Lance Around Orlando

Food That's Tasty, Healthy and Naked? That's Quite a Find!

What’s your favorite health food?  Tofu?  Carrot juice?  Pizza?

Pizza?

The folks at Naked Pizza are on a mission to launch the world’s largest grassroots health movement. In October 2010 John & Shannon opened their first of a hopeful 15 area Naked Pizza franchise stores. This one’s located on Route 434 in Altamonte Springs, just north of Orlando. Their pizza is round, saucy, cheesy and comes in a square box. So what makes it healthy?

It’s naked:  Meaning it’s made from all natural ingredients that taste better and are better for you. It’s not meant to be a diet food.

To begin with, the crust is made with 10 different grains plus prebiotic agave fiber and probiotics (healthful bacteria like those found in yogurt.) According to their literature, this diversity of grains, fiber and probiotics create a sustained release of energy without the crash you can experience from eating “other pizzas that are a big donut slathered with tomato sauce.”

The sauce is all natural, spiced and herbed with no added sugar or citric acid. The cheese is rGBH-free real Wisconsin mozzarella. The meats and veggies are all natural, no additives and free of growth hormones and antibiotics.

Ordering Naked

And naked means honest, immediate and transparent. It’s one reason they use social media so heavily. Their literature proclaims, “For too long fast food companies have talked about secret ingredients that we’ve come to find out are making people less healthy. We think that’s crummy so we use social media to help change it.”

Wow! With all this talk about the health benefits, I was skeptical.  How would it taste?

No need to worry, the pizza was quite tasty; surprisingly so! In some ways, it was just like any other pizza you’ve ever had. In other ways, it really was possible to enjoy the flavorful crust, spiced & herbed sauce and real dairy cheese. With all these special ingredients, I wondered how much more expensive it would be. Again, to my delight, the price was similar to what one would pay at any other pizza chain.

In many ways, the pizza was a reflection of the store. The store had the same appearance as a regular pizza store–front counter with phones, large ovens, square pizza boxes stacked and ready to receive a fresh, hot pizza.  In other ways, it was quite different–bright and minimalistic, large TV screens with information and advertisement, social media screens on the wall where you could sign up to be a fan of the store.

I spoke with John & Shannon, the owners of this franchise. While this is only the 4th Naked Pizza store in the US, there are over 500 stores under contract. This includes John & Shannon’s committment to opening 15 additional stores in the area.

They said they were attracted to this concept because they believe in the healthy, naked approach to the food industry espoused by the founders of Naked Pizza, one of whom they referred to as a nutritional anthropologist. Although it was clear from our conversation that they were nervous about the sales volume in the five months since the store opened, they expressed confidence that they would find their market.

Based on how the pizza tasted and how competitively priced it was, I think they might be right.

Naked Pizza
931 N. S.R. 434
Altamonte Springs, FL 32714
321.972.9890
Open every day 10:30am to Midnight
Open until 1:00am on Friday and Saturday

One of the Best Vietnamese Restaurants in Orlando

Is the Anh Hong Restaurant on the corner of Colonial Drive and Mills Avenue in downtown Orlando the best Vietnamese Restaurant?

I don’t really know. There are literally dozens of Vietnamese places to eat in this section of town. I’ve never had Vietnamese before, so I have nothing to compare it with. However, it’s been an Orlando “FOODIE” award winner three times in the past 10 years.

Here’s what the LanceAround family discovered the other weekend when we sat down to our first Vietnamese meal: The service was excellent; polite and fast. The only problem was communication as both the restaurant and its staff are authentic Vietnamese. The food was similar enough to Chinese and Thai to draw comparisons, but different enough to be a separate cuisine. The portions were large and the price was very reasonable. In all, it was tasty and, in some cases, quite unique.

Suoug Sao Hat E Da

Take the Suoug Sao Hat E Da drink that Number One Son ordered. It’s listed as a sweet basil seed and grass jelly drink. To attempt to describe it would be futile, so please look at this picture. The drink begins with the ingredients in this glass, then the server adds the liquid. It is sweet, delicious and we’ve never seen anything like it.

Number One Daughter ordered tofu and veges, Mrs. Lance Around had the rice vermicelli with fried tofu and veges and I had golden pancakes with bean sprouts. We sampled each other’s fare and commented on how similar or different each was to other asian food that we enjoy, such as Thai, Chinese, Indian and Indonesian. Our food was a little more greasy and slightly more bland than those cuisines. We asked for a side of peanut sauce–something we enjoy at Thai restaurants–and that was a nice addition.

For fun, I ordered a bubble tea. If you’ve never had one, they are a real treat. They come in a variety of flavors, like many cold, sweet teas available in any supermarket, but with an added bonus. At the bottom of the tea are small, round “bubbles” made from a tapioca like substance. You drink the tea through a wide straw which allows the bubbles to be sucked into your mouth along with the tea. It tastes great and is fun to drink (and chew!)

Inexpensive, Unique and Delicious

Number One Son and Number One Daughter enjoyed a coconut juice which was an actual chilled coconut with the top sliced off and a straw inserted for sipping. The novelty was more impressive than the flavor of the juice.

Appetizers range from $2.50 to $12.00, sandwiches are between $3 and $8 and full entrees go from $6.50 to $13. Desserts are only $2 to $4 and beverages are $1.50 to $4. The portions will fill you up, the prices won’t drain your wallet, but, most of all, the experience of a cuisine that is not readily available in most parts of the country make this a trip worth taking.

Open 7 days a week from 9am to 9:30pm.

Anh Hong Restaurant
1124 E Colonial Drive
Orlando, FL 32803
407.999.2656