It was not for food that I first, about a year ago, went to Wah Shing Chinese restaurant. It was for karaoke, which had suddenly become hugely hip among my younger friends. I’d never done this singing-to-vocally-zapped-recordings thang myself, maybe because I spent a young adulthood playing in actual live…

Although the cuisines of different but neighboring Latin American countries certainly differ more than the cuisines of, say, Vermont and New Hampshire, many individual dishes seem like variations on a similar base. Thus El Salvador’s pupusas (stuffed cornmeal pancakes) are somewhat like a cross between Mexican corn tortillas and Venezuelan…

Maybe it’s due to Dickens and Tiny Tim, maybe it’s all those British-origin Christmas carols full of hearty tidings of comfort and joy — the warm ‘n’ fuzzy fascination with Merrie Olde England felt by most Americans (including Latin Americans, if the astonishingly positive feedback to a review I did…

This original low-rise Deli Lane (there’s a newer branch on Brickell, on the ground floor of one of downtown’s skyscrapers) has been around since the 1980s, making it one of Miami’s first purveyors of gentrified yuppie food: quiches and similar light entrées, vegetable salads consisting of lettuces other than iceberg,…

It seemed not inappropriate to me that the recent opening of Jerry’s Famous Deli, in the sleek South Beach space long occupied by the nightclub Warsaw, was accompanied by the kind of media brouhaha normally reserved for the premiere of exclusive restaurant/lounges co-owned by celebrities. The prospect of great hot…

Yep, holiday gift-giving season has arrived, want it or not. And what will all of you workaholics who’re too busy to shop be giving this year — a bouquet of flowers … again? Since this isn’t the flora but the food section of the newspaper, let’s talk about fruit flowers,…

If you look very hard high up on the ceiling of Doraku, a sophisticated spot with minimalist mode-of-the-moment décor (relying largely on the natural elegance of contrasting polished woods), like a Terence Conran-type take on a traditional Japanese teahouse, you will notice that the subdued mesh-muted lights appear to be…

As a food reviewer who does not keep kosher (I’m not Jewish), but who fields many requests for truly tasty kosher noshes from diners who do, I was excited early this year when new Kosher Gourmet opened with ads touting two things that run-of-the-mill kosher bakeries rarely have: prepared foods…

Recently I had a houseguest who presented a bit of a challenge in offering her a truly impressive dining experience. She’d grown up with a grandmother who was English, who was so wealthy that her idea of shopping was taking the QE2 over to Manhattan for an afternoon on Fifth…

In terms of lunch-hour possibilities, 41st Street is a great place to make a bank withdrawal, but not such a great place to spend same on grub. Not that there aren’t eateries dotted here and there among the ATM machines. It’s just that almost none are appealing; in this neighborhood…

Early last spring I got an e-mail from a reader recommending a restaurant I’d actually noticed myself while reviewing another place in the same neighborhood, the increasingly lively area right off Circle Park. The quite overlookable spot (décor, as seen through a plain storefront, is basically beer neon and fishing…

Good Chinese take-out is a whole different bag from good Chinese food — quite literally. Because aside from needing to be slightly undercooked, to travel from restaurant to home without physical deterioration, great Chinese take-out food must interact with its enclosing porous paper parts (cardboard lids and cartons, et cetera)…

About three months ago I received a press release that began, “If you’re not famous, notorious, or a young, beautiful, unescorted woman, be prepared to wait in line for a table at the new, hip restaurant lounge Barcode.” Okay, I thought: I’m definitely not a, b, or c. Also it’s…

Let’s start with the basics: There are three types of “eat-out,” as opposed to homemade, burgers. One is the slider, a thin two-biter that slides down the digestive tract so fast even skinny supermodels need to order a six-pack. White Castles (Krystals for Southerners) are the classic sliders. Two is…

So you’re a couple of New York guys who have just relocated. It’s earlier this year. It’s lunchtime. You’ve been doing something-or-other in Miami Shores, and are cruising south past some of the increasingly snazzy neighborhoods bordering Biscayne Boulevard, like Belle Meade and Morningside. You are real hungry. And what…

Since there’s no dance music blaring over this humble luncheonette place, it’s hard to figure why Disco Fish is named that. Perhaps the reference is intended to suggest fish so fresh they’re still party animals boogying direct from boat to plate. However, though the eatery co-bills itself as a fish…

The first time I dined at Gusto’s, with Victoria, was the evening after she’d put the family cat in the clothes dryer. “The cat went in by hisself,” Victoria disagreed, demurely. “Yeah,” grimaced Victoria’s grandmother Marci. “Luckily she couldn’t figure out how to turn the thing on.” Victoria is three,…

When two Indian restaurants in London won Michelin stars (only rarely bestowed upon ethnic eateries) last year, it initiated a spate of stories in American food publications about not just the goat cheese samosas on fresh pear chutney and other modernized neo-Indian dishes featured at the starred spots, but also…

With even Publix serving up subs using premium-brand cold cuts, it’s clear there’s no shortage these days of sources for sandwiches with pretty respectable interiors. What’s almost always a disappointment is the exterior — the bread. That’s what makes year-old Taste Bakery Café’s concept so appealing: Unlike umpteen other cafés,…

In Argentina “eat” means meat (per capita consumption is the world’s highest), and “meat” means beef. At least so I’ve heard. I’ve never actually been to Argentina. And actually, before some recent visits to Angus Grill I’d never even been to one of Miami’s growing number of Argentine parrillada restaurants,…

“I feel like I’m on vacation!” exclaimed one of my three workaholic dining companions, looking slightly puzzled. Perhaps vacations had been so few and far between recently that she’d merely forgotten what they feel like. But in fact a few things make a meal at Snappers Seafood Restaurant feel more…

“First need in the reform of hospital management? That’s easy! The death of all dietitians, and the resurrection of a French chef.” — Martin H. Fischer (1879-1962) I have no idea who Martin H. Fischer is, except possibly, given his birth date, the world’s oldest electric guitar player, because when…