Upon hearing the name of Miami Beach’s new upscale Chinese restaurant, Pao, my Food TV-fan brother, who is professionally in sales, immediately attributed it to South Beach celebrity-identified public relations shrewdness. “POW!” he marveled approvingly. “So people think of Emeril’s ‘BAM!’ Clevvvvv-er! Commercial.” The bad news, for other sales-oriented folk,…
The year was 1991. The setting, after-hours at a seafood restaurant at the end of a pier in Newport Beach, California, where I worked as a waitress. The main players included me, and a bartender named Lee Ray (pronounced with the same emphasis you would put on John Boy). Here’s…
I recently poked gentle fun at Granny Feelgood’s for its pseudo-approach toward health food, so I guess you could file my experiences at Food Without Fire under “Better watch what you ask for because you just might get it.” There is nothing phony about this “gourmet raw market & deli”…
My review of the Wet Olive a couple of weeks ago prompted a flood of responses. Most of them defended the ePoetry event that I was unlucky enough to witness while attempting to dine, called me a bigot, and belittled the discrimination I experienced as merely a joke. Only one…
In terms of romantic ambiance, the location of this Italian-American eatery would initially seem best described as convenient; it’s in the supremely low-rent Redbird Mall, and except for some very cute 3-D paintings of Italian street scenes (similar to the Scull sisters’ playful old Havana constructions), the décor is basic…
It was a full decade ago that a few Argentine culinary pioneers like Prima Pasta’s Gerardo Cea began transforming Miami Beach’s rundown (often dangerously druggy, at best boring) eastern 71st Street area into a haven for lovers of Argentina’s Italian-influenced fun food in a festival atmosphere. Still the neighborhood didn’t…
There were crullers and beignets aplenty in New England circa 1803, but Elizabeth Gregory, of Portland, Maine, added nutmeg, cinnamon, and lemon rind to her batter and placed a nut in the center of each one. She called these “doughnuts.” Her aim was to create a pastry that her son,…
The post-9/11 climate, from SARS to orange alerts to worrisome economic conditions, has led to a dining trend toward affordable neighborhood restaurants that offer simply designed, well-prepared foods served with a friendly face — upscaled Happy Meals for nervous adults, if you will. Tim Zagat goes so far as to…
There’s KFC, but then there’s Church’s; there’s Taco Bell, but then there’s Baja Fresh; there’s Blimpie, but then there’s Quizno’s. Which is to say, just because food is chain-restaurant fast food doesn’t mean it’s bad and/or boring food. Case in point: Golden Krust, which is certainly a chain, if a…
In the category of current food trends, there are those that are easy to understand — Back to Basics, for instance. Who doesn’t get steak and potatoes? Other trends, like Ferrán Adria’s Deconstructed/Reinvented Food, are considerably harder to grasp; dishes one expects hot come cold and vice versa, with taste…
The link between New York and Miami is like that of a torso and an amputated leg: The latter might be expendable, but the physical memory lingers. Which city is the sacrificial limb depends on perspective. Usually I consider New York the phantom itch. No matter how hard I try…
Perhaps it’s time to start marking Miami restaurants on a curve — this way I could say only nice things about Granny Feelgood’s, because, in relation to other local “health food” establishments, there’s a lot to feel good about. If compared with a real health-conscious eatery like, say, one that…
Dave Jay Gerstein, a musician friend who fronts a band in New York City called the Sound of Monday, recently noted in an e-mail that “EVERYBODY needs a theme song.” Which is why he penned, along with “a whole horn arrangement idea too — lots of brass,” the following lines:…
“Are you Jewish?” the guy behind the counter at Tea for Two asked skeptically. “No,” I admitted, “but I was born in Brooklyn. That’s about the same thing.” “Nah, I can always tell,” he laughed. My non-Jewishness, he went on to explain, was noticeable because it was a novelty; evidently…
The people of Pinecrest and South Miami don’t go for a whole lot of fancy stuff. That’s probably why hoity-toity eateries that open here, often to great fanfare, find themselves turned inside out as quickly as cheap umbrellas in a windstorm. Two Chefs has weathered all sorts of competition by…
The mangoes are falling, the temperature is rising, and the tourists are leaving. What does it all mean? The obvious and inevitable, of course — summer, with all its vacation implications, is upon us. The bad news is that this is going to be a very domestic summer. Wars and…
If I could make the newsprint glow neon and blink on and off for the following phrase, I would: Feast Among the Grapes to Be Held at Parrot Jungle Island. Why the hoopla? Feast Among the Grapes, which benefits the Diabetes Research Institute, is not a debut event; in 2003,…
There is a big problem with chef/owner Carmen Gonzalez’s new restaurant Carmen. The problem is that there are no problems. Who is going to believe a review that says something like that? Okay — the location could be a problem, judging just from past history. The restaurant is in the…
I don’t deny that the reason I decided to eat lunch at this particular sandwich spot was because of its quacky moniker. I thought: Surely any food shop called the Rubber Duck has to put out a pretty creative product, right? Well, as it turns out, not really, but this…
While in Edinburgh two years ago, I went to buy a city restaurant guide at Cooks Bookshop, owned by Clarissa Dickson Wright, formerly one of the Food Network/BBC’s Two Fat Ladies. They were a notoriously butter- and beer-swilling duo (until partner Jennifer Patterson died in 1999) who roared through the…
I admit I was put up to it. While judging the third annual “Iron Chef” competition for Zeta’s (WZTA-FM 94.9) Paul and Young Ron morning show, which was held for the occasion at the Johnson & Wales campus in North Miami, Chef Allen Susser (sitting to my right) and I…
Taverna Opa is perfectly named, the word “opa” being a carefree yelp of joy — the Greek version of “yippee!” The place sizzles like lamb on a spit — Middle Eastern music blares, belly dancers jingle, patrons partake of Greek tabletop dancing, fire-grilled foods emit aromatic smoke balls, hundreds of…
