Paella: The flavorful Spanish mixture of yellow rice and any number of proteins- lobster, fish, scallops, shrimp, sausage, chicken, pork, yet rarely ever beef. This eclectic dish also has the ability to stretch and feed any number of people from an intimate gathering of five or six to a Godfather-style wedding of hundreds. These companies make it easy to cater your next affair by providing on-site cooking of any kind of paella right in front of your guests.

Mr Paella: serves Miami-Dade, Broward and the Naples area. They offer traditional paella, country rice, chicken and rice, as well as Chinese-style fried rice. Sweet plantains, salad and bread, and appetizers are available at an extra charge. Mr. Paella has been in business for seven years.

Paella Party: serves South Florida. A more upscale operation, Paella Party offers not only paella, but a full menu of Spanish style dishes, appetizers, and desserts. Paella party also offers bar service. They have been in business for over 20 years. Paella Party is also a full event company offering tables, chairs, china, silver, stemware and even tents for rent.

Mr. Chef Paella: serves Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Specializes in seafood paella.

Paella Tropical: serves Miami-Dade county, but will go out of the area for a fee. Paella Tropical is also a full-service event company and offers the best deal that I have seen online, although I can't vouch for the food. For $8.50 per guest, the Tropical package provides tables, chairs, two glasses, two plates, three utensils, table linens, cloth napkins, salt, pepper, ashtrays and one hour of extra service.

The huge gas-fired paella pans provide entertainment for the guests while filling the air with the aroma of sauteeing onions and garlic. On that note, paella catering is best for an outdoor party as a confined space will send your guests home smelling like chorizos. Individual prices vary from company to company, but usually include salad and dinner rolls along with the paella.

Mr Paella [MenuPages]
Mr Paella [Official Site]
Paella Party [Official Site]
Paella Tropical [Official Site]

Photo: flickr

[Above: wild local salmon at Farallon in San Francisco]

Another depressing bit of seafood news: Following on the heels of our general freakout over the likely shut-down of the West Coast salmon season, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a follow-up article today insinuating that the entire California and Oregon salmon fishing industry is on the verge of collapse. From the Chronicle:

Barbara Emley, 64, who has run a commercial fishing boat with her husband out of Fisherman's Wharf since 1985, said salmon makes up about 70 percent of her annual income.

"We'll probably try crabbing longer, but if everyone shifts from salmon to crab, there will be more competition," she said. "I think we can survive the year, but I'm afraid it will go on."

If the crisis continues, she said, it could spell the end of a unique, nomadic culture of people who love the sea.

But the Chronicle also quoted a chef who simply wouldn't use farm-raised.

"We'll stay away from salmon for a while," said Ryan Simas, the head chef atFarallon restaurant on Union Square. "I will definitely not use farmed salmon."

Paul Johnson, the president of Monterey Fish Market, a high-end seafood wholesaler at Pier 33 in San Francisco, with a retail market in Berkeley, said things won't be the same without local salmon.

"Oh man, I'm telling you the king (chinook) salmon is the icon in the Bay Area; this is going to be devastating to the economy," he said. "It's put everyone on edge. A lot of small-boat fishermen are going to go out of business."

Threat of closing jolts fishing industry [SF Chronicle]
So Long and Thanks for all the Fishing [The Grinder]
The King Of Sushi [CBS]
Farm-Raised Fish Given Tainted Food [Washington Post]
Farallon [MenuPages]
Farallon [Official Site]

Photo credit: Passionate Eater

We're really not big fans of wordy menus. Maybe it comes from our background as a newspaper reporter. The fewer words, the better. And some of these menus are in dire need of a good editor who can not only fix spelling and grammatical errors, but also tighten up the prose.

Anyway, we got a laugh from a recent blog post by Frank Bruni about the menu from Tequila's in Philadelphia:

For example, a $20.95 entrée of Carne a la Trenza was described in terms of much, much more than its ingredients or cooking method. Reading about the dish, you could easily wonder if what you have in your hands is a menu or an essay on follicular anthropology.

“Trenza (braids) are par excellence the most fashionable style for the country woman,” the description begins, continuing: “Nothing is more beautiful than an imposing and timid country woman, adorned with the complex knots that crown her head. Our chef gives this rich dish . . . the look of the trenza worn by our Mexican heroines.”

Not the coiffure for you? Then try the main course listed just below it, a $19.95 Filete Grito.

“ ‘Grito’ means shout,” the menu illuminates. “This dish brings out a cry of joy when tasted, confirming the high degree of culinary creativity that exists in Mexico.”

The lowdown on the Filete Grito then becomes more food-specific, but it also becomes more oddly and grimly metaphoric.

“The cactus leaf is a bed with the tropical tamarindo sauce inviting the chile chipotle to participate as a witness in the lynching of the fabulous filet mignon, along with the chiles serranos.”

Lynching? Yikes. I’m not feeling so hungry anymore.

Menus As Literature [Diner's Journal]
Tequila's [MenuPages]
Tequila's [Official Site]

The Hungry Man's "Weekly Dish" usually features a plate of food that he enjoyed. This week, however, he took a departure and instead featured a "Dish of Disgust:" Domino's new Oreo pizza. Yes, he says, it is that bad:

There’s just one problem: Oreos are great on their own (one of the few commercially made cookies I’ll consider eating, in fact). They’re even better when dunked in milk. But they just don’t work when used as a topping for a way-too-crackly crust that tastes like a graham-cracker that has gone through the dry-cleaner’s. (Trust me, there’s really something off about it.) And the glue that holds topping and crust together? An overly sweet white icing that looks like, well, glue. (Seriously, Elmer’s should sue these folks.)

The Weekly Dish (of Disgust): Domino's Oreo Pizza [The Hungry Man]

Behold, the future of the comment card. Most paper comment cards are filled out by only 1-5 percent of diners; this contraption, however, has gotten a 75 percent return rate from diners at a mongolian barbecue restaurant in the Tampa area. The man behind the contraption, Ken Todd, came up with the idea after a bad experience at a restaurant; he wanted to convey his displeasure without making a fuss.

Todd started a business, got a patent in 2000 and ended up partnering in 2002 with Dallas-based Long Range Systems, a producer of restaurant paging systems. The idea is simple: At meal’s end, your check arrives on a black clipboard with a keyboard embedded in it. Hmm, that’s fun. Feel like taking a quick survey? Sure.

Survey pads are placed in a docking station, the data is downloaded every night and the restaurant is sent a pdf of the results the next morning. “A lot of measurement devices don’t isolate individual servers,” says Todd. “We generate a report every day that rates individual servers on whatever the restaurant is trying to measure. A restaurant can instantly react, and servers can be coached and counseled.”

Survey Says... [The Mouth of Tampa Bay]

Sometimes these interesting, sort-of-Miami-related stories end up in our e-mail inbox from newspapers in other parts of the country. Today, however, we got one from Malaysia. About Spanglish.

At any rate, it's written by a man in New York who marvels at fake words like "sheetrockero" and "chansa." But here's the part that interested us:

For example, in Chicago, New York City, and elsewhere, Mexicans and Central Americans have been trained by skilled Japanese sushi chefs. They are called susheros, a new word in both languages, and some of them now run their own sushi restaurants.

Have you ever heard the term sushero? It's possible that the word hasn't taken hold in South Florida kitchens yet. We tried to do a bit of research on other kitchen Spanglish terms, but we didn't find anything interesting. Have you heard any food-related new Spanglish terms lately?

And on another, non-food-related note, the author mentioned one word that he claims originated in Miami:

By 1961 in Miami, “wash” had already become juashanga and meant laundromat, and although Spanglish varies around the country, the verb watchar is common to many regions.

Spanglish and Nuyoricanspeak [The Star]

As many of you who surf popular food websites know, Advertising Age ran a story on Monday about how the fact that more moms are opting out of the workforce and choosing to stay home would affect the restaurant and supermarket businesses. Here's a brief excerpt to get you all caught up:

The decades-long rise of women in the work force -- and the related rise of meals bought from restaurants -- has ground to halt and begun to reverse since the turn of the millennium. The numbers have gotten little attention, and they fly in the face of conventional wisdom, but their ramifications are huge for restaurant, supermarket and food marketers.

Women's participation rate in the paid U.S. labor force topped out at just above 60% in 1999 and again in 2001 but has fallen since then, according to the Labor Department. Restaurant meals, fueled for decades by the migration of moms to the work force, also topped out at 211 per person per year in 2001 according to NPD and likewise have been bouncing lower since, hitting 207 this year.

For restaurants, it means an end to a demographic gold mine that fed decades of growth. For supermarkets, it means a reversal of a trend that fueled decades of decline and may even help savvier operators gain an edge in their long-losing battle against Wal-Mart. And for package-food companies, the trends offer a chance to gain ground on restaurants for the first time in decades.

Continue reading "Stay-At-Home Moms And The Restaurant Industry" »

We just learned of a gas station/restaurant in Homestead. The "slightly upscale" restaurant, called The Redland Grill, is inside a Shell station on Krome Avenue, and from what we've read, it's very popular:

"We have workers out in the fields working, picking food and vegetables," manager Domingo Saurez said. "There will be a president of a bank, owners of local business come in and have lunch and dinner with us."

Employees at the grill said the interesting combination of the crowd, gas station and affordable food offers something for everyone.

Motorists can gas up their cars and grab a bottle of wine instead of a six-pack of beer. They offer fine cigars and an almost South Beach-like atmosphere.

This concept could really take off in South Florida, an area so utterly dependent upon the car. You can fill up both your tank and your car's in one stop.

Combined Gas Station, Gourmet Restaurant Brings In Customers [NBC6]
El Carajo International Tapas & Wine [MenuPages]

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

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.

Continue reading "Raw Milk Is A Trend, So Says The New York Times" »