Check in at the World Food Championship

Cookers at Celebration

Today it’s Check-In Day at the World Food Championship. At least that’s what I thought reading through my emails. So the day started off as usual, with selecting some photos, checking emails and creating a daily post for my blog to keep everybody updated on my whereabouts. We went to Waffle House, Celebration, some malls and stores before having dinner at Longhorn and heading back to the rental home.

We were very warmly welcomed at Waffle House for our late breakfast. Some people eat breakfast as soon as they step out of bed, some wait for a couple of hours. I am one of the latter persons and do not eat breakfast first thing after getting up. The breakfast was very good and the personnel was very nice. It was fun eating breakfast at this place.

From there we headed for Celebration, where a great part of the World Food Championship is being held. I thought I needed to check in there as I am volunteering, table captaining and judging. It took a little while to find a parking spot, since Celebration is not very big and are not used to having so many people visiting I guess. After looking around the area a bit, I went to the volunteering check-in, but there I noticed that this is for a different kind of volunteers. I did not have to check in at this time, so we left to head over to the Westgate Resort & Spa, where the check-in for BBQ teams is located.

There we met the wonderful people of the KCBS International Outreach team, Debby and Bill Gage and Mariah and Wayne Lohman. Also while checking in, we met Clint and Eva from the Czech Republic who are also competing. After all the form filling and photography we were ready and on our way out we met the very nice Big Papa’s, Dana Hillis.

From there we went on a shopping tour, which started at the Vineland Premium Outlet Mall, probably the biggest outlet mall in Orlando. After a while we had a snack and shopped a bit more before leaving this mall for the Mall at Millenia, the luxury mall of Orlando. There we also shopped for a while checking out stores and from there we headed over to Dick’s Sporting Goods and ended up at The Home Depot.

By the time we left The Home Depot we were getting a bit hungry again, so we decided to go for steak this time. On our way back to the rental home we stopped at Longhorn. We had some great steaks (yes with vegetables) and after this great meal we went back to the house and called it a night.

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Check in at the World Food Championship

A relaxed day

On the road

Today a relaxed day on the road. Went shopping at the mall, eat some BBQ at Bubbalou’s and picked up some BBQ goods with Serial Grillaz, Huddle Lee Stokes and Josine Pierik, at Whiskey Bent and Swampboys.

A very relaxed day today. No need to hurry or rush at all. We went on the road to visit the Premium Mall at International Drive. We stayed a while, visited a couple of stores and picked up some goods that will come in handy for the BBQ contests. After a while we started to get a bit hungry, but due to some issues with the water, foodcourt was closed. We visited a couple of more stores and then decided to leave the mall and head to Bubbalou’s Bodacious BBQ.

There we had a bit of everything. Ribs, more ribs, brisket sandwich, chicken wings and chicken leg, sliced pork and beef and with all that some drinks. The food was good, but in no way comparable to competition cooked meat.

From there it was heading over to Lakeland to pay a visit to Whiskey Bent. Unfortunately Chad was unable to join us in the store due to some meetings, but we were greeted and helped professionally. A very nice store with a great selection of rubs and sauces. Best of all, you can sample any you’re interested in, so you will certainly leave with the rubs and sauces of your choice.

After most needed items had been bought we moven on to Winter Haven, to pay a visit to Swamboys. We were very warmly welcomed and had a tour through the home and garden. We saw the many, many trophies displayed, the cooker area in the huge garden and met the whole family. We picked up a drum, the Serial Grillaz Grizzly cooler and some smaller items.

By then it was already time to head back to Kissimmee, where we unpacked the cars and then spent some time around the house. Later that evening, we went to a couple of gift shops on the Irlo W. Bronson Memorial Highway and Walmart for some more shopping.

The evening ended with a late night steak snack and called it a night

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A relaxed day

Test Post from Mehrer

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