supreme

So one of my friends had a very special Birthday come up!
We decided to take a group of us over to Croxley's. The atmosphere is always very laid back yet fun.
There's something for everyone here.

We ordered BBQ and Mild wings. The wings are ALWAYS phenomenal here! So good, I sometimes dream of them... The Nachos Surpreme are usually pretty good too! With tri-colored tortilla's, refried beans, salsa, sour cream, olives, jalapenos, tomatoes and cheese you can hardly go wrong. They serve up a large order, enough for a decent sized group to share in addition to everything else ordered.

Le Freak Beer

Over the last several years I can't tell you how many trips we've made out to this place. Every time I go I make it a point to try a beer I've never had before. (Variety is the spice of life, isn't it?) This trip I decided to try a bottled beer, Le Freak, and split it since it was enough to fill at least 2 glasses.

Other drinks ordered at our tabled included Angry Orchard Apple Cider Beer, Stella, Killian's and others. A few of my friends also enjoyed a Wild Turkey Honey shot together.

Wild Turkey Honey Shots

At the end of the night, the Birthday girl got a nice cheesecake surprise Believe it or not, the cheesecake was amazing, one of the best I've had in a while! At a wing & beer hangout, go figure! :D

Cheesecake with Whipped Cream and Strawberry Caramel & Vanilla Drizzle

Porto Fino's Caesar Salad & Fried Calamari

2012-06-12T07:31:00.000-07:00

Caesar Salad

So my best friend and I were at it again.. we stopped in this nice neighborhood Italian Restaurant/Pizzeria.. Porto Fino Restaurant & Brick Oven Pizza. They have a restaurant dining area, but a walk-in and sit-down casual pizzeria area also. Whenever we go here, we opt to hang out in the pizzeria area.. usually because on days like this we're so dressed down and comfy, it only makes sense. LoL

Usually we'll share a big meal or get some pizza slices here.. but this time tried doing something a little different. Wanting to be at least minutely healthy, we ordered a Caesar Salad, which was great! You know how they sometimes have too much dressing or not enough? I have to say this one was well balanced and pretty good. :)

Fried Calamari with Marinara Sauce

Craving Fried Calamari.. we opted for the appetizer, which I have to say, compared to most places you order Fried Calamari, they served us a nice healthy portion.. and it was so YUM! I'm drooling just rethinking about it... *want*

Applebee's Fiesta Chicken Chopped Salad

2012-06-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

Fiesta Chicken Chopped Salad

I don't have a ton of pics to represent this lunch time outing, but the salad was so good, I couldn't resist but to take a pic and add it to F.A.T. So took a trip to Applebee's with a friend and ordered the NEW Fiesta Chicken Chopped Salad. Who says you can't go out to eat and enjoy something seemingly healthy and tasty? You don't always need to order something greasy or meaty! The menu describes the salad as:

"Chopped lettuce tossed with black bean corn salsa, roasted red peppers & onions, tortilla strips, white cheddar and spicy jalapeño dressing, mounded nicely with chimichurri glazed grilled chicken."

So yummy, on your next Applebee's visit, it's worth a try!

Newsday Field of Wheels Classic Car Show

2012-05-31T15:00:00.000-07:00

This May I went to the Newsday Field of Wheels Classic Car Show with a friend of mine. It was a nice sunny, but not too warm day. Great weather for taking a stroll and checking out the cars. Here I'm posting some of the best car pics I got that day.

I love classic cars, and I enjoy strolling around carbut don't ask me what make, model or year any of these are! If you know what these are, reply and let me know! haha :)

Cinelli's Salmon & Veal

2012-05-22T14:37:00.000-07:00

Salmon Terracina

So my aunt and I had dinner together at Cinelli's located in Oceanside, New York. Cinelli's is a charming, quaint Italian Restaurant. The service and quality of food is impeccable 'and definitely worth a try if you're in the area. Everything I've ever tried here tastes unbelievable and they do a pretty good job of catering as well.

So my aunt ordered the Salmon Terracina.. Cinelli's menu describes it as.. "A filet of salmon in a lemon piccata sauce served atop a bed of spinach. Topped with capers and roasted peppers."
I ordered the Veal Marsala. I contemplated ordering the chicken Marsala instead, but since I can probably count how many times I've actually had veal in my entire life on one hand, I decided to go for it..

Veal Marsala

Mother's Day in the Park

2012-05-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

Spent this past Mother's Day in the park.

There's nothing like looking up and seeing

the sun shining through some beautiful trees.

Next time the sky's clear and you find

yourself outdoors, try it. Stand beneath

a tree and look up, it's gorgeous!

Out in nature, enjoying the breeze,
Sun shining bright, beautiful trees.

"Why not go out on a limb?
That's where all the fruit is..."
- Mark Twain

"Learn from yesterday,
Live for today, Hope for tomorrow..."
- Albert Einstein

Shrimp Fest

2012-05-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

Frozen Strawberry Margarita

My best friend and I decided to venture on over to Red Lobster to satisfy our fishy nature and ended up having a great time.. and a ton of shrimp, prepared 7 different ways!

Classic Margarita! Frozen Strawberry.. This picture actually does this no justice, the glass was HUGE! At LEAST 6-8 inches across.. had to share it with a friend, and we still weren't able to finish it.

Going to Red Lobster, your table always gets a serving of yummy Cheddar Bay Biscuits. If you've been to a RL before, you know about this yummy goodness. Anyone I know who has ever tried one loves them.

Cheddar Bay Biscuits

Coconut Shrimp with Creamy Coconut Dipping Sauce

So for our appetizer we went with the Coconut Shrimp, one of my favorites!

If you've never had coconut shrimp, just a warning, it's on the sweeter side.

If you're not one to like 'sweet' food, skip it. If you like a little sweet, go for it!

One of the yummiest things you'll ever try...

and the creamy coconut dipping sauce makes it even sweeter.

Ceasar Salad

Oh, and what's a meal without a salad? It's always good to have at least one healthy thing! lol ;)

We opted for the Ceasar Salads, which they happen to make pretty well at RL..

So for our main courses, my bestie and I decided we should each get the Shrimp Fest!

With the Shrimp Fest you get to choose 3 different types of shrimp from a list.

We each chose completely different ones and sampled each others...

shrimp 6 different ways, 7 if you add our appetizer to the list!

Everything was delicious and we had a blast feasting on

Garlic Mashed Potatos w/ Shrimp Fest:
Crab-Stuffed Shrimp, Crunchy Potato-Crusted Shrimp, Wood Grilled Shrimp with BBQ Glaze.

Garlic Mashed Potatoe w/ Shrimp Fest:
Hand-Breaded Shrimp - Golden Bown Fried, Tequila-Lime Grilled Shrimp Tacos, Garlic Shrimp Scampi.

Best Friend BBQ: Ribs, Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies, Fire Pit S'mores and more

2012-04-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Delicious BBQ! Ribs are my Favorite!

So it's almost BBQ season once again. In honor of the start of the season, here's a flashback from one of my fav BBQ's from last summer at my best friend's house. We had roasted potatoes with some light seasoning.. olive oil, salt and rosemary, corn-on-the-cob, macaroni salad, and a nice green salad with cranberries, blue cheese and a vinaigrette.

Chocolate-Chip Cookie Brownies

Her Aunt Made the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie-Brownies, soo yummm! This treat is easy to replicate. If you want to give it a try all you have to get is your favorite brownie mix and pre-prepared cookie dough. After you get the browie mix ready to go and in the pan, break up the cookie dough and randomly place in the brownie mix. Place everything in the oven following the brownie baking directions. There you go! Try it! :)

Toward the end of the day we made some S'mores over the Fire Pit...

Fire Pit S'mores

Another fun dessert her aunt made were these delicious Marshmellow Brownies. Again, you can make these easily at home too. Just like the Chocolate-Chip Cookie Brownies, you will need to prepare your favorite basic brownie mix. Once the mix is in the pan, all you have to do is add marshmellows before you bake in the oven. The result? Melts to an oooey goooey perfection!

Marshmellow Brownies

Life is a Journey.. May Peace Find You

2012-04-20T11:43:00.000-07:00

Just some quotes/images I've put together. The images are some extras from the Fire Island Lighthouse trip :)

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Fire Island Lighthouse

2012-04-18T02:05:00.000-07:00

Last week I took a trip with a few lovely ladies to the Fire Island Lighthouse, located in Fire Island, New York. The sun was out, bright and bold, yet the air was cool and crisp. Perfect for a visit to the Lighthouse and local trails/beach. :)

The Fire Island Lighthouse has an interesting history. At the turn of the century the lighthouse was one of the first rays of light for many ships coming to America. At one point the lighthouse was decommissioned for nautical purposes, but was recommissioned in 1986.

The parking is located a wee bit away from the actual lighthouse, but no complaints, we enjoyed the trail ...

<- This was our first view of the Lighthouse as we began our walk on over :)

Walking up to the lighthouse through a scenic area with sand dunes via the boardwalk...

Took a little while to reach the lighthouse, but we enjoyed the trail.

It looks like winter, like snow, but this is actually sand from the beaches...

We finally arrived at the Lighthouse!

It takes 192 steps in a narrow winding staircase to get to the top! The last 24 steps or so at the tippy top were more like climbing ladder then walkng up a staircase. It took a while to reach the top, but once we got there, the views were beyond worth it!

...and this is a view from one of the mid-windows in the stairwell.... a taste of things to come :)

I couldn't believe how beautiful the views were..

the sky and water so blue, the sun was so bright and the air clear... loved it.

Love the beach and how the waters glistened :)

Denny's

2012-04-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

Santa Fe Skillet

I haven't been to a Denny's in yearsssssss. It's not a privately owned breakfast place, not a fancy experience either, but I sure enjoyed my breakfast. Sometimes cheap and easy is the way to go.

For my main dish I ordered the Santa Fe Skillet. Over the years Denny's has added skillets to their menu, taken them away, added new ones, etc. The Santa Fe Skillet isn't for the faint of heart. The combination of ingredients here lend for a hearty and super flavorful breakfast. Beneath those eggs is the smoky flavors of chorizo sausage, fire-roasted peppers, onions, mushrooms, red-skinned potatoes all served on a hot skillet. Topped with a cheese blend and two eggs cooked any way you want. I asked for mine to be made medium, so they were slighty runny buy not slimey. The red you see on top of the eggs is some hot sauce I splattered on top. If you like a good kick, this dish is a bit spicy on it's own, thanks to the chorizo. If spicy isn't your thing but you'd like to try a skillet breakfast, Denny's has other skillets available, such as the Prime Rib Skillet and the Ultimate Skillet.

Pancake Puppies, come served with butter and warm syrup!

These Pancake Puppies were suprisingly awesome! Obtaining the outter texture of traditional hush puppies, but keeping the test and inner texture of yummy pancakes, these would go great with coffee for a mid-day or late-night snack!

They come sprinkled with brown suger and a side of hot syrup to dip.

I couldn't resist! I had to order a side bowl of grits. You either love them or hate them. Well, I put some butter and hot sauce on top of mine and went to town...

Grits! :P

Jeremy's in Nautical Mile

2012-03-30T08:48:00.000-07:00

Nautical Mile is a strip located in Freeport, New York. Known for it's myraid of Seafood Restaurants and Bars, it's a go-to for locals during warmer weather. During the colder winter months most establishments are closed, but on this fine wintery day a friend and I went for a stroll and had a meal at Jeremy's, which remains open year-round (and from what I was told, including Christmas Day, would you believe?)

My friend ordered their home-made chips. She said they were awesome and I didn't doubt her... when they came it was a nice surprise! So yummy and came with dip! :) After trying these I can never have potatoe chips from a bag ever again. I've been spoiled.

For the main course we each had our own grilled tuna, which came with onion, lettuce, tomato all atop yellow rice. Everything was good and fresh, yum!

Ringling Bros. Circus

2012-03-28T14:57:00.005-07:00

Went to the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum last weekend for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus! Ringling Bros. currently has 3 variations of the circus touring: Dragons, Fully Charged, and Barnum Bash. We saw Dragons and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I actually enjoyed it. I've been to the circus several years ago but this year blew whatever memories I had out of the water. The Dragons show was quite entertaining and worth the trip.

Not sure how these ladies did it, but they managed to hang by their hair... the chords swiftly pulled them off of the elephants and they began to swing around. I'd like to know what shampoo and conditioner they use.. :P

The lion and his tiger buddies was one of my favorites. I don't know how that trainer stayed calm being in that cage with them. At one point one of the tigers started growling and swatting in his direction. Not going to lie, made me slightly nervous. I kept hoping the circus wouldn't end up on the evening news.. :x
All kidding aside, this turned out to be one of my favorite acts.

The high-wire acts were entertaining and included motocycles with hanging ladies twirling about below. At the end the motorcyles began to spin around the wires flipping the ladies into the air.

The Samurai's performed stunts with swords.. breaking and smashing things. They also took turns bending steel pipes using their body to show-off their strength.

The grand finale.. the Dragon is summoned!

Tai Show West

2012-03-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

The Sliding Doors to our Private Booth (inside view)

So my bestie and I not only have a Greek Food obsession (I think we go out for Greek more then any other food genre... wait for the day I finally post all of our Greek food exploits), but we have a super serious admiration for sushi as well. We feel the urge to try every sushi joint we come across.

When my bestie informed me that she knew of a place where you can no only try an unbelievable variety of sushi coupled with the fact that you can dine in your own private booth... there was no room for hesitation! I was absolutely in!

What I liked the most about Tai Show West was the atmosphere! I loved sitting low to the ground on comfy pillows with our shoes off. I loved that we had our own sliding doors to block out the rest of the restaurant as we pigged out on our sushi and other treats. I loved how sweet and attentive the servers were. They were constantly filling out drinks and making sure we had everything we needed.

Our Private "Booth"

Green Tea and Miso Soup

We started off with drinks and some starters/aps. They served us Green Tea out of cute teapots and brought us some of the best Miso soup I've had in a while. Usually there's hardly any substance to Miso soup, which is fine when you want something light and brothy, but Tai Show's had more to it them usual. Yum. :)

Fried Banana (sooo yum, not greasy, and dusted with Coconut!)

The Fried Banana's was suggested by our server and ended up a pleasant surprise. Now one of our favorite unique treats, we might head back just for these bad baby's! :P They were 'fried' but they weren't heavy or greasy or super crunchy either. I would say very lightly fried.. Just enough for a little crisp. These were yummy as a starter, but sweet enough to be ordered as a desert too. The outter layer had a light dusting of coconut and the center of the plate had a combination of coconut and sugar to dip into. I might try making these at home sometime..

When it came down to ordering our sushi, we were blown away. To date, this place offered the largest variety, including house sushi's.. they have an outrageous list including their own varieties and combinations. We ordered 7 different rolls and shared them all :)

Alan Roll, not sure - can't remember roll lol, and a California Roll

Alan Roll -- cooked crabmeat, shrimp, white fish, tempura flakes and spicy mayonaise
California Roll -- crabmeat, avocado and cucumber

Stan Roll, Wayne Roll, Debbie Roll, Vivian Roll,

Stan Roll -- tuna, tempura flakes, tobiko, spicy mayo
Wayne Roll -- salmon, shrimp, avocado, spicy mayo, tobiko, tempura flakes
Debby Roll -- shrimp tempura, yellowtail, scallion, cucumber
Vivian Roll -- Salmon, tuna, yellowtail, tobiko, avocado rolled in cucumber

We could've shared a fried ice cream, but since we were going alllll-out, decided to try two different ones and share them both! So we had one with classic vanilla and a second one with green tea icecream, which I absolutely loved. This 'fried' coating was similar to the one used on the banana's.. non-greasy, warm and just lightly crispy. Next time we're going to try the red bean flavored icecream ;)

Tai Show has 5 locations. Not sure how they vary, but we tried the Tai Show West in Levittown, New York. The restaurant isn't huge or super fancy but we loved the private booths. Make sure you call in advance and reserve one, just in case they fill up fast. The prices are average to normal in comparison to any other sushi place. I thought they might be more expensive because of the private booths, but nope. If you like sushi, this place is worth a try.