For people born toward the end of Twentieth Century, who are familiar with Lebanon mainly through horrific photographs of wartime Beirut’s bombed-out rubble, it’s difficult to imagine that not so much earlier (during a twenty-year French occupation between World War I and World War II) Beirut was known as “the…
Cocopelli Café is a curious name for a French bistro, not much better than calling your brasserie Vinnie’s Diner. An outdoor deck leading to the café is a concrete mess, with a few tables and some scraggly shrubs surrounding the periphery. The awning looks to be about twenty years old,…
Most restaurant reviews take no more than a couple of weeks to complete, even here at New Times, where the (responsible) policy is for critics to make at least two visits before making a judgment. This review has been in the works since last spring, about seven weeks after Harrison’s…
A deluge of rain cascaded over our car as we drove toward the Spanish restaurant Costa Mar. We were approaching Rascal House, which tempted me to pull over, grab some shelter and corned-beef sandwiches, and try Costa Mar another night. But we were just blocks away, and so continued past…
Pho! Phabulous pho! Phinally! Okay, apologies for being cute, but true phans of pho (pronounced like the French feu) will understand. Mediocre versions of this addictive Vietnamese beef-noodle concoction are so much the rule here in the Americas that when you come upon a worthy pho it seems to call…
Concerning culinary schools, I’ve been on both sides of the lectern. The moment I remember most vividly as a student occurred at the Culinary Institute of America, when my teacher picked up a bowl of hollandaise sauce I had just finished making and hurled it against the kitchen wall. My…
Suggesting as it does that the place is a one-and-only sort of joint run by a guy named Joe, the name “Joey’s Only Seafood Restaurant” is a little questionable for a chain eatery. And Joey’s Only is indeed a chain. Unlike McD’s, however, Joey’s is a Canadian chain, and so…
There are strong similarities in many dishes originating in Latin America and the Caribbean, but there are also differences, however subtle. It is a source of frustration for people who like to taste-test food analytically that so many Miami ethnic eateries supposedly specializing in the food of one country also…
For those who love to dine out, strolling along Giralda Avenue in Coral Gables is like being a kid again and traipsing through the aisles of a candy store — a global one at that, with alluringly packaged delights from Spain (La Dorada), Italy (La Gastronomia), Vietnam (Miss Saigon), and…
As we entered Chef Curtis’s Village Café in downtown Miami Shores, inattentiveness manifested itself immediately in terminal yellow roses on the tabletops, barely clinging to life in chintzy vases. A coffee-shop counter runs in an L-shape across one long and one short wall in this rather charmless dining room, stainless-steel…
It’s traditional to eat certain foods at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve to ensure good luck in the coming year. This lucky food varies from country to country. Cubans eat twelve grapes. In Germany, Poland, and Scandinavia the first bite is supposed to be herring. For those…
Caramelo Restaurant has beautiful plateware: elongated rectangles of red and clear glass, white teardrops and triangles, bowls that look like miniature Morris Lapidus sculptures. Weighty silverware sparkles atop meticulously crisp white linens, as does impeccably clean glassware. The two main dining rooms in the 200-seat Gables establishment are gorgeous too,…
Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring — except the delivery guy from the Chinese restaurant. Each country has its own age-old Xmas Eve culinary customs. In Italy it’s a multicourse seafood feast for the extended family. In France, a reveillon supper…
Texas and Brazil are both sizable, sun-drenched territories inhabited by cattle, cowboys, and proud, beef-eating people with hearty appetites. Makes sense, then, that the Texas de Brazil Churrascaria chain would post its first restaurant in the Lone Star state. That was in 1998; there are now seven such Brazilian steak…
On the glam sports scale, bowling has always ranked right up there with croquet and badminton. That’s not to badmouth bowling. In fact, it’s probably bowling’s nonglamorousness that makes it nonintimidating as a participatory sport, even for a desk potato like me, whose lifetime average score, out of a possible…
“Axis of evil” status notwithstanding, North Korea, and South too, are actually very good when it comes to provoking a proliferation of potent flavors from their cuisine. This has been the case since the Sixteenth Century, when the Portuguese introduced the chili pepper and Koreans responded with a resounding “Woo!”…
For ethnic food enthusiasts, there’s no greater thrill than finding a very small, very hidden eatery — and no greater compliment than to call it a “hole in the wall.” Sushi Deli takes the compliment almost too far. Located on the bottom floor of a nondescript office building, this is…
Truly tasty kosher food is not easy to find in Miami, especially not at reasonable prices — that is, prices not inflated by all the necessary religious rituals and restrictions. So five-month-old Kemia is a rare treat, a place that serves kosher in the North African/Mediterranean style, and serves it…
Chocolate Fine Argentinian Cuisine is a cheery and colorful spot, its mellow yellow walls and alcoves covered with vivid paintings, the tables topped with crisp white linens, the wait staff dressed in bright orange T-shirts. A dark wooden wine rack toward the far end of the room is amply stocked…
Lila’s Bistro, though only a weekday lunch place, is a find. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to find. It’s not. Not even if some food-savvy friend has been kind enough to provide you with a copy of the menu, which includes these directions: “Inside pink courtyard across from Bank…
He said: I hate little frou-frou plates of stuff, with a drizzle of this and a spit of that all around it. I like a big hunk of meat. With a bone! She said: B-o-r-i-n-g. Honestly I do not believe women are from Venus and men are from Mars. Yet…
Every once in a while diners will come across a restaurant that makes them feel happy the minute they walk in the door. Crabby’s is such a place. A lot of the cheerfulness derives from the homey look: warm knotty-pine paneling reminiscent of a rec room from a more innocent,…
