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
Clean Plate Charlie is obsessed with burgers. Hey, it's better than sneaking out of the governor's mansion to rub the bacon with former Argentine TV reporters or performing unnatural acts on small farm animals. Charlie's burger fetish plays itself out by coming up with patties that channel the tastes, textures, and ingredients of cuisines in which the burger is more American curiosity than one of the three basic food groups (the other two being French fries and beer). In an earlier p
Bill CitaraWhen 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. . .&
I took a trip to the beach last night and sank into some Pho at Basilic, a Vietnamese restaurant that took over Tedesco's old spot on Commercial Blvd. The tiny bistro serves a mean bowl of the stuff, fragrant with anise and ginger and loaded with strips of thinly sliced steak that cooks inside of the steaming bowl. On the side was the traditional salvo of accoutrements: a frock of peppery basil, some crisp bean sprouts, slivers of jalapeno, a wedge of lime, and a dish filled with hoisin and s
Vietnamese is fun food. Playing with the various condiments available -- fish sauce (nuoc cham), chili paste, soy, lemongrass and garlic spread, hoisin, sriracha, and more -- requires a bit of lightheartedness coupled with a willingness to experiment. But the results are very exciting, especially at Basilic Vietnamese Grill, a new restaurant in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. We previewed Basilic a few weeks ago on the blog, and we loved the fragrant bowls of pho and the light, healthy flavor shared
