Island Stylee Gourmet Ice Cream

Ian Martin is the brains behind Island Stylee Gourmet Ice Cream, an excellent product I had the opportunity to sample recently. Ian learned about homemade ice cream from a friend and then took the product development on himself seeing in a gourmet ice cream the wide open possibilities of a…

Thai Dessert — Coconut Sticky Rice With Scallions

It’s Like Coconut from MiamiNewTimesBlogs on Vimeo.Here’s an authentic Thai dessert, the name of which I can’t pronounce (or find on the Internet). If anybody in the world knows what it is, leave a comment. It’s delicious and fun to watch being made…

Sophia’s Thai and Korean Supports Wat Buddharangsi Miami

Sophia’s Thai and Korean from MiamiNewTimesBlogs on Vimeo.Sophia’s Thai and Korean has been a vendor at the Asian Culture Festival for 18 years. This year, Sophia was serving some fine foods including a spicy bamboo-strip dish, chicken wings, mixed vegetables, the great-tasting fish on a stick (AKA Thai catfish) and…

Booze Hound: Pepsi Challenge, Belvedere IX-Style

To say we get courted for promotion is an understatement. We got harassed by P.R. whores asking us to talk about their products. Psst! Let me let you in on a little secret: Best way into a New Times writer’s heart is to offer free booze. With the economy in…

When Good Meals Go Bad

I fancy myself an intrepid cook, one who strives to try out new ingredients and push my own boundaries on a regular basis. Every so often, I’ll pick some dish I’ve never made before — flour tortillas, berry sabayon, cote du boeuf — and I’ll set out to do it…

Restaurants Must Die: A Poem

Restaurants die, it’s as basic as thatAs with people you just never know.Some exist as long as a mountain flatOthers have lifespans like snow.”High rent and costs,” the owners say”Competition is obscene.”Yet some joints rock both night and dayWith a bar scene in between.So many theories have been passedBut it…

Nothing Staves Off Bad Luck Like… Cheese!

Goodness gracious, another Friday the 13th rolling around  — that makes two this year. But we have a plan to help you beat back bad luck this week: On Friday, March 13, Slow Foods Glades to Coast is teaming up with the Cheese Course in Weston to demonstrate the art…

Asian Fusion Cuisine — Filipino Style

Asian Fusion Cuisine from Miami New Times on Vimeo.Pancit, Turron, Chicken Adobo — these are all traditional Filipino dishes, and they were all  presented by a family catering company called Asian Fusion Cuisine at the Asian Culture Festival on March 7, 2009. Those interested in Asian Fusion Cuisine should call…

30-Year-Old Whiskey in Its Prime

It isn’t often that we New Timesers get a bottle of $200 whiskey in the mail. We did, not long ago, thanks to the folks at Canadian Club, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year with the release of a primo 30-year-old, 80-proof, white-oak-barrel-aged blended whiskey retailing for a…

Nirala Sweets Restaurant of Sunrise Keeps It Real in Homestead

Nirala Sweets from Miami New Times on Vimeo.Nirala Sweets Restaurant, winner of Broward Palm Beach New Time’s “Best Sticky Sweets” in 2006, creates a variety of authentic, homemade desserts straight from secret Indian/Pakistani recipes. Check out the selection they had available at the Asian Culture Festival at Homestead’s Fruit &…

Thai Spring Rolls at the Asian Culture Festival

Thai Spring Rolls from Miami New Times on Vimeo.This past weekend, the Dade County Parks and Rec and Thai-American Association sponsored the annual Asian Culture Festival, now in its 20th year at Homestead’s Fruit & Spice Park.  It gave fairgoers the unique opportunity to experience the cultures of Asia through…

Check, Please! Two Debuts Tonight

Season two of Check, Please! kicks off tonight on WPBT-2, with Michelle Bernstein returning to host and lead each week’s panel discussion. The show features three dining enthusiasts who escort one another to their respective favorite restaurant, then afterward in the studio, make-believe they are reviewers and dish about the…

The Friday Sandwich Weekly Wrap Up

Welcome to the Friday Sandwich Weekly Wrap Up where we conveniently agglomerate the week’s content into an easily clickable bullet review format. A funny sandwich puzzles Lee KleinGail Shepherd gets religulous on lobsterThe Coral Gables Middle Eastern Festival shows you their kibbehThe “Japanese Bag Fish Crunch” finally gets its just dueAll…

Moriano Art Resto, Pizza, Cafe

Moriano,  a little art cafe joint on a semi-desolate stretch of NE 2nd Avenue barely south of the Design District, serves what co-owner Jorge Di Cataldo describes as “Italo Argentinian” food. They opened “like 5 months ago,” and their most popular sandwiches are The Moriano (meat, caremalized onions, sauteed bacon,…

Frankie Lopez Jr. Represents The South In The Almost Famous Chef Competition

Every year the S. Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition scours the kitchens of America’s culinary institutes for talented students ready to compete for the title of Almost Famous Chef. The ten most talented young chefs, as determined by regional competitions, converge on Napa, California’s Culinary Institute of America for three…

Ideas Restaurant Interactive Lunch Menu Specials

Ideas Restaurant in the Grove is all about its name. The lunch specials reflect customers’ input. When diners finish their meals Chef Felipe Perez often leaves the kitchen to cull reactions and take requests for future meals. The restaurant also takes e-mail suggestions into consideration when deciding upon  lunch specials.I…

Spring Lamb, a la Armenian

You wonder how a tiny, nine-table, family run Armenian cafe could survive two years on the fringes of Boca Raton’s ritzy Mizner Park: But order a plate of Boca Skewers’ falafel, and you’ll get the picture. These crunchy little balls of fried, spiced chickpeas may be served on a plastic…

Unlucky Thirteen: 2009’s First Restaurant Closings

Add The Food Gang to the list of 2009’s restaurant victims. We in Miami have also recently lost Christabelle’s Quarter, Two Chefs Too and Mr. Chu’s Hong Kong Cuisine. And while we didn’t notice when El Viajante Segundo became no mas, it is nonetheless shocking — the Cuban cafeteria had…

Go to Sushi — The Real Deal Lives on Biscayne Boulevard

Best Sushi In World? from MiamiNewTimes.com on Vimeo.Goto Sushi Express is a great little sushi joint around Biscayne and 54th. Check out this video interview slash rolling demo with the husband-and-wife team that owns and operates the place. With sushi as with most everything, ain’t nothin’ like the real thing,…

Flashback Diner of Hallandale Serves Up St. Patrick’s Deal

Flashback Diner Hallandale from MiamiNewTimes.com on Vimeo.Flashback Diner in Hallandale Beach has been serving the 24-hour eating needs of South Florida for a long time. The guy in the video, John Pozzi, says he’s been eating there 40 years, since before it was Flashback. Pozzi was sitting at the counter…

River Oyster Bar Has Deals on Meals… and Wine

River Oyster Bar from MiamiNewTimes.com on Vimeo.Ever wondered what wine goes good with oysters? Well, Marita Leonard from the River Oyster Bar, just south of downtown Miami, will be happy to tell you. She gained her expertise in pairing wines to food by “drinking a lot, eating a lot, and…

Strawberry Fields, Not Forever

The Florida Strawberry Growers Association wants to remind us that strawberries are not forever: The big season for our Florida beauties, grown mostly in Plant City and Dover, is November to March. It’s your last chance to gorge on one of our most delicious local fruits, so here are the…