The question was raised for me after checking out Pakistani restaurant Usmania, which we reviewed this week. Usmania serves a dish called brain masala, a karahi-cooked curry made from the cerebral matter of goats. In the review, I mention my fiancee was adamant I not eat this dish. But I…
• A new book In a Cheesemaker’s Kitchen by Allison Hooper takes cheesy tales from chefs like Eric Ripert and Mireille Guiliano and gives them room to breathe. Why? Because almost everyone has a personal story about the funky stuff. Hooper, founder of Vermont Butter and Cheese Co., will be…
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.Expected to debut just in time for anyone flying out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport for the holidays is Chef…
You can try a lot of unique ethnic dishes at Usmania Pakistani Restaurant in Plantation, the subject of this week’s dish review. One of my favorites was nihari, a spicy stew filled with shredded beef shank. You squirt lemon on the thick stew and scoop it up in swaths with…
What attracted me to 2-year-old Soba Sushi Lounge in Mizner Park is that its menu is unlike those at your average sushi joint. On it, you’ll find rainbow rolls, sashimi, and sushi platters; gyoza, miso soup, agedashi tofu, and ginger/miso-drenched salads. But you’ll also find quail’s eggs topped with caviar,…
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…
Kelly’s Landing has been around for a few years now, but it depends on how you’re counting as to what anniversary they’ll celebrate Sunday. The restaurant, which serves up New England fare, has been there 23 years, but the new ownership took over two years ago. “So we’ve been saying…
Most of us probably know very little about Mexican bottled drinks that don’t come with a lime wedge sticking out of the top. There’s Jarritos, but while they come in a Wilton Manors flag’s worth of colors, they’re rock-candy sweet. And then there’s Boing! Mango, one rocking fruit drink from…
“So where’d you get the recipe, anyway?” I asked. My friend Robey was standing at my stove, cooking up a vat of what he said was Bolognese sauce to feed our families. “The internet, actually,” he told me. “I called my mom and asked her to give me hers, but…
When Lea Kuhry, special events manager for Kids In Distress, started planning last year’s annual fundraiser at 3030 Ocean, she came up with a crazy idea. She called up 3030’s celebrity chef Dean James Max to ask him about it. “Chef, you know how they have those bachelor auctions on…
Conservatives eat PB&J, pizza, and mac ‘n’ cheese for lunch. Liberals eat Thai and Indian cuisines. For dinner, conservatives chow down on fried chicken, meat loaf and steak; liberals go for green curries, Ethiopian food, and veggie burgers. Conservatives like McDonald’s fries. Liberals like frites. Cheese-eating conservatives jones for Velveeta…
There’s a moment in each restaurant meal when you’re forced to decide if what you are doing with your life is in fact enjoyable. It happened for me at Satoro Restaurant and Lounge while I was eating a slice of Mediterranean flatbread pizza that I did not order. A female…
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. The basic elements of human life are oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, garlic, and olive oil.Or at least…
IIf you’ve ever been tempted to plunk down a hundred bucks an ounce for truffles, you know there’s a pressure that comes with such a purchase, because the rest of the dish better hold up to that exorbitant purchase.Chef Angelo Romano at Paradiso Ristorante in Lake Worth hopes to help…
If there’s one dish that symbolizes Jewish food, it’s the kugel. Sure, the matzo ball is better known, and a well-baked brisket can just about revive the dead. But the kugel is everything good Jewish cooking ought to be — simple comfort food cooked in one dish. If you’ve never…
I love me some good poultry. I’ve basked in the glory of wings, become reverent in the presence of a well-cooked turkey, waxed lyrical about Thanksgiving leftovers. But it’s right about this time every year that I find out I have a poultry limit. It’s time to flush the bird…
It’s never good when you’re first thought after biting into something is, wait, there’s something wrong here. And there’s definitely something wrong in this package of Rubi brand rosquillas. Perhaps it’s that the package is “para exportacion” only — maybe the Hondurans …
Well, the Next Iron Chef is Jose Garces, proprietor of six restaurants in Philadelphia and Chicago and dubbed (insulted?) by some as “the Latin Emeril,” who over the past weeks blew off nine other chefs from around the country and last night edged New York toque/pastry chef Jehangir Mehta to…
It’s impossible to know whom I’m surrounded by. There are likely real estate magnates, local politicos, social sceners, and their hangers-on. They look like Palm Beach’s version of Dynasty, complete with well-dressed skeletons taking tea in closets bigger than your house. Here they are at Michelle Bernstein’s at the Omphoy,…
Raw food continues to grow in popularity, even though its South Florida contingent is small. But Green Wave Cafe, a Plantation kitchen and organic market that serves raw, vegan lunches, may change that. Chef Lisa Valle takes wholesome, organic produce and creates a small menu that changes daily. Grab a…
• Says a Boca Raton friend to me a few weeks ago: “There are no good hot dog places in Boca Raton!” Not so now, as Hot Dog-Opolis opened on November 16 at 6020 N. Federal Highway. The hut slings Chicago-style weiners made with Vienna Beef in a plethora of…
• New to the ever-burgeoning restaurant scene in Delray Beach is Jimmy’s Bistro, a casual, affordable café on Swinton Avenue from long-time East Coast chef Jimmy Mills. Po-boys are on the menu at lunch, while dinner might see anything from braised short ribs to pasta with salmon. • The Coniglio family,…
