Tell us what you have eaten lately, that you haven't cooked yourself (that's interesting).

So a Dustin’s BBQ just opened near us. I’ve gotten some good reports. Any of my Florida peeps have anything to say about them?

So, this could have gone in the nerdiest thing thread as well, but my wife and I are in Honolulu and we ate at Masaharu Morimoto’s restaurant tonight (seriously,you’re great Mark Dacascos, Alex Guarnaschelli, and Michael Symon, but guys have got NOTHING on Takeshi Kaga and his crew. The food was fairly straightforward Asian fusion (sticky ribs, whole fried branzino, kalbi w/ kimchi and gochujang), but everything was absolutely dynamite. One of the best meals we’ve had at a restaurant in a long time. So glad we went.

The one really wacky presentation was dessert:

That’s a sphere of chocolate filled with whipped cream and chocolate sorbet. Flaming rum was poured over the top and the whole thing collapsed/melted into a glorious mess after a few seconds. On the side was fruit, chocolate sauce, chocolate streusel, and chocolate cookies, so the whole thing was a mix of different textures. We did decide that a sprinkle of sea salt would have made it even better.

At a place called Whiskey for bd dinner. Ordered Camel burger. More to come.

So. The wife found one of the best places in the Orlando area. It’s called Whiskey.

https://www.downatthewhiskey.com

Award for quality of their burgers. 200+ various whiskeys.

So it’s small. When we first got there it was like, find a table. Not a great start and I was worried. I did not have to be worried.

I ordered a Bulliet rye Manhattan. My feeling is that if you tout your liquor you had better make a good Manhattan. And they did. They have the real black cherries soaked in bourbon. Not the flourescent red maraschinos with no flavor. I asked for it straight up. It came in a martini glass with flakes of ice like a martini. Lovely.

So then the menu. They have a bunch of interesting choices. You can check out their menu above. Ultimately the wife and I were looking at their, um, special burgers. The wife got the Royale. I got the Camel burger.

Yeah that’s right, camel.

I asked the waitress. “Is this one of those things that a restaurant throws on the menu as some kind of hipster thing? That tastes like crap, but gives the place some kind of cache?”

She said, “We all had to taste it when they brought it in. At first I wasn’t sure of it. It’s sweeter than most meat. As well it is almost impossible to overcook. I had it a few times since then and I like it.”

Always trust your server.

I had four Manhattans and the warm goat cheese app. Then the camel burger.

The burger was fucking amazing I loved it. It is not beef. It is not well, anything but camel. I loved it.

Four Manhattans would put me on the floor, I think. That place sounds amazing, though! And camel, dang. I’ve never even heard of camel burgers.

Camels are bastards, they deserve it!

I had it in camel brochettes, which were like unusually dry beef kefta kebabs. Supposedly all the fat is in the hump, and I guess they didn’t use any. Still, I took my pleasure from knowing one of those evil creatures died for my meal.

That sounds like an excellent birthday meal man!! And damn, camel… Nice!

I want to eat my monitor.

Thus the temp. That cut burger is medium. Yeah I’m an asshole. I am never completely sure of a ground meat. Even camel. We could easily discuss whether the meat was imported or domestic camel. The same way that I was curious about of the country of the Wagyu in her burger. Anyway.

What was I talking about?

Oh hey @ArmandoPenblade Seriously! When the fuck do you go out for a birthday dinner and think I am gonna eat the equivalent of another country’s horse?

I wonder if camel tastes like llama. I quite like that, though I’ve never had it in burger form.

Hey, that camel burger sounds right up my alley. About the craziest burger I’ve done would be deer (supplemented with beef fat for the mix,) or bison, which is quite good. Excellent choices, Rich, especially the whiskey. :)

I have one to add to the thread. Those from Chicago will understand but it was my first trip in many years and the first one where we had a bit of say in where we ate while there.

The two of us on the trip yearned to try a true Chicago style deep dish pizza. I’d never really had one. I know the names of the restaurants that make it best are tossed around from best to worst a lot from those who live there. But truly, for coverage of locations and what we were told was -classic- taste, Lou Malnati’s came up as a recommendation, repeatedly. I will say I was hesitant. Lou’s has many locations and something more of a chain and less exclusive didn’t really make me think the experience would be all that. But we found one close and went there for lunch. It was dive-like in a way that only an older chain location can be, but it was clean and we had no wait, good qualities for a random lunch location choice.

For those who have not had deep dish pizza like that know that you’re going to be waiting 35+ minutes AFTER you order just for the pizza to be made and prepared. I’m not sure why I did NOT know that, but it’s not a lunch style thing. Go when you aren’t pressed for time. It takes a while, get an appetizer or plan on talking a lot. We got a Chicago Classic which is the standard butter crust, cheese, Italian sausage and sauce. We added pepperoni to that because we are strangers from a strange land where pepperoni is classic, not just Italian sausage. It was just my boss and me but we were hungry and ordered a medium. The waiter said, “that’ll feed 3 people, easy.” Challenge accepted. Narrator: Challenge Failed.

When brought to the table, I can’t say I was blown away by the look of the pizza. It looked soupy almost, like someone had made a bolognese sauce and messed it up to where it bled watery liquid a bit around the edges. Or akin to your crazy grandma baking lasagna in a pie crust. It smelled of sauce mostly, not like the cheesy olfactory bomb you get going into a New York pizza joint. It was delivered to the table in a very tired and worn looking … dish, by a waiter who spent a good minute warning us how hot the dish was and how long to wait before taking a bite (3-5 minutes recommended.) He also covered the tidbit that most people use a knife and fork for Chicago deep dish pizza. I am who I am because I don’t always follow the rules. I used my hands and a fork when I realized I was in over my head. Then I took a bite.

Aaaaamazing. Every single part of the pizza shined in a way that I’m hard pressed to describe. It was deep, over an inch tall. It is roughly constructed from the bottom up with crust, cheese, filling, and then sauce on top. The sauce is thick with the consistency of a firmer spaghetti style sauce, not the slightly more watery pizza sauce of say, New York style. The crust was much firmer and denser than what I expected. Crunchy, almost as if the consistency of a dense pot pie crust but MUCH more flavorful. And though I’m not sure I would ever pick up a slice of deep dish with my hands, I would wager the crust was firm enough it might actually hold up despite the weight of a single slice. The cheese was fantastic. I would guess they use actual slices of fresh mozzarella, not the older pre-shredded crap you usually get. The fillings were not the star of the show, in fact you don’t really taste them around the overwhelming amount of other flavors shining through. In that respect, the sausage was good, the pepperoni I could hardly taste. I wish I could, as it was a very large style pepperoni and I’m betting on it’s own it would taste great. But there are just too many wonderful flavors on the pizza as it stands, toppings are like a secondary part of it. Lou knows what’s classic, I should have followed the menu. But the sauce, my god was it good. You could have served me a bowl of it, called it rustic tomato soup especialle and I’d have called it a wonderful day. It was fantastic, very flavorful and very filling. In fact one slice was filling enough to nearly call a lunch, but we both engaged glutton mode and had a second slice before slinking back to work in a semi-coma. By the way, that left exactly 2 slices of the pizza which would have easily fed another 200lb+ male without question. The pics are deceiving, each slice is heavy and deeper than it looks in my photos. This is not your fold-up style kind of pizza, it is more of an elegant pie, and it fulfills that same itch that a good lasagna, baked ziti or other Italian meal might fill.

A big thumbs up from me. I can see why Chicagoans talk about their pizza style with pride, it’s worthy of that and more. I now know, plan for a longer stay, get a smaller pizza than you would think, and leverage the suggested toppings before attempting to build your own.

The blurry and tired looking, “pan,” atop our table:

A single slice with a dusting of Parmesan (don’t judge me):

Since moving down here I’ve discovered campechana - a mix of seafood (usually shrimp, clam, and octopus) in a clamato broth, sometimes with avocado or jalapeno slices thrown in for good measure. Served cold, it’s sort of a cross between gazpacho and a shrimp cocktail.

Because it is served cold there are roadside stands and food trucks (pickups!) selling it all over town, but I haven’t braved that, yet. I just ordered it out of curiosity at a seafood place a friend recommended.

Sold. To be fair, I like Clamato, and I even like a little bit of it in a beer, though I forgot the term used for that in Mexico.

@Sonoftgb, tell me about the habaneros in that dish behind it. Is it common to get served those as a side dish down there?

You did this local boy proud Skipper.

I’d say each of the major local joints has something to recommend them. Lou Malnati’s is the crust. That’s the thing that most sets them apart.

And, yeah, when we get a large it is two slices max for me. After two I feel like I need a nap.

I have a couple more places I tried that belong in this thread. Maybe another post sometime. We also tried Portillo’s and Harey Carey’s while we were there. Both were also fantastic. I think the steak I had at Harey Carey’s ranks as the most flavorful steak I’ve had in my life (dry aged ribeye.)



Giordano’s in Indianapolis is our go-to first stop when we get into town each year for GenCon. It is everything the body needs, as my friend’s faces no doubt illustrate.

I’m sure it doesn’t compare to a proper pie purchased in Chicago, but it’s really goddamned fucking good.

It is a Chicago chain so…

They have my favorite sauce of the deep dish chains.

That one looks even deeper and even more full of deliciousness than the pie we had. Nap worthy, I’m sure.

It might have been the 12-hour car ride and the 2-hour wait to collect our badges and event tickets more than the pizza, but we really did sleep like the fucking dead that night.