Rice fields are flooded not because it’s necessarily good for the rice, but because it kills all of the weeds.

Welcome to “Great Things Tampa Bay,” the podcast about great eats, great places, and great people in the greater Tampa Bay area. I’m your host, Kyle Sasser, a Tampa Bay native, and realtor. This is episode 13, “Tampa’s Cafe.”

I’d like to thank you for giving us your time. I know there’s lots of things buying for your attention, and I appreciate you choosing to you spend your time listening to me in this podcast. I promise I will do everything I can to bring you something awesome. Also, wanna let you know that we now have express feeds. If you’re only interested in our food reviews, just do a search for “Great Bites Tampa Bay.” If you want more of our interviews with interesting movers and shakers in the area, just look for the feed “Great People Tampa Bay. And for things to do in the area shops, or other events, just do a search for “Great Places Tampa Bay.” These feeds are listed on our website greatthingstb.com under the heading “express feeds” up at the top there.

Segment one, Tapas Spanish Cafe. If you’ve listened to the podcasts, I’m sure there’s probably some sections on Tampa Bay that you feel like that they’re not getting any love. And I wanna give one of my little hidey-hole special spots over in east of Tampa. Honestly, I used to live over there in Brandon I lived there for a few years, seven years, something like that. And this was the place where we would go, you know, when we wanted something tasty for lunch, authentic, delicious, and affordable. Some places called Tapas Spanish Cafe. Please do yourself a favor, skip the Taco Bus on Falkenburg, and make the trip here. It’s right up the road, kinda across from the jail a little bit. It is, kind of, catty-cornered around back behind the bunch of stuff. The easiest way to find it is you go on Falkenburg, and I’m sure you’ll be able to spot the jail there between Broadway and north of Highway 60.

So, you’ll take Falkenburg north from 60, in front of the jail, you’ll take a right on the Windhorst, and then a right on Tech Boulevard. It’s kind of in little commerce park there. The place have been there for 17 years. They’ve been doing it right from day one. They have some completely amazing cubans, the beans and the rice are delicious. There’s nothing tremendously fancy, it’s not artisanal, and, you know, there’s no new takes on anything. There’s no fusion. This is just down-home, delicious Cuban staples, great prices, pretty friendly service, down-home friendly experience. It’s a great place to grab lunch. They’re not really open for dinner or anything like that. This is mainly, you know, they just serve the lunch crowd. So, if you find yourself in Brandon there, definitely give them a look because it’s absolutely worth it.

The other cool thing is with them being positioned kinda back to this little commerce park there. It’s not tremendously busy, you know, it’s not gonna be like a first choice barbecue experience. You know, you’re waiting out the door, waiting on your collard greens and samplers, and all that. You can go in and, you know, it’s busy healthfully so, but you’re not gonna have to wait a tremendously long time for a table or anything like that. You can also order in for take out or catering which is also delicious. So, that’s Tapas Spanish Cafe, and that’s 1202 Tech Boulevard, Suite Number 100 in Tampa.

Segment two. Feed Missy Moore. So, here’s a little fun fact about rice. I’m sure you have seen pictures of rice patties and all that good stuff. And I can imagine you picturing it in your head right now. You’re thinking…something with, you know, some raised beds, horderning off either terraced or a squared fields, and the fields are flooded, and, you know, just a little stalks of green coming up. So, the interesting part about the rice is that they don’t need to be flooded to survive. They can actually do just as well with traditional irrigation techniques. But the reason that the fields get flooded is because the rice can survive the flooding, but all the weeds cannot, so it helps with cultivation. Keeps, you know, all the weeds are drowned up and helps to increase the crops. So, if you ever find yourself in a situation where maybe you’re at a trivia game or, you know, maybe the world ends and you have a couple grains of rice, so that is the tip for rice cultivation. The rice don’t needit to survive, it just helps increase the yields.

Outro. I wanna thank you for sharing “Great Things Tampa Bay” with your friends and family. You can share us by going to our website, greatthingstb.com. There you’ll find a share button on nearly every page. You can share us on Twitter, Facebook, all that good stuff. If you are looking for your own great place in Tampa Bay, I’m also a licensed realtor, specializing in deep knowledge of Hillsborough and Pinellas County. So, if you wanna talk real estate, you can give me a call at 727-300-2111, or you can send me an email at kyle@sassergroup.com. That’s kylesasser.com, and I’d be more than happy to help you find your next home here in Tampa Bay.

I also need your feedback. I need you to tell me where we should be going, and what we should be eating, and who we should be talking to. So, please go to our website, greatthingstb.com, or you can hit either the contact us link at the top, or the get social links also at the top. If you wanna be a cool guy, or a cool girl, you can call our voicemail number, which is 727-440-4455, and leave us a message. I’d love to hear from you. So, thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time. And oh, by the way, if you don’t want to miss the next episode, please subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play. That will guarantee that you get the next episode delivered straight to your mobile device of choice. Thank you so much, and I’ll talk to you next time.