First Bites

You all know the Proustian tale: French guy, now pretty old and sad, bites into butter cookie and is suddenly and viscerally transported back to a childhood room at teatime. We all have our own madeleine. Short Order wants to hear your earliest food memory. The gnosh that woke you…

Weekly Purge: Edition #3

What a week it’s been. There are some Fridays where all you want to do is slink into a stiff drink and start the weekend a dozen or so hours early, and boy is this one of them. Gail was on vacay in the Big Apple this week, but still…

WTF Is It?!? Round 4

Rarest of the Rare Every year around this time, I get an email from a friend obsessed with a fruit that, until recently, I’d never seen or tasted. He claims that the halcyon summers of his youth were saturated with the sugary tartness of this sublime edible. Since my friend…

Guatemala Típico

Guatemalans have been much on my mind lately and much in the news. The account of a May 12 ICE raid on a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, written by FIU professor and Spanish translator Erik Camayd-Freixas, is making its way around the net. Camayd-Freixas was hired as a…

Buca’s Bogus Bargain

National chain restaurant Buca di Beppo, with 89 outlets nationwide (including one in Miami Lakes), is marking its 15th anniversary from now until August 10 by offering 15 of its original dishes “at classic pricing that recalls better days when gas was just $1.16 a gallon and movie tickets were…

Weekly Purge: Edition #2

Another week in the books at Short Order, and we’re (surprisingly… or not?) still having a blast doing this thing. Look for some big changes coming soon — next week, we’re going to hip you to a schedule of when you can expect to see reoccurring posts like Homebrew and…

Florida Most Dangerous State For Eating Out

Pictured above: Common microbes causing food poisoning. Ain’t they cute? From www.healthinspections.com: The most dangerous states for eating out are Florida, California, Minnesota, Ohio, and New York according to the most recent federal data. Restaurants in these five states spread bacteria such as E.coli and salmonella, making nearly 3,000 customers…

Summer Q-Tips

Johnny V’s Kicks BBQ Up a Notch Don’t try this at home. On Fort Lauderdale’s Las Olas, on the last Thursday of every month, Johnny V is staging Barbequlooza for $4 per person. Oops, must have mis-read – that’s $40 per person. Sound a little dear for barbecue? Maybe not,…

Weirdy Edibles, Round 3

I’ve seen this in two separate markets this week. At one, an elderly Filipino couple stopped me to oooh and ahhh over the plant in my cart. They told me they grew it back home and loved it. So here’s your 2 billion dollar question: WTF IS IT??? Here’s the…

Florida Citrus Growers Switch to Organic

CENTRAL FLORIDA: More Citrus Growers Make the Switch to Organic From Florida Trend: Matt McLean, founder and chief executive of Uncle Matt’s Fresh, the organic-produce side of Uncle Matt’s Organic citrus-juice business in Lake County, said Wednesday the number of organic growers and the amount of acreage dedicated to organic…

Light My Fire?

We SoFloridians have got to make the best of our rainy, hurricane-whipped summers, so it makes sense that we’re suddenly all about barbecue. Even upscale restaurants like Johnny V in Lauderdale and Oakwood Grill in Palm Beach Gardens have jumped into the game, to say nothing of the old standbys…

New Yard, New Grill

Interior view of The Grill on the Alley. I received two press releases today regarding a pair of upcoming dining establishments. One announced that The Grill on the Alley, a Beverly Hills hangout for Hollywood’s movers and shakers since 1984, would be opening in Aventura this October. The ambiance promises…

Tipico! An Authentic Guatemalan Restaurant

Thanks to local advice and a couple of friendly posters on chowhound, I’ve found my Guatemalan restaurant — and practically right in my own back yard. El Chapin in Palm Springs has fabulous tamales, homemade tortillas, and meat-heavy breakfasts. Review next week. –Gail Shepherd…

Rare Fruit Council Sale, West Palm Beach

[above, Pam RuBert’s quilt, “Banana Split Pose.” See more here.] Argghh, I can’t believe I’m going to miss this! And on my birthday! I leave for NYC Saturday morning — will somebody PLEEEEEEASE pick me up some banana trees???? Gail Shepherd Tropical Fruit Tree Sale / South Florida Fairgrounds (West…

Recycled Finger Food

At one Palm Beach restaurant, that dirty martini might be REALLY dirty I’m about to lose one of my best sources for insider restaurant dish — a friend of mine is retiring, at least temporarily, from her job as a server to get married. But she’s stored up enough tales…

Weekly Purge: The Short Order Recap, Edition #1

http://www.iacp.com/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=501 Week two of Short Order is just about in the books, and what a week at that. We’ve been posting our arses off around New Times, probably because we’re just so pent up. This Short Order thing you see here was a long time coming, you see — an…

WTF Is It?!? Round 2

Evidently last week’s entry in Short Order’s weekly contest, WTF Is It?!?, — was child’s play for our MENSA-class readers. Half the world, it seems, knows what to do with a bitter gourd, while we’d been using them as foot massagers. This week we’ve got TWO summertime edibles and the…

Mango Festival and Brunch This Weekend

International Mango Festival Date: July 12 – 13, 2008 Location: Fairchild Tropical Garden 10901 Old Cutler Road Coral Gables Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden invites you its 16th annual International Mango Festival featuring the mangoes of Africa. The weekend features, among many other activities and mango tree sales, the celeb-studded Ninth…

Spanish on the Fly

I came back from a trip to Guatemala last week with two missions: Learn Spanish. And plant some banana trees. Even before I left the States, my future course had started to take shape — 70 percent of my neighbors are Spanish-speaking. And I’d run into a guy at Les…

Denny’s Rolls Out Late Night Menu

Thank god for PR companies, because I really would have been bummed to have missed the news about Denny’s new late-night menu, served only between the witching hours from 10 to 5 in the a.m. At first, I thought I’d post the photo above in our weekly WTF Is It…

“Guard Your Secrets Because They Are Eagerly Sought”

Listen up, mes amis. Before digging into your next filet de sole bonne femme, consider that you may be spilling more beans than a drunken chef cooking cassoulet. A friend tells me that at the venerable and hoity Palm Beach French restaurant Chez Jean Pierre, there’s a little glitch with…