Shaken Not Stirred

One of New York's favorite sushi's spots, Bond St. from the cusp of the ever so hip NOLITA has come to test out the waters in Miami. Miamist posted a review here, where as expected he loved all the delectable goodies and with Crispy Grouper Fingers, Yellowtail Tartar and Lobster Tempura on the menu how could they possibly go wrong? Who will win the battle for best sushi on the beach is it Nobu? Shoji? Has Bond St. come and solidified themselves as top dawg Seabass? Weigh in on the comments and let's see what you think Miami!

Argentina güevón...

From the country that brought you great slabs of beef and beautiful leather jackets (not to mention that fake lacoste shirt we bought) comes the 8th Annual Argentinean Festival. The festival will include perfomances ranging from rock, pop, folk, to tango and even folkloric styles of Argentinean music. More importantly, there will be plenty of food food food!!! From parrilladas to churros to empanadas filled with all sorts of tasty things! So chug yourself some yerba mate Malbec and enjoy all things Argentine, Joder.

Bayfront Park Miami
301 North Biscayne Blvd. Miami
12:00 - 10:00 pm

Some Nice Bubbly

The New Miamian posted a review of Lan Pan-Asian Cafe and describes it as one of the best restaurants in Miami, swooning over the bubble teas. Although we are not sure what about this Cafe's food qualifies it as one of the best, the pictures on their menu sure do look tasty. Read her review here .

I see you baby, Shakin' that a...

So I know that when we started this whole blog we promised you that we would be discussing the burgeoning Miami restaurant scene and promised you loads of reviews, I digress, but I do have to say that there are a bunch of reviews coming your way, very soon. We also promissed you though that we would also include some of the cultural events going on in the Miami area. Low and behold in our email today we find this:

"I’m not sure if you’ve heard about this, but “What Moves You Miami” is starting this week. It’s a three week-long series of DIY workshops, DJ sets and live performances in South Beach, Florida."

Sounds fun no? So on the list for this what moves miami festival of madness is The Juan Maclean from DFA records!!! He is definitely our favorite artist to come out of this whole dance punk thingamobob that is going on right now, so count us in for some good old fashioned booty shakin' on the dance floor this Friday May 19th. Also on the bill is everyone's favorite love to hate DJ Steve Aoiki (insert crass hipster comment here) from Dimmak, so we will probably be there, have a great time and than go home and poke fun at the whole thing cause we want to fit in with the blogosphere? If you see us there, say hi!!

Music Shall Soothe The Savage Beast

The two passsions of miamifoodie are eating and well music of course! What we love more than anything else is when the worlds troubadours sing for their adoration of food! We came across this today and thought it would make for a great read for all you culterati out there. Our personal favorite songs about food have to be:

Yo La Tengo - Emulsified
Hot Chip - Sexual Chocolate
Captain Beefheart - Ice Cream Crow
Bow Wow Wow - I Want Candy
The Mamas and The Papas - Sing For Your Supper
Tom Waits - Chocolate Jesus
Neil Young - Cinnamon Girl
Beat Happening - Fortune Cookie Prize

The Verdicts In (And it don't look good)

So this past Monday, The James Beard Foundation wrapped up its two-day awards ceremony recognizing excellence in journalism and the food industry. Guess what Miami, we didn't get not one award, hell we didn't even get one nomination, for anything! It's a sad day for us at miamifoodie, the best we can do is go to John Besh's Restaurant August in New Orleans if we want to really push the envelope and eat well. No worries though if any of you have been to Michy's you know that we in Miami have our own rising star chef in the midst, Michelle Bernstein, and even though nuevo latino cooking is so 2002 we've got our hopes set high. The New Times, back in November of '05 had an article about almost the same thing as I'm now ranting about, read it here. Ms. Bernstein put us on the map baby! PLEASE!

The Sincerest form of flattery...

Coral Gables blogspot posted a great review of Randazzo’s Little Italy restaurant here. Something seems oddly familiar about the style, no?

You Asked For It, You Got It, Toyo...

Some of you out there in Web Land have been asking us about BYOB's in the Miami area. We are only aware of a handful of locations that offer this and we will list them here. If you know of some we've missed please email us so we can add them to the list! Don't say we never gave you nuthin'!

Pilar
20475 Biscayne Blvd. Aventura 305-937-2777

This spots got a $10 corkage fee so if you've got that special bottle you've been saving and are in a lazy day mood and don't feel like cookin' and drinking it at home this is a good spot to go to. Its got a nice atmosphere and the menu consists mostly of fish entrées so you might want to bring a nice Chardonnay or Riesling (yummy!!), the prices are fairly reasonable, not to be overlooked.

Duo Restaurant + Wine Bar
1421 South miami Avenue at SE 14 street 786-497-4386

Not really sure what the deal is here last time we went their was a corkage fee though I can't remember what it was. Very nicely designed restaurant in Brickell, the food is good the prices not so much but still overall a good spot. They've got over 1200 bottles on location so maybe you dont even want to BYOB? (yeah didn't think so)

Grandmas French Café
3354 N.Ocean Blvd. Ft. Lauderdale 954-564-3671

Same deal here as Duo and Pilar, their is a corkage fee here, call to verify what it is. Decent French food here for a decent price though it's a bit out of the way if you know what I mean.

"A" Restaurant or as we like to call it at Miamifoodie, the A train
4520 NE 2nd ave in the design district between 45th and 46th streets , do not know the phone, don't think they have one

You'll know you've found this restaurant when you see the white vespa parked outside where you'll probably see the hip kids hangin' outside sipping their wine and smoking cigarettes. This tiny BYOB café is as cramped as a car on the subway it's named after, populated by a mix of cool easy going Miamians. The plates are small and so are the prices! Meant to be eaten like tapas you'll want to sample everything on the menu. No corkage fee here so bring a bunch of bottles some good friends and enjoy. This place is great and is our favorite BYOB in Miami!

Renaisa
620 NE 78th St. Miami, 305-754-3985

Curries, tikkas, vindaloos, tandoories, lassies, Nan, samosas and all the usual delicious suspects of Indian food are found at Renaisa, on top of wich you also get a chance to sample some Bangledeshi staples which you might not usually find at a typical Indian restaurant. Since its Indian, a lot of the dishes are vegeterian friendly and on top of all that its BYOB as well, so grab your favorite bottle of organic wine and head on over. The prices are a bit high for Indian food but the quality of the food will make up for it.


W Wine Bistro
3622 NE 2nd AveMiami, 305-576-7775

Although not technically a BYOB this little cafe/restaurant in the design district offers great tapas but besides these tasty snacks and more importantly, attached to it is a really great wine shop which makes for a great spot to stop by and pick up a couple of bottles before heading over to the A train.

ENJOY!!

MSG Baby!

As far back as I care to remember, I recall that everytime I had ever gone out to a chinese restaurant with my mother, she would always make sure to ask for everything "Without MSG". Still to this day when she orders take out she will ask for it without MSG, although most Chinese places have all been labeling there menus "cooked without MSG" for the past ten years or so. I never really understood why she would always ask for the food to be cooked without MSG until I read numerous articles/studies about what MSG has done to rats. It seems though today MSG is making some sort of a comeback, out of mass produced prepackaged foods and into real kitchens helmed by star chefs. Can it be? Was my mother crayz this entire time to shun the MSG? Catch up on the arguments here, courtesy of Sara Dickerman over at Slate.

Le Vin - Online

Our favorite type of restaurant here at Miamifoodie has to be the ever elusive BYOB. Next time you go to your favorite local BYOB restaurant, splurge on a great bottle of wine, casue hey without the added restaurant markup it should make for a very enjoyable night thats easy on the pocket. Make sure you consider the restaurant, atmosphere and most importantly what you expect to order.

If your neighborhood is anything like mine, the selection of wines at the local shop may be limited. In this case you might want consider having wine shipped to your from across the country. There are many websites out there that are now able to ship to Florida's onophile's, as it is no longer a felony.

We spotted an article entitled "A Fine Year for Web Wine", (The Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2006) which helped us compile a list of online mechants worthy of your money. Here at miamifoodie our favorite has been Sam's Wine which delivered to us a great bottle of Dom. De Noire “Elegance” Chinon 2003 which made for a great cozy night of wine drinking. That said here is the list in no particular order:

K&L Wine Merchants

KL wines is great site for both the wine newbie and serious collectors. It has an extensive selection, short but detailed descriptions, fair prices and above reliable delivery. The website is easily navigable and the search functions are a snap. They've also got a great wine blog which should makes for a fun and informative read.

The Wine Library

This site has been set up to resemble that of Amazon and as such has no learning curve to get over. There's a even Web TV show about wine-related issues such as decanting, and a journal with in-depth information on regions, wines and grapes.

Zachy's

The greatest thing about this site is it's "live help" which is set up like an IM chat with a store representative who can answer any and all your wine questions, which makes a great way of learning more about you favorite wines or those you may you may be thinking about purchasing.

Discovery Wines

This site features a great search function which will let you search on anything from food matching to grape varietals to regions, basically its set up so that you can find the perfect wine for any occassion. Great site, highly recommended!

De-Vino

This New York Wine Boutiqe offers the most comprehensive collection of Italian wines we have ever seen! The site specializes in Italian wines and olive oils but carries hard to find bottles from all over the world. Here, your sure to scoop up some delicious bottles of wine that you can not find anywhere else!

Good luck in your search for the perfect bottle and once you've found it give us a holler and let us know!

Jumbo's

Jumbo's aint your typical 24-hour soul food joint, they've been doing it for over 50 years and it shows, they've perfected the good ole' Southern cookin' right in the heart of Miami. Located in a rather dicey neighborhood of Miami, Jumbo's is a one of kind place where clients can indulge in a home-cooked style meal in a rather informal setting. The staff is very welcoming and once you are seated you are immediately drawn in by the smells coming from the fryers in the the kitchen. However, after a long, relaxing day at the beach, my appetite was calling for some fresh seafood and the seafood here did not disappoint. I ventured away from the fish sandwich and started off with a cup (read enough for at least two) of the chicken noodle soup that made me wish it snowed in South Florida. The broth was incredibly savory and made perfect for dipping the toasted buns which were served as a very much needed snack. After a very satisfying cup of soup, I was ready to venture my appetite towards bigger and better things. One bite from the fried shrimp, and I had completely lost track of what area of town I was eating in (read Liberty City!). The plump shrimp are slightly breaded and then precision-fried for a truly irresistible taste and smell. All of the entrees on the menu are served with a choice of two side dishes and on this occasion I could not resist opting for the mac and cheese and the home made French fries. Both sides lived up well beyond their expectations, the mac and cheese was creamy and cheesy and would make even James L. Kraft stand up in his grave and ask for seconds. If you choose to venture away from my recommendations and with such an enticing menu who could blame you if you did, one thing you absolutely MUST have is the flop, a concoction of half iced tea and half lemonade, with enough sugar kick to keep your blood sugar level at an all time high! PLease note that if your looking to eat healthly Jumbo's aint the place for you as I'm sure that even the side salad is deep fried and when you've gotten the frying down to a science you might as well fry everything in site! You don't have to worry about leaving home without your Visa, Jumbo's prices are down to earth and the check won't put a hamper in your wallet. Just make sure that you park your car within view of the restaurant's panoramic windows. See more pictures of our adventures at Jumbo's here.

Jumbo's Restaurant

7501 NW 7th Avenue 3
Miami, FL 33150
(305) 751-4267