It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that Dr. Richard Campbell lives and breathes mangoes. The senior tropical fruit curator for Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden can tell exactly when a mango is ready to pick, assess its quality and tell you where it’s from and what it’s…
Pascal’s on Ponce is flat-out one of this city’s best spots for dining. The food is prepared so delicately, and the flavors are divine. Pascal’s isn’t necessarily known for its gnocchi, but this stuff is unbelievably good: twisted, spätzle-size pearls of ethereal potato-based pasta adorned with oyster mushrooms, creamed with…
Nany’s Bakery, a Pembroke Pines favorite for the past four years, now has a South Beach branch — except this one is called Nany’s Café. The Colombian restaurant opened in May on a stretch of Washington Avenue that is suddenly getting busy with new eateries (such as Miss Saigon and Otentico)…
Otentic in South Beach offers crepes and homemade French fare at good prices
Christy’s in Coral Gables serves shrimp that look as juiced up as the male stars of Jersey Shore. Locals often frequent the upscale eatery on the corner of Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Malaga Street simply for the shrimp cocktail. It gives new meaning to the famed oxymoron jumbo shrimp…
Chef Sara La Fountain, a Finnish-American Culinary Institute of America grad who runs a catering company in Finland, will cook up a “slow” Finnish meal featuring Finlandia vodka at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle resort this Saturday. Each of the four courses will be paired with a Finlandia vodka cocktail prepared…
Today we welcome hump day, the awkward midway point to the weekend’s freedom. Why grudgingly crawl over this nuisance when you can conquer it Brazilian-style? Every Wednesday, Boteco offers an all-you-can-eat appetizer special for $9.50 and a corresponding happy hour. This “Rodizio de Salgadinhos” special provides a prix fixe order…
Bernie’s L.A. Café opened to a packed house on Alton Road last week, and it continues to pack ’em in this week. Part of the built-in appeal is the familiarity with chef/owner Bernie Matz, who has a following from his Café at Books & Books. There is no literary backdrop…
The mainland locale of Burger & Beer Joint has opened its doors in Mary Brickell Village. The new location comes complete with a sports bar and a 5 a.m. liquor license sure to attract the happy-hour and party crowd. For now, the restaurant will open only for dinner from 5…
Some veggie folks are on the fence about “meat analogs” (AKA fake meat). Their main argument: I don’t want to eat meat, so why would I want something that tastes like meat?” Fair enough for some, but I like to think about it more in terms of logistics: the shape…
El Pimiento in Miami Lakes is an owner-operated Spanish tapas restaurant. Mylo Gonzalez is the dude in charge, but don’t call him chef — he prefers culinary director. Mylo says, “I never went to culinary school. I’m not a chef; forget the chef stuff. This is the real-deal home cooking…
As we reported last week, Miss Saigon is now open for business on South Beach. Locals are familiar with the Vietnamese restaurant from its Coral Gables and Pinecrest locations. The menu is similar here, although the emphasis is weighted more toward take-out; there are just six seats in the petite…
Word has been leaked that award-winning restaurateur Stephen Starr (you know him from Buddakan, Morimoto, and Steak 954 in Fort Lauderdale’s W Hotel), will be debuting a new 200-seat Japanese concept restaurant in Bal Harbour Shops early 2011.A press release mentions “expansive sushi bar offerings and modern takes on traditional…
A small bite of the upcoming Cafe review:Otentic is a clean, bright, contemporary bistro that looks out of place on this fast food stretch of Washington Avenue. Most everything at Otentic is slow: The cooking of food, the movement of workers, seemingly time itself. Yet after you finish off a…
It’s a holiday weekend and time to hit your local grocery store to stock up on party supplies. For most Americans, July 4 means burgers, hot dogs, ribs, coleslaw, and ice cream. And it seems everyone is jumping on the holiday discount bandwagon. A visit to a few local grocers…
Miss Saigon, the popular veteran Vietnamese restaurant from Coral Gables, quietly opened a second, smaller branch on Washington Avenue today — less than an hour ago, actually. The space is quaint, the menu extensive — including bánh mì sandwiches, which should prove popular in this neighborhood. Also on the menu…
It was 10:54 p.m. and Anthony Bourdain sat in the lobby of the Lincoln Theatre still signing copies of Medium Raw. Two hours after wrapping his reading and Q&A session, the line had finally dwindled to a dozen. There was a female security guard who stood, bored and pissed and…
The ice-cream industry is really pushing the National Ice Cream Month promo this year, but in South Florida, every month is ice-cream month. That’s probably why local hotels are finally getting into the act with a new focus on inventive ice-cream offerings. (Riki “off-my-cleanse-diet” Altman featured La Marea’s selection yesterday.) A…
Today marks the official start of National Ice Cream Month (thank you, President Reagan, for acknowledging this frozen treat deserves not just a day, but four weeks’ worth of celebration), and the folks at La Marea gave us the chance to sample not one, not two, but more than two…
How can it be that a new falafel joint opened almost a year ago and nobody told me? I had to sniff it out myself while riding by last night on Washington Avenue. Crazee Olive Mediterranean Grill is actually more than just a falafel joint — it offers a pretty…
Flapjack Flip-Off X: Miami’s best pancakes
If you know Anthony Bourdain from No Reservations and nothing else, perhaps you’re under the impression he’s just some cuddly middle-aged curmudgeon. Newsflash: You’re wrong. Sure, he can be a friendly, engaging, and gracious dude. But for a full, uncensored view of Bourdain’s too-hot-for-TV alter ego, you need to read…
