On a few occasions since my mother’s death, I have attempted to re-create her renowned kugel. You would think a clearly written recipe for noodle pudding would be easy to replicate, and in fact it is. I even resist the temptation to deviate a bit — say, for instance, substituting…
Roughly 50 zillion locales in Paris bear signs saying salon de thé. Yet one finds serious tea — the loose-leaf kind, precision-brewed by the establishment, in a pot — at only a handful of these spots. More often than not, patrons are offered a serious-looking, snazzily decorated box displaying an…
Firefighters fight fires, and crime fighters fight crime, so what do freedom fighters fight? Why are French sex comedies neither sexy nor funny? If love is blind, what makes lingerie so popular? And why has a spirited scene such as Coconut Grove been perennially bereft of worthwhile places to eat?…
If great concepts were personified by guacamole, Taco Max would be able to fill Miami City Hall with mashed avocado mixed with cilantro, onions, and the juice of several thousand limes. But a great concept is not personified by guacamole. So where does that leave Taco Max? We’ll get to…
With Big City Tavern in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton, City Oyster Bar in Delray Beach, and the new City Cellar Wine Bar & Grill in Coral Gables, Big Time Restaurant Group has shown itself to be city-slick in picking the right real estate for its entries into the burgeoning…
There’s good Chinese food, and then there’s bad Chinese food — the latter being something in which Miami-Dade County specializes. Sadly, though, this category also includes a whole subgenre of food that isn’t necessarily bad at all. It is sneered at merely because it is Chinese-American rather than authentic regional…
We make the BEST sandwich on the island.” Such was the claim I noticed, while cruising food Websites one day, of a place I normally would have cruised right past in my car, given the island in question. Key Biscayne is, to put it kindly, not exactly a worth-a-special-drive destination…
When first told that NASA incorporates Peruvian foods into the inflight meals of American astronauts, I pictured bowls of ceviche floating gravity-free through a spaceship, and lime wedges trailing nearby in very slow motion, lazily bumping into free-tumbling tamalelike humitas. Upon snapping back from my reverie, the rationale became clear:…
In the old days, prior to the advent of the digital universe and 24/7 shopping, people barely had time after work to run to the store, pick up a pound of ground beef, rush home, slap it on the grill, and cram it down before falling into bed. Today we…
Those in Miami who keep kosher diets are privy to a wide diversity of ethnic dining establishments: Chinese (China Bistro at The Waterway Shops, Aventura), Japanese (Aoba Japanese, 13185 Biscayne Blvd., North Miami Beach), Mediterranean (New Time Moroccan and Spanish Restaurant, 2120 NE 123rd St., North Miami Beach), Mexican (La…
Eating your way through the creations served in Miami’s restaurants is a lot like picking wild berries. Sometimes what you’re faced with are immature and not ready for consumption. Sometimes they’re plain rotten. Sometimes — Ouch! — they’re surrounded by thorns; just being near them hurts. But other times they’re…
Wine bars have quietly become big business in Miami. Among the better of our relatively recent arrivals are D’Vine District Restaurant and Wine Bar in the Design District, Vine Wine Shop on Biscayne Boulevard and 77th Street, and the cozy Xtreme Cafe in South Beach (which misleadingly sounds like a…
The plates placed before us each contained two thin, bloody red strips of duck magret draped over an ever-so-slightly sweet risotto, rife with cooked cubes of Granny Smith apple and teeny flecks of pancetta. “Pace yourselves,” I said to my dinner companions, for this was the first serve of a…
When in Rome, fourth-century Italian Saint Ambrose advised Saint Augustine, do as the Romans do. In terms of food, that would mean eating appetizers such as supplì al telefono (mozzarella-filled, deep-fried rice balls); entrées like abbacchio alla Romana (milk-fed suckling lamb sauced with garlic, rosemary, anchovies, and vinegar); hearty panzanella…
One of the things I like about Mexico is that the Eiffel Tower isn’t there. Nor is the Colosseum, Big Ben, or any other “must-see” attraction that might distract from a more immediate bonding with the country’s present-day culture — by which, of course, I mean indulging in the indigenous…
When you go to your typical local steak house, the beef isn’t the only thing that gets trimmed. Whether mammoth national chain or home-grown meat market, these places can bone out your wallet faster than an ambidextrous butcher with a head full of methamphetamine and hands full of razor-sharp blades…
“Ya can’t please everyone, so ya got to please yourself” — at least according to the lyrics of Rick Nelson’s 1972 song “Garden Party.” But the folks at Kafe Gol appear, for better or worse, to disagree. Although Gol’s goal may not be to please diners from absolutely every nation,…
Restaurants come and restaurants go. Some, like Prezzo Restaurant and Martini Bar, come, go, and come back again. It first opened in Loehmann’s Fashion Island in 1992, was rechristened Martini Bar and Grill a few years ago, and then in February, as if by magic — presto! — Prezzo reappeared…
Restaurants, like politicians, have to play to their bases. Two new Miami Beach dining venues — Sam’s Deli and Grill on 41st Street, and Clarke’s, an Irish-style pub located south of Fifth Street in SoBe — are doing just that, and both seem well suited to satisfying the distinctly different…
Is sushi the new sex? In the big, bad world out there — to which some refer as the real world — sex is the sizzle that sells the deodorant and hair gel and gas-sucking highway mastodons and watery, gruellike beer that has about as much taste and character as…
Miami is home to glitzy multimillion-dollar restaurants, a sea of sensational sushi spots, and more than its fair share of satisfying bistros, trattorias, and steak houses. Central and South American immigrants, as well as those from the neighboring islands, have blessed our area with a plethora of exemplary and inexpensive…
Sage on Fifth opened in South Beach at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Fifth Street in August 2004, two weeks before Hurricane Frances blustered across Florida. Although the restaurant withstood the winds and rain, it couldn’t endure customer indifference and was soon boarded up for good. Fratelli La Bufala…
