Spencer C.

Oceanic Oriental Supermarket

Oceanic is probably the best known Asian supermarket in the Tampa Bay area. It has fresh seasfood, a butcher, conidments, sauces, candies, drinks, medicinal stuff, and ready to go meals and meats. The store itself is about 50% larger than Din Ho. Many of the locals and out of towners come here for the selection of hard to find items. Highly recommended!

PS - They also own T C Choy restaurant which servers dim sum.

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Emerils Orlando

If you want to get into Emeril's, make reservations at least 1 month in advance. This Emeril location is in Universal citywalk and it stands out from the other restaurants. Upscale decor and furnishings and soft lighting accentuate the place.

The food is decent, but not great; certainly not worth the very high pricing. You are basically paying for the name on the door and the exclusivity of getting into the place. The scallops with celery root sauce was wonderful, but the scallops were on the small side.

Nice place to impress someone, but you may go away feeling somewhat unsatisfied. It's not bad by any means, but for the price you'll be paying, you would expect Emeril to cook it himself.

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Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

The Krispy Kreme at the Millenia mall is a large facility. You can clearly see the doughnut making machines. The doughnuts here are wonderful. Since this is a high traffic area, the "Hot" sign is lit often especially on Saturday evenings.

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Orlando George & Dragon

Located on I Drive near Wet N Wild, George and Dragon is truly an English experience. They have a large selection of imported beers and offer authentic English foods such as Fish N Chips (using Cod), Steak and Kidney Pie, Pasties, mushy peas, Bangers N Mash, sausage and chips, Chicken Curry, and more

Make sure you order from the bar, as the bartenders double as the waiter, but they don't come to your table to take your order. They have both indoor and outdoor seating. There is also an outdoor bar as well.

Remember to tip in advance using the tip jar.

Highly recommended.

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Q cup

Located next to the 1st Oriental Supermarket, Q Cup offers a large selection of milk tea and flavored teas that you can add tapioca pearls to (aka Boba) to make it a truly Asian treat. They have mango, Jasmine, red bean, Lychee, and many more milk teas.

They also offer hot foods, my favorite is the Beef Noodle Soup; it is excellent! It comes in a big bowl of steaming hot noodles in a meaty broth with chunks of Beef Strew meat and some Bok Choy. Delicious.

PROS: Great Boba Teas, Delicious Food
CONS: A little pricey, but well worth it.

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Tropical Smoothie Cafe

There are two smoothie places close to each other downtown, Smoothie King and Tropical Smoothie. I like both but for different reasons. I live Tropical smoothie for its selection of very smooth smoothies and food offerings which include sandwiches made with Boar's Head meat. Smoothie King uses real fruit and fruit juices and they have some health snacks and vitamins, but not much in the way of hot food (heat up cold sandwich in microwave).

Good place to cool off!

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Firehouse Subs

Made fresh and hot, firehouse subs offers a number of different subs. The one at Merchants walk is pretty fast during lunch. I've had the hook & ladder, meatbal and steamer. They're all good and the combos come with a bag of chips (or cookie) and a drink.

Good choice for lunch.

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Din Ho Market

Din Ho is located in the same strip mall that Xie's bakery and China Yuan restaurant is in. Once you enter through the automated sliding glass door, most of the store is on your right. There a small section of fresh produce, and a large frozen foods section, lots of sauces, and a butcher and fresh seafood in the back. Back up front they have cookies and candies plus a few other pantry items. They also have a small stand where they serve freshly roasted meats.

Not bad overall and since you're very limited to the number of asian groceries around, this place is as good as any.

Counts toward College Heights United Methodist Preschool fundraiser!

Strawberry Festival Info & Ofc

The strawberry festival is held once a year in Plant City and it has some of the biggest names in country music hold concerts here. The festival offers rides, crafts, some shops, and of course food! There are a couple of places that serve Strawberry shortcake. I think we always choose the St Joseph's (saint something) stand. You choose either a piece of cake or biscuit, pile on as much strawberry marmalade (cut strawberries in a sweet red syrup) and whipped cream as you can and top it with a fresh strawberry. Yum!

The rides consist of the usual carnival rides and can get expensive so I recommend going on days when they sell arm bands.

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International Market World

The International Market is a large flea market on Highway 92 very close to the Polk Parkway. It has expanded recently to include closed storefronts instead of just the normal open air stands. You'll find just about anything you can imagine at a flea market so I won't list that here, but don't go when its raining as you'll be sloshing through mud the whole time.

Counts toward College Heights United Methodist Preschool fundraiser!