If I don’t show up for work on Monday, you’ll know what happened: I’ll have eaten myself to death, the victim of a five-pound in total beef burger smothered with enough bacon, cheese, and fried eggs to keep Denny’s running though a busy Sunday morning.This weekend, I’m going to attempt…
Coral Springs’ newest Rib joint, Rock ‘N’ Roll Ribs, finally debuted last Thursday night, and boy, was it ever rockin’. The place was packed on Friday night — the sizable party I was with had to wait for a table for nearly 45 minutes for the restaurant to clear out…
When it debuted late last year, Smith & Jones in Fort Lauderdale was Johnny V’s answer to the economy. We weren’t exactly kind to it back then. These days, the “creative American comfort food” is still sticking to the formula, but it’s also found its stride. Now you can take…
With the holidays right around the corner, it seems like an appropriate time to review Beachside Grill, a retro bar and restaurant in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea whose specialty is Sunday gravy. Beachside’s version is chock-full of tender pork and Italian sausage, and while it’s hard to take it over your mama’s version,…
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. Local, artisanal, gorgeous, and damned tasty too. What’s not to like about the holiday cookie assortment from Lake Worth’s…
“Tellric the Invoker here. Just the other day, my party and I were caught deep in the bowels of the Underdark facing a mob of rabid duergar, when an uncontrollable thirst struck me like a +3 Staff of Command. So, I did what any wise adventurer would do: I reached…
A burger at the Florida chain Lindburgers tastes just like what I remember from backyard barbecues growing up. The meat is charred all over, which, back then, was the result of wind and flare-ups and the amateur grill master pressing the patties down on the grill with aplomb. At Lindburgers,…
This delicate fish is so simple, even the most inexperienced cooks can make it. Start with inch-thick fillets of the fleshy white fish — fresh is best, though even the frozen packages available at Publix are of decent quality. Just be sure to defrost properly by placing the fillets in…
Here’s a blast from the past. Back in the 1980s, when I was living in Northern California wine country, Liberty School Cabernet Sauvignon was the cork dorks’ go-to red for every-day drinking. The second label of expensive-even-then Caymus, it offered its parents’ high-toned pedigree at a price we wage slaves…
It’s been one helluva week on the blog:Fort Lauderdale’s own taste of Boston, Kelly’s Landing turns 23. Or is that two?New River Pizza makes its pie the new old-fashioned way, which is to say coal-free.Key to winning over an in-law’s heart? Brined pork.A sushi restaurant in Mizner Park serves bad…
Walking through Total Wine in Boca Raton last night, I felt like Homer Simpson in the Land of Chocolate. I simply didn’t have enough hands to grab everything I wanted. And then I came across this: Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Releases of 2009. For a reasonable $5.95 a copy, this…
Lots of us foodies just can’t wait until February rolls around now that we know the Village at Gulfstream Park is going to open with scads of promising new restaurants. Media folks were treated to a sneak preview of the massive complex Tuesday, followed by one of those pop-your-button lunches…
You say to-may-to, he says to-mah-to. I say San Marzano. San Marzano tomatoes are, not to put too fine a point on it, simply the best sauce tomatoes in the world. Better than any other canned tomato. Better than 99.9 percent of the fresh tomatoes out there. Accept no imitations…
My first experience with cracklins came when I moved to Houma, Louisiana, after college. I’d make the hour drive to New Orleans on weekend nights, and along the way, there were two important stops: the drive-through daiquiri shop and one of the gas stations where they’d cook up Cajun finger…
When I was a strapping young buck of 20 or so, I spent my summers cooking at an array of restaurants in a resort town in New York. I cooked for the same reason a lot of people did: so I could go out all night, go to the beach…
At least, according to this article on livescience.com.It turns out, some scientists now believe potatoes may in fact be carnivorous plants. The tubers actually have sport sticky hairs that trap insects, a trait they share with petunias and campion flowers, often called catchflys. Well-known carnivorous plants like the venus fly…
Unrepentant beer drinkers, rejoice! Each week, Clean Plate Charlie will select one craft or import beer and give you the lowdown on it: How does it taste? What should you drink it with? Where can you find it? But mostly, it’s all about the love of the brew. If you…
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport isn’t Las Olas Boulevard or Delray’s Atlantic Avenue just yet, but at least there are a couple rays of culinary hopes shining through the clouds of pre-fab sandwiches, microwaved crud and muffins made from the by-products of coal smelting. Earlier this week, Charlie reported that Mango…
Holiday shopping may be a bit of a nightmare, but Seminole Casino Coconut Creek wants guests to have Sweet Dreams this season… or at least Thursdays through Saturdays when they host their third annual dessert affair, starring three foodie icons: Chef Todd English tonight, Chef Rocco DiSpirito on December 19th,…
There’s no way you’re eating brains,” my vegetarian fiancée said in a sterner voice than I’ve heard from her in a while. The look on her face told me argument was futile — not unless I was willing to sleep on the couch for the immediate future. And just like…
Remember what pizza was like before people starting putting coal in their ovens and charring paper-thin crusts? That pie you remember still exists down in the Rio Vista neighborhood at New River Pizza, where the dough is thick, the mushrooms come from a can, and the garlic knots are buttery…
About two years ago, I had a friend in town who wanted to go to lunch somewhere distinctly Fort Lauderdale. So I took him to Bimini Boatyard off 17th Street, a place that evokes the city in that there’s (A) water, (B) outdoor seating, and (C) simply cooked seafood. We…
