One of the lectures I remember most from my days at the Culinary Institute of America dealt with defining a chef’s role with regard to the process of cooking. The instructor told us as chefs-to-be, we would be privy to the finest and freshest produce, meats, and seafood available. Our…
While some people hate eating out alone, I’ve always believed there are few more civilized solitary pleasures than reading over a satisfying meal cooked, served, and cleaned up by someone else. In this context, where one is wallowing in words as much as munchies, “satisfying” most often means simple food…
The other night I made pasta boobs for my husband’s dinner. I had to. I could see no other way to make up for the night before. See, we’d taken a room at Hotel Ocean, a boutique resort smack on Ocean Drive, to do some pretty hard, ahem, work: We…
Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant is an irrepressibly cheery place, the walls sunshine yellow, the rest of the room festively splashed with vibrant colors. The menu is bright and glossy as well, with the three dozen offerings constituting a sort of Mexican “happy meals” program for gringos: tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas …..
Sometimes people do the right things for the wrong reasons. For instance it would have been nice if the owners of the new SoBe restaurant/lounge 6 Degrees had kept the locals of the community in mind when drawing up plans for their venture. They didn’t. Instead, like so many others,…
Imagine my surprise when I found out last week that I wasn’t in vogue. I mean there I was, reading fashion mags in Ego Trip Salon while getting trimmed and tinted in accordance with the latest trends, and I pretty much get slapped in the intellect with how out of…
When you play in bar bands, as I have my entire adult life, the possibility always exists that the club’s patrons will dislike your music so much they will throw tomatoes. But this is not an entirely unwelcome experience; at least it means we get something decent to eat for…
The phrase novelty act usually is used as a diss, implying that the sole thing the entertainment entity in question has going is a gimmick rather than talent or any other kind of solid quality. But this show-biz term actually has respectable, or at least neutral, origins, as I discovered…
When I told a colleague I was going to attend the Chefs Across America dinner at Norman’s some nights ago, she had two questions for me: Does anybody still care? And, how do you know the money’s getting to the right place? Although they might sound cynical to the unjaded…
They’re neighbors on Lincoln Road, but I suppose the new restaurant Azul, located next to Nexxt, didn’t learn from the mistake Nexxt made by copying the Cheesecake Factory a bit too closely for that billion-dollar chain’s comfort. The Cheesecake Factory sued, and the Mandarin-Oriental, whose restaurant Azul was just awarded…
Although living on the Beach is fun, it’s a relief to get away occasionally during high season, especially the part of season that coincides with South Florida’s annual two weeks of cold weather. When we shivering goose-down-bundled Beach dwellers are even further chilled to the bone by the sight of…
As you pass by Romeo’s Café on Coral Way, the place appears to be your average neighborhood Italian restaurant, the type with straw-wrapped bottles of chianti on red-and-white-checkered tablecloths. There is nothing about the façade, in other words, that even hints at the unique and extraordinary dining experience lurking behind…
Since I first moved to South Florida in 1993, Ocean Drive has had a reputation as a great place to party but not a great place to eat. Not that there haven’t been notable exceptions. One of the main reasons I originally decided to move from New York to South…
Like many writers, I’ve often wondered how I would make my mark. Would it be via the most heart-wrenching poem ever written? The ultimate Great American novel? Maybe a truly astounding piece of journalism, enough to win — gasp — a Pulitzer? Nah. Nein. And definitely not even close. But…
It took a grueling telephone conversation with Lynne Wacholder to find out the name and location of Confiteria Buenos Aires Bakery & Café — I’m not entirely certain she’s even told her husband Victor about it yet. Apparently Lynne didn’t want hordes of people discovering her favorite neighborhood spot for…
With its red walls, checkerboard terrazzo floor, fabric-wrapped columns, fiber-optic lighting, and caped, oversize chairs, the two-level KISS Steakhouse and Lounge looks like the Mad Hatter’s tea party on location in Vegas. Which is an appropriate design for the late-night club that evolves at about 11:00 each night, when the…
Nothing made me realize more dramatically just how different living and eating in Miami was going to be than a conversation I had with a new Cuban-American friend shortly after I moved here; we were chatting about the main reason she could never live anywhere else in the United States…
Is there any point in summing up the past year? It doesn’t seem to matter what we’re talking about — dining, music, politics — all trains of thought lead to the wreckage of September 11. For most of us it’s as if the first eight months of the year didn’t…
“Anyone who isn’t mad or drunk is just a fool,” writes Tuan Ts’ai-Hua in The Feast of Flower-Pattern Wine. In Drinking Alone in the Moonlight, Li T’ai-Po notes that “only those in the midst of it can fully comprehend the joys of wine; I do not proclaim them to the…
Dining establishments are composed of innumerable components: service, ambiance, soups, entrées, wines, and so on. Certain restaurants end up being exactly the sum of their parts — some more so, others less. Generally speaking, though, if you are pleased with the individual aspects, you’ll most likely enjoy the whole experience…
Some people equate the Yucatán with Cancún or Cozumel, with lying on quiet white-sand beaches by day, guzzling margaritas in boisterous clubs at night. Mention the Yucatán to me, and all I think of is the town of Ticul (pronounced “tee-cool”), home of Gloria Del Socorro’s pollo pibil. Well all…
You’re 61 years old, a big-and-tall kind of guy, gray hair parted on the side, wearing a conservative navy suit and a tie emblazoned with the tourist traps of New York City. Your personal assistant is twentysomething, petite and pretty, and she’s the one who answers your cell phone that…
