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Tampa Bay

Flan Factory: A Tampa Bay small business worth supporting

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Flan Factory logo
Flan Factory is located at 1718 N Nebraska Avenue in Tampa. Their phone number is (813) 402-2400, and you can find them online at flanfactorytampa.com.

Here’s a local (if you’re in Tampa) business worth supporting: Flan Factory. There’s no lie on their mural — their flans are flantastic.

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We first tried their flan at the North Tampa Market, which used to take place in Carrollwood back before the plague. We made a habit of taking home several of their individual-sized ones, notably the original, guava, dulce de leche, cafe con leche, coconut, and arroz con leche flavors.

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We’re very happy to see that they’ve gone from temporary setups at markets to a full-blown brick-and-mortar shop on Nebraska, just at the northern edge of Ybor City (a stone’s throw from Centro Asturiano).

In addition to tasty flan, they have amusing merch:

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Yes, that was a funny shirt, but for those who “get it”, this is the money shirt:

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They have a regular set of a half dozen flavors, with another, larger, rotating set. If they have Nutella flavor available, get it:

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They don’t just have flan — they make a mean cafe con leche, and also have some very interesting sandwiches and other dishes as well:

The sandwich I’m most intrigued by is their take on the Elena Ruz sandwich, the Elena 1985. Served during merienda (an afternoon teatime that’s practiced in Spanish colonies — even my birth country, the Philippines), it’s a sweet and savory sandwich that combines turkey, jam, and cream cheese.

Here’s the description of Flan Factory’s Elena 1985:

Thick-cut brioche bread, deep fried in cinnamon batter, then filled with flan factory guava sauce, cream cheese, and oven roasted turkey breast, then dusted with powdered sugar.

Flan Factory logo

Flan Factory is located at 1718 N Nebraska Avenue in Tampa. Their phone number is (813) 402-2400, and you can find them online in several places:

Categories
It Happened to Me Tampa Bay

Sunday sunset

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Seminole Heights’ seal, which depicts a two-headed alligatorI took this photo of our house just a moment before walking across the street to our neighbors’ house for a socially-distanced barbecue on their front lawn. It was just a few of us from the street, and it was a lovely way to spend Sunday evening.

love this neighborhood.

Categories
Stranger than Fiction Tampa Bay

Can’t nobody tell me nothin’

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This rider was seen cruising Lil’ Nas X style on Saturday in V.M. Ybor, an eight-minute drive south of where we live.

Note that he’s wearing a toque/knit cap. That’s because it was a relatively brisk 27° C/80° F that day.

(Found via Reddit’s /r/Tampa.)

Categories
Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay deal of the day: 2020 mobile office for $9,600

Hey Tampa Bay! Are you a looking for a nice office that you can take on the road with you? If so, you might be interested in this little gem that appeared on Facebook Marketplace this afternoon — something the seller calls “2020 The Mobile Workspace”, and is willing to part with, for the sum of $9,600.

From the seller’s description:

Mobile Office built for 1-2 people with all the luxuries of a normal office while still has the full accessibility of 6FT x 12 FT of interior space for storage/transportation of your business needs. This also accommodates a standard queen sized bed with room to spare.

This trailer can run interior lights, refrigerator, TV, laptop charger, stereo, and sink COMPLETELY on solar/battery (off-grid). Refrigerator runs off of 12V so can run 24/7 if parked in sun.

Here’s what it looks like when you open the rear gate doors:

And here’s what you’ll find inside:

It’s a pretty decent-looking workspace:

The seller listed these features:

  • 3/4” High efficiency Insulation
  • 27” IPS LED HD LG Monitor (on extension swivel mount)
  • 10,000 BTU Air Conditioner
  • Microwave
  • Coffee Maker
  • All-in-one Cannon Printer
  • 12V Large Deep Cycle Battery
  • 200 Watt Solar Panel -6 LED Interior Lights
  • 2 Rockford Fosgate Speakers (Front and Rear)
  • Bluetooth Stereo
  • 1500W DC to AC Inverter (120V Power on Battery)
  • Built-in Battery Charger (When connected to shore power)
  • Marine Grade Control Panel (W/USB chargers)
  • Standard 120V Hook-Up

Here’s a view of the top of the rig, where the solar panels are located:

Here are more views of the office:

 

This might be a good portable office for a field engineer, construction manager, or general contractor. Maybe you’re a digital nomad living the RV life and need a little extra space in which to work (if your RV has the towing capacity). Or perhaps you’re in sales or marketing and need a portable showroom. Or maybe you’re trying to work from home and it’s too small for you to set up a home workspace.

Interested? You can contact the seller through their Facebook Marketplace posting.

Categories
It Happened to Me Tampa Bay

The end of a lovely evening

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Seminole Heights’ seal, which depicts a two-headed alligatorI took this picture after having a couple of friends over for socially-distanced drinks in our front yard on Saturday night.

The temperature was a lovely 24° C (75° in Herr Doktor von Fahrenheit’s old-timey system), we had groovy jazz organ playing on the porch sound system, the company was excellent, and the string lights made our corner lot look so cheerful that we got compliments from the neighbors. (They’re also perfectly timed for Diwali!)

It was a lovely evening all ’round.

 

Categories
Tampa Bay The Current Situation

Tampa’s most disappointed voter

Photo: Lime green Mazda hatchback with a big “VOTE FOR KANYE” sticker on its rear windshield.
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We saw this car on Saturday afternoon in Seminole Heights, going southbound on Nebraska.

Categories
It Happened to Me Tampa Bay

Yesterday’s bike ride

We’ve undergoing a period of cooler temperatures here in Tampa — and by cooler, I mean 20°C / 70°F in the late afternoon — which made yesterday’s 10K bike ride (something I do five or six days a week, schedule and weather permitting) a very pleasant one. I took some photos while cycling through Riverbend and Seminole Heights.

Here are the Riverbend photos, which I took while following the Hillsborough River south towards Hillsborough Avenue:

It was then time to cross the river over the bridge, which offers this view when looking north…

…then veer north to Hanna, and then east to Lake Roberta, where 4 circuits of the lake makes one mile. I’d already done more than 10 kilometers after those circuits, so I decided to hang out with the ducks for a few minutes.

Gentle Reader, let me introduce you to Lake Roberta’s biggest a-hole, who makes Canada geese look relaxed in comparison:

He has a gang of followers:

This duck is happy just to have a chance to relax:

I grabbed some last-minute groceries and started heading home. Seminole Heights is one of those tree-lined neighborhoods with a lot of houses built from the 1920s through the 1950s, where college-educated families and craft breweries can be easily found. There’s a clearly-established voting preference here…

The owners of the nearby Corner Club — the neighborhood’s dive bar, karaoke joint, and after-work hangout for folks to work at the nearby TECO branch — recently sold the place, but at least it will remain a bar and not get turned into condos:

Now back to the signs…