Cooking Like a Rock Star

I don’t know how the Italians managed it. They’ve infiltrated the collective consciousness so thoroughly that even a WASPy Irish/English daughter of the American Revolution like me feels that her childhood must have included some old nonna cooking gnocchi in a sweaty Brooklyn kitchen. In fact, my old nana was…

Pizza Rescues Earth!

“Saving the Earth, One Pizza at a Time” is the motto of Pizza Fusion, the first ever organic pizza franchise that is getting set to open at 14815 Biscayne Boulevard in mid-November. The Fort Lauderdale based restaurant chain offers pizza, ciabatta sandwiches, salads, desserts, and organic beers and wines, all…

And Britain’s Worst Fast Food Nightmare

Rat: It’s What’s For Dinner From today forward, whenever I’m worrying about the questionable sanitation practices of my local restaurants and fast food chains, I’ll only have to remember today’s breaking story of the Wolverhampton Pappu Sweet Center. The owner was discovered by police broiling up some kebabs while the…

Palm Beach County Greenmarkets Open

The illusion of plenitude, at least We’ve got a breeze. Hurricane season’s almost over. And the Greenmarkets are opening again. It’s everybody’s favorite time of year, and starting this Saturday we’ll be getting used to the quaint sight of folks tottling along our streets with a loaf of bread under…

More on Michelle’s Spanish Joint

Michelle Bernstein Michelle Bernstein hopes to have her new tapas place open “before Art Basel”. She says the menu is “almost done”, and will include items such as boquerones, tortilla española, and artesanal Jamón Serrano. “We’re going to do blood sausage and stuff like that, and I’m playing with all…

Sliders in Paradise

Crepes are one of the world’s simplest foods: As long as you’ve got flour, egg, milk, and a pat of butter on hand, it’s possible to produce a dish that works for most occasions. Sprinkle sugar on your pancake and breakfast is a done deal. Add a grating of cheese,…

Slow Food Navajo-Churro Lamb Dinner

“Baaa…the chef will prepare me four ways.” The Slow Food event of the season is coming up at the Miami Standard Hotel’s Lido restaurant on October 22nd, when Lido chef Mark Zeitouni wows locavores with a menu focused on Navajo Churro lamb courtesy of the Navajo Churro Sheep Association…

A New Palacios Downtown?

El Palacio de los Jugos, which makes the best batidos, arepas, lechon asado — heck, let me just say it’s my favorite Cuban joint in town — is negotiating a lease for a new location across the street from the Federal Courthouse in downtown Miami. Owners Beatrize and Reinaldo Bermudez…

Mayport Shrimp Chowder

[The curious Mayport shrimp A friend called yesterday and said he had a delivery of “head-on Mayport shrimp” for me — was I gonna be home? I’ll tell you I hardly knew how to comport myself all day until he finally arrived about 7 p.m. lugging a cooler full of…

Real Genius: The Bacon Fatty Melt

Adam Kuban Every once in a while, someone comes along who pushes boundaries, who doesn’t let words like “no” or “impossible” cross their lips. A Hamburger Today’s Adam Kuban is one such pioneer. When they said creating the ultimate bacon sandwich couldn’t be done, he didn’t budge. No, he ventured…

Answer to Last Week’s WTF Is It?

That, folks, was a “raisin sausage,” a delicacy evidently delightful to Turkish people. Basically this magic wand is fashioned out of walnuts encased in a jellylike substance made from grape juice. Although purported to be aphrodisiac, I used mine as a fly trap: simply hang in a sunny window and…

Carolina’s on My Mind

I take no pleasure in seeing a restaurant fail, especially one that had as much going for it as Cuban café Brisa Atlantica in Delray Beach. But it does allay the fierceness of the sting when the joint that moves in to replace it has as much to offer as…

New Benihana Location to Open in Coral Springs in 2009

“Don’t think about dropping it, don’t think about dropping it…” If you ever needed any proof that the recession is hitting the middle class the hardest, just take a spin around Coral Springs. The sleepy burg – once the ultimate destination for budding family units – is literally covered with…

Michy’s Clarification

This morning, I erroneously reported that Michy’s was moving into the Domo Japones space. Michelle logged on to set the story straight: Hi Lee, Just so you and everyone knows, Michy’s is not and never will be moving. We are opening a Tapas Restaurant, a dream for my husband David…

Soups, Soaps, and Industrial Lubricants

Last week the food giant Unilever recalled Lipton Green Milk Tea brand from Taiwan stores because one of the ingredients was milk from China. On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that “according to Unilever Hong Kong Ltd, internal tests have found four batches of Lipton milk tea powder contaminated with…

WTF Is It?!? “Aphrodisiac”

A peripatetic friend of mine brought me this amazing, rumored-to-be edible item recently. The label clearly states that it is “Aphrodisiac,” which would be very exciting if I could bring myself to try even the tiniest bite of it. The package label does assure us of the snack’s healthful qualities:…

AIWF Rib Cook Off

There’s some seriously saucy Sunday shenanigans coming our way in the form of the American Institute of Wine and Food’s Annual Rib Cook-off, scheduled for Sunday, October 12 at 4 p.m.. Local students from Florida Culinary, Johnson and Wales, The Art Institute of FTL, Cordon Bleu, and Florida International are…

How Sweet It Is

I never believed that bit about little girls being full of sugar and spice. My experience has been that little girls are mostly made up of piss and vinegar and that they don’t even begin to sweeten up until around age 20. Then they have a moderately “everything nice” decade…

You’re Too Single! Eat, Eat!

Flirting for Foodies with the Gourmet Club I’m not usually one for singles events, particularly because I’m married, but these Singles Dinner and Dancing parties put on by the Gourmet Club look pretty damned posh. They’ve been holding them at the Addison, Cafe Maxx, and Pranzo — the next one…

Bloody Good Dinner

Dinner and a murder mystery with Edna? On October 14, North One 10 Restaurant’s “Evening With Edna Buchanan” will pair the cool mystery novelist with a “crime fiction inspired” dinner provided by Dale and Dewey LoSasso and crew. The event will presumably provide the author with an intimate forum in…

Baskin-Robbins’ Death Shake: Drink Up!

Question: What yummy treat from a national ice cream chain contains this delectable list of ingredients? Ingredients: reduced fat milk, heath bar crunch ice cream (cream, nonfat milk, caramel ribbon (corn syrup, sweetened condensed whole milk (milk, sugar), water, high fructose corn syrup, butter (cream, salt), propylene glycol, sodium alginate,…

WTF Is It?!? Fruit Salad

I’ve literally eaten nothing but pizza this week, so for lunch today I gotta have some green. I plan to make a fruit salad from the cornucopia pictured above, courtesy of one of my local roadside markets. You’ll of course recognize the watermelon, apples, and mangos, but wanna take a…