As you may recall I took a Saturday trip not too far back to the nearby city of Clermont to walk around the historic downtown, visit the Citrus Tower and just generally enjoy a relaxing day. The last stop on that trip was to the Lakeridge Winery where my friend and I sampled many of their wines and took a tour of their production facility. Below is a letter I recently received in the mail from them.

Dear David,

Congratulations on being the winner of our weekly Gift Certificate drawing. This letter may be redeemed at the winery for $25.00 in merchandise. Thank you for you coming in, we hope to see you again soon.

Dedicated to your good taste;

Kyle S. Johnson
Retail Manager

Well how about that! I think I can take another little trip out that way to pick up some more bottles of wine. Especially since I also got hired today; details on that to come later.

And here I thought I was compulsive! While eating dinner last night at Cracker Barrel, I could not help but watch this man who was sitting several tables away. He was average in height and build, probably around 45-50 years of age, Caucasian and had a shaved or bald head.

The first unusual thing I noted about this man was the fact that for a period of several minutes, I was absolutely convinced he had fallen asleep right there at the table. He was sitting alone, holding his head up with his hand and arm, eyes closed. I kept looking over to see if he had just closed them for a second or not.

When his food arrived I noticed a few more things that got my attention. First, it appeared he had ordered the same meal as I had, the new special Homestyle Chicken dinner: two plump, hand-breaded boneless chicken breasts fried to a golden brown and served with your choice of three country vegetables, plus biscuits or corn muffins. I had ordered mine as pictured with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and baby carrots. It was a damn good meal I am looking forward to having again soon.

Unlike the picture, my dinner came with all the sides included on the main plate. Sometimes they will put a vegetable that has liquid, like corn, in a separate dish, but for the most part they are all grouped on one nice large plate. This guy specifically ordered everything be in a separate dish. The waitress placed all of the items (five dishes in all) on the table and left. He proceeded to order the dishes in a manner I could not quite discern from my distance. There was a very specific and intentional order, though.

Once his arrangement was complete, he went into consumption mode eating one item at a time until completion before moving on to the next item – vegetables first, then potatoes and finally the meat. I left before I got to see what he did with the biscuits.

I enjoy seeing people do things like this because they remind me that as compulsive as I can be at times, there are always people that probably should be taking medication for it.

After meeting a friend and enjoying a few rounds of beverages, one of which included two shots and drink, it was decided some late night feeding was in order. A nearby Steak 'n Shake would fit the evening's fare quite nicely and so we were off, greasy goodness ho!

As I was accessing my current cash situation in order to determine if using my credit card would be necessary in order to facilitate payment, I discovered I had a sum more cash than I thought I should. I returned to the table and proceeded to ask my friend if it made any sense to him or if I had simply made an error. Turns out I was not incorrect at all. The last round I purchased (one vodka tonic and two "red death" shots) came out to $13.25. I supplied $20.00 for this purchase and ended up receiving $17.00 in change! So technically speaking even after having left the bartender a good tip, all the while oblivious to the fact I was either not charged fully or a mistake in change distribution was made, the club paid for my post-club dinner.

No complaint here, especially considering another bartender gave me a free round tonight because he seemed to forget about it and simply blew it off when I pointed this out to him. I guess it was a good night to go out, after all.

Well my weekend trip with Chris to Clermont was quite wonderful. A look at the local radar Saturday morning revealed some large pockets of showers and thunderstorms were going to roll through central Florida around the time we would be en route to Clermont. The speed and direction of the storms, however, seemed to indicate we would drive through them on the way there, but that by the time we arrived they would be gone completely. Fortunately, I was correct and the weather was rather nice the entire time.

After a breakfast stop at Dan's Restaurant, we made our way to Clermont and first hit the Citrus Tower. It was as much a pleasure to visit as it had been for me during my visit earlier in the week whilst taking pictures for work. Chris enjoyed it very much as well, which really made me happy. We stayed up on the observation level for some time peering out at the view, stopping to drop some coins down a chute that allows you listen to them as they make their way all the way down to the first floor.

We continued to the historic downtown area and to the fishing pier at Lake Minneola. After enjoying that for a while, we moved on to the Lakeridge Winery for the tour and tasting. After browsing through the shop for a bit, the tour began with a fifteen-minute video highlighting the history of wine making in Florida and of the Lakeridge Winery specifically. I found this video very interesting and learned a lot about wine I had not known previously. After the video, a guide took everyone through the production area of the winery detailing the various functions of the equipment and providing information on their output.

Presently they produce 100,000 gallons (379,000 litres) of wine every season. Even with that output, they are still running out prematurely so they have added another production line that doubles their output. Their product line includes ten varieties ranging from dry to sweet and while they do hold a distribution license, the Lakeridge Winery does not sell its product in but very few, select retail stores. The rest of their business comes exclusively from on-site sale and direct shipping.

After trying their varieties of wine through the tasting, Chris and I both went back to the shop and made some purchases. I got a bottle of the Cuvée Noir Reserve and Muscadine Chablis while he elected to get three of his favourites. I am very much looking forward to enjoying my wine.

We came back in the late afternoon and just enjoyed the rest of the day. I was really happy to have been able to not only go out and do something different, something rather simple yet so enjoyable, but also to share it with someone who found an appreciation in it as well. I believe this trip will be the first of many as I plan to purchase a book that has various back road day trips to places around central Florida. Simple, inexpensive and incredibly enjoyable, I think I may have discovered something else I have been missing.

Footnote: Pictures from this trip are located here.

If you live in Orlando, Tampa or West Palm Beach, Florida and are a fan of Asian cuisine, you must visit Crazy Buffet. Billed as an "up-scale Asian fusion buffet," Crazy Buffet offers the convenience and variety of a do-it-your-self restaurant with the quality and ambiance of a mid-range sit down.

As you enter the carefully decorated and detailed interior, a stark contrast from the strip plaza it is housed within, the first and rather prominent fixture you will notice is the fresh sushi and sashimi bar. The sushi bar is worth the price of admission alone with its fifty or so varieties, freshly crafted by skilled sushi chef's right there behind the buffet line. Moving along you come across the made-to-order hibachi grill and wok. Past these items are rows upon row of fresh seafood, including peel and eat shrimp, shrimp cocktail, oysters, snow crab, mussels and scallops. Seafood not your thing? Name a meat or vegetable and this buffet will likely have it prepared in traditional Asian style. Oh, I almost forgot the eight soup selection, full salad bar, fresh fruit and vegetable station and desserts.

For me, the mark of a quality ethnic dining experience is two-fold. First, the clientèle eating at the establishment should be of racial variety, but I do expect to see "natives" dining as well: Chinese at a Chinese restaurant and so on. The second is very similar in that I want to see natives present, but in this case they should be members of the staff. At Crazy Buffet I was pleased to see a healthy variety of both. My logic on this issue is that if it is a true representation of an ethnic or cultural culinary art, then those who are supposedly represented should be there preparing, serving and consuming it as well. They should want to. A notable example of a restaurant to tries so very hard to establish this yet prospers mostly in part to the credulousness and trend wannabe nature of some is the atrocious P.F. Chang's China Bistro. I find that restaurant to be an abomination. But before I pull a Carson Kressley, let P.F. Chang's not steal the limelight away from a place who knows how to pull it all together.

In addition to everything else, Crazy Buffet offers a full liquor bar that you can feel free to eat at, both spacious and cosier dining rooms of varied size, catering, banquets and a live piano musician. The service was mostly unnecessary, but dirty plates were never lingering and my beverage always freshly refilled. Dinner is $17.95 per person and soft drinks are $1.79. It is really an incredible deal considering what is offered. The only thing I would say could use an overhaul at Crazy Buffet is their website. JPEG compression destroys images! Hello?!

Conclusion: Go eat there now!

Purely and simply, I have a severe distaste for fast-food restaurant condiment packets, especially when they are the only option inside a restaurant. I am the type of person who hates ordering food take away. I will always choose to dine within the confines of the establishment, even if that restaurant happens to be situated in a gas station convenience store. Now I am sure big corporations can save trillions of dollars by not having to own, stock and replace salt and pepper shakers and ketchup dispensers, but if I wanted to trifle around with little packets I would have purchased a box of condoms for lunch. Arby's used to maintain normal dine-in condiment dispensers, but recently did away with the salt and pepper shakers. The ketchup and sauce dispensers remain however.

Speaking of fast-food restaurants, McDonald's new campaign to revitalise the sale of the Big Mac caught my attention during my last visit. The poster being displayed prominently on the dining room window depicts a man eating a Big Mac. The large font caption read, "It's big, it's messy and you love it!" I got a good laugh from this poster whilst fiddling about with my salt, pepper and ketchup packets. Hey, at least no one sat next to me.

Finally, you may or may not have noticed the header logo now features a random slogan or tagline. Some will make sense while others will likely not. But expect to see new ones cropping up now and then if I think of something clever or get drunk and think something is really funny. The one slogan "It's a breakfast party on a plate" has its origins from a late night, post-bar IHOP run. I ordered the Breakfast Sampler to which the waiter, who was as if he stepped out from driving his New York City taxi immediately prior to taking our order, replied with that statement. The best part: I knew it was likely I would not remember this comment in the morning, so I wrote it down on the placemat and took it with me.