Yesterday marked one month since my surgery, and while the pain has lessened considerably – there’s no longer a small pool of saliva on my pillow when I wake up – swallowing solid foods is still a problem. And I’ve found that I miss not just eating, but the anticipation of eating. When you don’t have mealtimes to look forward to – just another round of soup, smoothie, protein drink, ice cream (yes, it’s possible to get tired of ice cream) – it makes your days unimaginably dull. Especially during a pandemic.
Recovering from throat surgery I've been watching a lot of food shows, sort of like a eunuch who becomes addicted to X-rated movies.
Heritage doesn’t advertise Italian home-cooking but it has something else I remember from the homes of my Italian friends back in ’50s New Jersey. On a narrow wall by the kitchen hang three small paintings: one of Mary, one of Jesus, and one of Padre Pio. They give that buzzy room with its sophisticated diners a sweet and unexpected touch.
One evening last week Hania and I went to the MASS District for dinner, the name standing for Music & Arts South of Sunrise. MASS and nearby F.A.T Village are the two most interesting neighborhoods in the city, filled with the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit that high rents long ago banished from Las Olas.
We arrived early, so wandered over to Batch for cookies. As often, there was a line. We got talking to the couple behind us; they had driven up from Miami for some chocolate chips. We got one chocolate chip with walnuts and one gluten-free lemon blueberry cookie.
Then we walked a few steps to Heritage. Hania got the squash blossoms and calamari stuffed with sausage; I got a pizza. The man eating pasta at the table next to us told us he had driven down from Delray Beach. On a weeknight. For Italian food.
It was as incredible as it was heartening to think that Ft. Lauderdale – the MASS District in Ft. Lauderdale! – has become a South Florida foodie mecca.
Yesterday evening Hania and I went for dinner to Here and Now in FAT Village. It is not new – it’s having its one-year anniversary this coming Saturday – but we only recently heard about it. “This is what we get,” Hania said, “for not reading the Sun-Sentinel.” (I learned about it from a post by my successor at Fort Lauderdale Magazine.)
It sits tucked behind the Avenue Lofts on NW 1st Ave., which means it’s fronted by some of the Village’s rare trees. Inside, we found a deep dining room with well-spaced tables and comfortable chairs. A beautiful bar ran the length of the room – it’s famous for inventive cocktails – with two TVs showing NHL matches. Oldies, like “Good Vibrations,” played at a not overwhelming volume. It looked like the kind of fine neighborhood place every city should have, and FAT Village has long needed. In fact, it was like a more industrialized version of the old Joe Allen’s in Miami Beach’s Sunset Harbor.
Hania and I both got specials: duck for her, gumbo for me. Each was delicious, which was not surprising. A restaurant that opens at the start of a pandemic and is still in business one year later must be good. Hania walked to the open kitchen and complimented the chef.
I want Larry David to get a food show just so he can take a bite of some celebrated delicacy and then say, “Eh, not as good as I thought it would be.”