Make Newman’s Your Own

It was a sad day when, on September 26, legendary actor Paul Newman passed away after a devastating bout with lung cancer. Newman was a marvel on the screen — he was nominated eight times for an Academy Award, winning once for The Color of Money, and he’ll be forever…

Drunk Bus!

Listen up, party people. There’s a principle that governs any event where free or extremely cheap drinks are involved. It’s called the Open Bar Postulate. It states the following: the time frame in which free alcohol is available is in inverse proportion to the drinker’s level of shitfacedness. In other…

Upgrading the Ol’ Grill

I’ve used and abuse my poor Weber (Thermos make) grill over the years — slow cooking pork for hours on end, roasting peppers for bold salsas, and grilling hundreds of steaks, chops, and burgers has taken its toll on the big hunk of metal. So when I set out to…

New Brew: Beer Events and the Fresh Beer Times

I was just reading the latest installment of the Fresh Beer Times newsletter, put out bi-monthly by Fort Lauderdale’s own distributor of fine, hopped products Fresh Beer, Inc, and I have to say that it kicks ass. It comes out on the second and fourth Fridays of each month, and…

More Turkey-Shaped Objects to Drool Over

Every so often, Robbin Slocum, wife of our Managing Editor Ed Newton, treats the editorial department to one of her delicious rum cakes. These things are no joke. First off, they’re doused in enough tasty, fermented cane that if you had a post gustatory smoke after eating a slice you’d…

Meeting People is Easy

So what if Match.com kicked you out — how were you supposed to know it’s not cool to tell your date you have mace in your pocketbook? And eHarmony… hah! Those losers rejected you just because you put “no man-hating she-devils” in your profile. Well, no one said online dating…

Gobble Gobble Hey!

Even though many of us are likely to spend tonight on our couches in the throes of a tryptophan-induced coma, there are plenty of reasons why you might want to outsource your Thanksgiving experience. For one, you won’t have to listen to your gun-toting uncle whine about Obama winning the…

Get a Whiff of Good Times

Smell that? Smells like, er, livestock? Funnel cakes? No, no… it smells like fun! The 33rd-annual Broward County Fair is hijacking Fort Lauderdale Stadium through November 30, bringing with it over 100 vomit-inducing rides, stacked midway games, live shows, and attractions (1301 NW 55th St., Fort Lauderdale). It’s a place…

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

Every year you make a promise to yourself to get your Christmas shopping done early. You swear you won’t procrastinate like you did last Christmas, when you ended up giving out leftover hurricane supplies as last minute presents. (“Oh come on, Dad,” you said, “Sterno is great for sooo many…

Soak it In, Fellas

Who would’ve thunk that the Miami Dolphins would still be in legitimate playoff contention at this point in the season? With the scrappy Fins performing above all expectations, we finally have a reason to celebrate, tailgate, bar hop, and generally pig out. Although the Fins have already played most of…

I’ll See Your Three Animals and Raise you a Fourth…

Corey JamesBy now the Frankenstein monster of Thanksgiving dishes, the turducken, is old news: Stuffing a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey is just sooo Thanksgiving 2007. I mean, three animals? Is that all you got? Well, Corey James over at Bacon Today has you beat, my friend. This,…

Fried, Smoked, Dipped, and Fried Again at the Broward County Fair

The fair is a veritable smorgasbord…                Photos by C. StilesIf there’s one thing to be said about the traditional county fair, it’s that they’re perfect testing grounds for new foods; prime places to push the boundaries a bit, largely in pursuit of an answer to the question, “What doesn’t taste…

Culinary Travels in Costa Rica: Part 3

I’m going to wrap up this short little porthole into Costa Rican cuisine talking a little bit about everything — probably in a very rambling, tangential sort of way. Just a fair warning. Native fruit is definitely one of the more unique aspects of eating in Costa Rica. You’ve got…

Culinary Travels in Costa Rica: Part 2

One of Costa Rica’s many beach-side sodas, shaded from the hot coastal sun by an umbrella of tall trees. Yesterday I talked a little bit about Costa Rica’s plato tipical, casado – and more specifically, rice and beans. Now, when you’re producing rice and beans in such quantities as to…

Culinary Travels in Costa Rica: Part 1

A view of Volcan Arenal from a hiking trail that traverses old lava flow from its 1992 eruption. Arenal is the third most active volcano in the world. We hiked through rainforests and gasped at volcanoes, lounged on white sand beaches and wound our way around perilous mountain passes. Oh…

If this Cooking is Light, I Don’t Wanna Be Wrong

Good news, Francophiles: Cooking Light, the nation’s largest food and healthy living magazine, is holding an event in Fort Lauderdale aimed squarely at your chèvre-loving stomachs. Today at 6 p.m., filets will be seared, pears caramelized, and blue cheese … er, cheesed. Cooking Light resident chef Billy Strynkowski will host…

Get Up to Get, Get, Downtown

Twenty bucks barely gets you a drink and an appetizer at a nice restaurant these days, but tonight, $20 is enough for you to get your complete glutton on at Riverwalk Get Downtown. That’s right: for a measly Jackson, you’ll get access to a three-hour celebration of downtown culture in…

Attacked by Snakes!

With their golden-age comic book costumes, silly supervillains, and absurd song titles, the Aquabats are punk rawk’s answer to GWAR. Only, instead of promising the destruction of the known universe through copious bodily fluids, the ’Bats are out to protect it. The superhero rock brigade got its start in Huntington…

I Got Soul But I’m Not a Soldier

Ray Charles had it. So did James Brown — they don’t call him the Godfather for nothing. But having soul doesn’t stop and start with music, let alone soul music. It’s a spiritual, artistic drive present in all good art — at least according to local DJ Haviken Hayes. He’s…

Strike a Match

Tequila and lime. Sunday and brunch. Pryor and Wilder. Yep, nothing enhances quite like a perfect pair, which is why New Times’ own wine and food extravaganza, Pairings, looks like a sure-fire hit. Thursday at 7:30 p.m., the Broward Center for the Performing Arts will fill with all manner of…

SoFla Represent!

We don’t know if you’ve heard this or not, but the economy, man … it’s in a little bit of a downturn. Shhhh, not too loud! Anyway, our financial state most assuredly sucks for everyone, but all the nifty mom and pop stores in South Florida are feeling the pinch…

Panda Bears and Skewered Meat

“Corndogs are basically the best and worst of America,” says Aimee Sauer, spokeswoman for the National Corndog Federation. “Where else but America can you have all of the excess but none of the guilt … on a stick. And they’re phallic.” OK, so Sauer might not be pumping corndogs with…