Taco Tuesdays

Taco Tuesday. For months, New Timesers went to Treasure Trove every Tuesday for Taco Tuesdays, a special day on which chicken, beef, or veggie tacos are just $1. We haven’t been in a while now — you can only ingest six- and seven-taco meals for so many weeks in a…

WTF Is It?!? Round 6.9

The amazing dondakaya We seem to have exhausted the brainpower of blog-readers the last couple of weeks; once again, nobody carried off first prize in our WTF is IT??!! contest. The mysterious vegetable in question was the dondakaya, also known as the “ivy gourd,” a little bugger that looks like…

Gold Medal Wine Tour Ends Hunger

[Picasso, Blind Man’s Dinner] And if you’re feeling flush as ever, or pretending you are… You can help end childhood hunger and satisfy your own in one shot. The “Gold Medal Wine Tour” will be making its way around some of the best South Florida restaurants this fall, pairing wines…

Gong Show Returns

Remember The Gong Show? Talentless hacks interrupted in mid-performance by a huge, cruel gong, signaling to the whole world the imminent and permanent separation of the hapless artists from the airwaves (and from their egos)? The concept is back at Dada’s (52 N. Swinton Ave), every Monday night at 9:30…

For Good Chinese, Fill up at Philippe

Clad in white elegance and black lacquer floors, this two-level, 400-seater in the Gansevoort Hotel is as debonair as one might expect from a Chinese restaurant named Philippe. The space soars with supper-club sophistication. Central focal points include a lengthy bar, a black slate water wall, and a wall of…

Wrap up: Purple Pie Launch Party at Pink Ghost

If you weren’t at Pink Ghost Saturday night you missed one hell of treat: Not only was it the premier of the Ghostie’s Eight-by-Eight art show, but it was also the launch party for the Purple Pie Company, a very DIY-style operation run by Miami gal, Alex Van Clief. There…

Those Fresh Oysters are Frozen

Carl Gussow, “Oyster Girl” John Linn and I noticed something fishy about the “oysters on the half shell” we ordered from Jackson’s Steakhouse the other night. Our waitress told us they were Gulf oysters, which you know can’t be safe to eat raw in August. The water warms up and…

Cheapskate Report

a penny saved…. Everybody’s offering tips to save on dining out these days, but Miami foodist Danny Brody has a truly imaginative list of ideas on DailyCocaine that we all ought to print out and tape to the fridge, including: 9. Carry a flask. Order tap water-when no one’s looking,…

World Bank: Biofuels Caused Food Prices to Soar 75%

image courtesy pebblebedreactor.blogspot.com If you had an idea that biofuels (like ethanol) made from corn, soy, or rapeseed were going to solve our energy problems, think again. Er, well. Even if biofuels allieviate the energy headaches of the West, at the moment their cultivation has left populations around the globe…

Monday Morning Question: Sending it Back

I know everyone is probably scrambling this morning to get ready for Fay, but you still need something to take your mind off the impending doom, right? Well here’s a burning MMQ to bring those thoughts back to happier places. Well not so much happy as disgusted. Last week I…

How to Make a Hurricane

above: Hurricane preparedness kit I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that there are two types of Floridians. The first has stockpiled enough bottled water, canned chili con carne, sterno, matches stored in waterproof bags, and flashlight batteries to survive a nuclear holocaust followed by an invasion of cranky aliens…

Nom nom nom: Alligator Season Starts Today!

I’ve still got an alligator tail steak the size of a bistro table in my freezer from LAST year’s season, and here we are starting the party all over again. Fact is, I’m a little afraid of it. The steak, I mean, although the folks who hunt alligators can sometimes…

Booze Hound – Chef Allen’s

Elyse Wanshel As far as I know, there wasn’t a full moon last night — I didn’t accidentally rub my big ass against a lamp, resulting in a magical genie oozing free with a pocket-full of wishes to be used at my disposal. Hell didn’t freeze over, pigs never flew,…

WTF Is It?!? Round 6.5

Weeeeyull, looks like you folks aren’t quite as brilliant as you thought you were, eh what? Last week’s photo evidently left you gasping for mercy, calling “Uncle!,” too whipped to offer even the wildest, bouncing-off-the-wall guess. Or maybe the stunning silence on that one was because I forgot to OFFER…

Week’s Top Food-Related Headlines

Julia Child, infiltrating a goose Documents: Julia Child part of WWII-era spy ring Washington Post More college students turn to food stamps More than 54,000 Florida college students are on food stamps, a 44 percent increase from this time last year. Miami Herald/Florida Trend Restaurants sing the brown-bag blues Arizona…

Bottled Water Gets the Boot

1. Days of Water and Roses The couple peruses the menu from plushly pillowed pods set along the perimeter of a Zen-like reflection pond. After they decide on wok-fried lobster with coconut foam and grilled Florida pompano in curry sauce, the only choice remaining is whether they should pair their…

Fratelli Lyon Brings Authentic Italian to the Design District

“Just like being in Italy.” That’s what people who have never been to Italy often say about their favorite Italian-American restaurants, inevitably the sort that serve huge platters of pasta topped with gallons of red sauce and mounds of melted mozzarella. I wonder what the reaction is when these poor…

New Times Iron Fork at the Miami Science Museum

Amazing what you’ll find out reading Miami New Times. Apparently we’re putting on a terribly cool culinary event on September 10th: Iron Fork, in which “Top Chefs Battle Head to Head for the Prestigious Golden Fork Award.” Who knew? Celeb judges include Susser, Dean James Max, Clay Conley, Zach Bell,…

Flavor Palm Beach Participants

Don’t have a cow: The list is finally here Flavor Palm Beach, which runs through the month of September, has posted its list of participating restaurants offering a three-course dinner for $30, lunch for $20. The line-up is so disappointing, so baffling, it’s given me an ice-cream headache. Hardly any…

Miami Spice Cooking Demos

The two months of fine-dining deals known as Miami Spice isn’t all about the culinary savings. This year, organizers are also putting on cooking demos around the city with chefs of some of the city’s top restaurants. Macy’s at Dadeland and Aventura will showcase the cooking skills of chefs from…