YO! That's Fun Sushi

I never really planned on eating sushi in London. It doesn't seem like a city where you would get great sushi.

But then all of the sudden YO! Sushi came roaring into my eating life and let me tell you I couldn't be happier about it.

YO! Sushi first caught my attention when I walked by their restaurant one evening. I looked through the window and little plates of sushi were being carried around on belts all through the restaurant. The customers were sitting in front of the moving belts of sushi and just pulling them off and eating them.....at first glance it looked extremely odd.

After about 5 minutes of gazing through the window I decided this hip restaurant must be worth a try. Upon walking in, the host seated us on one side of the moving sushi belt and explained how the process worked.

All of the sushi plates on the moving belt are each on different colored tiny plates. Each plate represents a different price, starting at about $2 and going up to $6 (I'm rounding based on a conversion from pounds to dollars). You're given a menu that has an image of everything YO!Sushi serves with a description...so as the plates come around you can look it up in the menu and decide if you want it.

I must say....I never had any idea that sushi could be so much fun. Throughout the entire evening we would pull plates off the belt, flip through the menu, decide if we wanted it and if not we would put it back on the belt (not sure if you're suppose to do this or not).

In the middle of the moving belt is an open kitchen with two chefs preparing more sushi and placing it on plates and then onto the moving belt. The atmosphere is fresh, hip and a whole lot of fun.

Aside from the exciting experience, the sushi is unbelievable. With all of the variety you get a combination of any type of sushi that you want, plus tuna, squid, salads, soups and desserts....all moving around the belt in the restaurant. The YO sushi roll was probably my favorite (salmon, avocado, mayonnaise, and masago (fish roe). The Chocolate Raspberry Truffle is extremely tasty as well.

So here's the really really really bad news. YO! Sushi doesn't have a single location in America. This means that you have a few choices.

1. Hire a sushi chef and build a moving belt in your house to enjoy fun sushi at home.
2. Eat sushi at normal sushi restaurants and fantasize about YO! Sushi while you're eating your far inferior and boring sushi.
3. Go to London and eat at YO! Sushi.

If you can afford it, option 1 is obviously the best. However, I strongly recommend that you choose option 3 and somehow get yourself to London to eat at YO! Sushi. If you live in the UK and you're reading this, I hate you and I'm jealous that you get YO! Sushi all the time.

YO! Sushi....it's flippin awesome.

Tea Time

I don't think I really understood the beauty of tea until experiencing tea time in London.

It's no wonder that people from London take time out of their day to get a cup of tea....it's such a luxurious experience. Late this past Wednesday afternoon I found myself in a small, yet stunning restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch, dinner and tea from 3:30pm - 5:00pm every day.

We ordered two cups of tea and shortly after we placed our order the server came out with two mugs, two tiny tea pots, and two scones with a glob of Jersey Clotted Cream on the side.

The display was simply stunning. Feeling British and sophisticated I poured myself a cup of tea and then proceeded to spread the Jersey Clotted Cream and strawberry jam on my warm scone.

Let's take a moment here to discuss the Jersey Clotted Cream in more detail.....it's a crime against humanity that we don't have this in America. Basically it's like a really really thick Cool Whip...imagine a smoother and sweeter version of cream cheese. It's so completely satisfying I could probably eat it straight. The clotted cream, topped with strawberry jam made this scone far superior to anything you might have had a Panera Bread.

So there we sat as the afternoon went by, sipping our tea and nibbling on our scones discussing how brilliant the day was. When tea time finally came to a close an emptiness filled my heart...what a shame that we don't have such a delightful ritual here in America. We truly are missing out on something fun, refreshing and sophisticated.

In celebration of this great British tradition, I am committing to having my own personal tea time every single day. In fact, as we speak I just started sipping on a fresh cup of tea that I made at home. So, bust out the Earl Grey tea bags, dig out that tired old tea pot and order up some Jersey clotted cream and join me....it's Tea Time.

The Best Coffee in London

"If you want the best coffee in London," she said, "we're going to have to take a short bus ride."

This one simple statement from my friend/tour guide in London earlier this week began an adventure to a coffee shop that many of us only dream about.

We walked 2 blocks from my hotel and waited for bus number 19 that would take us through Piccadilly Circus and down some streets which I can't remember the name of. After the 10 minute bus ride we walked about 2 more blocks, got a little lost and then finally found the mysterious coffee shop she was taking me to.

Upon walking up to Monmouth Coffee Co. I was a little caught off guard. The line started outside of the shop and everyone was ordering at a tiny register near the front door. If you look inside, the people who had ordered were all lined up against a wall and there was barely any room to walk inside as it was so congested.

Generally speaking, the shop itself was probably about the size of some people's walk in closets. Following the lead of my friend/tour guide we leaned our heads in the door and placed our order: 1 filtered coffee (black coffee) and 1 cafe au lait (coffee with steamed milk). Then we waited in the line against the wall.

The woman who took our order, without missing a beat said the order out loud to the employees (look in the upper right corner of the picture above) who were making all of the drinks. Behind the register was a display of a variety of coffee beans that are all available for sale by the pound.

Dumbfounded by this extremely unusual arrangement, I walked in front of everyone in line to the back left corner of the restaurant to get a better view of the coffee magic that was unfolding.

It really was amazing. Traditionally speaking, when people have to wait longer than 30 seconds for their coffee they get irritated. Everyone in line at Monmouth however seemed completely content, you could even say they looked excited. They all knew there were about to receive amazing coffee and it would be worth the wait.

Slowly the Monmouth employees passed the coffee drinks over the counter in the back to the person in line. Below the counter was a small station where you could add brown or liquid sugar to your coffee. Instead of stir sticks, Monmouth offered wooden spoons for customers to stir their coffee (very cool).

My anticipation finally ended and they handed me my cafe au lait. I walked over to the mixing station and stirred brown sugar into my coffee.

Unlike most American coffee that we order at Stabucks, Dunkin Donuts or McDonald's, the coffee from Monmouth was full of love.

After my initial sip, it became clear to me why my friend/tour guide insisted that we travel over 20 minutes to get to Monmouth. The flavor was bold, distinct and smooth. Every single sip was a passionate and fulfilling experience. From the coffee itself to the employees and atmosphere, Monmouth Coffee Co is exploding with character.

You know that coffee house that you always dream of? The place that is authentic, non-corporate, cozy and original? Monmouth is that place....it may be the only true coffee house on earth. Every Starbucks in the world wishes they were Monmouth and to be honest, they're not even close.

Is it worth a trip to London to get a taste of Monmouth? Simply said, yes. Monmouth might not just be the best coffee in London, it may be the best coffee in the world.

The Super Sized Cupcake

I never realized how big a cupcake could really be until yesterday.

In Tampa, there are gourmet cupcake shops all over town and they all charge about $2.50 for a tiny little cupcake. I was always impressed with the architecture of these particular tiny cupcakes. They are made from scratch in a variety of flavors and super delicious.

However, my tiny cupcake infatuation came to a screeching halt when I was introduced to a cupcake from Crumbs Bake Shop in NYC.

En route to London yesterday, my sister-in-law (who lives in NYC) was gracious enough to meet me at JFK for my 4 hour lay over.

She has been talking about Crumbs Bake Shop for months and every time she mentioned it my mouth began to water. I didn't want to miss this perfect opportunity to jam a giant cupcake down my throat so I enlisted my sister-in-law to bring me a variety of cupcakes to the airport for us to enjoy during my layover.

When I asked her to bring more than one I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. I wrongly assumed they were the same size as the tiny Tampa cupcakes. Wow was I wrong.

She met me with a giant bag full of three enormous cupcakes that were each the size of a softball. Inside was a BaBa Booey (pictured above) it's a chocolate cupcake filled with peanut butter icing with peanut butter/chocolate icing on top and peanut butter chips, a Red Velvet cupcake, and one not on the daily menu called Half Baked which was a vanilla cupcake with cookies crumbed on top and filling in the middle.

These cupcakes were so giant I had to come at them with a knife - and since this was basically a one chance opportunity (I couldn't take them on the flight with me) my sister-in-law ate all three. They were absolutely phenomenal. It puts every other cupcake I have tried to shame. They were big, sweet, fluffy, tasty and completely satisfying. The Baba Booey in particular soothed my soul....the peanut butter filling was light and not too sweet.

Feel free to keep enjoying your local cupcake shop because they still are good, but keep hoping for more. If you want true cupcake satisfaction it can only happen at one place: Crumbs.

Eating London

London is famous.

I'm not exactly sure all of the reasons why it's famous, however I do know that for hundreds upon hundreds of years, London has been an iconic city around the world.

I'm going to be in London for 4 days this week and while I should be excited about all of the rich history, museums and Big Ben, I'm mostly excited about the food. Therefore, my agenda revolves around eating. I don't have all of the details worked out yet, however I'm planning on trying to do at least these three things:

- Enjoy afternoon Tea Time
- Taste authentic Fish and Chips
- Check out one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants

So yes, I'm going to London and all I plan on doing is eating. Is there anything wrong with that?

In addition to what I have planned, do you have any suggestions of restaurants I need to check out?

Final Pumpkin Tasting Round Up

Fall seems to have come to an abrupt end a lot sooner than expected.

As of yesterday, all of the stores that I frequent have already taken down all of the Fall decor and rolled out all of the Christmas decorations. The seasons are starting earlier and earlier every single year.

To wrap up our Great Pumpkin Taste off, below are the final three reviews of the fall season:

Dunkin Donut's Pumpkin Donut
Unlike the Krispy Kreme Pumpkin Spice doughnut, Dunkin was a huge disappointment. I'm a bug Dunkin fan, however their take on a pumpkin donut treat was completely unsatisfying. To be completely honest it literally was like eating a pumpkin flavored sponge. I wasn't even able to finish the entire donut because I was so uninterested. If you're after a festive fall donut, hit up Krispy Kreme.

711 Pumpkin Latte
I know what you're thinking. I've completely lost my mind to be willing to try 711's Pumpkin Latte. However, my decision to get a 711 Pumpkin Latte came after an intense taste testing.

Every night I go to 711 to get my wife a slurppee (yes, every night). 711 has a coffee machine set up for customers to get hot chocolate, cappacino's and their featured Pumpkin Latte.

Next to the machines are sample cups and on several occasions I opted to try the Pumpkin Latte on my way to the check out. Much to my surprise....it was very good. Don't get me wrong it was not a luxurious Starbucks experience, but for only a couple bucks it was creamy, tasty and delicious.

Pumpkin Pie Blizzard
Nothing beats the sweet taste of Pumpkin Pie mixed in with DQ's fantastic soft serve. The Pumpkin Pie Blizzard is a classic fall treat.

Although it's not my favorite Blizzard flavor (peppermint is, and it's coming up soon), it's still a good choice if you're in a fall festive mood.

There are a lot of great options out there for those of you who crave the sweet taste of pumpkin, however of all the different things I tasted there is one that truly stood out: Krispy Kreme's Pumpkin Spice Doughnut. I was surprised at how good it was and the combination of pumpkin and spice was perfect, not to mention the sweet topping of Krispy Kreme's signature icing.

Since the season is now coming to a close, you better hurry if you want to eat any more pumpkin products that restaurant's are serving. After all, Christmas is just around the corner and word on the streets is that Starbucks is rolling out their holiday drinks tomorrow...