Emeril's Orlando
Since opening his first restaurant, Emeril's, in 1990, Chef Lagasse has picked up a number of awards. Emeril's Orlando
 I was excited to learn that my favorite chef, indeed my current culinary idol, Emeril Lagasse, had opened a restaurant in Orlando, because I would be soon taking a vacation to the Sunshine state. I made a reservation to dine there on the Sunday LaRaine and I would be in Florida. I was looking forward to seeing Disney for the first time, but even more excited about eating at Emeril's.

After spending the day at the Magic Kingdom, we hurried from Disney to Universal to find the place and get our table. I figured we'd get lost at least once, but we arrived with no mishaps. We were even a half-hour early, but they were able to seat us anyway.

Our waiter, Julio, snapped fresh white linen napkins onto our laps and handed us the menu containing a vast array of delectable goodies. We asked for recommendations, then were left alone to make our choices. And was that ever a hard task!

Wanting the whole experience, we ordered five courses in all. I started with the lobster cheesecake ("Maine Lobster Cheesecake With a garden herb nage and a lobster saffron emulsion") and Raine ordered the calamari ("Creole Marinated Calamari Fried and served with a smoked tomato sauce, a New Orleans-style olive salad and parmigiano reggiano cheese"). She expected the equivalent of one squid, cut in ringlets and fried, something delicate, but what she received was a huge mound of the beasties - appetizer enough for four people! The squid was tender, but the sauce was unfortunately marred by too much oregano, and the olive salad was an unnecessary bit of overkill. My cheesecake was a full four inch-high slab from a 10" round cake - a slice that might be deemed too large even by dessert portion standards! But it was decadent and rich, although served cold. We each took a few bites and called for doggie bags. (I heated up the cheesecake the next evening and it was even more delicious that way.)

The next course was soup - Turtle for me and the special Wild Mushroom and Fennel Bisque for Raine. It's been a while since I had turtle soup, and I thought that what was served to me looked a tad odd, a bit lumpy. It tasted odd as well, rather more like gumbo. Raine did not like the buttery-ness of her soup, so we traded. She asked, "does turtle soup have okra in it?" and I realized that they had brought me the wrong thing. We kept it, however, because it was tasty, although the crumbled chunks of sausage in it gave it an unusual texture unlike any gumbo I have ever had before. The soup portions were also ample; served in large shallow bowls, they constituted almost a meal in themselves.

We followed this with a salad course - the layered salad for Raine, and I tried something I had seen Emeril prepare on his Live show - three-nut crusted goat cheese on baby spinach salad with warm home-made andouille sausage vinaigrette (try saying that five times fast!) Needless to say, it was incredible, and tasted exactly as I had expected it to taste. Might be one of those things I can tinker with in my own kitchen and serve to unsuspecting friends :)

The salad and soup probably would have sufficed, but we still had entrees coming. I had to try the Study of Duck - "A Study of Duck consisting of seared and sliced duck breast, seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras and a leg of duck confit, served with wild mushroom bread pudding, duck reduction and a drizzle of port wine extraction." The bread pudding was incredibly rich and delicious. I had never eaten duck liver before, and was amazed to find out how delicate and sensuous it was...I can still taste it. It did not have anything remotely resembling the livery flavor that chicken liver has. Both the duck breast and confit were as marvelous as the rest of the plate. But alas I doggie-bagged most of it. Raine did the same with her dish "Grilled Half Chicken Marinated with Creole spices and served with a corn andouille sausage pudding, southern cooked greens, a reduction of chicken stock and garnished with hot sauce spiced wings" - a gargantuan plate of food. We ended up eating our left-overs for dinner the next day, and I had some chicken for lunch a few days later.

For dessert, I had to try Emeril's famous Banana Creme Pie. Suprisingly, it did not reach the same high standards of the rest of the meal. The pastry cream was a tad gummy, but the overall flavor was yummy. I ate out the bananas and left a glob of paste and crust behind. Raine had the sorbet sampler - kiwi, berry, and mango. None actually tasted like the actual fruit, although the berry was closest - but they were delicious nonetheless.

Our flirty waiter and the rest of the staff were attentive, as they should be for the caliber of the restaurant, not to mention the prices. Had we ordered only what we could eat, we could have gotten out reasonably inexpensively. But I was happy to be there and thought every penny was well-spent. Looking forward to my next visit to the Orlando area....



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