Forget what your mama’s always told you: You can have pizza for breakfast. And you don’t even have to eat it cold, right out of the fridge. Not if you frequent Primanti Brothers Pizza & Grill (901 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, 954-565-0605). Open for three decades on…
I have always judged a dish’s quotient of spice by my father’s head. Balding for as long as I can remember, my dad, who enjoys a bit of zest now and then, sports a scalp that is a veritable litmus test for chilies. Mild? He might get a little clammy…
Judging from the piles of freshly ground, aromatic spices just waiting to be scooped into jars and taken home for your culinary pleasure, you might think you were standing in a medina in Tangiers. Indeed, the stalls in the Festival Marketplace can be as twisting and convoluted as those in…
What is it with you and Chinese food?” a neighbor recently asked me. Apparently, he’d been observing the steady parade of delivery drivers from various local restaurants in our driveway and the takeout boxes of yang chow fried rice and moo shu pork in our refrigerator for the past two…
The moniker seems clear enough, but don’t be taken in: Thai-An Market (2593 S. State Rd. 7, Pembroke Pines, 954-893-5838) is actually a Vietnamese grocery store. Inside, in addition to Asian spices, pickles, condiments, and produce, you’ll also find authentic banh mi, a hard-to-procure item in Florida. These French-Vietnamese submarine…
In the contact sport that is the restaurant business, the familiar athletic clichés apply, albeit in slightly modified form. For example, while it’s true that “winning isn’t everything — it’s the only thing,” “how you play the game” is directly related to whether you win at all. And of course,…
Vintage clothing might be the fashion right now. But too often, it seems like once we’re all dressed up in someone else’s grandma’s pencil skirt and beaded sweater, we’ve got no place to go. Here’s some direction: Check out Hometown Favorites (www.hometownfavorites.com; or call 888-694-2656), and throw an era-oriented dinner…
Ah, the benefits of a music education. Now, I’m not such an advocate that I believe anyone can learn to play an instrument. I’m not so sure that Mozart makes you better in math. I don’t think that all babies are born with perfect pitch and that tone-deafness is only…
Fans of ye olde yak meat, rejoice. All two of you will be delighted to hear that ’tis the season for a yak burger barbecue, to be held December 7 at the Milagro Center of Delray Beach (101 SE Second Ave., 561-963-0336). The idea behind the yak drive is twofold:…
You know you’re getting old when bowling becomes vigorous exercise. And you know you’re getting desperate when you crave a dish that’s made in the restaurant of a bowling alley. Actually, I’m not a stranger to either sensation. I generally thought of bowling alleys as places to score cheap booze;…
The coffeehouse is dead. Long live Chocolate Moose Café (9118 State Rd. 84, Davie, 954-474-5040), where you can get a rich cuppa brew to sip while you listen to live bands. Just don’t assume you’ll find chocolate mousse here; the real mascot is the “white cow” — a heavenly concoction…
You’d be forgiven if, just by reading the advertisement for the Palace, a two-month-old Indian restaurant on State Road 84 in Davie, you make some assumptions. You notice immediately the large type for the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. Your eye then is drawn to the box that proclaims that “banquet hall…
Don’t rock the vote, baby. Eat it. That’s what Wilton Manors mayor and Stork’s Bakery and Café owner Jim Stork wants you to do. On November 4, he sponsored a dessert reception at Religious Science Fort Lauderdale (1550 NE 26th St., Wilton Manors, 954-566-2868) to earmark the Eat the Vote…
Rare hamburgers, fair warning: Your days are numbered as surely as those of cigarettes in restaurants. Many operators simply won’t serve you anymore — at least not without written consent. Thanks to the much-publicized proliferation of buddy bacteria E.coli and salmonella in worldwide supplies of ground meat, restaurants, especially chains,…
Knowing nothing else about a restaurant but its menu, you’d be forgiven for thinking “Daisy,” “Mermaid,” and “Cinderella” were items at a Disney-themed restaurant. But add in the name Monet Café (7040 W. Palmetto Park Rd., Boca Raton, 561-368-1740), the Garden Shops at Boca location, and the cozy luncheonette setting…
“We have rights too, ya know,” a would-be smoker grumbled as he was escorted directly past our table at the Gourmet Diner in Weston and out the front door. He shot a glance that could spark a match at my father, the tattletale who had first spied the other customer…
Get ready, get set, get your mouthwash. The fourth-annual Delray Beach Garlic Fest kicks off November 1 at 5 p.m. in downtown Delray, between the Old School House campus and NE Second Avenue, and doesn’t end till 6 p.m. November 3. What to expect: three days of garlic-oriented activities, events,…
If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that the three-month-old Cafe del Rio was a setup. Some kind of a test. Or maybe even a warning, the subtitle “True Tex-Mex” culinary code for “All Hope Abandon, Ye Who Enter Here.” The first of a Texas chain to open…
Here are some things I just don’t see in every restaurant: A new hire shadowing an experienced server in order to learn the velvet ropes. A waitress who doesn’t need for me to point out the wine I order from the list but rather nods in recognition at the name…
This is the way to promote an event: Throw four or five pre-event parties for the sole reason of garnering enthusiasm. The Boca Raton Historical Society is doing just that with Boca Bacchanal, a wine fest and auction that will take place in March. Once a month, leading up to…
South Floridians have long known the meaning of “casual upscale” dressing; in fact, given our climate, both literal and cultural, we practically invented the style. But it’s been far too long since that concept has been applied to the actual restaurant rather than what patrons wear to it. That’s where…
The alligator lay sprawled across the entranceway to the walking path at Shark Valley, as stopped and unmovable as a battery-dead wristwatch, absorbing the distant warmth of the winter sun. The only way around the six-foot creature, if we wanted to even start our stroll through this part of Everglades…
