On Saturday, April 11th, Team Odette ventured out to the Fruit & Spice Park, located in the Redlands area of Homestead. I had gotten super-cheap tickets for the Redlands Blues & BBQ Festival on Groupon and, despite at least one of us (moi) not feeling up to par, we went. We saw. We conquered!
We have been to the Fruit & Spice Park before, at least twice, but I never noticed this directional sign having the "Robert Is Here" entry before Saturday. What the what? I didn't know anything about it, other than obviously we needed a photograph of Rob next to it. Right?
Naturally, Sophia had to pose in the Park's "Kodak Moment" stand. She loves those things!
Once we entered the Festival, our first stop was to this soft-serve ice cream and tropical fruit station. Holy cow, it was awesome. Serving only fruits actually grown there in the park, some native to the area and some exotic, we paid a mere $3 per well-filled cup of whatever fruits we wanted atop our ice cream. The girls went for it, and Rob had some, too, I think.
Chloë was the more adventurous of the girls, as Sophia only wanted her beloved mango in her ice cream. Chlo opted for all kinds of fruits we had no experience with or knowledge of, and an edible flower on top to boot. So... what did she think of all this?
Yeah, no. Not so much. Heh heh heh. But I admired her for her willingness to try new things, as I am a big proponent of such!
After that, we visited a stand selling bags of fresh pecans and macadamias - my favorite - shipped directly from Hawai'i. We all got a chance to crack the macs out of their tough, thick shells (which I'd never seen before, wow!), and sample the goods. I didn't buy anything at that time, but as promised, I did buy a bag of the yumminess on our way out of the park!
Jack hammered them all open for me here in the abode, since he's a strong little munchkin, and I devoured the entire bag myself. Well... I think Chloë snagged one?
Of course, since it was a BBQ fest, and Rob is from Missouri where BBQ is, you know, kind of a thing, I wanted him to partake of the goodness there. This stand purported to have the "Best Ribs," so I urged him to get 'im some o' dat. He, being quite the connoisseur of ribs, said it was "okay." This is often about as enthusiastic as the boy gets, so I took it as pretty dang good. In any event, he ate the whole plate of 'em.
And, really? THIS is a thing that exists? We had a good laugh about that. Really, though?!
Not a fan of the Conch Fritters, personally, but they offered crabcake sliders at this shack. Speaking of fanatical foodies, I'm all about the crabcakes, so I grabbed a plate. It took me ages, and I had to take it off the bread, but I "managed" to choke the two on my plate down. ;) I kind of expected an allergic reaction to something in them or the dipping sauce, but nothing. Guess that phase is over now, too. Anyway...
Delicious... but still, nothing I've encountered compares to the crabby patties I've gotten from Uncle Chuck's, the fishmonger in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Y'all seriously just don't know until you've had it!
I enjoyed the Blues music that was being played in the park, and Rob seemed to enjoy it as well. As for the kids? I asked them each, in turn, and all of them were highly negative about their opinions of it. Oh, well; we tried.
The kids had no interest in crabcakes, or conch fritters, or BBQ ribs, or any of that such stuff. However, they were all about some Dippin' Dots ice cream, and despite having bought them the tropical fruit-covered stuff at the beginning of the outing, I decided to go ahead and let them have it. It was a boiling hot day, after all, and I wanted them to keep cool. So, I spoiled them a little bit. Why the heck not, anyway?
So, this is a Jackfruit. It's pretty much bigger than our 12-year-old son, Jack. I find that kind of... heh.
So that was a fun excursion of the food and of the music. Mostly enjoyed by the parents, but the kids got ice cream twice, so not so horrible, right?
Thanks for stopping by!
Fin.
Recent Comments