7 yummy plates to try from YO! Sushi Tampa

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Looking for a fun, new sushi experience in Tampa? Look no further, as YO! Sushi offers many great sushi plates at a low, affordable cost, all while being served on a conveyer belt! Here are some of their best options.

1. The Ginza Roll

What’s better than sushi? Nothing! Just kidding, but all jokes aside the Ginza Roll is a classic roll with fresh salmon, cream cheese, and cucumber inside topped with a bit of caviar, teriyaki, sriracha and mayo.

2. Salmon Steam Bun

This Salmon Steamed Bun was a personal favorite among Foodie members! This plate included house-pickled red onions and kimchi marinated salmon all stuffed inside a soft Hirata bun.

3. Takoyaki

A native favorite! Octopus filled dough balls, topped with mayonnaise, bonito, and their pickled red onions.

4. Garlic Ramen

The Sesame Garlic Ramen literally speaks for itself- yummy sesame broth filled with ramen and topped with scallions, nori, garlic sesame oil and more!

5. Poke Bowl

The Poke Bowls are one of the newest additions to the YO! Sushi menu. You can choose from three different types: chicken, tuna, and tofu. These plates are also filled with sesame oil, house-pickled red onions, and more!

6. Chicken Katsu

The Chicken Katsu was one of my personal favorites as I am a HUGE chicken fan! This plate included a juicy chicken thigh lightly breaded with a Japanese panko and topped with a delicious fruity tonkatsu sauce.

7. Spicy Seafood Udon

Last but certainly not least, the Spicy Seafood Udon Noodle! This delicious bowl was filled with shrimp, salmon, squid and veggies inside of a spicy kimchi broth served with your choice of udon noodles or rice.

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Foodies Club Give Back Day @ PAO Cafe

Come out the PAO Cafe for the Foodies Club at USF Give Back Day on Friday, March 27th, 2015 from 12PM-8PM! We’ll be fundraising for the Foodies Club and a portion of the proceeds will go back to the Foodies Club for future events.

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We’ll be curating a special menu just for the Foodies Club that will showcase different fusion food from around the world.

In addition, there will be an Open Mic @ PAO Cafe from 4PM-8PM! If you have singing talent then sign up! JAMMA will be performing!

Let us know if your org wants to throw its support behind our event!

Tickets will be on-sale for PhilFest 2015! PhilFest is one of the biggest Filipino festivals in the nation and showcases Filipino culture through food, dance, and cultural traditions. Don’t miss it!

Food Truck Rally Friday Feb. 20th @ Venue at North Campus

Come out this Friday, February 20th to the Venue at North Campus (13702 N. 42nd Street Tampa, FL 33613) from 1:00PM-6:00PM for a food truck rally. The Foodies Club at USF will be partnering up with the Venue at North Campus for this event.

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Enjoy FREE FOOD tickets when you RENEW or SIGN for Fall 2015 – 1 FREE Meal to all first time tours this week, 2 FREE Meals to anyone who signs a lease with The Venue as well as Food Truck Rally Tanks, koozies, sunglasses, there will be a few DJ’s on site and carnival games for free!

Call (813) 443-8240 to schedule your tour at the Venue and get a free meal ticket!

Participating food trucks courtesy of Generation Food Truck:

See you Friday!

Sunny Pizza opens across from USF near Boba House

The Foodies Club stopped by Sunny Pizza yesterday for a quick bite to eat. They recently opened next to the International “Boba House” on University Square Drive just minutes from campus and are accessible by the USF Bull Runner Route D.

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We ordered two San Francisco sourdough slices. The sourdough gives the crust an extra sour tastes that is reminiscent of a bread bowl. The cheese and toppings featured quality ingredients and you can taste that they use fresh tomatoes in their base instead of typical marinara.

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We also ordered a Jarritos Mandarin Soda. The total with the two slices was just $4.10 and Sunny’s currently has a deal for $1 slices as well as College Specials and delivers.

Sunny Pizza will be sponsoring us for our upcoming Foodies Club Meeting. Don’t miss it on Wednesday, February 18th, 2015 from 5:45PM-7:15PM in MSC3709.

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Sunny Pizza on Urbanspoon

Restaurant Name: Sunny Pizza

Address: 2770 University Square Drive Tampa, FL 33612

Phone: (813) 977-5500

Website: http://sunnypizzatampa.com/

Foodies Club Florida State Fair 2015 Food Thoughts

We visited the Florida State Fair yesterday and tried a wide-variety of food at various vendors. Everything we tried was great and truly left a great impression. Here are our thoughts:

We started off with the ramen pizza. We will admit that when we first heard of the ramen pizza, we didn’t think it would be incredibly appetizing. Boy were we wrong, the ramen tastes like a delicious portable spaghetti, especially the pepperoni ramen pizza. It was great and presented by Chai Yo Thai Cuisine, based out of Riverview.

Next we tried the Funnel Cake Cheeseburger at The Best Around Concessions. The funnel cake burger features a cheeseburger packed between two funnel cake buns with glazed drizzle on each bun. This burger blew us away and was certainly a contender for the best burger at the Florida State Fair. The buns were perfectly cooked and had a crunch that complemented the meat and toppings inside.

 

The owner of the stand told us customers would constantly ask her to make a funnel cake burger and this year she decided it was time to add it to the menu.

We also sampled the Red Velvet Funnel Cake – another delicious and sweet offering at the fair.

After that, we made our way over to Over The Top Burgers. Over The Top featured the Ramen Burger last year, which was a huge hit at the fair. This year they have a Parmesan-Crusted Burger with a twice-fried burger patty coated with a potato chip/parmesan-romano cheese mixture until crispy.

 

We were big fans of this burger and it was the winner of a contest held by Over The Top for which burger would be their new menu item for 2015.

We also tried the Jalapeno Crusted Burger. The taste of the burger was similar to loaded nacho chips in a burger format.

As if that was not enough, we also tried the doughnut burger with a special mac-and-cheese spread on top of the burger meat. This was seriously some tasty macaroni-and-cheese.

If Over The Top has a chance they should consider entering their mac-and-cheese into the Mayor’s Mac and Cheese Throwdown.

We took a trip over to Polar Bear Ice Cream afterwards. Polar Bear has been at the Florida State Fair for almost 30 years and consistently pumps out great ice cream every year.

Finally, we finished our food journey at The Amish Baking Co. with freshly-baked doughnuts and pretzels. The Amish Baking Co. serves authentic Amish baked goods and can be found at various fairs and festivals.

We also spotted the White Caste Crave Mobile on the way out of the fair.

The last day to visit the Florida State Fair is Monday, February 16th, 2015. Make sure you try some of these awesome food items before they are gone.

BOGO Burritos for Valentine’s Day @ Qdoba Mexican Grill for a Kiss

Qdoba Mexican Grill is offering customers in Tampa and Orlando an opportunity to get a buy one, get one free (BOGO) Smothered Burrito offer for Valentine’s Day on Saturday, February 14th, 2015. All you have to do is give a kiss or peck to someone in line whether it’s a lover or friend. “We’ve been serving up free burritos on Valentine’s Day for the past few years and are amped to celebrate the day with our fans by bringing back this annual offer,” said David Craven, Vice President of Brand Marketing.

Qdoba will have a new smothered sauce called savory queso, which is “a rich and creamy smother that takes a savory spin on the sauce that started it all”.

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Find a Qdoba Mexican Grill near you.

Florida State Fair 2015 Happening Now – Food Highlights

The 2015 Florida State Fair is in town. Tickets can be purchased online at http://floridastatefair.webconnex.com/2015floridastatefair. Unlimited ride armbands are available on different days. Check out this page for more details: http://www.floridastatefair.com/events/2014/fair-tickets–armbands. Parking is FREE.

Don’t miss! Tuesday, February 10th: Families Helping Families – $2 Tuesday, Bring 2 items of non-perishable food and get in after 5PM for $2 admission/$2 rides. Ride Armband – Valid only after 3pm, $30 advance purchase, $35 purchased at the gate. Weekday Super Saver Armband – Valid only after 5pm, $20 advance purchase, $25 purchased at the gate. All donated food will go to Feeding America Tampa Bay.

Here are some new things on the food menu this year that we are looking forward to:

Burger of the Gods: A beef patty topped with brie, bacon, and an apple, maple compote on a toasted bun.

Deep Fried Oreo Burger: A beef patty fried on the griddle then dredged through an Oreo cookie batter and deep-fried. Add bacon, glaze, and crumbled Oreos. There’s even an extra Oreo included for dessert!

Holiday Express Burger: Thanksgiving on a bun! A beef patty topped with Havarti cheese, bacon, stuffing, sweet potato fries and a cranberry-orange marmalade sauce on a toasted bun.

Jalapeno Crusted Burger: A twice-fried burger patty coated with a corn chip/jalapeno mix until its crispy. Then topped with shredded Mexican-style cheese (melted with a kitchen torch), guacamole, salsa, and sour cream.

Parmesan Crusted Burger: A twice-fried burger patty coated with a potato chip/parmesan-romano cheese mixture until crispy. Topped with bacon, a mayonnaise-parmesan sauce and torched until melted. Finish with your favorite condiments.

Some other notable food highlights include:

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Cronut™: The bakery sensation that’s been sweeping the country arrives at the Florida State Fair. A light and fluffy hybrid of a doughnut and croissant, which has created lines around New York City and other metros.

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Funnel Cake Cheeseburger: A juicy cheeseburger nestled in between two, crunchy, glazed funnel cakes, topped with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and a pickle.

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Ramen Pizza made with ramen noodles as the crust.

We can’t wait to visit this upcoming week! The Foodies Club will visit the fair this upcoming Friday, but there is no reason to wait. Tuesday you can help support Feeding America Tampa Bay and enjoy some of these foods at the same time.

 

Recap: Burrito Eating Competition + Social with Qdoba Mexican Grill

The Foodies Club at USF hosted their first burrito eating competition and social at Qdoba Mexican Grill located at 5001 East Fowler Avenue Tampa, FL 33617 from 5:00PM-8:00PM on Tuesday, January 27th, 2015. We would like to thank the people who came out to make this event a success!

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Six teams of four students competed to be eligible to win free burritos for a year*. Free samples of Qdoba’s menu including chips and salsa and quesadillas as well as Qdoba sunglasses were given to spectators at the event who cheered on participants.

The competition was held in relay format and the team with the lowest overall time score won the contest. All contest participants received a free entrée for their next visit to Qdoba Mexican Grill regardless of their placement.

The team times are as follows:

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1st place: Team Jamaican Hopscotch Mafia (Winners of free burritos for a year) 12 minutes 15 seconds 05 milliseconds

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2nd place: Team We Hungry 12 minutes 20 seconds 18 milliseconds

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3rd place: Team Uptown Funk 13 minutes 07 seconds 50 milliseconds

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4th place: Team Diversity from USF International Student Association (ISA) 14 minutes 10 seconds 39 milliseconds

5th place: FARM Squad 5 from USF FARM (Food Activists Revolutionizing Meals) 14 minutes 31 seconds 76 milliseconds

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Team Clean Eating: Timed out

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Team Jamaican Hopscotch claimed the winning prize of free burritos for a year with team members Jowel Antiquino, Matt Newman, Jason Russ, and Corey Atkins. The Foodies Club at USF would like to congratulate these students on their achievement.

*12 entrees per team member

Foodies Club collaborates with Wyndham Farms & Chef Jonjie: Lechon Manok

The Foodies Club teamed up with Wyndham Farms Brine Mix for Poultry and Pork to come up with a recipe using their mixture this past weekend. We reached out to Chef Jonjie, owner and Executive Chef at the PAO Cafe Filipino restaurant and PAO Truck Filipino Food Truck, to help us with the recipe.

He came up with this excellent chicken dish called Lechon Manok. Lechon Manok is essentially a Filipino roast chicken and the dish was super tasty.

Check out Chef Jonjie’s website for the recipe! http://chefjonjie.com/2015/02/02/recipe-lechon-manok-filipino-fusion-dish/

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Foodies Club Social + Burrito Eating Competition @ Qdoba Mexican Grill

The Foodies Club will be teaming up with Qdoba Mexican Grill (5001 East Fowler Ave. Tampa, FL 33617) on Tuesday, January 27th, 2015 from 5PM-8PM for a social and Burrito Eating Competition. Samples will be served by Qdoba Mexican Grill and discounts given on all things ordered by the Foodies Club at USF.

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Burrito competition rules:

  • Teams shall consist of 4 people
  • Team names and registration must be sent to USFFoodiesClub@gmail.com!
  • The competition shall be a time-based competition, each team will be supplied with 4 burritos in relay format. The team with the lowest total time will win a year’s supply of burritos from Qdoba Mexican Grill*
  • The first 5 teams to sign-up will be FREE (5 teams are already registered)
  • Regular team admission cost will be $15 total per team

Use #QdobaUSF on Twitter/Instagram during the event for a chance to win a gift card from Qdoba!

Follow Qdoba on Twitter @QdobaCFL and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/QdobaTampa

Follow the Foodies Club on Twitter @USFoodies and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/usffoodies

Join the Foodies Club on OrgSync! http://orgsync.com/98202/chapter

*One burrito a month for 12 months