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!

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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.

3rd Annual Tampa Bay International Curry Festival

The 3rd Annual Tampa Bay International Curry Festival is coming up this weekend and tickets are on-sale now! Enjoy 2 food-filled events with a pre-festival VIP event on Friday, October 3rd, 2014 starting at 7PM at Marriott Westshore Tampa​ (1001 N WestShore Blvd. Tampa, FL). Dr. Kiran and Dr. Pallavi from Patel Foundation for Global Understanding and Georgetown Wesleyan University, USA (GWUA) will host Friday’s event.

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Tampa Bay’s best Professional and Amateur Curry Festival Food Competition will take place on Saturday, October 4th, 2014 at the Vinoy Park (701 Bayshore Drive NE
St.Petersburg, FL 33701) from 12PM-8PM. Enjoy live music and local entertainment, curry cuisine from around the world, dozens of vendor booths, children’s activities (including bounce houses), and an evening concert.

Chefs participating in the event include Chef Rosni Gurnani (FOX TV’s Hell’s Kitchen, winner of Food Network’s Chopped), Chef Sam Kumar, Chef Gaston, Chef Suman Roy, Chef Andrew Ashmeade, Kash D. Ramnarain, Chef Massimo, Chef Syed Asif Rasheed, Chef Vicky Ratnani, and Chef Jason Peru. Read more information on the chefs: http://www.tbicf.com/site/entertainment-schedule/chefs

The Patel Center for Global Solution and Dr. Kiran Patel are presenting sponsors for the event. Charity Partners include You Inspire, Derek Brooks Charities, Golfers vs. Brain Cancer, Helen Ellis Memorial Foundation, Georgetown Wesleyan University of the Americas (GWUA), and Save Abee, The Children of Tomorrow.

Win FREE tickets to the Tampa Bay International Curry Festival by entering our giveaway: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/c9f54ff31/

Event name: Tampa Bay International Curry Festival

Date: October 4th & October 5th, 2014

Buy tickets: http://www.ticketfly.com/search/?q=curry+festival

Website: http://www.tbicf.com/site/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/InternationalCurryFestival

Free Coffee for National Coffee Day! #NationalCoffeeDay

College and coffee are a match made in heaven. Coffee gets us through some of the roughest mornings and also some crazy exams. Today is National Coffee Day.

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Photo via Datz Dough

Here is where you can grab a free cup of coffee today in celebration of this foodie holiday.

Buddy Brew Coffee: Tampa’s local craft masters are offering a FREE Cup-O-Brew today in celebration of National Coffee Day.

Datz Dough: Known for their excellent coffee including their bacon and nutella lattes. Datz Dough is one of the coolest coffee shops in town. Today they are offering a cup of their drip coffee to customers for FREE. One per customer. No purchase required.

Dunkin Donuts: grab a FREE medium cup of DD’s new Rainforest Alliance Certified Dark Roast Coffee, limit one per guest.

Krispy Kreme: FREE 12oz cup of Krispy Kreme House, Decaf or Dark Roast coffee today. Guests can also receive a 12oz Mocha, Latte or iced coffee for $1 at participating Krispy Kreme US locations.

Wawa: FREE 16 ounce Wawa coffee when you sign up for their e-mail list: bit.ly/WawaCoffeeDay

Do you know any other places giving away freebies for National Coffee Day or celebrating? Leave a comment!

Check out the Lechon Bros food blog!

We at the Foodies Club pride ourselves on our members being active in the food community and supporting local businesses. Two of our members (and officers in training) started their own food blog recently called Lechon Bros. They love food including restaurants and cooking, expect lots of great posts from them. If you want to learn how to make a food blog or blogging in general, don’t worry we have some things planned this year to help you get started.

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Here are two of their first posts:

PAO Cafe: A new Filipino restaurant in Lake Magdalene/Carrollwood area that also serves Asian Fusion cuisine and comes from the PAO Filipino Food Truck.

Soul of Korea: An unassuming mom-and-pop Korean restaurant on 56th Street between University and Temple Terrace that serves quality Korean food at an affordable place.

You can check out their full website at: http://lechonbros.com. Like them on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LechonBros

Graffiti Junktion Burger Bar Social – 9/29

Join us on Monday, September 29th, 2014 from 6:00PM-8:00PM for the Foodies Club FIRST Social of the semester at Graffiti Junktion Burger Bar USF (11401 56th Street Tampa Fl. 33617).  The USF location is the first location Graffiti Junktion has rolled out in the Tampa Bay area with more planned in areas such as South Tampa and 6 locations in Orlando. Food at Graffiti Junktion is prepared fresh and never-frozen.

If you would like to join us please RSVP via Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/518993788234185/. Members who RSVP will receive free samples during our event and also receive 20% off any additional purchases at Graffiti Junktion.

We hope you will come out and join us!

-USF Foodies Club

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