August 31st, 2010
I was down in Homestead again today visiting Gabriele Marewski at Paradise Farms. This was my first time visiting Gabriele’s organic farm and, wow, it is beautiful. She designed it with the help of architect Robert Barnes and artist Richard Medlock based on feng shui and sacred geometry principles. Taking a stroll in those peaceful surroundings made me think that I really need to get myself to a Dinner in Paradise this season.
The series of dinners, started by Gabriele and chef Michael Schwartz, invites local chefs to create a six-course dinner showcasing the farm’s organic ingredients. (Blind Tastes has a good recap of a recent Dinner in Paradise). Many of the same chefs that have cooked in past seasons are returning, including Schwartz, John Critchley, Michelle Bernstein and Sean Brasel. New chefs include Timon Balloo of Sugarcane and Alex Pinero, formerly of Fratelli Lyon and now of Sustain — a sustainable restaurant expected to open this fall in Midtown.
The price for each dinner is $165.50, including taxes and fees, and consists of six courses paired with wines. Proceeds fund ready-to-grow beds the farm will donate to Urban Oasis Project, which is installing these gardens in homeless shelters and Liberty City. Tickets can be purchased through the Paradise Farms website. Here’s the 2010-2011 schedule.
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August 26th, 2010
Ernest Hemingway and Sloppy Joe with catch of marlin in Key West.
State Archives of Florida
Fresh figs and ham, and mackerel and snipe. Kingfish and amberjack, avocados with lime. Gin and tonic, absinthe and wine.
Those are some of the items on the Ernest Hemingway menu created by Littoral, the blog of the Key West Literary Seminar. Pretty neat, right? Blog author Arlo Haskell goes through the letters of literary figures to create a menu based on what the writers liked to eat in Key West. Yesterday’s post featured the menu of Wallace Stevens, which includes wild doves, conch chowder and mangoes dressed with white wine, sugar and lime juice.
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August 25th, 2010
Last week I visited a few farms in Homestead for a story I’m working on for Edible South Florida. Among them was Teena Borek’s farm, Teena’s Pride. I had the opportunity earlier this year to visit the farm during the Slow Food Miami Bike Tour. At that time, the greenhouses were filled with beautiful produce. On this visit, Teena’s son, Michael, who runs the operations of the farm, was just gearing up to start planting for the new season.
Teena and I talked for some time for the story, but for this blog I wanted to share the farm’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. When participating in CSA, you basically pay upfront for a full season of produce that is delivered weekly to a pick-up location. What’s in the share varies from week to week depending on availability. Your upfront payment helps the farm cover the costs of growing your food.
In South Florida, joining a CSA is probably one of the better ways to get produce grown locally, but there aren’t that many CSAs around and the ones that are, such as Bee Heaven Farm’s, fill up very quickly. Which is why I was happy to hear that Teena’s is still accepting new members for its third season.
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August 23rd, 2010
Serungdeng (toasted coconut & peanuts)
Indomania is one of those restaurants that I visited and then wondered why I had never set foot in it before. I suppose the better late than never adage applies here, and I have Eleanor Hoh (teacher of the Wok Star class I took a few years ago) to thank for hosting the dinner that got us to the restaurant.
The restaurant’s owners, Dutch husband and wife, Pieter and Ineke Both, have created a cute, welcoming neighborhood restaurant in a nondescript section of Collins Avenue. It is also easy to miss if you’re just driving by and not looking for it.
When we arrived, we had a few drinks at the bar with the rest of the group and then took our assigned seats at the table. It was my first time tasting Indonesian food so I was curious to try the many dishes that would form part of our rijstaffel. Rijstaffel means rice table and, as I understand it, is an Indonesian-inspired Dutch meal where many side dishes are served with rice prepared in different ways.
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August 2nd, 2010
Maybe because I had one of my favorite Miami Spice meals at The Setai, I decided to go to The Restaurant last night for the first day of this year’s Miami Spice.
Our server brought us three menus: the Miami Spice menu ($35), the regular menu and another $50 three-course prix fixe they have been offering during the summer. We thought this was unusual but then learned that the difference between the Miami Spice option and the other prix fixe is that the dishes in the Miami Spice menu are not on the restaurant’s regular menu. I personally had no issue with this but some might see this as a drawback.
Dinner starts with a basket of naan and pickles. The Restaurant offers a wine pairing option for the Miami Spice menu for $28 (one 3-ounce pour per course). We considered it but our server also showed us a list of discounted wine bottles as an alternative and we went that route instead.
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