Virtual shopping has its, well, virtues. For one thing, browsing Websites is a great way to procrastinate. You can source products you might have had no idea otherwise even existed — vanilla-scented aromatherapy slippers, anyone (www.CasualLivingUSA.com)? And for those transplants whose relatives have the bad luck not to have moved…
In town filming a promotional documentary about Miami at the Forge, a member of the Washington, D.C.-based West Beach Entertainment crew recently confessed she loves this city because “there’s ceviche on every menu.” Too true — in the last few weeks alone, I’ve had scintillating versions at Azul, Bizcaya Grill,…
The Starbucksian transformation of SoBe’s west side is progressing along quite nicely these days. The developers are certainly thrilled — these people get the same sort of excitement from watching a row of historic houses being razed that a foodie does after stripping all meat from a rack of baby-back…
After three summer shopping spree meals that would be described most kindly as disappointing (more accurately as hideous, and in one case hideously overpriced), my feelings about the food options in the otherwise super-snazzy new Village of Merrick Park mall had settled into Shopper Survivalism. Until the much-anticipated opening of…
I will always remember the outraged response I received from an acquaintance when I blithely confessed that my daughter won’t eat, among a shopping list of other items, anything green (unless it is a “wild watermelon” gelatin dessert or the squiggly neon noodles that Kraft has started to add to…
Impoverished Neapolitans originally made pizza as a means of using up their abundance of tomatoes in a filling, inexpensive manner — a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkling of herbs, and they’d pop the tomato-topped bread into a searing wood or coal-fueled oven. Back then you could traipse the streets…
My neighbor Jerome was standing in my kitchen, a place he has been at least a couple of times a week for the past several years. But that night, apparently, he was looking with new eyes at the CapriSun® strawberry-banana easy-open pouches of juice; the Smucker’s Snackers®, no-refrigeration-needed packages that…
Houston’s, the Cheesecake Factory, and other popular dining chains manage to attract packs of hungry Aventura residents by offering comfortable settings and consistent fare that challenges neither palate nor pocketbook. So when Scott Fredel, former co-chef of Rumi, decided to enter this neighborhood with his own dining establishment, he charted…
Forget BAM — Emeril’s looks to be a veritable SLAM dunk. The buzz-driven gastrognoscenti are descending in droves, overwhelming the restaurant formerly known as the Gaucho Room. Indeed the polished dining room, dominated by wine refrigeration units that could make any half-knowledgeable enophile drool with envy, has completely evolved from…
It has always seemed to me, to paraphrase an old sentiment, that Kendall is a nice place to live but I wouldn’t want to visit there. Then I somehow find myself in one of the more terminally suburban parts, and realize I’m not so sure about living there, either. Whoa,…
In 1995 China Grill opened to both raves and rabidly raving rants, and it’s been that way ever since. It may take diners arriving after 8:30 to 9:00 p.m. half an hour to get seated (still), but once seated, they are never on the fence; no one, it seems, has…
I wish to retract the following statements: “Hardly anyone has come out of [Miami’s] noted kitchens and opened, to either local or nationwide acclaim, an innovative restaurant. Yes, many of the chef-proprietors have ‘placed’ their people in high-profile positions or been on the hiring end…. But it still appears that…
My wife has long accused me of getting carried away with my work, her latest repetition of this charge brought on by my decision to attend our friends’ Halloween party dressed as an arepa con queso. She seemed skeptical of my claim that the masquerade had nothing to do with…
I have spoken with residents of the Miami Design District and can report that they are not high on Grass, the new restaurant/lounge on NE 40th Street. “We’re just starting to develop a nice, easygoing neighborhood vibe here,” said one disgruntled homeowner. “The last thing we need is this pretentious…
Grinders are what I call ’em, due to many formative years living in New England, but elsewhere in the country monster meat/cheese/veg sandwiches go by other names, most easy to understand: submarine, torpedo, and zeppelin for the blimp-shaped roll; hero for the formidable size. Some, though, were more of a…
Our October is the rest of the nation’s March — a month of transition, a medium for change, and a means for projection. It may be less scientifically precise than the National Hurricane Center, but what happens in October is frequently a more fundamentally accurate reading of the culinary currents…
Consider the gift basket. Stuffed with incredibly edible comestibles ranging from fresh fruits straight out of boutique orchards to artisan cheeses cured at dairies that exist in determinedly rural communities, it serves a multitude of occasions. The basket celebrates births and other Hallmark holidays, commiserates deaths, brings in money for…
For the 43rd consecutive year, Arbetter’s Hot Dogs will not be serving free baked beans “the day after the Boston Red Sox win the World Series.” The Sox are an undeniably fine baseball team, and as of this writing have just steamrolled into the American League Championship Series, but anyone…
Around this prostitution-trafficky stretch of Biscayne Boulevard, the term “hot” has traditionally been more associated with the word “pants” than with “food.” That changed last year with the opening of Renaisa, in the rather dilapidated building long occupied by the Bimini, a basic bar/fried fish joint on Little River that…
It’s official — and it’s Esquire: Food critic John Mariani named Carmen the Restaurant one of 2003’s “Best New Restaurants in America” in the magazine’s 22nd annual survey. About the eatery in the David William Hotel, the only one that Mariani recognizes in the state of Florida, he writes that…
Since opening in Loehmann’s Plaza eighteen years ago, Chef Allen’s Restaurant has raked in prestigious dining awards the way most of us accumulate bills: rated “best restaurant in South Florida” by Gourmet magazine, voted “best food in Miami” in the 2003 Zagat, winner of Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence, recipient…
There’s (arguably) more argument in America about what constitutes real barbecue than about what constitutes justification for declaring war — unless the war is between differing ‘cue factions, in which case just about any difference of opinion is reason enough to start shooting. Some purist pit-fired wood barbecuers even go…
