Subject: Fruits and Vegetables

• Building a Better Market

  February 12, 2009

• Booze Hound - Chef Allen's

  August 15, 2008

• Michael's Genuine Offers a Prix Fixe Menu

  September 2, 2008

• UPDATED: Gold Medal Wine Tour Stops in at Two Chefs Too

  September 22, 2008

• Adventures in Tailgating, Part 2: Beer Braised Sausage Hoagies

  October 10, 2008

• Food Without Fire: Raw Food at Whole Foods

  October 24, 2008

• Event: Cooking with Les Dames d'Escoffier

  October 29, 2008

• Last Minute Thanksgivings

  I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for you schmucks who haven't given one second's thought to what you're doing for MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY -- since personally my 2008 Thanksgiving has been in planning and development since last May. I've ordered (and received) my absurdly expensive Heritage turkey, I've got the cornucopia of squashes, root vegetables, and potatoes and green beans sourced from the finest markets, the fresh sage from Green Cay farms, the salad greens from Swank Farms, the homemade

  November 26, 2008

• Post Holiday Depression Diet

  If you're like me after the holidays, a person who routinely has trouble pushing herself away from the table**, you're feeling fat and broke. So I looked up some traditional Depression Era recipes, hearkening back to the days when everybody was skinny because they ate so much cabbage, noodles, beans, and potatoes (for some reason back in the '30s, carb consumption didn't lead to out-of-control weight gain). Most of these recipes are vaguely in the "stone soup" family, where a minuscule dab of pr

  December 29, 2008

• Karu & Y Tries Again

  I could never get it straight: Was Karu the restaurant and Y the lounge, or vice versa? No matter now, as the reopened venue's newly christened restaurant name is Seecomar's at Karu & Y, which I thought was a misspelling of Seacomber's until I saw that the new owner's name is Clive Seecomar. Karu's (or Y's) executive chef was Arturo Paz (pictured above), who returns in the same capacity at Seecomar's. The menu is different, although stylistically in sync with Paz' past work -- he tends to ut

  January 8, 2009

• Soup is Good (and Warming) Food

  You may have noticed that it's colder than a witch's teet outside. I mean, I really enjoy these few months where flip flops and Bermuda shorts aren't required attire lest you suffer heat stroke, but come on... 40s? That's not what I signed up for, folks. So last night, feeling frosty and miserable on my way home from the office, I stopped into Gabose Korean & Japanese restaurant for some much needed warmth, and found it in a bowl of ultra-spicy blue crab soup, seen above. I knew I was on the

  January 22, 2009

• Shining Starr

  June 4, 2009

• A Good Chef Is Hard to Find

  It's election season: Stephen Asprinio needs your vote

  November 6, 2008

• Gaia Ristorante: The Full Story

  As Short Order reported last week, Gaia Ristorante, the latest venture of seasoned restaurateur Tom Billante, has opened at 101 Ocean Drive (Hilton Bentley Hotel)-- which I erroneously cited as the site of Billante's last Ocean Drive venue, ViVi. In fact, Prime Italian has moved into that space, and Gaia is its new neighbor. There is a whole lot more info about the place to impart to you now. For example, we can say with certainty that there is a "walking menu", which features a laminated piece

  February 9, 2009

• From BBQ to Bombolotti

  We hit four completely unconnected restaurants for some tapas-length reviews.

  April 9, 2009

• Daniel Boulud's Palm Beach restaurant finally hits its stride

  March 5, 2009

• Sage Bistro in Hollywood pulls off two concepts at once.

  Can't afford the oysters? Console yourself with everything else.

  February 12, 2009

• Psst... Did You Hear?

  By Word of Mouth is the same as it ever was.

  January 29, 2009

• Chefs on the Green

  January 22, 2009

• Ouzo Blue and Skorpios II Restore the Glory That Is Greece

  January 15, 2009

• Landmark Status

  Nick & Johnnie's knows its history

  December 11, 2008

• Gobble Gobble Hey!

  November 27, 2008

• The Potato Chip Chronicles

  Fine dining ends not with a bang but a crackle

  November 13, 2008

• Cooking Like a Rock Star

  No need for nostalgia at Giovanni Rocchio's Valentino's

  October 23, 2008

• For Those About to Wok

  October 23, 2008

• Carolina's on My Mind

  There's more than one way to skin a recession: Coal Pizza

  October 9, 2008

• How Sweet It Is

  Miss the old Herban? Sugar n Spice is just as nice

  October 2, 2008

• The All New Same Old

  The new regime at Trina isn't taking many risks

  September 25, 2008

• I’ll Stir Fry You in My Wok

  September 11, 2008

• Straight Hot Dog, No Chaser

  The Palm Beach Grill is a sobering experience

  September 11, 2008

• Gussying up the 'Cue

  Barbequelooza returns to Johnny V’s

  July 31, 2008

• Hoppin' Glad

  May 21, 2009

• Reoriented

  At Origin, the beautiful room is no longer empty.

  April 23, 2009

• Easy Does It

  May 7, 2009

• Eats for Under $7: New York Steak Pizza at Pizza Rustica

  via pizzarustica.comYou've never had a pizza like the kind they sling at Pizza Rustica. Sure, they serve the staples -- pepperoni, margherita, supreme, and Hawaiian -- but they specialize in gourmet pizzas not found at most joints. Take their Con Vegetable, for instance: eggplant, zucchini, squash, peppers, onions, fresh mozzarella, and garlic on a flaky whole-wheat crust. The New York Steak has to be the highlight: perfectly seasoned ground sirloin, red onions, and roasted peppers held together

  May 4, 2009

• Movie of the Week: Tortilla Soup

  Raquel Welch and Hector Elizondo Today begins our Cucina Verite Movie of the Week (see our list of upcoming films to watch along with us), and in honor of Cinco de Mayo, we start with Tortilla Soup.First, a little trivia about Maria Ripoli's 2001 film. (1) The beautiful culinary scenes were choreographed by Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feninger, the Food Network's "Two Hot Tamales," who run the Border Grill in Santa Monica. (2) Tortilla Soup is a remake of Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman (which we'

  May 5, 2009

• Hyatt Launches New Burger Joint, I Swear

  Customers love the Hyatt's new hamburgers.I'm not hallucinating, I promise. As if we hadn't said quite enough about hamburgers on this blog, I just got word that the Hyatt Bonaventure in Weston is introducing a new Burgers and Brews menu at their Banyan Restaurant, where they've put together a lineup of Angus and Wagyu sammiches  but also chicken, blue crab, and eggplant "burgers" (yah, right). They're particularly proud of their homemade toppings and condiments over at the Hyatt. It says h

  May 7, 2009

• The World's Most Perfect Sandwich is Made of Leftovers - UPDATED

  And you thought the best thing about Mother's Day was the satisfaction you get from making your mom feel like the most special lady on Earth, for at least the course of one homemade brunch. Actually, the best part is the leftover bacon - enough fatty, crispy slices of swine so as to be able to create the World's Most Perfect Sandwich only hours after gorging oneself on omelets and French Toast. I'm talking, of course, about the BLT.Is there anything better than a bacon sandwich, all salty and sm

  May 11, 2009

• Vietnamese Banh Mi Meets All-American Burger

  Photos by Bill CitaraOK, so if you tried out last week's little lesson on pork-stuffed shrimp, you've got three-fourths of a pound of ground pork, rather assertively seasoned with black pepper, garlic, cilantro, and fish sauce. What do you do with all that pig? Well, you could freeze it for cramming into some monstro-shrimp at a later date; you could roll it into meatballs and serve them with pad Thai noodles tossed with the same sweet Thai chili sauce meant for the shrimp.   Or you co

  June 10, 2009

• NuVal System Separates the Good From the Bad

  Yogurt: full of calcium, vitamins, and candyA new online site called the NuVal Nutritional Scoring System gives you the skinny on your favorite fatty snacks, using  an easy 1 to 100 scoring system to rate those Pringles and the YoCrunch cookies and cream Oreo yogurt you've been stuffing your face with lately. It's all done with an amazing new patented algorithm that calculates the complex relationships between transfats and bioflavonoids or something. There's a mysterious "team of experts"

  June 22, 2009

• I'm Eating What?! Stuffed Cabbage in a Can

  When I was a kid, I remember my mother packing lunches in a brown paper bag and throwing in a little note on my napkin throughout grade school. As I complained of embarrassment, the notes disappeared, as did the carefully prepared cream cheese and sliced green olive sandwiches. They were replaced by Lunchables, prepackaged slices of cheese, meat, and crackers that were as easy to pack in my backpack as they were to open and devour. After middle school, though, I pretty much made it a point to a

  June 24, 2009

• Brother Tuckers in Pompano Beach Shares the Gifts of Beer and Food With the Rest of Us

  August 13, 2009

• Ilios at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Puts a Fork in the Road

  August 20, 2009

• Stealing From the Restaurant: Tuna Burger with Teriyaki Aioli

  Bill Citara​When John Montagu, First Lord of the Admiralty and avowed Satanist (!), asked his valet to slap a hunk of meat between two slices of bread in 1762, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich could hardly have known that almost 250 years later a restaurant in Boca Raton would nestle a juicy slab of grilled tuna inside a bun smeared with teriyaki aioli, then top it with a crunchy, Asian-style slaw in much the same the manner as the pulled pork sandwiches of the American South.  Like, duh. . .&

  August 26, 2009

• Michelle Bernstein's at the Omphoy First Impressions

  Michy B looking dead sexy in the kitchen.​Last weekend, perhaps Miami's best-known restaurateur, Michelle Bernstein, made the trip up north to Palm Beach and debuted her new restaurant, MB at the Omphoy. From her days at Tantra and Azul to the opening of her flagship restaurant, Michy's, in 2005, Bernstein has long captivated Miami with simple, elegant dishes that draw from her Latino background. In 2007, Bernstein was awarded the coveted James Beard Award for Best New Chef South, only a year

  September 9, 2009

• Shepherd's Pie: Meaty Perfection in a Pan, or, Proof that the English Really Can Cook

  Photo by Flickr user mitchenall​For a time, when I was a lad growing up in New York, I went to an obnoxiously upscale grade school called St. Bernard's (pronounced with Connecticut lockjaw of course, as in BERnerd's, not BerNARD'S). I still have a copy of the school's Christmas card from when I was in first grade and I was selected to be the cover boy, wearing a jaunty cap and posed with a giant (you guessed right) St. Bernard. I had Angus Young shorts on and everything.I didn't much care for

  October 2, 2009

• The Mustard Seed Bistro in Cooper City Works With a Very Specific Crowd

  October 15, 2009

• Anatomy of a Bad Meal at Latitudes Beach Cafe

  John LinnMiso sea bass at Latitudes: Oh, the humanity.​Last week I checked out Ron Duprat's restaurant in the Hollywood Beach Marriott, Latitudes Beach Cafe. I high hopes for Duprat's food after catching the Haitian-born chef on this season of the Bravo series Top Chef, even if longtime critic Gail Shepherd had once ravaged the place with such a scathing review you can still hear her pounding on the keyboard as you read it. But that was years ago. Certainly the affable Duprat has come a long w

  October 14, 2009

• Callaro's Prime in Manalapan Serves Up Old-Fashioned, Beefy Indulgence

  November 5, 2009

• Sampling RA Sushi's New Menu

  Jarret StreinerRA's signature "RA"ckin' shimp, sweet onion salmon sashimi, RA chips and salsa, and kaisen ceviche in the center.​By Dori ZinnThe Outback of maki rolls RA Sushi unveiled it's new menu this week. All three South Florida locations - Palm Beach Gardens, Pembroke Pines, and South Miami - will be slinging new dishes, which Charlie sampled at media dinner this Monday. The menu rollout - an annual fall occasion - brings some kinky new names, but not all of them are anything special. N

  November 19, 2009