Category: restaurants
After my talk in Boynton Beach on Monday I headed to City Hall, picked up Hania, and drove to Cuthill's Backyard for lunch.
They were still working on the roof over the craft beer bar. We took a seat at a high wooden table in the garden - it's all a garden - while fans scattered mists.
The fish of the day was mahi mahi; I ordered it in taco form. A few minutes later a plate of three fish tacos appeared in the window of the Airstream kitchen.
The large pieces of fish were bedded in cabbage and drizzled in sauce, but that was about it. This was a fish taco that was all about the fish.
The taco is enjoying its moment right now - in South Florida, at least, it's the new burger (even though the burger is still going strong). And I've had some excellent ones, at Taco Beach Shack in Hollywood, the new Casa Frida in Oakland Park, Taqueria Dona Raquel in Pompano Beach, the Miami Mex stand at Marlins Park. For simplicity, freshness, and taste, you can add Cuthill's fish tacos to the list.
Strolling down Hollywood Boulevard yesterday I stopped in front of Peruvian Seafood and read the list of specials offered from noon to 5 Monday through Friday. Among them was ceviche mixto for $7.
I walked in - there were no customers - and told the young man I would have the ceviche mixto with a glass of water. Then I took a seat outside on the sidewalk. After about 10 minutes he brought me the ceviche. It wasn't as good or as bountiful as the ceviche at El Tamarindo in Fort Lauderdale - in fact, the octopus was extremely chewy - but for $7 it was fine.
Finished, I asked for the check. It arrived in a black presentation holder (which seemed a little ambitious for such a modest establishment) and was for $17. The ceviche was listed as $13.95 with a $1 sales tax and a $2 gratuity included (a practice I associate with South Beach, not Hollywood). I asked the waiter about the surprising total, pointing to the sign with the specials.
"You didn't tell me you wanted the special," he said. "I gave you the regular ceviche."
It was then that I understood why he included the tip.
I'd just finished my take-out dinner from Anthony's - a "grandma's pizza" (tomato sauce sprinkled lightly with parmesan and basil) - when the PBS show "Check, Please" came on last night.
Celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein is the perfect host because she doesn't act like a celebrity. Her three guests (local non-celebrities) each pick a favorite restaurant which the others then visit and they meet in the studio to share their findings.
Last night I was delighted to see one of our favorites discussed: Gabose in Lauderhill. Gabose means "let's go" in Korean, and for years the restaurant has been our go-to place for bibimbap, the spicy meat and vegetable rice bowl. Not surprisingly, all three guests loved it.
The only male on the show last night chose Andiamo ("let's go" in Italian), the pizza place on Biscayne Boulevard. His favorite was the "godfather pizza".
"So," said Hania, "grandmother's pizza and godfather's pizza."
This place also got a unanimous thumbs up.
The only mixed review was for La Parrilla Liberty, an Argentinean restaurant in South Beach. Perhaps the owners should change the name to Vamos.
Happy hour at the Mai Kai to celebrate Don's 50th year in Florida.
"The Mai Kai had white sand all around it then. You walked into this," he said, looking around the intimate, hut-like lounge with its primary color lanterns and water-falling windows (like sitting in a car wash), "and you were in paradise."
Don still savors his half-century home, the fact that it's "bounded on two sides by wilderness: the Everglades and the ocean." In the summer he takes an early morning swim in the latter. "When you're out there you're on their terms," he said. "You're an intruder."
Finished with our rum cocktails, we took a stroll through the garden. None of us had ever seen it in daylight, which took away some of its mystique. Though the tiki replicas got Don thinking of "Jungian archetypes, all the primitive notions that are drummed out of us."
You play tennis at 8:45 - before the sun gets really fired up - and then you buy farm fresh eggs at Marando Farms.
Eat your frittata out on the balcony. When you're finished, come inside, close the door to the heat, and spend the afternoon in air-conditioned comfort. I worked on an article, but you can also curl up with a book; summer in Florida is as conducive to reading as winter in Vermont.
In the evening get in your car and drive up A1A for a delicious Turkish dinner - hummus, baba ghanoush, tomato, cucumber and feta salad, grilled octopus - at Anatolia in Boca Raton. (Bring your own wine.) Afterwards, go with your friends to the beach and gaze at the clouds shrouding a nearly full moon.
On the road, you don't always have a day in which every meal stands out. But Friday was such a day. And, even rarer, each meal got cheaper as the day progressed.
It began with huevos rancheros at the Casa Marina hotel in Key West, and moved on to crepes at La Creperie. The restaurant sits across Petronia Street from Blue Heaven, and was its own kind of paradise, serving authentic buckwheat crepes (included gluten-free ones). I had La Complete - egg, ham, and cheese - and it arrived in the classic square shape, though with the over-easy egg on top instead of inside. (So I missed out on the surprise of cutting into the pancake and releasing a yellow stream.) But the taste transported me to Brittany.
We left around 3 and stopped for dinner at Taco Beach Shack in Hollywood. We found a table as far from the band as possible, on sand that was whiter and smoother than what you find on the beach two blocks away. A group of young women lounged on sofas under a tent, and an older couple played ping-pong.
We ordered three Korean short rib tacos with kimchee slaw, and a carafe of sangria. The manager stopped by; he was from Mexico City and told us he made the salsa himself. The tacos arrived with black beans and rice and an ear of roasted corn that had been sprinkled with parmesan cheese. The tacos were delicious, as were the black beans. Represented on our small table, and mixing beautifully in our mouths, were the flavors of Mexico, Korea, Italy and Cuba - all refreshingly washed down with Spain.