One of my favorite holiday breads comes from my friend Karen Horan in Key West — handed down from her grandmother. She finally took pity on me and gave me the recipe last year; I guess she got sick of having to bake me a loaf every time I came…
I Predict:You will recycle many BaggiesThis time of year we’re all clairvoyant: Everybody is summing up the past and predicting the foodie future, including moi (look for my column next Wednesday here). My inbox is full of this kind of hocus pocus and mumbo jumbo, most recently the Food Network’s top 10 predictions…
Bessie had one too many pea-shoot gimletsIf the prices of local slow food events has been a bit rich for you, or you haven’t quite had your fill of wacky holiday cocktails yet, hie yourself over to Forte di Asprinio in West Palm Beach this Sunday for “The Farmer and…
Apparently, the Tijuana Flats Burrito Co. has finally opened up a location in South Florida. It’s about time. Tijuana Flats is a Floridian company, after all, straight out of Winter Haven, and they’ve got branches in four states already. We ordinarily wouldn’t get so excited about a chain restaurant, but…
The Ball jar: Preserving our Illusions.The New York Times reported last week that sales of Ball jars are up 92 percent from the same month last year. That’s because the upper middle class is getting jittery about the economy, and when we get jittery, you know what we do? Just to take myself as an…
They’ll have it their way.If you’ve somehow missed Burger King’s hilarious terrible! absolutely terrible! new marketing campaign, where they bring Whoppers to Hmong villagers in remote Thailand, the Inuit of Greenland, and a Transylvanian town in Romania, you have to check this out. Although the campaign generates a seriously sinking feeling (it’s…
My steak is bigger than your steak.Super-corporate, super-expensive, super-good Morton’s Steakhouse cuts the ribbon on a brand new (and totally unnecessary) Fort Lauderdale branch on December 14. That’s at 500 E. Broward Blvd — which, we suppose, will be a convenient spot for the few local carnivores who always secretly…
You couldn’t pay me the $500 prix fixe to get me to eat “dinner in the sky” at the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek — apart from my terror of heights, I haven’t been strapped to a dining chair since I was 6 months old and I’m regressing fast enough as…
(sturgeon: It’s what’s for dinner)The Slow Foods Glades to Coast Chapter, which covers roughly the Palm Beach and Broward areas, is hosting a 5-course Growers’ Discovery gourmet dinner at Cafe Boulud in Palm Beach this Thursday, December 11, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The dinner, overseen by chef Zach Bell, is pricey at…
I’ll put up my vegetarian chili against any meat-based recipe — this one is insanely flavor- and color-full, and it’s so spicy it’ll make you weep. It’s ideal post-Thanksgiving eats, since it’s cheap, criminally healthy from all the folic acid, B vitamins and lycopene, and loaded with fiber if you’re…
We’ve confirmed with executive chef Mark Liberman this morning that Stephen di Asprinio has in fact left the restaurant he gave his name to, Forte di Asprinio, in West Palm Beach, “to pursue other opportunities.” Liberman wouldn’t, or couldn’t tell us much more, except that Asprinio left sometime last week,…
Until I saw Milk yesterday, the biopic starring Sean Penn as gay activist and San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk, I’d forgotten all about the Twinkie Defense. Fellow supervisor Dan White shot and killed Milk and Mayor George Moscone in their offices at San Francisco City Hall in 1978 and…
I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for you schmucks who haven’t given one second’s thought to what you’re doing for MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY — since personally my 2008 Thanksgiving has been in planning and development since last May. I’ve ordered (and received) my absurdly expensive Heritage turkey, I’ve…
Every dog must have his truffle, and tis the season for the famous fungi, which fruits most prolifically in autumn in Piedmont. Thus, tickets are going fast for the next Slow Food Miami Dinner, which features Terra Madre and the cuisine of Piedmont, famous for its white truffles and mushrooms…
Deep frying a turkey can destroy your home, kill your neighbors, and ruin your life. It happened to a friend of mine. This was in Chicago, some years back. He turned on his heating element — something red and dangerous looking, made by a company with a Japanese sounding name –…
The fast food news is as hot and heavy this Monday morning as a Big Mac with a side of fries. In England, the Sunday Sun reports an exploding rat population (there are currently more rats than people living in the Queen’s Realm) explained by fast food trash thrown in…
I just got this news release from JusticeNewsFlash.com, a “Pro American Legal Distribution Service,” and it’s just too delicious not to quote directly: Skilled South Florida personal injury attorney, Susan Ramsey, is proficient with consumer health law news and is reminding all Americans that the holiday time is a constant…
Baby wants Amarone Always planning ahead, I am, and this year you can skip the chocolate-covered chocolates on Valentine’s Day and buy me tickets to Vinitaly instead. I know it seems like our favorite romantic occasion is months and months away, to say nothing of the MAJOR PRESENT HOLIDAY we…
You haven’t quite missed the bargains this year: Dine Out Fort Lauderdale has been extended until December 14th for 22 of the restaurants originally participating. Among them, Cero (they have a new chef, Toby Joseph has left to go to Bova Prime); Four Rivers, and 3030 Ocean; Lola’s on Harrison…
Of course, you could just hire a waitress and a scullery maid, but in this economy, who has the extra dough? If you’re starting to melt down at the thought of serving 20 people on Thanksgiving from nothing but the hot plate and a microwave in your crappy apartment kitchen,…
Sandy Skoglund, “The Cocktail Party” Got 100 people coming for a holiday shindig? Stupidest idea you EVER had, right? Believe it, we’ve been there. But four of Palm Beach’s top chefs are taking pity this season and throwing a bash at Cafe Boulud that might help prevent us from totally…
I just love ethics questions, and lucky for me, there’s an unending supply of morality dramas in the food biz. Like, for instance, is it ethical to put “grouper” on your menu when all you’ve got in the deep freezer is panga or swai, as dozens of restaurants in South…
