This week on the blog:Top Chef contestant Ron Duprat does it for the kiddies, and serves some great sea bass at Whole Foods’ Lifestyle Center. Southern-fried Louisiana cookery lands out west with Creolina’s Dixie Takeout, and the staff is still just as sweet.In Love Bites, Riki finds true love, but…
After nearly two solid decades of heavy caffeine consumption, I count myself nearly immune to the wonder drug. With a thousand different kinds of energy drinks on the market, I’ve decided to find out which ones work, and which should just be mixed with vodka and evacuated a few hours…
Last week we suggested our top five Dine Out Lauderdale choices, a list punctuated by one Cafe Maxx. Based on our visit this week, we were right: Cafe Maxx has come up with a spectacular Dine Out menu that gives you more than just a little sample of the restaurant’s…
Has one of the country’s most iconic foods become as American as. . . tacos al carbon? In a word, yes. Clean Plate Charlie was scanning the NY Times food section a couple weeks back and came across this piece by John T. Edge, a real scholar of American and…
There’s an episode of Pee-wee’s Playhouse in which Pee-wee is talking about how much he loves fruit salad, and Miss Yvonne says that if he loves it so much, maybe he should marry it. So he does. Now, I like a guy with the courage of his convictions, but for…
It’s become a sad fact of reality in the restaurant scene: businesses are closing every day, and by the dour way in which the best and brightest restaurateurs are talking, there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight.That makes what happened last week at Tamarac’s Kuluck Persian Restaurant and…
Once again, I was wandering through my local grocery store when something caught my eye as being completely out of place. Here, in the cereal aisle is a whole shelf of Alpina Yogurt with Cereal. Just to be clear, the cereal aisle at Publix is completely void of refrigeration. As…
Have you been to Tryst yet? I visited Delray Beach’s Official Beer and Tapas Clubhouse on Tuesday night, and I was reminded again how great this place is. With exposed brick, dark wood, and antique furniture, it has the vibe of a retro speakeasy (since there’s no secret password, it’s…
• If Clematis Street weren’t smokin’ already, it will be by year’s end with the debut of Off the Hookah, the second SoFla location for the Fort Lauderdale-based company. We’re not talking subtle here. Look for waterfalls, belly dancers and “flair” bartenders to go along with a Middle Eastern-Mediterranean menu…
They’re doing it in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami. . . in Delray Beach, not so much. A new generation of–don’t call them “bartenders,” call them “mixologists”–is flavoring their own spirits, making their own infusions and syrups and garnishes, creating cocktails that go far beyond the usual “vodka-rocks”…
The shrimp and grits in front of me at Creolina’s Dixie Takeout in Davie fill the entire white, oval plate. Almost two dozen plump shrimp are bathing in a pool of pink tasso cream sauce so abundant that it’s managed to spread underneath the dish of collard greens on the…
Mediterranean cuisine in South Florida has come to be synonymous with throwing around napkins and guzzling ouzo while dancing on top of the tables. But Taza makes a distinct break from that tradition. The swank, modern-fashioned restaurant located along 17th Street Causeway, home of the power lunch. Here, suits looking…
Check it out: The Sicilian Oven, one of the best pizza joints in Broward County, is planning to open its second location by early next year.Worstpizza.com is reporting that Andrew Garavuso and crew will move into the 3,100-square-foot storefront formerly occupied by DiSalvo’s at 10140 W. Sample Road in Coral…
Da Francesco’s, the group that for five months operated the organic Italian restaurant of the same name in Palm Beach, was denied an injunction last week against 251 Partners that would have seen them take back control of their restaurant. The order came down by way of Palm Beach Circuit…
If you’re not a subscriber to our weekly Café Bites dining newsletter for Broward and Palm Beach counties, here’s a taste of what you missed this week. Click here to subscribe. If food is the new pornography, oysters are the new Viagra. So if you’re lusting for the sweet-salty caress…
If you’re not a subscriber to our weekly Café Bites dining newsletter for Broward and Palm Beach counties, here’s a taste of what you missed this week. Click here to subscribe. Why are this year’s Dolphins more chum than shark? Is the season dead in the water? Will the Tuna…
Check it out, y’all: Davie’s got the premier digs for Southern grub in Creolina’s Dixie Takeout, the chicken-fried spinoff of the longtime Fort Lauderdale joint. After a year slinging Deep South cuisine way out west, how are Creolina’s and its heralded wait staff faring? Check out an excerpt from this…
In case you haven’t heard the news, Gourmet Magazine, that 68-year-old veteran of food and travel writing, is hanging up its apron following the publication of its November issue. Mag owner Conde Nast announced that the glossy — still one of the most respected venues for food writing in the…
Pictured: Chocolate Chip and pumpkin pancakes.Batter: Pancake mix. Pumpkin puree. Water. Sugar. Cinnamon. Salt. Chocolate Chips.Griddle: High heat. Butter. Pour batter. Watch for bubbles. Flip once. Store in towel-lined baking dish until ready to serve. Top with crushed pecans and maple syrup.Enjoy…
He was running a few minutes late, but once Chef Ron Duprat arrived at Whole Foods’ Lifestyle Center on Saturday night, he got right to business. Scuttling through the door in his bright red Birkenstocks, Duprat introduced himself and apologized for being late. “I’m on Haiti time,” he said with…
As part of his continuing campaign to free wine drinkers from the shackles of chardonnay, Clean Plate Charlie presents. . . torrontes. WTF? TF, not to put too fine a point on it, is the biggest white wine grape in (and the only indigenous grape to) Argentina. If you’ve never…
Although Clean Plate Charlie is the only food blog you need to read every day, some people just can’t get enough. And some people don’t like to read at all. This post is for you! This week, we’re highlighting food blogs which focus on pretty pictures.Fast Food Ads vs. Reality…
