What Didn't this Happen at My College?

Your Neighborhood Microwave

It's always special when someone who doesn't know your personality gives you a gift card for a place you would never go to.

This scenario is how my wife and I found ourselves with a $25 gift card to Applebee's this past weekend.

This particular gift card was one that I didn't want to spend more than I received, which means I had zero intentions of spending a penny more than $25.

With this plan in mind, we invited two of our other cheap friends to our house for a small, yet free Applebee's party.

Knowing our budget, we ordered two Appetizer Sampler Platters ($12.49 each) to get the most food and the most variety. The Sampler platter included: Spinach Artichoke Dip, Mozzarella Sticks, Cheese Quesadillas and Boneless Buffalo Wings.

When placing my to-go order the Applebee's employee told me it would be ready in 15 minutes.

15 minutes! Wow that's fast....wait a second.....how are they cooking this food? Technically I have no idea, however after getting this quoted time I began to form a theory that the food might actually be cooked in the microwave.

About 20 minutes later, my theory was proven true when I opened up our to go packages to reveal the two Appetizer Sampler Platters. The Spinach Dip was nuked to oblivion with a nice thick cheesy skin on top of the dip. The Mozzarella sticks were still slightly hard and the cheese was chewy. Thee buffalo wings (which I assume were originally frozen) had breading that was nice and dry even with the buffalo sauce on top.

All symptoms of food cooked in a microwave.

Is what has happened to Casual Dining restaurants? Should we expect fast food quality food at a significantly higher price?

Before I go on in my riff against Applebee's let me just set one thing clear - the food didn't taste bad.

But, what frozen microwaved food does? Hot Pockets taste good. Digiorno Pizza tastes good. T.G.I Friday's has even gone as far as selling their microwaved food in the frozen section of your local grocery store.

So maybe I'm just the one with the whacked out thinking. All signs point that we should anticipate that food from Casual Dining restaurants like Applebee's should be microwaved and then served to us.

I guess I just always hope for more.

You Say When

Walking through the mall today everyone around me was carrying blue cardboard cups filled with some sort of dessert.

After seeing person after person stroll by indulging in some frozen treat my curiosity began to rise and soon my wife and I were on a mission to find the origins of the blue cups.

We darted down each section of the mall and finally stumbled upon You Say When Yogurt Shoppe. What we found was something I have never seen before. Along the wall of the yogurt shoppe was a variety of frozen yogurt flavors including mint chocolate chip, angel food cake, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, mango and more. In addition to the frozen yogurt there was a display of yogurt toppings....chocolate, fresh fruit, nuts and even Fruit Loops.

Above the frozen yogurt machines was a sign that read, $.59 per ounce and on the counter near the cash register was a small scale. This is definitely a different type of Frozen Yogurt concept. You grab you're own cup and fill it up with as many flavors and toppings as you like and then weigh it at the end and pay for how many ounces you have.

I was interested enough to give it a try, however an imperative question was going through my head. How much is an ounce?

For $.59 an ounce, every single drop of frozen yogurt suddenly matters because it's all adding up to be the final cost of your dessert. In order to test things out first I asked the employee to show me how much an ounce of frozen yogurt actually was.

Satisfied with the amount I cautiously I took my blue cup and filled it every so slightly with strawberry frozen yogurt and then ran over to the scale to see how much I had. Realistically I figured I would spend about $4 so I was carefully trying to stay close to this boundary.

After my first measurement I wasn't quite to $4 yet so I went back over to the machines to add a little bit more. This time I mixed in Angel Food Cake to the strawberry and ran back over to the scale to measure it one more time......I still had some more room to play with so I went back to the strawberry yogurt and added just a tiny little dollop more.

Proudly I took my cup of Frozen Yogurt to the register and it rang in at 6.8 ounces total or $4.29 with tax. This did not include any extra toppings.

The Frozen Yogurt was simply delicious. The Angel Food Cake wasn't too sweet and complimented the authentic tasting strawberry flavor wonderfully. Not only did this little afternoon treat taste good, but in comparison to other ice creams or desserts it's not too bad for you either.

Frozen Yogurt is a national craze right now, "You Say When" Yogurt Shoppe is the first I have seen to make things different, interesting and exciting. My only advice before you go is to make sure you know how big an ounce is, otherwise you're bound to walk out with a $10 cup of Frozen Yogurt.

Locations here.

Yummy Yummy Sauce

Strachan's Homemade Ice Cream shop located in Dunedin and Palm Harbor, FL has a secret....and it's not their ice cream.

Usually when you visit an ice cream place it's because of their actual ice cream. It's homemade or they offer your favorite flavor etc. I remember as a kid Baskin Robbin's 31 Flavors was the only place around (at that time) that served green mint chocolate chip ice cream. Why anyone would invent mint chocolate chip ice cream that's not green is beyond me.

The sauce and toppings for ice cream however often gets overlooked. We don't necessarily care what type of toppings an ice cream place offers because we're so caught up in the ice cream flavors.

At Strachan's Homemade Ice Cream however, focusing too much on the ice cream is a big mistake. Don't get me wrong they offer some of the best homemade flavors I have ever had. But, it's not their secret.

Their secret is in their Yummy Yummy Sauce.

Yes, Yummy Yummy Sauce and let me tell you it is very yummy. It's their own combination of hot chocolate and hot caramel sauce mixed together. While it sounds very simple, don't be fooled, it's freakin delicious.

At Strachan's they put Yummy Yummy Sauce on just about everything.....Banana Splits, Homemade Ice Cream, Soft Serve, and every sundae. My favorite however is to just get plain vanilla soft serve and then let them dump as much Yummy Yummy Sauce on top of it as possible. The sweet tastes of chocolate and caramel blended together takes an ice cream dessert to an entirely different level.

Yummy Yummy sauce as far as I'm concerned is the best invention since ice cream and I can't get enough of it.

You need to experience it to, so you have two choices: 1. Visit Strachan's or 2. If you don't live in FL you'll need to make your own, here is a recipe. (When you have it finished, send me an email and I'll be right over.)

It's Local and it's Tasty

If you're local to the Tampa Bay area, there are an enormous amount of great local restaurants to check out.

Below are some local restaurant reviews I've written for MetroMix.com in the past few months. Follow the links to discover a new local restaurant in the Tampa Bay area.

Cupcake CUPCAKES - a Cupcake shop with delicious cupcake creations. Review here.

Green Chili Indian Bistro - fast casual Indian food. Sounds weird but I was pleasantly surprised. Review here.

Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza - an original take on pizza cooked over burning coals. Review here.

If you're in the mood for Cupcakes, Indian Cuisine or authentic coal fired pizza, all of these restaurants will fulfill your desires.