Nordstrom Bistro

These are the best fries. All I have to say about this place is best fries, especially when dipped in the olive aoli.

Haitian Food - Tap Tap

Happened upon this Haitian restaurant in South Beach yesterday. Never tried Haitian food, so wasn't too sure what to expect. Ended up being a Caribbean style with creole sauces and different curry variations. Food was also heavily influenced by French and African cooking, or so I read. I had the shrimp creole which was had a very distinct garlic flavor and great creole sauce. Also tried a piece of fried goat meet, little like pork really, but very good. Other cool thing about the place was the truck parked out front, can't get this paint job just anywhere I'm sure.

Bently, Porche, Bently, Rolls Royce

The cars ouside this pizza spot in the Miami Design district were
probably better than the pizza, but the bar was set pretty high. We
sat outside since the weather was perfect, and there were tons of
people out on the street enjoying the night.

Mojito

Starting with a pretty nice Mojito at this Haitian restaurant in SB.

Caf lunch

Anytime you see onion rings on top of a sandwich that's a good sign. I initially intended to eat a little light today after gorging on several pounds of meat last night, but after seeing this thing that was no longer an option. Keep in mind, this is a corporate cafeteria that's making this. That in itself is amazing having seen some superb crap at corporate cafs. The sandwich was great and the perfect size. If that's not enough, there are some fried plantains behind you can't see.

Texas de Brazil

This place is a Brazilian style steak house. The waiters bring countless different types of meat to your table on skewers and cut off pieces for you. Obviously there is no choice but to over eat and mostly on meat. If you don't feel like there is a small child in your stomach, you can eat more. They do have an excellent salad bar, but the meat is what this place is about. Pretty dark, so hard to get any good pics, but here is one of the meat and one of a big plate on Heart of Palm from the salad bar.

Shoji Sushi

Great sushi spot in South Beach. Best though is the Mango Tini, and tonight the seviche. Seviche had hamachi, avocado, pear, and red onion. The seviche was one of the best I've had, lime was not too strong and everything blended together great. It was also not over marinated so the fish was just right.

Panera breakfast sandwich

After a great night of excellent Indian food, why not revert to some seriously Americanized commercial chain food. Mostly because they have a good spot to read the paper, their hazelnut coffee is great, and the sandwich is the best bagel sandwich I've had. That's saying a lot by the way since I baked bagels for about five years. It's just good, not much else to say about it.

Indian Dinner Main Course

After stuffing ourselves with tons of apps, here's what we downed for the main course. For dinner it was Chicken Chettinade, Chole, Potatoes, and Roti of course. I could probably eat roti every day from here on out. My friend Shilpa helping cook used to have these for breakfast in India or packed as lunch with potatoes. It really is disheartening to think that some kids here are eating lunchables and vending machine snacks when there is stuff like this out there.

Chole or chick peas with several different spices, onions, and tomatoes.

Fried potatoes. I'll add recipe once I find my paper I wrote it on. Very close to best potatoes ever though.

Chicken Chettinade Recipe - this stuff was great. Check out all the spices this calls for. How did anyone ever come up with this recipe. Seems like it would be hard to just happen to combine all these. Glad they did though.

Indian Food

Here is where you start if you're cooking Indian, well after the wine is open at least. This food requires a wide variety of spices, so you may as well get them all out to start off with. Not to mention it looks and smells great while you're figuring out how in the world you going to use them all. The curry we made actually required 17 different herbs and spices. Our menu was extensive, and produced lots of excellent dishes, pictures, and a fun afternoon. First the appetizers which were tandori chicken legs, shrimp (recipe at very bottom), and samosas. Also made a cilantro chutney to accompany.

1 bag EZ peel Shrimp
1 bunch Cilantro
12-15 curry leaves
1 red onion
1 heaped tbsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp turmeric
11/2 tsp red chilies

Marinade:
Mix ginger garlic paste with turmeric and red chillies. Massage the marinade into shrimp and store in the refrigerator for an hour.

Roast/sauté onion in a pan, when brown, ground into a paste.

Heat shrimp in a pan on medium heat for about 5-8 minutes to semi cook them. Take another pan, add oil and shrimp (discard extra water from the shrimp).

Add onion paste. Sauté for a few minutes. Add curry leave and cilantro. Cover and cook for a 1-2 minutes.

Churrasco

This has got to be one of the best corporate cafeteria meals that will fit onto a plate. Green on top is chimichurri sauce which a mixture of mostly garlic, parsley, and oil. Better have the better part of a pack of gum on hand if you're planning to return to work afterwords. The rice, beans and plantains to accompany were great too. Best though is the churrasco without a doubt. There is probably better out there, but not for $6 at the company caf.

China Grill - continued

Xanadu(ZAN-uh-doo, -dyoo) - an idyllic, exotic place of great luxury. I left off with my Old Fashioned in what I called Xanadu. China Grill while idyllic and luxurious probably isn't exotic. The $50 million yachts parked outside are a different story though. Didn't really care about the exoticness, because it's super tasty and sometimes that's what counts. We had calamari salad, szechuan beef, drunken chicken, avocado fried rice, lobster mashed potatoes, and ice cream cake. All are great and worthy of at least two helpings, or three if nobody's going to finish off the salad.

China Grill

Old Fashion down so far. Stay tuned for more culinary xanadu.

Cantina 27 - in Miami Beach

I've spoke on this place before, and it continues to be fantabulous. I would never use that word on my own, and blushed as I typed it, but it surfaced at dinner tonight and is a fitting adjective. My tongue and curious mind had it out with the entree selection as usual upon a return after something great. Tongue desperately wanted the Lamb Ragu again, curious mind wanted something new of course. Ended up getting the Goat Cheese and Pear Ravioli topped with walnuts in a cream sauce. By the end both tongue and mind were ecstatic. Goat cheese and pears worked great together like Nancy Pelosi and the Devil (well maybe not that good). Anyways, here's a pic and can't wait for my next visit.

Lime

Hope I can live up to the task of describing the best taco/burrito shop east of the Mississippi. Possibly even east of east San Diego, but don't want to rule out several parts of New Mexico and Colorado. I've been to both the Aventura and South Beach locations of Lime many times and neither ever disappoints in their culinary perfection of the quick burrito/taco/or salad. So here goes, some do's and don't of how to run the perfect burrito/taco shop.

1. Don't have some cheesy saying that everyone stops and says when you walk in, like "Welcome to Mo's". I'm here for a burrito, not an ice cream, and we know they really don't give a shit. At Lime you're always greeted by the uber cool Miami chick at the cash register that tries to make you feel like you're barely cool enough to order. And trust me you barely are, it's that good.

2. Customers should not have the choice of what to put on their burrito. This ends up being a giant mess when the cheap ass in front of you gets every single thing, then the kid behind can't roll it up and it breaks, and you get the point.

3. Salsa bar - you gotta have a salsa bar with some balls. They all have to be good, and there needs to be several, but one's gotta scorch your mouth off if you so choose. Lime has an awesome habanaro choice that will oblige. If that's not enough, they have several in bottles that will burn through Styrofoam.

4. Fish tacos - either you have them every day and they're fresh, or you don't. Not much to say here...

5. There must be outside seating where you can enjoy a burrito in 75 degree weather in February.

Here is a pic of my Chicken Fajita Salad I had:

Pork belly slider

Think this is the first time I've had pork belly. The slider was an
appetizer at Lucky 32, and also had BBQ sauce and some peppers on it.
Overall good, but way too much fat for my taste. Pork belly is
probably about 50% fat which resulted in some serious drippage while
eating these.

Plantain Chips

Some plantain chips at my favorite Cuban spot in Miami. Not pictured
is the garlic sauce and cilantro sauce for dipping. These are very
addicting, so watch out if you come accross some. They were the
perfect prefix for the massive plate of pork that followed. I've
commented several times before on the supreme superiority of the Cuban
pork so won't go on and on like I could. But seriously, I could go for
a swim in a pool filled with it.

Little Havana

My definate favorite Cuban meal in Miami. This is a shot of the roast
pork which is good enough to make you want to eat a pork lollypop. If
they made chewing gum out of this stuff, it would be more popular than
American Idol. Also came with rice, black beans, and plantains.

Abraxae in SB

Westmalle Tripple from a great beer bar in Miami. Abraxae has abot 170
beers in the bottle.

Lamb Ragù

Had a great lamb ragu at one of my favorite Italian spots in Miami, Cantina 27. This is an excellent Italian restaurant that makes their own pasta and the lamb was excellent too. Picture sucks, b/c they were more set up for romance than iPhone bloggers.

Lobster Thermidor & Beet Soup

When you going to cook something that takes a long time and will require your constant presence in the kitchen, it's best to start with some cheese and a decent wine supply to keep you company during the long hours you're about to put in. My cheese selection included aged Gouda, blue, monchego, and a soft creamy cheese to spread. Wine was Sauvignon Blanc from France.

Two firsts for this soup for me. First was making beet soup, never tried but glad I did. It's actually really easy, you just roast the beets in the oven for about an hour then put in with some chicken stock and blend it up. You end up with something similar to butternut squash soup but the beet may be better. Second first was using crème fraîche which is basically soured cream with butterfat. I blended it up with a bunch of watercress which is the green on top.

Beet Soup recipe

The lobster thermidor and twice baked don't disappoint. If anyone asks, the Thermidor part of the name is from the original recipe was conceived in honor of the play "Thermidor". The recipe lives on, and the play was forgotten. I love the end product of this recipe, but jeez, you have to use almost every dish in the kitchen to make it. Owell, that's what they're for I guess. The twice baked had some of the leftover thermidor sauce and crispy pancetta with cheese melted on top.

Lobster Thermidor Recipe

The lemon tart and crust were outside my norm as I usually do not bake. Both turned out great, thanks to avoiding scrambled eggs by about 10 seconds and the massive amount of butter required for both.

Greek salad and Paella

Dinner Saturday was provided by my friends Mark and Ashley. This was an excellent Greek salad with kalamata olives, feta and a homemade balsamic that Mark made. I was only able to eat one little nibble of the sardine pictured, but I tried it. These things just have too much flavor for me to handle.




The paella was great, made with risotto, chicken, shrimp, sausage, broccoli, and peas. Topped with some melted Swiss. I was forced to eat two giant helpings this was so good. If you have a keen eye, you may be able to see the saffron that was also added.

Smith's Diner

Best hasbrowns in Greensboro. Not sure how they do it, but the onions
are perfectly cooked with the hasbrowns. Didn't get a pic, but these
over easy eggs were the perfect dipping pods for the potatoes and ham.

Estancia

View from my favorite Agentinian spot in Miami. Too many Dulce de
leche choices to count.

Dim sum in South Beach

Good dim sum for dinner tonight. Think my favorite were the soupy pork
with some plum sauce on them. Also good was seeing my coworker
accidentaly snort some hot mustard up his nose.

Shishito Peppers

These peppers are very mild and tossed in a little coarse salt. I
always get these at the sushi restaurant I eat at in South Beach. Best
part is the one in five or so that have some spark to them. Pic is a
little dark, guess they were catering to romantics not food blogging
accountants.

Lomos Saltodos

Had this at a Peruvian restaurant in Miami tonight. Pretty hard not to
like steak and French fries mixed together. It also has onions,
tomatoes and cilantro with a side of rice. Not pictured was some
excellent ceviche.

The chicken wing

Provided by Mark & Ashley from Buffalo Wild Wings for the Super Bowl.

Lamb chops and risotto

The lamb chops were the norm, marinated in olive oil, garlic, and rosemary. Then pan fried and finished in the oven until they were medium to medium rare. The risotto included shiitake mushrooms, pancetta, caramelized onions with some Parmesan melted in at the end. If you're going to add caramelized onions to something that cooks a while like this, be sure to cook separate and just add right at the end otherwise they'll disappear.





Butternut squash soup in the making. Butternut squash soup is perfect in the winter. Below is what I added to mine, more or less.

1 butternut squash
onion
carrots
celery
chicken stock
salt/pepper
cayenne

Scotch on the Snow

If you like Scotch just a little, please try this. This is a Scotch on the snow which instantly chilled the Scotch, and just sounds cool to be honest.

Braised Short Ribs

Braising is the way to go if you have five or six hours to wait around for dinner. This dish is a braised beef short rib, braised with onions, carrots, celery, a bay leaf, and beef stock. I also added a little tomato paste and about a cup of red wine. I like cutting most of the fat from the short ribs prior to browning to prevent my heart from stopping mid meal, but that's up to you.

The mashed potatoes are red potatoes with celery root. The celery root definitely adds to the taste and fragrance, and is a nice change up. For the gravy I just reduced what was left of the braise until it thickened a bit and poured over the top.

Cedar Brook Chardonnay

Excelent Chardonnay that broke my recent red streak. Very floral if
you like that.

Phoenix Asian

Can you say wasabi?

Smith's Diner

Check out the size of this biscuit. This place also had the best
hasbrowns with onions of course.