Vietnamese Banh Mi Meets All-American Burger

OK, so if you tried out last week’s little lesson on pork-stuffed shrimp, you’ve got three-fourths of a pound of ground pork, rather assertively seasoned with black pepper, garlic, cilantro, and fish sauce. What do you do with all that pig? Well, you could freeze it for cramming into some…

The Daily Mouthful: Tweet! Tweet! Tweet!

“I don’t think anybody gives a rat’s ass whether I am about to eat a tuna sandwich. I don’t even care. Some of it is so inane and narcissistic and bizarre I don’t quite get it. I don’t know why anyone would want to read it, much less why I…

One Minute Review: Joy Noodles & Rice, West Palm Beach

The well-heeled boomers who live in the swank Mizner mansions behind the new Joy Noodles & Rice are already steering their Benzes and Beemers into Joy’s cramped parking lot for carry-out cartons of Thai noodle soups and Philippine egg rolls; and they probably don’t demand a whole lot in the…

Best Burger 2009 Honorable Mention

This year’s Best Of Broward-Palm Beach edition is up online today, folks. And I have to say: this issue is packed full of great food. Want a great place to walk up and get a slice of New York pie, complete with the scowl? How about the very best restaurant…

Stealing from the Restaurant: Big City’s Tuna Melt

My intention when I sit down at Big City is usually to order one of their excellent salads. What I get instead is usually something with a whole lot more carbs and fat: a simple-yet-perfect open-faced tuna melt piled onto English muffins and covered in melted cheese. The $11.50 dish…

Meals to Get Laid By

I just ran across a whole website devoted to great meals to seduce somebody with, seductionmeals.com. And whaddaya know, there’s a recipe for oyster po’ boy sliders right on the first page (po’ boys are also known as “the peacemaker,” a factoid I’d never heard before. But makes sense, right?…

The Daily Mouthful: On Turkish Coffee

*Ed. Note: Sometimes even Twain can be a fool. Maybe he should have asked the Turks how to drink it. “Of all the unchristian beverages that ever passed my lips, Turkish coffee is the worst. The cup is small, it is smeared with grounds; the coffee is black, thick, unsavory…

Eats for Under $7: 1/4 Chicken Lunch at La Granja

A lot of the time in this weekly feature, we fit just under the $7 budget, leaving little left over for say a drink, a dessert or an antacid. That is most certainly not the case this week: La Granja fast(ish) food restaurants are here to hook your wallet and…

One Minute Review: Istanbul, Hollywood

Hollywood’s oldest Turkish restaurant, Istanbul, has been in this same dinky location for 19 years, a small room that opens to ocean breezes and classic views of kids flying kites on the beach. And they haven’t changed a thing from the plastic chairs to a menu of kebabs and Turkish…

The Daily Mouthful: On Gourmets

“Gourmet /n./ Anyone whom, when you fail to finish something strange or revolting, remarks that it’s an acquired taste and that you’re leaving the best part.” (source unknown)…

Weekend Blog Watch

via Cook To Bang… mmmm PoonchiladasAlthough Clean Plate Charlie is the only food blog you really need to read daily, some people just can’t get enough. Here are some highlights other food blogs, this time with a focus on less-local blogs:Serious Eats is a… well a serious food blog. Professional…

Ask the Critic: How to Grill Fish?

Dear Insufferable Know-It-Alls:Grilling fresh local fish outside on the old Weber is my own private Waterloo, except unlike Napoleon’s humiliating defeat by Wellington and the Prussians, mine keeps happening over and over like a recurring nightmare — the only thing that changes are which guests are witnessing the battle and…

Stealing From the Restaurant: Pork-Stuffed Shrimp at Home

Clean Plate Charlie had this really cool idea. Take one of your favorite dishes from one of your favorite restaurants and, applying a little time, a few tablespoons of culinary knowledge, and a willingness to eat the inevitable mistakes, attempt to re-create it at home.Since Charlie absolutely adores Thai cuisine…

Best Of 2009 Preview: Best New Restaurant in Palm Beach

Dolce de Palma1000 Okeechobee Road, West Palm Beach561-833-6460Even now that Dolce de Palma has been overrun by local hungries, anybody pulling up to this rubble-strewn parking lot behind railroad tracks in an old warehouse district is going to feel like he’s making a personal discovery. Dolce has an intriguing out-of-the-way-ness…

Best Of 2009 Preview: Best New Restaurant in Broward

Sage Oyster Bar2000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood954-391-9466Maybe it takes an old hand to spin something entirely new out of two thoroughly timeworn restaurant tropes: the raw bar and the French bistro. Chef Laurent Tasic, having perfected the bistro genre with his country-quaint Fort Lauderdale Sage Café, has set his Hollywood vessel…

While We’re Talking Cajun…

Speaking of Nawlins-style grub, Rosey Baby is offering a special through Friday night on their famous garlic blue crabs and crawfish boil. While the little buggers last, if you purchase a dozen Cajun-boiled blue crabs or garlic crabs, the Babe will throw in a pound of fresh-daily Cajun-boiled crawdads for…

A Culinary Tour of New Orleans, Part 2

Picking right back up from yesterday’s post on my weeklong eating adventure in New Orleans, I’m going to talk a little bit about sammiches, a foodstuff that’s well-respected and well-represented in the Crescent City. While some cities can claim to have contributed one sandwich to the national culinary landscape –…

Cocktail of the Week

It’s easy to fall into the trap of overdoing a mixed drink. Sure, booze purists insist that mixing anything aside from a splash of water will ruin any decent alcohol, but sometimes slugging straight whiskey isn’t the most refreshing summertime drink on the beach. But pounding down frozen cocktails in…

The Daily Mouthful: On Chocolate

“If you are not feeling well, if you have not slept, chocolate will revive you. But you have no chocolate! I think of that again and again! My dear, how will you ever manage?” — Marquise de Sevigne, February 11, 1677…

Shining Starr

Here’s what I get for being a snarky little bitch. I get to eat my words, one at a time, sandwiched between rounds of buttery brioche and a layer of juicy Kobe beef, washed down with a designer “Las Olas” martini made of gin, agave, and elderflower liqueur. This all…

Le Petit Pain

Pissed off at Publix? Think you just can’t choke down one more slice of gummy, supermarket-nuked bread? Le Petit Pain in Lantana, run by Gaelle and Thomas Tcherniavsky, a gorgeous, elegant young Parisian couple, turns out a French baguette ($2.25 for a long, thin loaf) unrivaled in all details: a…