While We’re Talking Cajun…

Speaking of Nawlins-style grub, Rosey Baby is offering a special through Friday night on their famous garlic blue crabs and crawfish boil. While the little buggers last, if you purchase a dozen Cajun-boiled blue crabs or garlic crabs, the Babe will throw in a pound of fresh-daily Cajun-boiled crawdads for…

A Culinary Tour of New Orleans, Part 2

Picking right back up from yesterday’s post on my weeklong eating adventure in New Orleans, I’m going to talk a little bit about sammiches, a foodstuff that’s well-respected and well-represented in the Crescent City. While some cities can claim to have contributed one sandwich to the national culinary landscape –…

Cocktail of the Week

It’s easy to fall into the trap of overdoing a mixed drink. Sure, booze purists insist that mixing anything aside from a splash of water will ruin any decent alcohol, but sometimes slugging straight whiskey isn’t the most refreshing summertime drink on the beach. But pounding down frozen cocktails in…

The Daily Mouthful: On Chocolate

“If you are not feeling well, if you have not slept, chocolate will revive you. But you have no chocolate! I think of that again and again! My dear, how will you ever manage?” — Marquise de Sevigne, February 11, 1677…

Shining Starr

Here’s what I get for being a snarky little bitch. I get to eat my words, one at a time, sandwiched between rounds of buttery brioche and a layer of juicy Kobe beef, washed down with a designer “Las Olas” martini made of gin, agave, and elderflower liqueur. This all…

Le Petit Pain

Pissed off at Publix? Think you just can’t choke down one more slice of gummy, supermarket-nuked bread? Le Petit Pain in Lantana, run by Gaelle and Thomas Tcherniavsky, a gorgeous, elegant young Parisian couple, turns out a French baguette ($2.25 for a long, thin loaf) unrivaled in all details: a…

CSPI Releases GorgeFest Report

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has just released its report “Xtreme Eating 2009” detailing the nine worst restaurant foods, and three of them, a full one-third, come straight from The Cheesecake Factory. By “worst,” I mean those “appetizers” and entrees that pack the equivalent or more of…

How to Flame a Fish, at City Fish Market, Answered?

You OK grilling burgers and steaks but still afraid to toast that $22 fillet of fish over open coals? I suffer this complaint myself: My fillets routinely get stuck to the grill and fall into fragments when I try to pry them up; or I get nervous and undercook my…

The Daily Mouthful: A La Creole

“A good cup of Creole Coffee! Is there anything in the whole range of food substances to be compared with it? And is there any city in the world where coffee is so delightfully concocted as in New Orleans?” — The Picayune’s Creole Cook Book (1901)…

I’m Eating What?!

It’s been nearly a week since I put that bitter melon in my mouth, and I swear I can still taste the damn thing once in a while. Either that or my taste buds are still having nightmares from which I fear they’ll never awake. Seeing that today I have…

Say Cheese: Publix Embraces Le Fromage

I usually don’t pay much attention to anything at Publix. If there are two kinds of people in the world, the glassy-eyed ones that stumble about in grocery stores for hours, and the itchy ones who think five minutes is way too long to spend among shelves of Spaghetti-O’s, class…

A Culinary Tour of New Orleans

We rolled into town like birds of prey and had to be rolled out like over-stuffed roasters. Three friends and myself spent last week devouring our way through the vibrant culinary city of New Orleans. And what a trip it was: we must have ravaged whole sea beds, made scarce…

Max’s Offers Change You Can Believe In

We’ve all heard a lot lately about “change you can believe in,” but Max’s Grille is delivering spare change you can believe in.The longtime Mizner Park standby, which still dishes better food than 90 percent of its local competition, is offering a three-course meal for only $18 to $26 –…

Cucina Verite: La Grande Bouffe

I had to skip last week’s Cucina Verite because it took me a full 10 days to get through the entirety of Marco Ferreri’s La Grande Bouffe, and frankly, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about it. When the film was first shown at Cannes in 1973, Catherine…

Primanti Bros. Move In on Elwood’s

As you may have heard, Elwood’s Dixie Bar-B-Q in Delray Beach, the long-running biker-bar/barbecue joint, where Elvis sightings were about as common as the tramp stamps on the shapely behinds of the female patrons — is closing. There are a lot of heartbroken funkabilly and hot sauce lovers wandering around…

Cheap Wine That Doesn’t Suck: A Marital Blend from Napa

Here’s a case where one plus one equals a wine too good to pass up. We’re talking the 2008 Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc-Viognier, a marriage of two under-appreciated grapes made in the Napa Valley and consummated in your mouth. Unlike most marriages, though, it will only set you back 12…

Eats for Under $7: Breakfast or Brunch at JP’s Bagel Place

It’s not exactly hard to find a cheap place for breakfast. There are hundreds of chains offering the typical eggs, pig product, and fried potato for a couple of bucks, but they normally come with a much bigger cost. Try eating at a big-time chain or fast-food restaurant for breakfast…

Olde-Tyme Diner Lingo

A recent NPR story on regional foods during the Great Depression and the uncompleted WPA “America Eats” project reference Mark Kurlansky’s recently published Food of a Younger Land (“a marvelous goulash of gastronomical oddities and antiques”). Kurlansky has cataloged food-related slang by region, one of which is “New York Soda…

Weekend Blog Watch

via Will Jog For Food Although Clean Plate Charlie is the only food blog you really need to read daily, some people just can’t get enough. Here are some highlights other food blogs: Summer is just around the corner, and that means unbearable heat. Sounds like a good time to…

Ask The Critic: Prime Gator

Dear Exalted Know it All:A native Floridian told me once that most of the alligator tail sold in Florida restaurants is the throwaway meat from the outsides of the tail. It’s the center tenderloin that the natives eat, he said. So is there anywhere in South Florida that makes an…