                                     Hollywood, Food Markets Back to the 60s and Gloop |
Disney’s Hollywood Studios, FL
Today we visited Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It was again baking hot. In the 90s by 8 and steadily hotter all day. It wasn’t too busy but busy enough. The girls started by riding the Aerosmith indoor rollercoaster. I’ve ridden it before but didn’t really fancy turning upside down three times that early in the day…… Then we went on the Great Movie ride which is a bit of a family favourite. You ride through the scenes and sets of various classic movies recreated with animatronics. Its a very enjoyable experience. We had a fast pass for Star Tours which is a 3d simulation ride where you fly with 3CPO and R2D2 on a journey through various battlefields and around the death star. Very good. Feeling a bit peckish so we called in and had drinks and Daisy had a cookie. Sat in the shade for a while. Our next item was a fastpass for the Beauty and the Beast show. Its a 30 minute musical based on the Disney film and Broadway hit. Always enjoyable and very colourful but perhaps gettting a bit dated now. By now it was around 1230 and we headed for home.
Lucy was feeling a bit off colour so we canned our plan of visiting Blizzard Beach. She relaxed in the condo and the rest of us went to one of the resort pools for a few hours. It was just lovely to get in the water and wallow. We stayed out till about 4.
Then we went off to Walmart and Lucy bought some more household goods, mainly towels, bathroom fitments and bath mats. Also got a few basic clothes items, t shirts and swimming costumes.
Lucy had sourced 2 food markets in downtown Orlando so we had decided to have a grazing dinner around them. The first one was quite small and had arts and crafts stalls as well as a couple of food stalls and a food truck. We had the most amazing lobster and crab rolls there from the food truck. I became very cheery at this point but sadly the food was straight downhill from there.
One funny thing about this market was the unmistakable 60s vibe starting with a lady singing whose entire folk repertoire was Dylan, Joan Baez etc etc. Then lots of crystal sellers and the apex a chap selling cacao beans. Lucy dragged me over to talk to him and …man…. it was a trip….man….. he told me all about how the bean would open my heart and for a minute I thought he was talking about cholesterol and then he went on to say that yeah… open your heart and feel the bliss man…. feel the universe stirring within you…. I don’t know what he was on but having tried the damn beans, I think it must have been something more…. There were more hilarious exchanges but you get the idea….. The weird thin was he was only about 30 but he was straight out of 1967.
Then we went to another market which was purely food trucks parked around a space behind three bars. So if you wanted you could take your food into the bars to eat. Or you could eat outside. To me the food was horrible, especially after the divine lobster roll. There was a Portugese truck, Southern Bayou, one called the Big Cheese,, Turkish/Mediterranean, Philly Steak… Gourmet Candyfloss. I think the last one just about sums it up. It was horrible.
We had a sandwich from the Big Cheese which apparently was their most popular selection. Toasted white bread filled with pulled pork and macaroni cheese. The pulled pork was really good, very meaty. It gained nothing but vague nausea from being paired with macaroni cheese and being sandwiched. We had a selection box from a Korean truck. Frankly if you got it from Panda Express in the mall you wouldn’t know the difference and it had the same visual charm. The Portugese roll we had was so unbelievably spicy as to be almost inedible. Very reminiscent of the food we had in a Portugese restaurant in Old Goa. I got something in my eye and rubbed it and got some of the spicy sandwich in too and it HURT. Daisy had one bite and howled like an anguished she wolf! Unbelievably both the Korean and the Portuese truck had won multiple food awards for their overspiced gloop. Seriously….. Was there more/???? Probably? I fully expect to have to chew multiple Zantac tonight. Message: if you go to these places, stick to the fabulous lobster rolls and give all the other trucks a wide berth. Better still don’t bother going at all…. Seriously….. Sorry….
Nonetheless, a very fun day and an interesting evening. Just remember: eat the beans and feel the bliss, man as your heart opens….. god, I hope my bowels don’t follow suit…..