MenuPages

Everywhere around the nation, pools and beaches are shutting down, and people are mourning the loss of summer. Here, we're...well, we're roasting a little less than in July?

• Head on over to Little Havana tonight for Viernes Culturales (Cultural Fridays), where on 8th street, between 14th and 17th avenues, there will be food, art and music. Best part is that it's free. The event starts at 6:30.

• What would a summer Saturday be without Cooking at the Cellar? This week, check out Tantra's Sandee Birdsong (she of Top Chef fame) prepare Miami Spice dishes at the Aventura Macy's. In Dadeland, Edgar Leal of Cacao will be doing the same. Both events start at 1 p.m.

• Allen Susser of Chef Allen's continues his summer cooking classes on Tuesday with a North African flavors class. On the menu that night: charmoula-spiced mussels and preserved lemon salad. Class starts at 6 p.m. at the restaurant, and it costs $10. Call 305-935-2900 for more information.

Students return to South Florida campuses this week, so we thought we'd help the freshmen out with a little guide to where to go to escape dining hall food. This is the second in a series of five posts that will cover each local university. This time: St. Thomas and Florida Memorial University, located just a few blocks from each other.

Pizza: You have two options: Tony's Pizza Cafe, which offers New York-style pizza, and Vita Nova, which makes more of an Argentine-style pie.

Late Night: Sadly, there aren't too many options in the area. Looks like the best bet is the Miami Subs Grill on 167th street and 43rd avenue, which is open until 2 a.m.

Cheap Eats: Definitely try Jerk Machine, a local chain of Jamaican restaurants, where you can fill up on jerk pork or curry goat for under $7.

Chinese: Pickings are pretty slim, but you've got two options fairly close to campus: China City and Chop Suey for your standard lo mein and hot-and-sour soup.

On Mom and Dad's Dime: The Mahogany Grille, an upscale soul food restaurant owned by Andre Dawson, has gotten great reviews and was awarded Best Sunday Supper this year from the New Times. It's definitely worth a visit.

• How can you tell it's low season in Florida? Well, aside from the suffocating heat and humidity. Monthly restaurant promotions! In September: Magical Dining Month in Central Florida. (Must everything in that part of the state have a magical Disney theme?) [Forkhead]

• Charles Passy offers five possible explanations for Krispy Kreme's demise. [The Hungry Man]

• A review of The Room's wide selection of beers from all over the globe. [Still Life With Feet via Critical Miami]

• Alesh explores the new Roma Organic Gelato in Mary Brickell Village. [Critical Miami]

• A list of a few local restaurants with roach activity. Ick. [Stuck on the Palmetto]

The West Palm Beach police chief arrested a woman on Tuesday who was being accused by City Place Publix employees of stealing a bottle of wine, which was stashed in her purse. Turns out she had also taken a sushi tray into the bathroom, where she'd feasted before trying to abscond with the wine.

Several of the commenters over at the PB Post's crime blog claim to see this kind of stuff all the time: people eating yogurt in the dairy aisle, empty containers found on shelves, etc. We've never seen anything like this, but then again, we're not great at noticing these kinds of things. Have you seen people trying to score some free food at the supermarket? Let us know!

WPB police chief nabs suspect [Palm Beach Post]
Police chief Delta Bush caught this woman... [Behind the Yellow Tape]

The last Krispy Kreme in Palm Beach County is closed. The county used to boast three stores: one in Boynton Beach (closed in 2006), one in West Palm Beach (closed last April), and now finally the sole holdout, the Boca Raton store, is gone. According to the Post, the chain has lost money for the last 11 quarters.

If you're still craving a hot Krispy Kreme doughnut, there are two outposts left: one at 590 NE 167th Street in Miami and another at 2401 N Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale.

County's last Krispy Kreme shuts doors [Palm Beach Post]
Krispy Kreme [Official Site]
Photo: Flickr

• The Post visits Grotto in Palm Beach, where the seating is tight, the lighting is harsh, and the food is average. [Palm Beach Post]

• The Beer Guy takes a break from the watering holes, but he does suggest some liquor stores with excellent beer selections. [Palm Beach Post]

• There's more than just noodles at Uncle Tai's, a nicer-than-average Chinese restaurant with superb crispy red snapper and crispy beef. [Sun-Sentinel]

• We tried finding a nice thing about the new Palm Beach Gardens Cantina Laredo in Gail Shepherd's review, but it was impossible. If you go, don't order the mole. [New Times]

• Three-and-a-half stars for Cafe Sharaku in Fort Lauderdale. The restaurant blends French and Asian styles for a "stellar" meal. [Miami Herald]

• There is no way you're going to find out how the jerk chicken is cooked at Betty's Place in Hollywood; all employees are tight-lipped, for fear of punishment from Betty. And judging from the reviewer's reaction, you might not want to order it extra hot. [New Times]

• What is there to do at an Argentine restaurant but gorge on meat? Actually, we can think of several other things to eat, but at Che, Pibe in Miramar, it's meat you want. [Sun-Sentinel]

• The lead story in the Herald's food section today is about seven of South Florida's sexiest bartenders. The story comes complete with photos of said bartenders sporting skimpy clothing and sultry gazes. We don't have much else to say about it, except that you can vote on which one you find the most sexy. [Miami Herald]

• DeVito's is a tossup between sweet and smarmy. Heh. [Miami Herald]

• Don't listen to those naysayers who claim there's no good barbecue in South Florida. There is, and it can be found at Shivers Bar-B-Q and Tom Jenkins Bar-B-Q. [New Times]

• Linda Bladholm visits Tatay's, which means "father" in Tagalog; it's named that way because the owner's father is the one doing the cooking. Pancit, adobo, lumpia — all the Filipino staples can be found here. [Miami Herald]

• At Trattoria Luna, which offers more than just the ubiquitous Italian-American pasta dishes, "you can eat well if not spectacularly." [New Times]

If you had a limitless supply of money, how much do you think you could spend on food each day? Joe (well, we think it's Joe) at Boca Joe's Catering tried to come up with the most extravagant meals he could possibly think of. Total spending for the day: $1,675,000, although we should note that most of that came from a diamond-encrusted fruit cake that sells for $1.65 million. The menu includes a caviar-topped frittata, a cup of Kopi Luwak (the coffee made from beans that have been passed through the digestive system of a small mammal), a Wagyu beef sandwich with foie gras and black truffle mayonnaise, and Tahitian vanilla ice cream topped with 23-carat edible gold leaf. And there's a 10-course dinner with wine pairings too; the cake is the spectacular finale.

Sure, you'd be spending $1,675,000 million on food in one day, but you likely wouldn't have to eat for the next week. So it's more like $239,285 per day. Clearly a bargain.

How much could you spend in one day on food? [Boca Joe's Catering]
Boca Joe's Catering [Official Site]

We almost missed this New York Times story today about Edible Communities, a magazine group that starts newsletters in different areas that focus on eating local. For example, (and we think this is really cool), Edible Atlanta recently gave readers suggestions on how to use kudzu, otherwise known as "the vine that ate the South." The leaves can be used instead of spinach, kale or grape leaves. It might be a good way to help control the population.

There are Edible publications in a number of different parts of the US, but Florida, unfortunately, is absent from the list. The locavore movement has made few inroads in Florida, or South Florida at least; it often seems that the easiest way to find Florida produce is to go to a grocery store in a different state. A newsletter like this might help quite a bit in that department. The owners of Edible Communities list Florida as an "interested region," so it's on their radar screen. Now they just need someone to run it. And that someone needs to have $30,000 and a good amount of free time.

Edible Communities makes it relatively easy to become a publisher: $30,000 down, the remaining $60,000, financed by Edible Communities, to be paid over five years.

For this the owner gets a crash course for the first four issues in layouts, photographs, advertising, marketing, editorial content. And the owner gets easy access to the other editors, who willingly share their expertise.

The contract requires at least 51 percent editorial content, 75 percent of which must be local. The company offers one national column, but publishers are not required to use it. After the first year the parent company takes a 5 percent royalty of gross advertising revenues.

Any takers?

How to Eat (and Read) Close to Home [New York Times]
Edible Communities [Official Site]

• The chowhounds spill on where they get their doughnuts. [Chowhound]

• The Palme d'Or at the Biltmore Hotel is delicious, says one chef. [ReMARKable Palate]

• A menu board that features "Roast Ass" and "Tun Alad." Ah yes. Only in Key West. ["Klotz" As In "Blood"]

It was brought to our attention today by Joanne Green at the New Times that Michelle Bernstein's specially created airplane dishes will be debuting on certain Delta routes on September 13. We were surprised, because we thought her dishes had already been gracing Business Elite menus for a while; Frank Bruni of The New York Times even blogged about it last month. Maybe they had a trial run?

Regardless, you will definitely see Bernstein's dishes on Delta flights after September 13, if you're lucky enough to get a seat in Business Elite. (It's peanuts for the rest of you!) There will be dishes like pomegranate-glazed lamb with pilaf and cherries, beef tenderloin with chimichurri, polenta and roasted peppers, and grilled fish with sweet corn succotash and ancho lime butter. For now, you'll only be able to get it on flights from JFK to Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Seattle.

Mile High Michy's [Riptide 2.0]
Mile-High Flubs [Diner's Journal]
Clearing the Air [Diner's Journal]
Michy's [MenuPages]

Students return to South Florida campuses this week, so we thought we'd help the freshmen out with a little guide to where to go to escape dining hall food. This is the second in a series of five posts that will cover each local university. This time: Barry

Pizza: If you haven't tried Argentine-style pizza, you should; luckily you have a Che Sopranos Pizza & Pasta nearby where you can do exactly that. We heartily recommend a dinner of empanadas, beer and pizza; that's pretty much what we lived on during our study abroad program in Buenos Aires.

Late Night: You've got one option in the area, but it's a tasty one: Cliff's, a West Indian restaurant open until 3 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. You can get everything from curry goat to stewed conch here, and on the weekends, there's live reggae too.

Cheap Eats: Head over to Esther's on 103rd Street for classic American favorites. You can't beat breakfast for $4, lunch for $1 more.

Chinese: Aurora Restaurant is both Cuban and Chinese, and they deliver. So you can have maduros with your honey chicken. Or fried rice with your bistec de palomilla. The combinations are endless!

On Mom & Dad's Dime: North One 10, just over in North Miami, is definitely worth a visit. Chef Dewey LoSasso, one of the original Mango Gang members, creates traditional American dishes with a Florida twist.

Remember that problem of empty condos and failing businesses in downtown Miami? Looks like Tampa's having similar problems, on a smaller scale. People who bought condos during the boom are stuck and are having trouble renting them out, and the thriving downtown that was promised — with restaurants, a museum, shopping, basics like a dry cleaner and a grocery store (both currently lacking) — hasn't materialized. From the Tampa Tribune:

Real estate experts say what's happening in downtown Tampa is normal for a city trying to reinvent itself into a place where people live and work. The difficult housing market puts added pressure on people who purchased units, and many could be stuck with mortgage payments for longer than they anticipated. Foreclosures, which are plaguing the single-family market, are likely to seep into the condominium market, and that could drive down prices, said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research in Jupiter.

"Urban renewal and reviving downtowns was a great marketing pitch for condos in Florida downtowns," said Larson, who tracks real estate trends in Florida. "What we're seeing now is that the promise was a little more hype than substance."

Still, he predicts, downtown restaurants and shops plus renewed demand for condos will catch up to the inventory. "People expected a gold rush, and it's more of a trickle."

There are 44 residential loft and condominium projects either under construction, recently completed or planned in the downtown area, according to the city. Fourteen of those are complete.

Sound familiar?

Downtown Miami Needs Warm Bodies To Fill Those Condos [MP: South Florida]
Market Reality Blurs Vision of Downtown [Tampa Tribune]
Photo: Flickr

• Tomorrow at Mr. G's Rock & Roll Bar & Grill in West Palm Beach catch reggae band Bradley Brown and Rhythmation. The show starts at 10 p.m., and ladies drink free 9-11.

• There will be a large party at Jetsetter Lounge in Lake Worth this weekend; that much is clear. We're trying to parse the rest of the information from this e-mail, but the bright colors (think aqua, purple and lime green) are giving us a headache. There will be drink specials, artwork, music (the above-mentioned Bradley Brown will be there on Sunday), and a Polynesian menu. If you want more information than that, go to the restaurant's website.

• There's a huge sale going on at Premier Wine Club in downtown Miami; the owners are liquidating the entire store's stock. In this process, they've also discovered a few rare and unique wines hidden among the other bottles, and they're inviting people to come have a taste. This Thursday, from 6:30 p.m. until 8 p.m., for $20 you can taste these wines, some of which never make it to the retail market. For a reservation, call 305-416-5187.

Alejandro Gonzalez, whose family owns the two David's Cafes in South Beach, was shot in the torso yesterday afternoon and dumped into Biscayne Bay, left to float with the current underneath the Venetian Causeway. Luckily, some construction workers saw him and managed to get him out of the water. He's now recovering from emergency surgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Gonzalez was at one of the restaurants Monday morning, but in the early afternoon he drove over to Maurice Gibb Park, where he was robbed and then shot. The suspects stole his watch and his Land Rover, but then got away on a boat. (Where'd they put the Land Rover? We're confused.) The family thinks it was just a robbery, but we get the feeling something else was going on too. We also imagine that the CSI Miami writers are already working on an episode based on the story.

Man robbed, shot, left in Biscayne Bay [Miami Herald]
David's Cafe
David's Cafe
David's Cafe [Official Site]

We've just received word that the Rosa Mexicano in the new downtown mall Mary Brickell Village is finally opening this Friday, Aug. 31 at 5 p.m. Those of you in Palm Beach Gardens are likely already familiar with the restaurant chain, which has a location in Downtown at the Gardens. We're told the menu at the Miami restaurant will be the same, featuring upscale Mexican cuisine. Popular favorites are the guacamole en molcajete, which is mashed tableside, and the pomegranate margaritas.

Rosa Mexicano [MenuPages]
Rosa Mexicano [Official Site]
Mary Brickell Village [Official Site]

• Paula gives us the lowdown on Ver-Daddy's Taco Shop. [Mango&Lime]

• Is it the oven or the pizza maker that makes a good pizza? [From the Test Kitchen]

• Tropical Chinese edges out Kon Chau in the dim sum wars. [Chowhound]

• Vix's Miami Spice experience gets a grade of "excellent." [Chowhound]

We've got four brand-spanking new menus for your enjoyment today:

• Boteco, 916 NE 79th St in Miami, 305-757-7735

• Bangkok Palace, 4345 N State Rd 7 in Lauderdale Lakes, 954-733-0069

• Taverna Eros, 8 E Atlantic Ave in Delray Beach, 561-272-8220

• The Lunch Room, 7957 NE 2nd Ave in Miami, 305-722-0759

• Social Miami is deemed a good Miami Spice destination. [All Purpose Dark]

• The Restaurant at the Setai continues to be the big hit of this Miami Spice season. [consumable joy]

• The croquettes with parmesan ice cream (and the rest of the Miami Spice menu) are winners at Ola. [Chowhound]

• More raves, this time for Talula . [Chowhound]

• Talula again, except a bit more lukewarm in the praise. [consumable joy]

A friend of ours went to Dada in Delray Beach last night and told us about a storytelling project going on there called VOX. On the last Sunday of each month at 8:30 p.m., anyone can sign up for a 5-7 minute slot and basically just get up there and tell a story. Which sounds terrifying to us, as we're not big on the whole public speaking thing. But we enjoy a good story. And a good story with good food and drink sounds like a great night to us.

At the end of the night, the first- and second-place storytellers get $50 and $25, respectively. The program is run by Florida Atlantic University and often hosts storytelling slams in other venues as well, but the Dada one seems to be the only regularly occurring one. So head over there next month, do your thing, and see if you can win any cash. Check out the South Florida Storytelling site for tips on how best to tell your story.

South Florida Storytelling Project [Florida Atlantic University]
Dada [MenuPages]
Dada [Official Site]

Controversy in the juice aisle! The St. Petersburg Times reports that the Florida Department of Citrus is cracking down on deceptive labeling of orange juice cartons. At issue are HomeMaker Premium cartons that say "100% Pure Florida Squeezed" at the top; on the bottom, in smaller print, is "Blended with Valencia orange juice. From concentrate."

The department has ordered the juice's maker, TWS Marketing, to remove the logo from HomeMaker Premium cartons. Any cartons with the logo that are still on store shelves must be removed by Oct. 1 or the department will seize them.

"That label is a circus," said Kenneth Keck, executive director of the Florida Department of Citrus. "Between fraud and deception, it's all there, we believe."

We're not sure we'd go to the extent of "fraud" or "deception," since it is still stated on the front of the carton, although it's true that most people wouldn't pay attention to it. The article also mentions that Minute Maid gets its juice from Costa Rica and Brazil and that Tropicana blends Brazilian orange juice with Florida oranges. These are listed in really fine print in the back, just below the nutritional information. (HomeMaker uses only Florida oranges.)

HomeMaker has been given until October to redesign its cartons.

Business: Orange juice labels: pulp fiction? [St. Petersburg Times]
Photo: Flickr

• MP:Chicago marked a year since the foie gras ban took effect, and found that there is still plenty of foie gras to be had in the Windy City.

• MP: Philadelphia shows us a bacon-wrapped doughnut. We're not sure that looks appetizing.

• MP: Boston is craving blackberries. Come to think of it, so are we.

• MP: San Francisco reports on a Jamba Juice in the Bay Area doling out a little extra with that "boost."

This isn't what we had for breakfast, although it looks far preferable to the bagel we ate. And yes, it might be a little odd to have ice cream (or gelato) for breakfast, but really, is there ever a bad time for ice cream? We don't think so.

Photo: miami fever's Flickr

The rumors are flying like they never have before. We suggest getting to Versailles, because if they are true, you'd better believe that's where the party will be. And if they're not true, well, at least you get a cubano and a cafecito out of it.

The University of Miami is leaving the Orange Bowl, but not until next year. In the meantime, they need a little help for this upcoming season:

I need game day supervisors, grill cooks and stock people for the Orange Bowl Stadium in Miami.
Also looking for a clerical girl in the office 30 hours or so.
This is for the university of Miami and Florida International University home football games.
I also need non-profit groups to work the stands.
Come have fun with us at the games this year.

So go hawk hot dogs at the Orange Bowl in its last season. Think of it as an extended goodbye to the once-proud stadium now rendered useless with age.

Concessions Orange Bowl Stadium [Craigs List]

Students will be returning to South Florida campuses next week, so we thought we'd help the freshmen out with a little guide to where to go to escape dining hall food. This is the second in a series of five posts that will cover each local university. This time: FIU

Pizza: Jerry & Joe's is closer to the Tamiami campus and they deliver, but we think Frankie's Pizza is worth the short car trip. Those of you taking classes at the Biscayne campus in North Miami have an Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza not too far away.

Late Night: The recent opening of a 24-hour Sarussi within walking distance of the Tamiami campus must have been a great boon to the late-night studying crowd at the library. Cheap, filling, delicious, and available at any hour of the day or night. What more could you ask for? Not far from the Biscayne campus is Steve's Pizza, open until 3 a.m. most nights and 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

Cheap Eats: Natural Chicken Grill in the shopping center across the street from Publix is good for a good, inexpensive lunch, and of course, there's always Pollo Tropical. But for really cheap eats, go to Blue Sky Food By The Pound, where two can happily eat from their portions for one.

Chinese: The Canton on 97th and Tamiami Trail is serviceable, and they deliver. In North Miami, you've got two Bamboo Gardens, one on 163rd street and 13th avenue and the other on Biscayne and 132nd, within a short drive of the campus.

On Mom & Dad's Dime: If you're in Westchester, we suggest going with steak. Want flashy? Go to Texas De Brazil at Dolphin Mall. Want something more intimate? Try La Porteña, tucked away in a shopping center on Tamiami Trail. And if you're at the north campus, definitely head to Chef Allen's.

• Plenty of curry and kabobs at the Pakistani Independence Day Festival at Bayfront Park, where some local Indian and Pakistani restaurants will be selling platefuls of food. [Miami Herald]

• Two Cooking at the Cellar events on Saturday: at the Aventura Macy's, you can watch Smith & Wollensky's Robert Mignola prepare a dish from the Miami Spice menu, and at the Dadeland Macy's, you'll find Ginger Grove chef Donna Winter. Both events start at 1 p.m.

• From Pakistan to Argentina: on Monday, Novecento's Brickell location is hosting a five-course dinner featuring the wines of Michel Torino and the cuisine of northern Argentina. This should be interesting, as the food from the northern areas like Salta and Tucumán differs a bit from the Porteño food common in local Argentine restaurants. Northwestern Argentina is arid and Andean, so while there's still a lot of beef, dishes include more corn items, like tamales, and the Italian influence so ever-present in Buenos Aires is absent. Dinner starts at 7 p.m. and costs $80 plus tax and tip. Call 786-515-7007 to make a reservation.

• If wine isn't for you, try the four-course tequila pairing dinner at Cafe Sambal. Dinner starts at 7 p.m. and costs $90 plus tax and tip. Call 305-913-8358 for a reservation.

• Deborah passes on a tip from a reader on where to buy good flatbreads in the area. [From the Test Kitchen]

• Food blogger Catherine Jheon enjoyed eating in Miami recently, although she wasn't as happy about the heat. [All Purpose Dark]

• Why online menus are better than paper ones: they cannot be used to swat waitresses in the rear. [Restaurant Gal]

• Tere and Victoria learn that by ordering half portions from the regular menu at Michy's, they could get a meal for just under the Miami Spice price. Also, the food is excellent, but you already knew that. [FoodTastic!]

• Plum visits Evolution's chef de cuisine Pierre Saussy, who makes a phyllo-crusted Florida shrimp in an ocean herbal broth that looks like it would be incredibly difficult to make in a home kitchen. [Plum]

Florida tops the nation in food poisoning outbreaks traced to restaurants, according to the website HealthInspections.com. Not surprisingly, the top five states — Florida, California, Ohio, Michigan and New York — also happen to be the most populous, as this wasn't done on a per-capita basis. We doubt this information will make anyone think twice about where to eat out, as the article suggests, but the numbers are interesting:

Florida restaurants were responsible for making more than 300 people sick in 77 separate outbreaks of "food poisoning" – which is the term most people use for getting sick from food.

Seafood and ethnic foods were the leading culprits for making Florida restaurant customers sick.

The Florida outbreaks also raise questions about the cleanliness of those popular all-you-can-eat buffets. They were the third leading cause of food poisoning in the Sunshine state. And half of the outbreaks traced to buffets were cause by "ethnic buffets" according to the CDC.

This makes sense. We've got a lot of ocean down here, so seafood's a favorite, and if cooked improperly (or served rare improperly), there can be problems. As for "ethnic" foods, we're not sure what to say about that, except that the term casts a very large net. Perhaps we should be dining only at Applebee's?

We wonder if Florida's high percentage of retirees plays a role in this business, as the elderly are more susceptible to disease from improperly prepared food. Mostly though, we think this is just a function of having so many people here; 300 people out of the millions of residents, tourists and snowbirds isn't bad.

EXCLUSIVE: The Most Dangerous States For Eating Out. Florida Tops The List [Health Inspections]

• Gail Shepherd thinks Taverna Kyma in Boca is the only one of the new Greek restaurants that will be able to challenge Taverna Opa, at least in the food department. Taverna Eros and Avra Taverna, on the other hand...well, just don't go for the food. [New Times]

• Three new places in Broward for pizza, burgers, and wings. First there's New River Pizza Cafe (1970 Sawgrass Mills Circle in Sunrise), the third branch — and the first sit-down one — of the original New River Pizza in Fort Lauderdale. Five Guys (1818 Cordova Rd in Fort Lauderdale, with six more locations planned in South Florida) serves up tasty burgers and fries. And Hurricane Grill & Wings, visited by the Beer Guy last week, just opened a new branch in Plantation. [Miami Herald]

• Charles Passy pays a visit to Brewzzi, an "Italian-American bistro and microbrewery." They serve burgers, typical Italian-American dishes, and a "mile-high meatloaf." Portions are huge, and while the food is generally good, the kitchen can occasionally send out a dud. [Palm Beach Post]

• The Beer Guy visits The Monkey King in Stuart, a microbrewery over in Martin County. But good news for Palm Beachers; they're looking to expand, possibly with a location in Wellington. [Palm Beach Post]

• We had a bit of deja vu when we saw Prime Blue Grille in the Herald this week. Then we remembered that Lee Klein had reviewed it in last week's New Times. A few descriptive phrases Victoria Pesce Elliott uses: "cooked exactly as ordered," "flawlessly executed," "superb," and "immensely flavorful." We think she liked it. [Miami Herald]

• Lee Klein is pretty harsh on Wish, often considered one of Miami Beach's best restaurants. He writes, "...one doesn't expect crackly ice cream, overcooked pork, undercooked pheasant, green-mango-less mango salad, warm water, and uninformed waiters." Ouch. [New Times]

• Linda Bladholm tells us of what we consider her most interesting find yet: B & M Market, a small, mostly takeout place that turns out West Indian specialties like curry goat, ackee and saltfish, and roti. Everything sounds delicious, but really, just the mention of jerk chicken and rum cake is enough to set our mouths watering. [Miami Herald]

• Doraku: better than your average sushi bar. Best time to come is Friday 5-8 p.m., when for $9 diners get two drinks plus unlimited trips to a buffet that features some basic sushi rolls, chicken wings, sake-steamed mussels and fruit salad. Any other day or time, those $9 will only get you one drink. [New Times]

If you've been looking for a way to help those hurt by Hurricane Dean, talk to Warren Leamard. He's the owner of Jamaican Me Hungry in Key West, and he's collecting supplies to send back to his countrymen:

Leamard, owner of Jamaican Me Hungry in Key West, is collecting food, clothes, tools, toiletries and anything else the hurricane victims may need. He plans to ship the items no later than Monday.

"We're in a hurricane zone in Key West, so we know what the people need," he said.

The eatery, at 300 Front St. in Key West, is accepting donations from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. through Sunday. Among the requested items are: candles, clothes, diapers, personal hygiene products, nonperishable food, flashlights, batteries, shovels, chain saws and hand tools.

Restaurateur collects donations for hurricane victims [Key West Citizen]
Jamaican Me Hungry [MenuPages]
Jamaican Me Hungry [Official Site]

Last night, we learned that Casey is something akin to the Angel of Death. As soon as she mentions getting close to someone (first Lia, now Tre), you know that person is going home. Yes, we lost Tre, and it is very sad, because we thought he had the skill to be a top-three contender.

But anyway, let's start at the top, shall we? The Quickfire challenge was awesome. The two teams (remember, same teams from last week's restaurant challenge) had to perform a "culinary relay race:" one member had to shuck oysters, another had to then finely dice some onions, a third had to break down chickens, and a fourth had to hand-beat egg whites until perfectly stiff. Of course, Brian, the seafood master, set the Restaurant April team up with a nice little lead after expertly shucking 15 oysters. But it was all downhill for April after that. Casey took over to dice onions and was painfully slow. We felt like reaching into the TV, grabbing the knife and doing it ourselves. Sara, on the other hand, was a speed demon with the knife, and she left Casey in the dust, despite the fact that she started at a disadvantage. Then we came to Hung and his chickens. Now, normally, we get scared when Hung wields a knife, but his cutting of those chickens was a sight to behold. It was masterful, and he was done just as Casey was finally finishing her onions.

So, in case you haven't figured it out yet, the team in charge of Quatre (the restaurant formerly known as Garage) won, as there was no way Team April could possibly come back after Casey had dug them such a massive hole. For the win, they got a little extra money for booze and the help of Stephen Asprinio (who's set to open a South Florida restaurant in the fall). This time around, both restaurants had the help of a designer and had to serve two options for each course.

Restaurant April didn't change too much from its original menu; they just made sure to fix the mistakes on each dish (i.e., not over-smoke the potatoes) and add second options for each course. Quatre, on the other hand, completely revamped its menu, keeping only Hung's successful tuna tartare. That approach worked, as they nailed each and every dish and emerged as victors. Sara took home top prize, and she deserved it. She took her executive chef role to heart and laid down the law in that kitchen, and it worked. It was nice to see a woman succeed in that kind of leadership role on this show; we can't remember the last time that happened.

So, once again, we had to see CJ in the boardroom, although we think that this time he might've really deserved to go home, as much as it pains us to say that. In both episodes, he was in charge of just one dish, and this week's lobster salad was deemed too salty. Either he's abdicating responsibility on purpose so that others can crash and burn instead of him (we don't think that's likely), or he's just overwhelmed by the whole pace of the restaurant business, with which he's unfamiliar as a personal chef. At any rate, it was Tre who was sent home, mostly for being responsible for a terrible salmon dish and a bad bread pudding.

Photo: Bravo

We leave you this evening with dinner at Johnny V. That is sage-grilled Florida dolphin (also known as mahi-mahi) with rock shrimp plantain stuffing (yum!), lobster pan gravy, cranberry-mango chutney and baby green beans and carrots.

Johnny V [MenuPages]
Johnny V [Official Site]
Photo: Flickr

Students will be returning to South Florida campuses next week, so we thought we'd help the freshmen out with a little guide to where to go to escape dining hall food. This is the first in a series of five posts that will cover each local university. This week: the University of Miami

Pizza: You will, at some point, eat at The Big Cheese with your friends. The restaurant is actually an official sponsor of Hurricane athletics, and every inch of the walls is covered with UM memorabilia. It's about a five-minute drive down US1 from campus, and we think it serves the best pizza in the area. And yes, they deliver.

Late Night: Not too many options here. The closest late-night joint is a 24-hour McDonald's across the street from campus, which will do in a pinch. You can get wings until 12:30 at Wing Zone, but your best bet after that is Miami's Best Pizza, which is open until 1 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday, 2 a.m. on Thursday nights, and until 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Cheap Eats: More pizza. We're told that Gables Riviera Pizza (1558 S Dixie Hwy, the menu is forthcoming) is cheap. At the nearby Don Pan, an arepa and a fruit shake are pretty filling and cheap. And just a short drive or train ride (one stop on the Metrorail) away is Orale, a taco truck that serves the most authentic Oaxacan tacos around.

Chinese: Try Chef Tian Express, close to Merrick Park. They serve the standard Americanized Chinese fare sure to cure any cravings or provide cheap sustenance during a late-night study session. They'll deliver to the UM campus, but the minimum is $10.

On Mom & Dad's Dime: We did it in college too, made a list of restaurants we couldn't afford and hinted at said restaurants when the 'rents came to town. While Coral Gables may not offer so much in terms of cheap eats, it's got fine dining down pat. You might be able to afford Havana Harry's Restaurant on your own (especially if you split their huge entrees with a friend), but it's a good close option if your out-of-town parents want to sample Cuban food in a setting that's a little nicer than the average cafeteria. You definitely won't be able to afford Francesco Restaurant on your own; lure your parents with the promise of some of the best ceviche in town. And finally, if your parents are really willing to splurge, get thee to Cacao.

Photo: Hurricane Sports

• A 550-pound Central Florida man is arrested for trying to cheat his way out of tabs using the old "there's a hair in my food" or "these 30 bags of beef jerky are moldy" trick one too many times. [Orlando Sentinel]

• UF students are enthusiastic about the prospect of caffeinated doughnuts. [Gainesville Sun]

• Shrimping off the dock on the St. Johns River in Palatka sure sounds like a lot of fun. [Palatka Daily News]

• A useful quick guide to Latin cheeses. [Tampa Tribune]

This thread at Chowhound (yes, we spend a lot of time over there) got us thinking about the Elena Ruz sandwich, which we've seen on menus all over South Florida but never really thought much about, maybe because we're not such huge fans of the sandwich. For those who don't know, the Elena Ruz is made with turkey, cream cheese and strawberry preserves on toasted medianoche bread. What caught our eye was foodiesleuth's post about Elena Ruz, claiming that she was a young Cuban socialite and that she is alive and well in Miami now. So we started doing a little research ourselves...

The story begins with little Elena Ruz Valdes-Fauli in the late 1920s/early 1930s. (Let's pause for a moment and reflect on those surnames. She shares a name with Fidel Castro, whose mother's maiden named was Ruz. Elena Ruz, however, has denied any relation to Castro. And the Valdes-Faulis were a family of prominent lawyers in Cuba, and they're involved somehow in pretty much every business in Miami. So we're not kidding when we say socialite.)

Elena and her friends used to eat often at El Carmelo, a restaurant in the Vedado district of Havana. She always ordered the same thing: turkey with evenly spread cream cheese (no chunks!) and strawberry preserves on very lightly toasted medianoche bread. Eventually, she asked the waiter to put it on the menu, so that she wouldn't have to explain it each time she ordered it. A few days later, a neon sign outside the restaurant advertised the "Elena Ruz" for 25 cents. Ruz told the Herald in 1996:

I loved it, but my mother was horrified. She thought it was disgraceful to have my name in lights as if I were advertising myself.

After that, the sandwich became increasingly popular, and it traveled across the Florida Straits with the exiles after Castro's takeover. Today, it's on almost every Cuban restaurant menu in Miami. We're not sure that Elena Ruz is still around; a Miami Herald article from 1996 quotes her age as 87, so it's unlikely, although we couldn't find any mention of an obituary in either the English or Spanish versions of the newspaper. (You'd think they'd write an obit for someone like her, right?)

At any rate, we can only hope to leave such a cool legacy.

UPDATE: Almost two years after we wrote this, Elena Ruz's daughter herself sent us an e-mail to let us know that her mom is still alive and well at 100 years old and is living in Costa Rica with her daughter. Which explains why we couldn't find any obituary.

Cuban sandwich? Elena Ruz? [Chowhound]
La Sorpresa de Elena Ruz [El Nuevo Herald, 6/24/1993]
A politically correct sandwich: The Elena Ruz has no Castro link [Miami Herald, 8/15/1996]

We've been big fans of The Great Big Vegetable Challenge for a while now. It's a blog devoted to one mom's struggle to get her son Freddie to eat his veggies. She came up with the brilliant idea of working through the "vegetable alphabet" by introducing one new veggie at a time, prepared a few different ways, in alphabetical order. And the amazing thing is it's working! Freddie now feels obligated to at least try the vegetables, out of a sense of duty to his many online readers, and once he's tried them, he finds that most are pretty tasty.

There were no new veggie recipes posted today; the family has found a new, rainy-day activity with vegetables: making vegetable faces. (We imagine this would work very well as a way to pass the time once the electricity goes out during a hurricane.) This photo made us laugh out loud. We're tempted to run home and make one of our own!

Photo: The Great Big Vegetable Challenge

• Calling all chocoholics! There's a chocolate tasting party at the Romero Britto Gallery (818 Lincoln Rd in Miami Beach). Tickets are $30 at the door, and the money goes to charity. On Thursday, August 23 from 7 pm to 10 pm.

• After the chocolate tasting, head over to Casa Toscana in Miami Shores, where they'll be tasting Tuscan wines on Thursday evening. $10 per person, call 305-757-4454 to RSVP.

Pete's, the 20-year-old restaurant in West Boca, has closed to make room for an upscale seafood market/restaurant. Owner Pete Boinis looks to be headed toward a restful fish-filled retirement.

"I've been here 20 years, it's been a good enjoyable run," said Boinis, who has owned restaurants from Fort Lauderdale to Ocean City, Md., but now plans to spend some time relaxing, including deep-sea fishing. "I feel we've established a landmark. We've been part of the Boca Raton landscape. The governor has been here, President Bush was in here, several football players, [retired Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan] Marino. All sorts of people, Pete Rose."

Pete's closes in West Boca, to be replaced by fish restaurant [Sun-Sentinel]
Pete's [MenuPages]
Pete's [Official Site]

A few days ago, our Boston counterpart surveyed the staff about Chinatowns in other cities for a blog post about Boston's rapidly changing Chinatown. We replied that while Chinese restaurants abound in South Florida, there aren't any densely Chinese areas.

Today, we learned that we were wrong on that count, thanks to an article in the Herald. North Miami Beach has become an "Asian town" of sorts, with Chinese, Filipino, Thai and, as one commenter pointed out, South Asian businesses, all centered around 167th Street just east of I-95.

What intrigued us most was the reason behind the choice of location:

Why North Miami Beach? Demographers may cite factors such as cost-of-living and a central location, but Tang also credits the Chinese practice of feng shui, which translates to ''wind and water'' and deals with creating or attracting positive energy through the arrangement of objects and surroundings.

More simply put, the corridor's location is well-placed for success.

Shirley's father Robert Liu says that's why he opened Miami China City on 167th Street 15 years ago. He compares the stretch from Interstate 95 to the ocean to a dragon, with I-95 being the head and the ocean being the tail. He says the dragon head is strong, allowing people easy access to the store, while the tail represents the water, which symbolizes money.

''More water means more money,'' he said.

We looked closely at a map, and there is a semblance of a dragon, if you use NE 185th Street as the top of the dragon's head and North Miami Beach's city limits as the bottom. Or you could use 167th Street as the spine of the dragon, as it curves down into 163rd Street and ends with the dragon's tail at Oleta River State Park. Either way, the dragon's mouth is aimed directly at, appropriately enough, the Golden Glades Interchange. (If only the fire were real...)

Some Asian restaurants to try in this part of North Miami Beach: Bamboo Gardens , Tatay's (Filipino), Kyung Ju (Korean and Chinese, 400 NE 167th Ave) and Kebab Indian.

North Miami Beach corridor is a link to Asia [Miami Herald]
The Changing Face of Chinatown [MP: Boston]
Bamboo Gardens [MenuPages]
Tatay's [MenuPages]
Kebab Indian [MenuPages]

• Plum heads to DeVito's for the next installment of "Compliments of the Chef." There, chef Francis Casciato makes panna cotta look really easy. We're not sure we believe him. [Plum]

• According to management, the Cielo Garden & Supper Club is "not a restaurant," but " a place where you go to have fun, with loud music." Good to know. [Chowhound]

• The Thai pickings are slim in South Florida, but Chowhounds do their best to find quality curries. [Chowhound]

The owner of 14 Florida TGI Friday's franchises declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy for each of the restaurants, including four in Palm Beach, according to the Palm Beach Post:

At issue is $1.2 million in unpaid franchise fees and royalties owed to Carlson Restaurants Worldwide Inc., the Texas-based corporate parent of T.G.I. Friday's.

The filings, one for each restaurant, came just 24 hours before T.G.I. Friday's said it would sever its franchise agreement unless it was paid. Had that happened, writes Cosentino through his attorney, he would have had to shutter the restaurants and lay off 891 Florida workers.

According to the article, things started going downhill for the Florida restaurants after the busy 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. Add to that the public's decreased appetite for casual dining chains, and you've got yourself one big debt-filled mess.

Creditor shield sought for 18 TGI Friday's [Palm Beach Post]
TGI Friday's [Official Site]

A Chowhound thread alerted us to the fact that the South Beach Food & Wine Festival's prices for 2008 are increasing from $150 to $200. We perused the site, but couldn't quite figure out if there will be a corresponding increase in food or activities. We're guessing that's not the case. Chowhound sprmario had this to say about the event:

The grand tasting opens up at 11am in a small area that includes some small tents (probably 15 or so) along w/ 3 large stage tents. The stage tents have live events from various celebrity chefs... Martha Stewart, Paula Dean, Rachel Ray, Tyler Florence, Emiril, etc. along w/ some of the better known local chefs like Norman Van Aiken and Cindy Hudson. There is a reasonable amount of food, drinks and wine at this outer "staging" area.

Then at 1pm they open up the extremely large tents which are full of food, spirits and wine... I expected more food offerings than there actually were. This led to some fairly long lines at places that offered food, in particular, hot food (there was a lot of gazpacho and ceviche). There is almost zero wait for any alchoholic beverages.

The big tents closed at 5pm and then the outer staging area closed at 6pm.

We were there from 11am thru to 6pm to take full advantage of everything. It was definately worth it to my fiance and I last year at $150 per ticket. $200 per is a big increase but i think we'll go back again this year.

Long lines for food and zero wait for alcoholic beverages? That sounds like a recipe for drunken disaster.

2007 Sobe Wine and Food Fest [Chowhound]
South Beach Wine and Food Festival [Official Site]

If you worry about how all of those hours laying at the beach are going to affect your skin in later years, then you might be interested to know that a nutritionist in Italy has come up with an anti-wrinkle pizza:

The "primula" pizza is made up of three times the amount of fibre found in a classic pizza and boasts that it contains more magnesium and iron, thanks to its ingredients, including wholemeal flour, La Stampa newspaper reported Monday.

At least eight vegetables or sauces in the pizza allegedly create the anti-oxidant effects against ageing: tomatoes, rocket, garlic, courgettes, basil, mushrooms, carrots and spinach.

(For those who aren't well-versed in British vegetable terms, rocket = arugula and courgettes = zucchini.) So far, the True Neapolitan Pizza Association hates it, the pope loves it, and it's only available at one restaurant in Italy. But we imagine you could recreate the pizza at home. And then in order to get any real effects from it, you'd have to eat it every day, as we doubt this will work in a once-a-week dose.

To the creator of the pizza, we suggest you franchise an anti-wrinkle pizza chain in South Florida. The demand is huge, and we have none of those pesky pizza purists over here.

New 'anti-wrinkle' pizza causes a stir with pie purists in Italy [Yahoo! News]

In the past, Florida Trend has solicited votes for its Golden Spoon awards through its dead-tree magazine form, but this year, they're asking for votes from the unwashed masses on the Internet. And if you vote, you just might win dinner for two at one of the award-winning restaurants. You've got until August 31.

Last year's winners in South Florida included Johnny V, The River House , Sunfish Grill and Cafe Boulud.

Vote for Golden Spoon Awards [Florida Trend]

• MP: Boston shows us exactly why microwaving an egg (shell on) is a bad, bad idea.

• MP: San Francisco bemoans the slim sweet tea pickings in the City by the Bay. Notice the map he used; the tea line extends south to somewhere around Ocala.

• MP: Chicago finds an article about people in Britain who are stuck in dining ruts, eating at the same restaurant for years. From an 84-year-old couple: "It's just nonsense about McDonald's not being healthy."

• MP: Philadelphia delves into Elvis' diet on the 30th anniversary of the singer's death. He apparently lived on meatloaf and barbecue. If we lived in Memphis, we would too.

The lobster eggs benedict from Blue Heaven, our favorite place to get breakfast in Key West.

Photo: Flickr

• Get to the Whole Foods in Palm Beach Gardens for a "Brews 'n' Blues" event tonight from 5 to 8 p.m. A donation of $20, to benefit the Lighthouse Center for the Arts in Tequesta, will get you a mini beer mug and food and drink.

• Chef Allen Susser's Summer of Spice cooking class, held every Tuesday in August and September, is focusing on Mediterranean spice this Tuesday. The menu will include pan spiced mahi-mahi with clams and cava and green lentils with chorizo and almonds. Class starts at 6 p.m. at Chef Allen's and costs $10.

• What would a Saturday be without Cooking at the Cellar events at Macy's? In Aventura, we have Jose Luis Flores, the pastry chef at Ola, and in Dadeland, Chef Alton Forbes of GNU Restaurant & Lounge will be cooking a dish from his Miami Spice menu. Both events start at 1 p.m. and are free.

• The Miami Spice verdict on Social Miami is good. Good food and lots of options; they even allow diners to choose three savory dishes and skip dessert. [All Purpose Dark]

• The Hungry Man complains about pointless food press releases and photographs his well-stocked home bar. So, when can we come over for a drink? [Hungry Man]

• A cheese house speakeasy. Yes, we like the idea of that. [Chowhound]

We're sure by now you're all familiar with Lazaro Galindo, whose name has been in the papers all week because of his trial. Galindo was accused of murdering a romantic rival, dismembering his body, cutting off his fingers, and dumping him in two garbage cans in 2000. (Interesting note: none of the recent Miami Herald articles mention that Galindo also allegedly ate some of the man's organs. Perhaps it's too much for the print media, but OK for TV?)

Galindo's trial, at which he represented himself, was this past week, and the Miami Herald has run almost an article a day about it, all with the same photo of Galindo. On Monday, we learned that the avowed Satanist had found God. On Tuesday, despite his newfound faith, Galindo seemed keenly interested in learning of potential jurors' feelings about the Prince of Darkness. On Thursday, we learned that Galindo's defense relied upon claiming that a demon named Candelo had possessed his body and promised him special powers if he committed the murder. We were not surprised to learn that it took a jury only two hours to convict Galindo of murder.

Now that you're all up to speed, we'll get to today's news, and the reason we can get away with writing about this story in a food blog. Today PETA sent a letter to Galindo urging him to give up eating all forms of flesh, both human and animal, accompanied by a "Vegetarian Starter Kit":

On behalf of PETA, I am writing to ask that you consider doing something positive and healthy: reject all killing by becoming a vegetarian. Since it is alleged that you have an affinity for flesh, it might help you to know that there is now a terrific selection of vegetarian foods that have the same taste and texture as meat but without the cruelty or cholesterol. Some of our favorites include Boca Chik'n Nuggets, Gardenburger Riblets, and Yves Jumbo Dogs. Your prison may be able to order these products for you if you request a vegetarian meal on ethical grounds.

Um, right. We're sure that's going to go over with the prison guard about as well as the "Candelo-made-me-do-it" defense did with the jury.

PETA Urges Incarcerated Florida 'Cannibal' to Give Up All Flesh and Go Vegetarian [PETA]
Man On Trial For Cannibalism Tells Judge He's Found God [Local 10]
Satanist turns to God as murder trial starts [Miami Herald]
Miami murder has satanic twist [Miami Herald]
Jury rejects demon-made-me-do-it defense [Miami Herald]

If you weren't deterred by what Gail Shepherd had to say about the life of a food critic, well then here's your chance at fame, free food and a bigger waistline. Plum is having a contest to find a reader reviewer, who will be given money to feast at Miami Beach restaurants and write about them. Here are the details:

Send us a brief write-up (300 words or less) of your favorite Beach restaurant by next Thursday (Aug 23). We’ll pick a winner Friday morning, run the winning review that day, and pass along two Miami Spice dining certificates (free steak!) by Monday. Send us your review of that meal and we’ll run it as well.

If you win, at the very least, you could take us to dinner, right?

Everyone's a Critic [Plum]

• The Beer Guy is back! He heads to Hurricane Grill & Wings in Royal Palm Beach, where he meets his match in a set of very hot wings. We liked the guy who said "Perfect, not too crispy, not too rare." Given that it's chicken, we'd hope it wasn't rare! [Palm Beach Post]

• Pastrami, rugelach, babka — all are good bets at 3 G's Gourmet Deli in Delray Beach. [Sun-Sentinel]

• For those of you who want to be food critics, Gail Shepherd has this to say:

I have news: If you had my job, you'd be 15 pounds fatter and your cholesterol would be off the charts. This gig is like living a version of Super Size Me that doesn't end after 30 days; you don't go back to your "real" life and your sensible diet; you just keep gorging. Even the sunniest and most vigorous among you would find, after a year or two of professional gluttony, that you'd developed the dour temperament of Eugene O'Neill embedded in the ample bosom of Mama Cass.
You see, your girth expands in inverse proportion to your happiness — because you've gotten very, very picky. Somebody hands you a deliciously caramelized New York strip with a melting, rose-colored center, and afterward no gray and flaccid slab will ever again hold your attention. It's like porn; you have to keep upping the ante.

• Three stars for Seasons 52, where each item on the menu is less than 475 calories. The nutritional information is listed on the restaurant's website. [Miami Herald]

• Judith Stocks' description of Bragozzo Osteria Wine Bar in Pompano Beach makes us want to eat there. Right now. [Sun-Sentinel]

• The lead article in The Herald's food section is about a club of South Florida chefs who meet once a month at each other's restaurants to share food, wine, and gripes about the industry. (Servers who don't care, customers who steal silverware and get frisky at the table, etc.) Some hard-core foodie likely read that article as a challenge: how to get an invitation to one of these meals. Apparently, the chefs take dates and spouses. If we were to suggest such a thing, we'd tell someone to investigate which of the chefs on the list are single. But, of course, that'd be wrong/creepy, so we would never actually suggest it. [Miami Herald]

• Christabelle's Quarter is totally and completely panned by Victoria Pesce Elliott. She still gives it two stars, perhaps because the pecan pie was so incredibly good. Not much else to recommend the place though. And the comments with the article are great; in just three months, Alex Patout seems to have developed quite a following. Which isn't that surprising, really. Make a place pretty enough, put it in the right spot, provide music and drinks, and pretty soon you'll be packed with "a crowd that overflowed like so many of the women from their too-tight blouses." [Miami Herald]

• Linda Bladholm pays a visit to La Baguette, a bakery/cafe in its third location with bread, pastries and sandwiches. Oh, and dessert. Bladholm ends with: "Bread and chocolate: It doesn't get much better than that." We wholeheartedly agree. [Miami Herald]

• Lee Klein feasts on beef at Prime Blue Grille. Stick to the simply prepared beef and fish dishes; avoid dessert. [New Times]

• Bill Citara tells us that Rock Fish Grill is decent enough, if you happen to be in Kendall. [New Times]

Boy were we wrong. In last night's episode, we actually saw Howie working reasonably well with his teammates. And there was no sign of Michael Schwartz, although we didn't complain much about Daniel Boulud.

So, to recap: CJ won the Quickfire Challenge (yay!), but there's no more immunity from now on (boo!), although he did get a pretty big prize: he got to choose his teammates for restaurant wars. He went with Tre, obviously, Brian and Casey, so Dale, Howie, Sara and Hung got to work together. Both teams worked surprisingly well together, although they all goofed up pretty badly. There was Dale, whose black tablecloths and vanilla-scented candles went over pretty terribly with the judges. And Brian, who decided to take charge of the front of the house, went a little crazy (not surprising). Tre left his potatoes in the smoker just a few minutes too long, and Howie overcooked his risotto. The only dish that went over very well was Hung's refined, simple take on nicoise salad.

The judges had such a hard time deciding on a winner and a loser that they basically granted all of the cheftestants a "do-over." That's right; no one went home. The expressions on the faces of Dale and Brian in the photo? That's relief. The teams are trying to win the judges over again with the same task next week, when someone will go home. In past seasons, the judges have granted clemency one week and followed up with a double-knifing. Could this be what's in store for next week? We're not sure, but we're anxiously anticipating it.

Tuna Tartar with Nicoise Olives [BravoTV]
Photo: BravoTV

Markets all over the country are currently bursting with produce like peaches, string beans, blackberries and zucchini. But few vegetables can survive August in South Florida, according to this chart from the Florida Department of Agriculture, brought to our attention by Deborah at From the Test Kitchen. Yes, while the rest of the country is gorging on fresh, local produce, we have almost nothing. But it's all right; we'll remember this in February, when we'll be munching away at ripe strawberries while everyone else is shoveling snow. The things you can get locally now are mostly fruit: mangoes, avocados (which are just coming into their prime now) and carambola.

Florida Produce Seasonal Availability Chart [FL Dept of Agriculture]
It's so hot outside -- no wonder nothing grows [From the Test Kitchen]

• Florida has wineries. Did you know that? We sure didn't. The Sunshine State has 800 acres of vineyards. So we're not going to challenge California anytime soon, but given the rain, bugs, humidity, and hurricanes, that's not too shabby. The grapes are ripening just about now. [St Petersburg Times]

• Kosher vending machines, now available at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. Expect them at PBI in another year or so. [New York Times]

• Leaked FTC documents detail Whole Foods' plot to take over the world. Well, maybe not the world, but definitely the high-priced organic food market. In these documents is the name used internally to describe the purchase of Wild Oats: "Project Goldmine." [New York Times]

We go giddy at the thought of a food festival. So too, apparently, do the people at the James Beard Foundation, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary with festivals in 20 American cities, all on September 28-29. Miami happens to be one of these cities. Here's a rundown of the events planned for the weekend:

• A gala at Azul at the Mandarin Oriental with food from James Beard Award-winning chefs Norman Van Aken and Mark Militello, among others. Tickets for the event, which is limited to 100 people, are $240 per person.

• A cooking demonstration by Azul's chef Clay Conley at the Williams-Sonoma in Merrick Park

• A cookbook signing by Norman Van Aken

• A festival marketplace, where visitors can talk to local farmers and artisans

James Beard Foundation [Official Site]
James Beard Foundation's Taste America [Official Site]
Azul [MenuPages]
Azul [Official Site]

Sara over at All Purpose Dark, a local dining blog about which we have just learned, tells us that Michael Schwartz of the popular Michael's Genuine Food & Drink will be the guest judge on tonight's episode of Top Chef. To say we are excited would be, well, an understatement.

She's also got the first three minutes of tonight's episode posted; unfortunately, it's mostly credits and scenes from last week (Bravo gives up very little), but we do get about a minute's glimpse into what's going to happen tonight. The overarching theme seems to be "everyone hates Howie," which leads us to believe that either a) he's getting the loser's edit and is going to screw up big time in the Elimination Challenge or b) there'll be a big redemption arc when he wows everyone with a spectacular dish. We're hoping for the former, and given that we know tonight is a group challenge (restaurant wars!), we'd put money on Option A. Howie, we know we should be rooting for you, the Miami boy, but really, we cannot wait for you to depart from our television screen.

Top Chef 3 Miami Clippity Clip [All Purpose Dark]
Michael's Genuine Food & Drink [MenuPages]
Michael's Genuine Food & Drink [Official Site]

It's been in the works for a little while, but we can finally announce it to everyone: MenuPages and Citysearch have teamed up. Citysearch now links to thousands of MenuPages menus in the South Florida, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco markets.

The full press release is after the jump.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Aug. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Citysearch, a leading local guide and operating business of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI), today announced that users can access tens of thousands of restaurant menus on
Citysearch.com through its relationship with MenuPages.com, the pioneer in menu search and discovery. Through the relationship, Citysearch users benefit from having the opportunity to easily review current menus online before selecting a restaurant.

"People come to Citysearch daily to find restaurant recommendations," said Jay Herratti, President, Citysearch. "The combination of menus, video, editorial and user reviews, and ability to place reservations makes Citysearch one of the most useful sites for discovering new restaurants."

"Partnering with Citysearch, the pioneer in the online restaurant guide business, was natural for us," said Greg Barton, CEO and Founder of MenuPages.com. "The combination of Citysearch coverage and services with MenuPages' comprehensive menu database will provide the best local restaurant discovery and selection experience for users."

This relationship is also a benefit to Citysearch restaurant advertisers because up-to-date menus help users choose restaurants, driving qualified traffic to Citysearch's advertisers.

To find menus, simply visit restaurants on (http://www.citysearch.com) and click on the menu icon. You can view restaurant recommendations, reviews and more in your city by visiting Citysearch's premier city guide list: (http://national.citysearch.com/site_guide/topcities).

About MenuPages
MenuPages is the original and most comprehensive provider of up-to-date menu content on the web. In New York City alone, nearly a million discriminating diners each month search its fresh menus and 80,000 user reviews by neighborhood, cuisine, price, feature and dish, to select the perfect restaurant. MenuPages currently serves eight metropolitan markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington D.C. and South Florida providing fresh menus for over 24,000 restaurants. MenuPages.com is an operating unit of Slick City Media.

About Citysearch
Citysearch is a leading local search and directory company that provides the most up-to-date information on businesses, from restaurants and retail, to travel and professional services. Citysearch empowers consumers to make informed decisions about where to spend their time and money by delivering trusted content, local expertise and helpful tools, including 14.5 million local businesses listings, over 600,000 user reviews and ratings nationwide. Citysearch is an operating business of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI). For more information, visit: http://www.citysearch.com

Just a few new menus added to the site yesterday:

• Six Tables, 112 NE 2nd St in Boca Raton, 561-347-6260

• Myung Ga Tofu & BBQ, 1944 Weston Rd in Weston, 954-349-7337

• El Gran Inka, 606 Crandon Blvd in Key Biscayne, 305-365-7883

• Ouzo's Greek Taverna & Bar, 940 71st St in Miami Beach, 305-864-9848

• A La Folie Cafe, 516 Espanola Way in Miami Beach, 305-538-4484

• Tonight at La Cofradia: the Peruvian/Mediterranean fare will be paired with Antorini wines from Tuscany. Five courses, $95 per person, not including tax and tip. Dinner starts at 7, so don't be late! [La Cofradia]

• If you're free August 15, 22 or 29, you might want to check out the Bordeaux classes at Vino Miami. For $50, you get to taste six wines and sample French cheeses. The first class (tomorrow) starts at 7:30 p.m. [VINO Miami]

• The Falcon House, a tapas restaurant in Delray Beach, is celebrating its sixth anniversary with party on Friday. There will be passed appetizers 4-6 p.m. and happy hour 4-7 p.m., but that's all we know, and the restaurant's website doesn't offer any details.

Sometimes, we'll look at dishes and think, what on earth was the chef thinking? We had another similar moment today when we glanced at Chef Dean James Max's newsletter (he of Fort Lauderdale's 3030 Ocean) in our e-mail inbox. It wasn't the "savory cupcakes" or the "avocado" that caught our eyes. No, it was the "lobster icing." Yes, you read correctly. Lobster icing.

There's the cake part, with the usual ingredients — flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla, heavy cream — but instead of oil, you add avocado puree. We like the idea of treating the avocado as the fruit it actually is and using it in sweet dishes. But then there's lobster and creme fraiche and chives, and we're not quite sure what to make of this. The recipe, for those who are curious, is after the jump.

Avocado Cupcake with Savory Icing
Chef Dean James Max
Yield: 6 people

Avocado Cupcake:
1 1/2 cups cake flour (sifted)
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup avocado puree
2 whole eggs (beaten well)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. lemon extract
Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whip the cream to a stiff peak and fold in the eggs, avocado, and flavorings.
Sift the dry ingredients right over the egg mixture in 3 stages to incorporate. Pour batter into cup cake molds and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes for small size or until a tooth pick comes out of the center dry.

Lobster Icing:
1/2 cup chopped cooked lobster
1 Tbs. crème fraiche
1 Tbs. lime Aioli
1 red pepper (roasted, skin remove, and diced)
1 Tbs. chopped chives
Mix the ingredients together and smooth over the top of the cooled cup cake.

Lime Aioli:
1 eggs
2 limes
1 tsp. Mustard
2 sprigs cilantro
½ cup grapeseed oil
Add all the ingredients to the blender and on a slow speed drizzle in the oil until thick. Season with salt and pepper

Cooking Lobster
This stock is simply a flavorful broth in which to cook lobsters, shrimp, and other seafood items. We tend to make the flavor much to intense to drink as a soup since it will need to leave its impact on the item cooking.
2 cups onions (chopped)
1 cup leeks (chopped)
1 cup carrot (chopped)
1 cup celery (chopped)
1 cup fennel (chopped)
1 garlic bulb (halved)
6 sprigs of fresh thyme, tarragon, and parsley
2 Tbs. Black peppercorns
2 star anise (substitute fennel seed)
4 Tbs. Sea salt
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
1 cup dry white wine
1 ½ gallons water
2 Lobsters

Bring the above ingredients to a boil in a large stockpot. Reduce the Bouillon by 1/3 and strain into a large container. Reserve until needed. Bring the court bouillon to a boil. Place the lobsters in the broth and simmer them for 4 minutes. Take the broth off the heat and let the lobsters cool in the liquid. Remove the lobsters from the broth and clean the meat from the claws and tail.

Crème Fraiche Icing:
1/2 cup crème fraiche (sub sour cream)
1 shallot (minced)
1 lemon (juiced)
1 tsp. horseradish
Salt and pepper
Combine all the ingredients and smooth over the top of one of the cup cakes.

Avocado Icing:
1 avocado
1 lime
1 garlic clove
1 Tbs. cilantro (chopped)
1 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
Blend all the ingredients in a blender until smooth and season with salt. Smooth over the top of the cup cakes.

Try Some Savory Cup Cakes for your End of Summer Parties [Chef Max's Newsletter]
3030 Ocean [MenuPages]
3030 Ocean [Official Site]

Because we're having a bit of a red meat craving today. Here we present the sirloin burger at Le Tub in Hollywood, dubbed the best burger in America by GQ two years ago. Since then, it's gotten so much press that there are more newspaper clippings on the walls than tubs, the bar's signature accessories. Well, we're not entirely sure that's true, but it sure seemed like it. Note the waterfront setting in the background of the photo; add a beer, and it's paradise. Just make sure not to go during prime lunch or dinner times; we hear the wait can be long, and the crowds would likely disrupt your reverie as you lazily watched the yachts go by.

Le Tub [MenuPages]
The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die [GQ]
Photo: Flickr

• Paula learns that she too can be a wok star. [Mango&Lime]

• There's a birthday party at Paula's house! [Mango&Lime]

• The Chowhounders discuss dim sum options in Miami. Kon Chau seems to be a favorite. [Chowhound]

• Deborah explores Broward food options: Pomperdale's and the newly reopened Lox Haven in Margate. [From the Test Kitchen]

First, there was Christine Lee's in Sunny Isles. Then, the restaurant moved to Jupiter. Now, there's a second branch open in Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, a much shorter drive for North Dade fans of the restaurants. The menu is much the same as that of the Jupiter restaurant, except for the addition of a sushi bar. It appears that the prices went up a bit as well; we imagine the high rollers at the casino and racetrack won't notice.

Christine Lee's [MenuPages]
Christine Lee's [MenuPages]
Christine Lee's [Official Site]
Gulfstream Park [Official Site]

That tropical depression out in the Atlantic is expected to become a named storm by tonight or tomorrow, according to the National Hurricane Center. Forecasters say that the storm, which would be named Dean, could become a Category 2 hurricane by Friday, in which case it would be the first hurricane of the season. Yes, the storms have gotten to a late start this year, but, well, remember Andrew? If you haven't already stocked up on hurricane supplies, now might be the best time to do so, because store shelves will likely be wiped clean if the storm gets within a day or two from shore. In the meantime, we'll work on a list of restaurants with generators that plan to stay open.

Photo: National Hurricane Center

We're getting ourselves a cafecito to cure a case of the Mondays.

Photo: simoneladybug's Flickr

Remember Taste of the Nation, the fancy event at the Ritz that served as a fundraiser for Share Our Strength's South Florida chapter? Well, they raised $1 million to fight children's hunger. Quite impressive, we must say. From BizBash Florida:

Standouts included Grass Restaurant & Lounge's offerings of duck confit on whole-wheat crepes, warm goat cheese crumbles with hydroponic arugula, and a rich banana bread pudding. Susser's duck and shiitake sliders went like hotcakes, followed by white chocolate flan with green tea gelée provided by the chef and namesake of David Bouley Evolution restaurant.

The Ritz-Carlton, Key Biscayne provided an unparalleled dessert buffet that included chocolate apple saffron mousse cake, strawberry rhubarb tarts, and key lime macaroons. Guests mingled and chatted with gourmet celebrities such as renowned chef Govind Armstrong, in attendance to promote his new restaurant, Table 8, and to provide samplings of his seared tuna on white bean puree topped with olive tapenade.

The event raised its money through ticket sales and a live auction with items including a seven-day celebrity chef chocoholic cruise and a Sonoma, California wine tour.

We're wondering how much that cruise went for, because it sounds absolutely heavenly. We can think of no better combination than the blue seas of the Caribbean and copious amounts of chocolate.

Miami's Culinary Stars Join Forces to Fight Hunger [BizBash Florida]
[Share Our Strength South Florida]

A few more Miami Spice reviews from this weekend:

• Tuscan Steak's Miami Spice experience gets five (or six or seven; what's the limit?) stars from Tere. [FoodTastic!]

• Dinner at Cacao is also enjoyable, although cJ doesn't gush quite as much as Tere. Still sounds like it's worth a trip. [consumable joy]

• The Miami Spice thread at Chowhound has been busy. New posts include good and bad reviews of Cacao, accounts of good times at Timo and The River Oyster Bar, and a post about a pretty good experience at The Restaurant At The Setai. Be forewarned: parking is $24. [Chowhound]

• MP: Philadelphia provides a video tour of the Reading Terminal Market.

• MP: Chicago serves up a photo of vegan mac and cheese, which lacks the cheesy crusty top that we always crave. Of course, when you're not using real cheese, that might be difficult to achieve.

• MP: San Francisco discusses molecular gastronomy and shows us a snow-cube margarita topped with salted foam.

• And finally, MP: Boston shows us that kids + lemons = hilarity.

• We've got two more Cooking at the Cellar events this weekend. In the Aventura Macy's, Orlando Amaro of Blu Moon will prepare dishes from the restaurant's Miami Spice menu. And at the Dadeland Macy's, Jason Schneider of Bizcaya Grill will be doing the same thing. Both events are tomorrow at 1 p.m.

• Also tomorrow is the Anti-Aging Festival at Wild Oats (11701 S. Dixie Hwy in Pinecrest), which includes an antioxidant cooking class with Marcus Ortiz, chef with the Wellness Community.

• Tuesday is ladies' night at North One 10, where women will get a free glass of wine with their Miami Spice dinners after 6 p.m.

• The Herald's Maddy Marr interviews Govind Armstrong about his Top Chef experience. Casey's chili pepper ice cream was "repulsive, shocking," and that was the first one he tasted. "I was like, oh no, I have like 10 to go," he told Marr. Thankfully, the offerings improved. [Miami Herald Top Chef Blog]

• Frank Bruni interviews Tom Colicchio and learns that ketchup is OK, but don't ever bring micro-greens into Colicchio's kitchen. [Diner's Journal]

The commercial lobster season is underway, and those crazy conchs down in Key West want to celebrate. So go join them, because we all know nobody throws a better party. Fifteen bars and restaurants are participating in the Key West Lobsterfest, which starts tonight with a concert and a bar crawl and ends Sunday morning with a brunch. Tomorrow, Duval Street will be overrun by a street fair, with arts, crafts, and lots of lobster. Leave now and you can beat the weekend traffic on US1.

Key West Lobsterfest

• Dinner at the Palme D'Or, in text and photos. Looks delicious. [Remarkable Palate]

• Deborah reports that Cafe Arugula in Lighthouse Point is gone. Opening soon: Federal Grill. [From the Test Kitchen]

• Two more Miami Spice reviews: Oceanaire and The Food Gang. Make sure to check out the comments too; there are a few more Miami Spice stories in there. [Mango&Lime]

Here's a business proposition: how about buying a restaurant chain that's mired in debt? If that sounds like your cup of tea, you should know that RJ Gator's will be up for auction on August 31.

On Thursday, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida in West Palm Beach set the chain restaurant's auction date for Aug. 31, with closing expected for mid-September.

Bidding for the assets of the company's eight restaurants and its Jupiter headquarters will begin at $1.65 million, the amount offered last week by Golden Restaurants Inc.

According to Robert Charbonneau, counsel for the creditor's committee, Gator's has $1.5 million in secured debt, such as bank loans and an additional $3 million to $4 million in unsecured debt, such as bills from vendors and suppliers.

RJ Gator's auction date set: Aug. 31 [TCPalm]

Yet another week without Dan Oliver's Watering Holes feature. We're just a bit ashamed to admit how much we like it.

No reviews to report in the Palm Beach Post, so we'll move on to the Sun-Sentinel, which visits Cafe Veri Amici in Delray Beach, where the pasta is al dente and the pizza is made with buffalo mozzarella. (They points from us for that.) From the review:

Or, snack on a trio of house pizzas, $11-$13.95 for 10-inchers that start with made-on-premises pizza dough. Have one margherita style with buffalo mozzarella and tomato sauce; napoletana style with fresh plum tomato sauce, oregano and roasted garlic; or a veri amici with fresh tomatoes, buffalo motz, and arugula luxuriously draped with long, lean slices of fine prosciutto for a final Italian accent. It's worthwhile pizza with a good, chewy, bubble-edged slightly charred crust, complemented by toppings applied with a generous hand.

Cafe Veri Amici/Delray Beach [Sun-Sentinel]

In the Herald, Rochelle Koff checks out the Tamarac branch of the California-based Vietnamese chain Pho Hoa. And it sounds tasty. There aren't a lot of good places to get pho in South Florida, so we're always happy to hear of a good one, although the August heat definitely does not induce any sort of hot soup cravings.

We're not sure what's up with the Broward-Palm Beach New Times site, so we'll skip them and move on to the Sun-Sentinel. Judith Stocks cannot get enough of Y Ole! in Sunrise, where diners can choose from 45 tapas, from the traditional to the innovative.

A yen for Vietnamese pho knows no season [Miami Herald]
Y Ole!/Sunrise [Sun-Sentinel]

We apologize for the lack of posting today, but there have been some technical difficulties regarding Internet connections here at MenuPages world headquarters. But we assume most of you have been preoccupied with the large plume of smoke coming from downtown Miami, so you're likely just now turning your attention to culinary matters.

With that, we'll start the review digests for the week with all of the Dade news:

The Miami Herald's Enrique Fernandez goes on a search for a good Cuban sandwich and ends up at Bin No. 18, L & L Market Bistro and Norman Brothers Produce. Huh?! Perhaps Mr. Fernandez is correct in his assertion that Cuban sandwiches have declined in quality; we've only been around for two-and-a-half decades, so we can't really compare those of the glory days (whenever that was) with the current crop. But he sampled "countless examples" and couldn't find one traditional cubano worthy of including in the article? We don't believe that. We're sure that the sandwiches he notes are tasty, but they're not cubanos; the Norman Brothers sandwich doesn't appear pressed, the L & L Market Bistro sandwich comes on French bread (close, but no cigar), and Bin No. 18's sandwich is made without ham on a ciabatta bread with Dijon mustard, horseradish, and mayonnaise. (Mayo on a cubano? Que horror!) Perhaps the article's focus should have been on interesting Cuban sandwich variations?

Fernandez is picking up the slack over in the food section this week; he's got another article in there, this one about paellas and where to find them. He lists a number of good places (too many to list here), so check it out.

And over in the New Times, we found the first review of DeVito South Beach. Lee Klein finds he preferred Danny DeVito as a cab driver on Taxi rather than a restaurateur on South Beach.

Our search for a good Cuban sandwich takes a surprising turn [Miami Herald]
Take your pick of paellas in moist, Cuban style [Miami Herald]
Get Haughty [New Times]

Last night we got to see the cheftestants get all gussied up for a night out on the town, only to then witness their crushed faces when they realized they’d have to cook on their “night off.”

We felt badly for the cheftestants, but did they seriously believe they were getting a night off? We’re sure everyone watching at home saw that “curveball” coming from a mile away. That said, while we’re totally OK with producers throwing curveballs, this really was most unfair to the women. The guys could roll up their sleeves — or strip down to an undershirt, like Tre — but there wasn’t any getting around high heels and uncomfortable low-cut tops.

Lucky Dale, who won the Quickfire (a not-so-interesting Coldstone Creamery ice cream challenge), was the only one who did actually get the night off. So while the others toiled away into the wee hours of the morning, Dale got to sip wine and enjoy a four-course meal at Govind Armstrong’s Table 8. (Did we mention that he was the guest judge for the evening?)

The unlucky cheftestants drew knives to divide into two teams. The Black Team: Brian, Tre, Sara M. and Hung. The Orange Team (of disaster): CJ, Sara N., Casey and Howie. Honestly, that probably would’ve been an OK team had it not been for Howie. As we all know, he doesn’t work well with others. At all.

The Black Team took a sensible route of dividing up the stations in the kitchen trailers. The Orange Team seemed to let Howie take charge of the menu, since he’s from Miami and has done a lot of bar food-type menus. They went a more Latin route, which is all fine and good, but if you’re doing Latin in Miami, you’d better do it well. We’re looking at you Howie.

Anyway, the Orange Team set up a raw bar outside with oysters, where Brian hung out and worked the crowd. They also served jerk steak tacos, onion rings and chicken wings, and Tre’s grits with bacon-wrapped shrimp. (We ourselves absolutely adore shrimp ‘n’ grits, and we wholeheartedly agree with Ted Allen that the addition of bacon was a genius move. We imagine that’s the reason he won the challenge.)

The Black Team had café con leche, milkshakes, sliders, quesadillas, tostones, and medianoches. That last one was Howie’s doing. At first, they were called Cuban sandwiches, but then we saw them listed as medianoches. As soon as we saw the photo of the sandwich, we said “but that’s not the right bread for a medianoche.” About 10 seconds later: a clip of one of the partygoers saying the exact same thing. See, a Cuban sandwich is made with crusty Cuban bread; for a medianoche, you’re supposed to use a special sweet bread, which Howie certainly did not do. And then at the Judges’ Table, he admitted that they didn’t have a press, and that’s why the sandwiches didn’t turn out well. Howie dear, if you knew you had no sandwich press, then why bother doing a medianoche at all?! It makes no sense to me. If you’re doing any type of Cuban sandwich in Miami, it had better be pressed, and it had better be good. (Other options for a good late-night snack sandwich: a variation on pan con croqueta, a sandwich of bread and ham croquettes which doesn’t necessarily need to be pressed. Yes, it might be difficult making the croquetas, but that could all be done during the prep work time, and then they’d be easy to assemble once the partygoers arrived.)

That’s the main reason I think Howie should’ve gone home last night. He screwed up a medianoche. In Miami. And he’s from Miami. And the milkshakes, which everyone complained about, were supposed to be his thing, but because he was so busy making his subpar sandwiches, Sara N. had to pick up his slack. Also, the man really is a jerk who regularly messes up group dynamics. In the end, unfortunately, Sara N. went home, mainly because her head was just out of it during the entire challenge.

And CJ, please try not to be in the bottom again. Really. It pains us too much. We can’t bear the thought of you being eliminated.

Photo: BravoTV

Taverna Yiamas in Hollywood has been open for a couple of weeks, but its grand opening is tonight. You have until 8 p.m. to get complimentary hors d'oeuvres. There will be wine and beer also, although we can't guarantee that'll be free as well.

Taverna Yiamas [Official Site]

Today's New York Times article about raw milk is sure to exasperate food scientists everywhere. It seems that demand for milk straight from the cow is steadily increasing:

Still, individual states determine how raw milk is bought and sold within their borders. While its sale for human consumption is illegal in 15 states, New York is one of 26 where it can be bought with restrictions. The chief one is that raw milk can only be sold on the premises of one of 19 dairy farms approved by the state. Clandestine milk clubs, like the one Mr. Milgrom-Elcott joined, are one way of circumventing the law, and there are others.

Raw milk drinkers may praise its richer flavor or claim it is more nutritious than pasteurized milk. No matter why they drink it, the demand for it is booming. In 2000, the Organic Pastures Dairy Company in the San Joaquin Valley near Fresno became California’s first raw milk dairy with certified organic pasture land. This year its co-founder, Mark McAfee, expects it to gross $6 million — up from $4.9 last year.

We've spent the last half-hour or so attempting to figure out exactly what is allowed regarding the sale of raw milk in Florida. So far, we've found statute 502.091, which basically says that only Grade A pasteurized milk is allowed to be sold to the consumer or to a food service establishment.

So one would think case closed, no raw milk. But according to Real Milk, a Web campaign for raw milk, raw milk can be sold in Florida, as long as it's not for human consumption. And they list a number of places in the state where one can get raw milk. We're sure there's some sort of clandestine raw-milk society, so if you're interested, contact someone on that list. Then again, if you are interested, you've probably already done this.

Should This Milk Be Legal? [New York Times]
Florida Statute 502.091 [Florida Senate]
Real Milk [Official Site]

We're not sure how we missed this last month, but here it is: Books & Books is opening a fourth location in November. In Grand Cayman. You might be wondering what the restaurant connection is here; it's a bit tenuous, but they do have cafes at two of their locations. (The Books & Books at Bal Harbour is without.) And it looks like the Cayman Islands version will indeed offer food:

In the Cayman Islands, Books & Books hopes to re-create this same sense of community, eventually becoming a dynamic and active presenter of author readings, book signings and book club discussions. “Our goal is very much in keeping with Camana Bay’s vision of creating a diverse community where people can live, work, study, dine and be entertained, all in close proximity,” explains Mitchell Kaplan, a co-founder of Miami Book Fair International and past president of the American Booksellers Association (ABA). Kaplan hopes the store will become a popular gathering place for the island’s readers and writers, a place where “people can browse the shelves, take in an author event, attend a book club discussion” and grab a bite to eat at Café del Sol, the internet coffee shop that adjoins the store.

Kaplan, the Books & Books founder, also said that it shouldn't be too difficult to get authors to visit the Grand Cayman store; it is, after all, just over an hour's flight from Miami. We imagine it wouldn't take much to persuade us to visit a tropical Caribbean island; a few photos of turquoise water and the promise of a couple hours on the beach would be sufficient.

Books & Books to Open Fourth Location in Grand Cayman this Fall [Ink Byte Design]
Books & Books [Official Site]

In which we do all the work for you, you lazy bum:

• Over at California Pizza Kitchen on Miracle Mile (aside: have you seen what they've done to the old Corset Corner space? Complete transformation!), they need servers who ROCK. Yes, that's an acronym: Respect, Opportunity, Communication and Kindness. Give them a call if you fit the bill. [Craig's List]

• Paulo Luigi, an Italian restaurant in Palmetto Bay, is "HIRING." Their quotation marks, not ours. [Craig's List]

• A "well known tropical-themed restaurant group" (sure, that narrows it down) needs a restaurant manager in Miami. [Craig's List]

• A new wine bar/restaurant is looking for staff. The address is 6909 Biscayne Blvd, which must be across the street from Uva 69, another wine bar/restaurant. Are they related? Or do these new owners enjoy a healthy dose of competition? At any rate, they need you! [Craig's List]

Have you ever gone to Wish and thought, 'if only I could cook like that'? Well here's your chance to learn. This summer, the restaurant launched Mondays with Michael, a cooking class followed by a multi-course wine dinner. Prices are $175 per person, and each class is capped at 16. The classes start at 6:30 p.m. with a cocktail reception (we're thinking there may be more drinking going on here than actual cooking). The next two classes are "Strange Fruit" on August 27 and "Up in Smoke" (think BBQ) on September 24. To register, call 305-674-9474.

Wish [MenuPages]
Wish [Official Site]

We just learned that Michael's Kitchen in Hollywood has closed. But, fear not: a new location on Sunny Isles Beach is in the works, and should be open sometime in November. From today's Herald article about the closing:

''The rising rent and the property taxes and the rising insurance make it difficult to stay in business, much like Jonathan Eismann at Pacific Time and Norman Van Aken at Norman's,'' Jennie Blum said.

The couple had intended to make the Newport restaurant a second site, she said, but costs ''became unbearable,'' particularly this year's rent increases. The Hollywood Michael's Kitchen served its last meals Saturday.

Michael's Kitchen in Hollywood closes [Miami Herald]
Michael's Kitchen [MenuPages]
Michael's Kitchen [Official Site]

• There's a free wine tasting tonight at Sage French Cafe in Fort Lauderdale from 5 to 7 p.m. Don't worry if you miss this one; there's one on the first Tuesday of every month.

• Yep, more wine: this Thursday, take a "Trip Around Italy" in a wine tasting at Casa Toscana in Miami Shores. They'll be serving wine from Sardinia, Tuscany, Piedmont and Veneto. Cost is $10 per person, and the featured wines will be 10 percent off. The event starts at 7 p.m.; call 305-757-4454 to RSVP.

• If you were planning to attend the Uniquey Boutiquey Wine Dinner at Vino Miami on Thursday, you should know that there's been a change of plans. It's been rescheduled for sometime in mid-September. Looks like they've got 15 spots available, so if you're interested, you can get in touch with them at vino@vinomiami.com.

• The news over at Chowhound's Florida board is that The Restaurant At The Setai is indeed worth a visit during Miami Spice. [Chowhound]

• Deborah has finally settled into her new house and a new bicycle route, which takes her right past a house with a gorgeous mango tree. Mmmm... [From the Test Kitchen]

• Tere thinks Qdoba is a good addition to Miracle Mile's dining scene. Watch out Baja Fresh! [Coral Gables]

Americans don't much care about bulk cheese or yogurt, but chocolate, well, that's an entirely different matter, certain to incite riots. An AP story today runs down the battle over a petition introduced last October that would alter the standards for production of 300 different foods. The most important, of course, is chocolate; the petition calls for a bit more flexibility in the fats added to chocolate. Instead of cocoa butter, producers could add less expensive fats like shea or palm oil. Of course, producers have been doing this to chocolate already, but then they can't label the food "chocolate." Chocolate purists already lost the battle in Europe a few years ago, when the EU allowed up to five percent vegetable fat added to chocolate, so now they're hoping to win on this side of the Atlantic. (Not likely, we think.) Our advice: read labels for everything, including chocolate if this petition is given the rubber stamp from the FDA.

Sides Square Off in Chocolate Fight [AP via Washington Post]
Photo: Flickr

We've got a couple more Miami Spice reviews this morning. We'll start with the good one for Table 8 from blogger Blind Mind:

All in all, I thought the experience was pretty good but nothing wowed me and made me want to come back again sometime soon. It was, well, good. With all the options these days, good doesnt really cut it anymore. It is nice to know that you can get a solid meal there though, and the atmosphere is pretty cool. Id recommend giving it a try though. We all have different tastes. Not quite sure about the value though. I got out of there for about $70 which included my meal, portion of the wine bottle ($60/4 people), tax and 18% tip which was added on.

Up next: Consumable Joy's experience at Vix:

Overall -- good atmosphere (#1 rated in Miami by Zagat for decor) and music. Service was fairly attentive even though we ordered the Miami Spice menu. Food was good, not amazing, but satisfying... not bad for the first cJ Miami Spice meal of the year.

(Thanks to Rick at Stuck on the Palmetto.)

Restaurant Review: Table 8 - Miami Spice edition [Blind Mind]
Miami Spice: Dinner @ Vix [Consumable Joy]
Table 8 [MenuPages]
Vix [MenuPages]

• Things we know: RJ Gator's is bankrupt. A company called Golden Restaurants has offered to buy RJ Gator's for $1.65 million, which is $180,000 less than what RJ Gator's owes to creditors. What we don't know: anything about Golden Restaurants. [TC Palm]

• As of today, Frank Crupi of Frankie's Big City Grill is the managing partner of Andiamo Pizza. Soon, Andiamo will be adding some cheesesteaks and other popular menu items from Frankie's. [Miami Herald]

• There's a pretty little feature on Dogma Grill in the Herald, which mentions that there will be a new location in North Miami opening soon. But what really interested us were the comments, none of which was positive towards either the article or the restaurant chain. [Miami Herald]

Restaurant health inspection is the topic of the moment over at the Sun-Sentinel, which ran an article about Florida's confusing reports last week and published an editorial in favor of adopting the letter grading system used elsewhere. We'll quote from the article first:

Consumer advocates said letter-grading or scoring systems offer consumers simple access to restaurant inspection reports that are easy to understand. No organization or federal agency tracks how many states or regions use such programs, but they increasingly are being implemented around the country. Among the places that use restaurant grades or scores: New York City, Los Angeles County, Las Vegas, and North and South Carolina, and soon in Georgia.

Most systems require restaurants to post their latest food inspection reports and use consumer-friendly ratings, where an A (90-100 points) means the establishment was rated excellent, while a B (80-89) means good and a C (70-79) is poor.

The article also cites studies that have shown drops in food-related hospitalizations in Los Angeles since the adoption of this grade policy and increased revenues for restaurants that earn "A" grades. The grades create economic incentives, according to the article, to meet health standards; of course (and we're just playing devil's advocate here), they also create economic incentives to cheat. Given South Florida's less-than-stellar history with corruption in government, we'd advise that if such a system is implemented, it be scrutinized carefully.

Consumer advocates push for simpler restaurant grades [Sun-Sentinel]
Florida restaurants aren't making the grade when it comes to posting inspection records [Sun-Sentinel]

The first weekend of Miami Spice is done, and so far, we've found just one review, over at Mango&Lime:

Had dinner at Sushi Samba tonight with a friend who was visiting from out of town and wanted to try their Miami Spice menu. Thing is, they weren’t offering it. Not until tomorrow, our waiter told us. My friend pointed out that Miami Spice started August 1. He said yeah, but we’re not starting until tomorrow. He confirmed they would be offering it on Sunday — just not this Sunday. He didn’t really explain why.

Well that's certainly annoying. So at least one restaurant tried to squeeze in one more full-priced weekend before offering its Miami Spice restaurant. Did anyone else have problems getting Miami Spice menus at restaurants? Let us know in the comments!

Miami Spice? Not tonight [Mango&Lime]
Sushi Samba [MenuPages]
Sushi Samba [Official Site]

Trying to find locally grown produce in South Florida can be difficult. It seems most fruits and veggies grown in the winter months (the growing season for most vegetables) are destined for residents of other states, while Floridians get to eat California produce. It seems a silly business.

And of course, the local farmer's markets are in a sad state of affairs, although we imagine that with a bit of increased interest, they may improve in the next few years. For now, the best, and pretty much only, option for local produce is Redland Organics, which operates a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). You pay a fee for the season, and in return, you get a share of the farm's bounty in the form of a boxful of fruits and vegetables each week from November to April. They started accepting applications just a few days ago, so there may still be time to sign up.

Redland Organics [Official Site]

We remember vividly the rapid manner in which Don Pan International Bakery extended its influence over the Miami-Dade bakery market in the early part of this decade. In what seemed like a matter of months, purple roofs and "coming soon!" signs were everywhere. Clearly, the demand for pan campesino was high.

Now, Don Pan has saturated the Miami market and moved into Broward, Boca Raton, and even Tampa. But the chain isn't done yet. Next up: Don Kiosk, which appears to be very well suited for mall food courts. Soon, maybe even local airports will have Don Kiosks to supply weary travelers with sustenance. We have no confirmation for any of this; the only thing we know, after a brief conversation with a company representative, is that they hope to close on a lease in the next 45 days. The location, according to the website, is somewhere in Broward. Any guesses as to where it might be? Sawgrass Mills perhaps? We're inclined to think that a cachito and a mango shake (no milk) might be the perfect quick snack to provide energy for a long day of shopping.

Don Pan International Bakery [MenuPages]
Don Pan International Bakery [Official Site]

Your feel-good story of the day, courtesy of Chowhounder "zook," sure to restore your faith in chefs everywhere:

Despite having lived in SoFla for almost 40 years, I had never been to the Forge. Certainly nothing on this board would have prompted me to go either; but recently we discovered that Chef Swersky has been behind the kitchen the past few years. We had always enjoyed his food when he worked at the Boulevard Grill in Boca and prior to that the Morada Cafe also in Boca. My son turned 21 this week and when we asked him where he wanted to go to dinner, out of the blue, he mentioned that he wished he could have the duck again that they used to serve both at Blvd. Grill and Morada. As luck would have it, the Palm Beach Post had an article about Chef Swersky and the Forge two weeks ago, so it appeared we could actually fill his wish.

After checking the Forge's website and menu, it appeared they had duck on the menu; but it wasn't quite the same prep as we had enjoyed so many times before. After a few phone calls, we were able to speak with the maite d' and request the old duck preparation for our son's birthday. Despite the fact that it was the chef's day off, he graciously agreed to come in and prepare this dish for our son.

That is so great. Happy birthday to zook's son.

Forge Restaurant & Lounge [MenuPages]
Forge Restaurant & Lounge [Official Site]
The Forge: Miami Beach, a review [Chowhound]

Max's Grille opened in Coral Gables with the amount of fanfare befitting a local restaurant king. A year and $2 million later, the restaurant was closed. We just learned that a new restaurant called Zabôr will be taking over the spot at 2 Aragon Ave, just north of Miracle Mile. Given the similarity between "zabôr" and "sabor," the Spanish word for "flavor" or "taste," we would've assumed a Latin restaurant might be moving in, but according to a Craig's List ad for employees, it's described as "world cuisine, lounge, Japanese bakery." We're not quite sure what to make of that.

The details are still sketchy, but we're working on getting some more information, which we will, of course, pass along to you as soon as we can.

Max's Grille [Official Site]
Restaurant hiring all positions [Craig's List]

We were just going to share the posts from our sister/brother blogs that were all about us, but we thought that might be a little self-absorbed. So instead, here's what the other MenuPages blogs served up this week:

• MP: San Francisco took a break from writing about tomato carts and egg carts to bring us Simpsonized versions of Food Network stars.

• MP: Chicago learns that middle-aged people like spicy food more than any other age group.

• MP: Philadelphia has spent most of the week embroiled in Cheesesteakgate. We hope, for the sake of cheesesteak lovers in Philadelphia (we assume there are plenty), that this gets resolved soon.

• MP: Boston tells us to both eat our veggies and our chocolate. We're thinking we might go for the latter.

• Alesh, at Critical Miami, wants to know what the big deal is about Miami Spice. [Critical Miami]

• Alex, at Stuck on the Palmetto, was thinking the exact same thing. [Stuck on the Palmetto]

• Charles Passy channels his inner Jimmy Buffett and goes off in search of a memorable frozen concoction. [The Hungry Man]

• Lee Klein gives his first primer on how to be a food critic. Stay away from the free food! [Riptide 2.0]

A Nation's Restaurant News survey of 2,500 people found that 74 percent support mandating restaurants to disclose full nutritional information on menus, and 71 percent want restaurants to list calorie counts.

While we're sure it would be helpful for dieters, this has got to be an absolute nightmare for restaurant owners. Imagine menus that change daily, weekly or seasonally, and having to figure out exact nutritional information for each new item. That could be time-consuming and costly. And we don't know about you, but if we're indulging in molten chocolate lava cake topped with ice cream or some other sinfully delicious dessert, when it comes to calorie counts, ignorance is bliss.

Also, just imagine if each restaurant's menu doubled in size. Twice the number of menus we'd have to read and edit for South Florida MenuPages. We're exhausted just thinking about it.

74% of consumers favor menu-labeling laws, study finds [Nation's Restaurant News]
Menu Labeling: The Consumers Have Spoken (?) [The Grinder]

We've been keeping an eye on Plum since they moved into Miami Beach a month or two ago. And so far, they've done some really interesting work. Today, they posted what appears to be the first of a series of neighborhood dinners, in which they create a fabulous meal by having one course at each of a few restaurants in the same area. Today, they're at Sunset Drive in South Miami, where they stop at Marhaba, Trattoria Sole, Dan Marino's, and Martini Bar. Sounds scrumptious!

South Miami is Delicious [Plum]
Trattoria Sole [MenuPages]
Dan Marino's [MenuPages]
Martini Bar [MenuPages]

This week, or at least we think it's this week but there's no date posted with the review, the Post visited Rustico Italiano, a small southern Italian eatery in Lake Worth where the chicken is memorable. Actually, from the glowing description of the dishes, everything else seems to be memorable too.

Mark Schwed didn't get much for two at Rosa Mexicano for under $25. He and his dining companion ordered two appetizers: flautas de pollo and grilled quesadillas with wild mushrooms and cheese. Is that a meal? He said they were full, so I guess so. They spent $22.34, including tax and tip, but were unable to partake of the restaurant's famed margaritas.

Rustico Italiano [Palm Beach Post]
Two dine for $25: Rosa Mexicano [Palm Beach Post]

Dear Sun-Sentinel: We don't quite understand what's going on with your restaurant reviews. Your food and recipes section is robust, but your dining section is anemic. Yes, we know that there's the whole restaurant guide, but that doesn't help us very well. We want reviews, and we want them now. Unfortunately, it appears you have no reviews this week, or if you do, you've hidden them quite well on the website. Instead, we'll link to your excellent article about local fish and where to buy it. We now intend to find some hog snapper and pretend we were one of those "in the know" before the article came out.

The Miami Herald's Rochelle Koff visited Cero, the grown-up restaurant inside the St. Regis Resort on Fort Lauderdale's strip. The verdict: high-priced, but worth it. And in the New Times, Gail Shepherd suggests you to restore the Francophile in you at Rendezvous Bakery & Bistro in Oakland Park.

The Dish on Local Fish [Sun-Sentinel]
Cero offers big spenders sophisticated seaside fare [Miami Herald]
How to Eat a Freedom Fry [New Times]

We were excited by the headline "Out-of-the-way places, out-of-this-world food," thinking Victoria Pesce Elliott had found some really interesting dives in far-flung parts of the county. We like dives. But then we saw the list of restaurants — Maia's Creole Cafe, 190 Restaurant, A, Creek 28, and Soya & Pomodoro — and we thought, this is it?

"Out of the way" apparently means anything outside of the 33139 zip code. A and 190 are both very close to the Design District, which has become a dining destination area, and while it may be out of the way for tourists, it certainly is not for locals. Soya & Pomodoro has become a downtown favorite (again, not out of the way, unless you consider the center of the city out of the way), and Creek 28 is just a few blocks north of the 33139 cutoff. The only real hole-in-the-wall find seems to be Maia's in Homestead.

Perhaps we're overreacting. It makes sense to group the restaurants together in one article; they're all newish midscale small restaurants trying to cater to locals with some fairly innovative, very tasty food. We just wouldn't say they're "out of the way." And since it's in the headline and all (yes, we know that's not Pesce Elliott's doing), we noticed it pretty quickly.

OK, we'll move on. Victoria Pesce Elliott also visited Village Cafe in Miami Shores, where she recommends trying the signature crab cakes and avoiding the Caesar salad. The restaurant, popular among locals, changed hands last year, but the new owners haven't let quality slip.

Linda Bladholm's description of Francesco Cafe, an Argentine spot in Sunny Isles Beach, had us craving some empanadas. And alfajores. A visit may be in order.

Over at the New Times, Lee Klein loved the "clean, simple, and beautiful Mediterranean food" he found at La Marea, the new restaurant at The Tides hotel. And Bill Citara checks out Pilar in Aventura, which is simple and not flashy, but really delivers on the seafood.

Out-of-the-way places, out-of-this-world food [Miami Herald]
The regulars can relax: Village Cafe nice as ever [Miami Herald]
The love shows at Argentine Cafe [Miami Herald]
The Tides Has Turned [New Times]
The Young Man and the Seafood [New Times]

Joey really irked us in the first few episodes, but he seemed to mellow out somewhat and stopped making references to New York every five seconds, so we were coming around. And after witnessing the tears shed when he was told to "pack his knives and go," we couldn't dislike the guy too much. But he's gone, and Sara M., the other cheftestant we thought had a good chance of going home, stays on for another week.

The whole episode felt like one big Bertolli ad (it didn't help that there were Bertolli commercials during the breaks too), but we can think of worse sponsors. (Anyone remember the Kraft Gourmet Snack Challenge in season two?) We thought the Quickfire Challenge was going to be an actual spelling bee of culinary terms, and we got very excited, as we're wont to do when spelling bees are involved, until we saw Padma place a small dish in front of a cheftestant and instruct him to taste it. Boo. Oh well, it was still interesting. Casey won, with the help of some educated guesses (chayote) and some easy ones (bowtie pasta).

On to the Elimination Challenge: the cheftestants drew knives to choose a partner, and then the teams of two had to create one of those frozen Bertolli dinners that we've seen advertised everywhere. The kind that come in a bag, and all you have to do is put the contents of the bag in a skillet for 10 minutes. We've been very skeptical of those things, but after watching the episode, we're intrigued and might be willing to try one. (Today's lesson: advertising works, kids.)

The first thing all of the cheftestants noticed when they inspected the Bertolli bags was that each component of the dinner was frozen individually. Which makes a lot of sense. They all vowed to do the same thing, but in the end, only Tre and CJ (goooooo CJ!) actually did. And it paid off with a win; each of them got the awesome prize of two tickets to Italy.

The judges didn't like Hung and Joey's mess of a dish and Howie and Sara M.'s fusilli. There were some fireworks at the Judges' Table, mostly from Howie, who clearly doesn't work well with others, but what we found most interesting was the terrified look on Hung's face. He was red, sweating, and just plain scared. You could see it in his eyes. He was probably counting the number of times he's been at the bottom lately, and it wiped the cocky attitude right off. We got just a bit of enjoyment out of it.

Photo: BravoTV

Top Chef is back on tonight, after a hiatus last week. Well, so it wasn't a hiatus. Bravo did actually air something, a reunion show of sorts which we didn't find particularly interesting. At all. So we're excited to get back into the action tonight.

To whet your appetite for tonight's episode, we thought we'd link to PlumTV's interview with Sara Mair, one of the Miami chefs on the show who also happens to make cheese. We love her for that. Unfortunately, we learned in the interview that she's taken her cheese-making skills back home to Jamaica.

What’s the Miami cheese scene like? There’s not really much of one in Miami, unfortunately. Miamians aren’t interested in cheese, not yet. It’s not a very big cheese culture, it’s not like in New York.

And in Jamaica?
In Jamaica we love cheese, we’re obsessed with cheese.

Top Chef 3: Back in the Kitchen [PlumTV]

How long do you think it'll take for that crab to nibble through that Cheeto? And how many more does he have stashed in that underground home? Maybe he's stockpiling hurricane supplies.

Photo: via Miami Fever's awesome Flickr photostream

We're a little late to ballgame here, but we'll post it anyway, for the benefit of anyone heading for a mid-afternoon coffee run. Broward and Palm Beach Dunkin' Donuts are offering free iced tea today as a promotion for their new original, raspberry, and peach-flavored teas.

Dunkin' Donuts to offer free iced tea [Sun-Sentinel]

We felt ambitious this morning, and we had grand plans to sift through the list of restaurants in Florida recently given awards from Wine Spectator. We were going to post all of the South Florida restaurants here. When we realized we were only halfway through the Florida list and already had 41 SoFla restaurants, we decided to forgo what would've been the longest blog post ever and instead encourage you to peruse the Florida list or search by city.

The awards — Award of Excellence, Best of Award of Excellence (these names could use some help), and Grand Award — were awarded to 4,000 restaurants worldwide "whose wine lists offer interesting selections, are appropriate to their cuisine and appeal to a wide range of wine lovers."

Some highlights from the list:

• Only two Florida restaurants, L'Escalier at The Breakers in Palm Beach and Bern's Steakhouse in Tampa, were among the 76 restaurants worldwide chosen for the Grand Award.

• You'll see a few departed restaurants on the list; Duo and Norman's were posthumously given awards.

• Chain restaurants — think steakhouse-type places — did pretty well overall.

• There were a surprising number of Orlando-area restaurants on the list. Perhaps we should revisit the Central Florida dining scene and reassess our image of it as a culinary wasteland.

Wine Spectator Awards

A post on Chowhound by someone with a desire to cook gator meat (and also with the Caps Lock firmly in place) reminded us of the first time we were offered this Florida delicacy. We were sitting with our parents for lunch years ago at Doc Dammers (remember that place?) and ordered the gator burger. We thought it was just named for the UF Gators, until the waiter kindly leaned over and explained that the burger was actual gator meat. We switched orders then, but a few years later, when we were more adventurous eaters, we tried gator chili elsewhere and found it quite satisfying.

A helpful chowhound posted a link for alligator meat suppliers throughout the state; at the very top is All American Gator Products, based here in Pembroke Park, where you can get alligator wallets, purses, even alligator tooth pendants. And gator meat, of course, with suggestions on how to cook each cut. Frying seems to be the preferred method, although we're partial to this recipe for sauteed medallions in Dijon mustard sauce.

If you're not up for cooking it yourself, several South Florida restaurants serve alligator:
• Grassy Flats in Tequesta served a mix of the recipes offered above: breaded and fried gator bites with a mustard sauce.
• At Waldo's Sports Pub & Grill in Coconut Grove, they treat alligator meat as a chicken wing, fried and served with blue cheese.
• Alligator comes fried or in a soup at The Crack'd Conch in Key Largo.

Does anyone know where to buy gator meat uncooked? [Chowhound]
All American Gator Products [Official Site]

Photo: Flickr

Welcome, dear readers, to the newest member of the MenuPages blog family. Here, you'll find news about the dining scene in that vast expanse of land sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Everglades, from the northern tip of Palm Beach County to Mile Marker 0 in Key West. Each week, we'll bring you features like restaurant openings and closings, event listings, review highlights and guides for finding the best meals in South Florida.

We're looking to hear from you too. Send questions/tips/suggestions/gossip our way through the links on the right-hand side or leave a comment below the post.

Your editor is Carolina Bolado, a native of La Saguesera, a food writer, a beach bum and a swimmer with a penchant for plunging into bodies of water in which most people wouldn't dip a toe. But don't worry; she always washes up before cooking!

So welcome. Make yourself at home. And allow me to extend a virtual plate of pastelitos your way.