I arrived at work and found a pea-green bag on my desk with a note saying “I have no idea what this is.” Printed across the top of the bag is “Vishwas,” and “Roasted Chivda” along the bottom. In the spirit of this blog, I know I’m not allowed to…
This confirms it, we are in The End of Times. French chef Pierre Gagnaire at Hong Kong’s Mandarin Oriental has created what he’s calling the first entirely food-free restaurant dish, at least according to the PR the hotel is sending out. The recipe for “Le Note a Note”, just one…
A sandwich is a sandwich is a sandwich. Unless it’s a chivito. The chivito, for those of you unlucky enough not to have wrapped your gums around one, is the national sandwich of Uruguay, a sort of Latin-esque breakfast-slash-lunch McManwich for the kind of guy or gal who’d jump Ronald…
Misty drops off a hot basket of wings at the table, wishes us luck, and scurries away to her next group of eager sports fans. The smell of the Triple Threat wings (barbecue sauce, hot sauce, and garlic sauce mixed together and topped with minced garlic) mingles with the sounds…
I’ve been hearing anecdotally for years that sushi chefs reserve their best fish for favored customers. That’s why whenever I go for sushi, I always sit at the bar, to watch the chef and scope out the seafood. I order from the board, if there is one. Or I ask…
Reopened under the aegis of a new family and staff last year after the previous owner, Ray Ng, was shot and killed during a robbery, this 18-year-old Hong Kong-style restaurant in a Tamarac strip mall remains essentially unchanged, much to the relief of local foodies addicted to the restaurant’s pan-fried…
Hypocrite, n. One who, professing virtues that he does not respect, secures the advantage of seeming to be what he despises. –Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary Chris Consentino and Mark Pastore’s taking on of the anti-foie gras jihadis, posted here, took more stones than you…
The World’s Six Most Expensive Foods Are:1. A part of a flower.2. A nut.3. An animal cell.4. A fungus.5. A berry.6. A tuber.Can you guess what they are without Googling? Hit the jump to find out…
Saturday May 16, 6:30 p.m.Beer versus Wine at Cook’s Inc.Here’s a novel idea. A four-course meal with both wine and beer pairings. Cook’s Inc. at Abacoa is putting on the event, wherein diners will decide whether they prefer the craft beer or the Spanish wine with each course. On the…
Call me late to the party, but I just stopped in to Chef Chris Consentino’s site, Offal Good, to read up on what I’ve missed lately in the world of innards. Back in March, Consentino responded to a letter and phone call from one particularly infuriated “customer” questioning whether the…
“Hors d’oeuvre: a ham sandwich cut into 40 pieces.” — Jack Benny…
And you thought the best thing about Mother’s Day was the satisfaction you get from making your mom feel like the most special lady on Earth, for at least the course of one homemade brunch. Actually, the best part is the leftover bacon — enough fatty, crispy slices of swine…
You’d think Clean Plate Charlie and friends would be chillin’ all the time now, the way restaurants are rolling out the happy-hour specials, even extending our ecstasy well beyond the usual 5 to 7 window. Kona Grill, for example, the national chain offering a menu where “East Meets West: They…
Most of us have at least one or two “fond memories” (which may be code for: burned into the brain traumas) of Mother in the kitchen — whether she was a gourmet cook or a baked-beans-in-a-can afficionado. My own mom was no great whiz at the stove. We ate a…
Although 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 of other local food blogs:Stuff Your Face, aside from having an awesome banner picture, also features fun write ups of taco trucks and the like…The…
Think you’re an expert on sushi because you’ve eaten 4,000 California rolls? Your local sushi chef would beg to differ. See, he’s been studying fish intensively for about as long as you’ve been alive; and on the other side of the world, the Japanese generally agree that what this guy…
I’m not hallucinating, I promise. As if we hadn’t said quite enough about hamburgers on this blog, I just got word that the Hyatt Bonaventure in Weston is introducing a new Burgers and Brews menu at their Banyan Restaurant, where they’ve put together a lineup of Angus and Wagyu sammiches …
There are restaurants that define a place, that fix themselves in our hearts over time, and in Fort Lauderdale, Casa d’Angelo is one of them. Angelo and Denise Elia have run Casa d’ for 11 years, and it’s often the first restaurant locals think of for birthdays or anniversaries, to…
We once loved chic Maison Carlos for its nostalgic take on Italian and French “Continental” cuisine. The menu felt like a ’60s throwback plunked down in the middle of Clematis Street, from the oysters Rockefeller and vichyssoise to the soupe a l’ognion and the perfectly calibrated martinis served by elegantly…
We got a sad email this week from Chef Kevin McCarthy, the guy who introduced us to Southwestern cooking way back with his original Armadillo Cafe in west Davie 20 years ago, always our go-to spot for shrimp grits and chocolate fritters. The fourth and last incarnation of the animal…
A few weeks ago, Clean Plate Charlie reported that the Seminole Coconut Creek Casino would bring in a special catch, a whole loin worth of ultra-expensive and rare Kindai tuna, that it would sell as a special at its Thursday- through Saturday-night sushi bar, located just inside Nectar Lounge. Kindai…
Let us all praise the humble disc of ground beef stuffed between two slices of bread this month of May 2009. May, you see, is National Hamburger Month. And after all, if you can have National Prune Breakfast Month (January) or National Pickled Peppers Month (October) or National Peanut Butter…
