Five Foods You Don’t Need to Give Up for Lent

1. ChocolateTwo words: Flavonoids. Antioxidants. Dark chocolate, more than 70 percent cocoa, has both of them, and they destroy evil free radicals, lower blood pressure, and balance hormones. The folks at Galler Chocolate, a candymaker from Belgium, will be happy to consult with you about the optimal mix for good…

Down By The River Gourmet Bistro

Located across the Miami River on the ground level of NEO Lofts (10 SW South River Drive), River Gourmet Bistro and Market was recently debuted by Miami natives Alina Portuondo-Freyre and Teresa Alexandria-Hernandez (the same women behind For the Love of Food Catering). The menu is a potpourri of familiar…

It’s National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Now, I don’t want to make light of the eleven million Americans who suffer from eating disorders, particularly since around ten million of them are women or girls. This week is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, so let me say right now that in their most extreme forms, anorexia and…

Orange You Glad You Got “Squeezed” for 35 Mil?

Some of my favorite boondoggles over the years have involved the vast sums stupid companies have spent to fix what ain’t broke. Our latest example is Tropicana, headquartered in Bradenton, Florida. In a classic act of desperation, the ailing orange juice producer decided to scrap its familiar, easy to spot,…

Holleman’s Restaurant of Miami Springs Represents @ Wine & Food

Holleman’s Restaurant of Miami Springs @ Food & Wine from Miami New Times on Vimeo.Holleman’s Restaurant of Miami Springs was representing at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival in a big way. They brought 7,000 portions of their Black Angus aged New York strip topped with cippolini onions grilled…

Michy’s Queen Scores with Sra. Martinez

The stately whitewashed building served for decades as the Buena Vista post office. More recently, it was home to Domo Japones, Amir Ben-Zion’s restaurant in the nascent Design District neighborhood. Ben-Zion has become accustomed to success (Miss Yip Chinese Café, Bond Street Sushi), so when Domo faltered last year, he…

How-To Video – Italian-Style Roasted Swordfish

Italian-Style Roasted Swordfish from Miami New Times on Vimeo.  Ever wanted to make swordfish roasted inside parchment paper with tomatoes, olives, and capers? Chef Odel Arencibia from The Capital Grille Miami shows you how. This simple Italian dish has great flavor and aroma. Don’t feel like doin’ it yourself? Hit…

Uva 69 Presents How to Make a Mango Mojito

On Thursday, February 19, Miami New Times celebrated the end of calendar editor Patrice Elizabeth Grell Yursik’s illustrious five-year career with the paper. We had a party and got drunk at Uva 69 in Miami’s historic MiMo District in the Upper Eastside. At the end of the night, I fell…

Herb Marinated Beef Tenderloin

Here’s a video of Chef Odel Arencibia from The Capital Grille Miami broiling up some herb-marinated beef tenderloin served on a crostini base with tomatoes, peppers, and onions. I tend to believe all meat tastes best off a wood-burning grill, but a high-quality cut of tenderloin marinated ten hours in…

Clean Seas Talks Offshore Fish Farming

Last night, Obama’s State of the Union address featured a lot of talk about energy this, renewable that, and let’s face it, he’s right. Matter of fact, if we don’t start fishing our waters in a more responsible, future-conscious manner,  the only chicken of the sea left is gonna be…

FIU Donates Food Fest Leftovers

Michael Moran, culinary director and chef/instructor at the FIU School of Hospitality, along with his small army of FIU student/volunteers, were able to recover more than 800 meals from events at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival and have donated them to the Daily Food Bank. The meals, culled…

Still Time for Free Pancakes

Just a reminder that today is National Pancake Day, a should-be-sanctioned holiday that is already more important than Presidents’ Day and Arbor Day combined. The International House of Pancakes started doling out free shortstacks this morning at 7, and they’re not stopping until 10 tonight. ‘Course, IHOP hopes that in…

Making Black Truffle Mac ‘N’ Cheese

Up till I shot this video, I had never seen a real-life truffle. I’ve shot in the kitchens of some fine, highly rated restaurants in Miami, but I’ve only ever seen truffle oil. This mac ‘n’ cheese recipe uses actual truffles baked right in to a crispy, hot, cheesy mass…

Liquor at the Wine & Food Festival

The South Beach Food & Wine Festival offered more than cheese trays and grape juice. What are we talkin’ ’bout? Booze, glorious booze, and there was plenty of it. I saw brandy, absinthe, vodka, tequila… it was like that scene in The Warriors where every gang in the city shows…

Top Chef and Barilla: For the Foodie in All of Us

“You have to respect your ingredients. You have to respect the food.” This according to Top Chef Ilan Hall is the recipe for success. Other advice to amateur foodies included the typical “start at the bottom, even if it means peeling garlic.” And then keep a clean workspace. However his…

How-to Video — Creamy Porcini Mushroom Soup

Porcini Cream of Mushroom Soup from Miami New Times on Vimeo.Odel Arencibia is executive chef of and partner in The Capital Grille Miami. His restaurant has just teamed up with Tuscan winemaker Castello Banfi and is offering a special promotion from February 23 to April 5, 2009, to celebrate. They…

Video: Paula Deen’s Pants Fall Down on Stage

I heard the sound of an excited crowd and saw Paula Deen get introduced onstage at Sunday’s South Beach Wine and Food Fest. In a tent at 13th and Ocean, I maneuvered  close for an angle to shoot video.Paula Deen is a funny lady. I don’t own a TV and…

Chef Dean James Max Talks Wahoo

Chef Dean James Max of 3030 Ocean in Fort Lauderdale had a table set up at the Food & Wine Festival serving the best grub I tried in the whole place. I didn’t know what the hell it was, so I waited around till Chef was done schmoozing his many…

FIU Students Make Wine & Food Festival Work

If Sunday was any indication of how well the South Beach Wine & Food Festival did, then it was a resounding success. Tons of humans tore through hundreds of thousands of portions of grub and massive amounts of alcohol, grape-based and otherwise. Celebrity chefs led cooking demos, signed books, worked…

Eat for Mardi Gras, Give It Up For Lent

They don’t call it Fat Tuesday for nothing. Or Fat Monday, for that matter. We may as well stuff ourselves silly today and tomorrow, because you know what follows is a big long drag: Lent, which promises to zap all the fun from our lives for the following 40 days…