mango&lime - a miami food blog

Dinners in Paradise 2011-2012

paula — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:51:13 +0000

One of the things I wish I would’ve done before leaving Miami is go to a Dinner in Paradise at Paradise Farms. Not only are these dinners held in a beautiful setting but they are prepared by some of Miami’s best chefs using ingredients from the farm. The dinners for the upcoming season were announced [...]

Texas Bound

paula — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:41:42 +0000

This bit of information will come as old news to many but I figured it was time to make it official here on the blog. D and I are moving to Houston and we’re hitting the road next weekend. The move was in the making for some time now but things didn’t start falling into [...]

How Do You Like Your Mangos?

paula — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:49:55 +0000

Do you like them a little tart? Or intensely sweet? Spicy or aromatic? If you ask Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s senior tropical fruit curator, Richard Campbell, a mango should be sweet and also a little tart. Not so for his fellow curator, Noris Ledesma, who prefers her mangos to taste sweet as honey. When it [...]

For the Love of Riesling

paula — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 03:52:33 +0000

Three summers ago, Paul Grieco, a New York City sommelier and restaurateur started Summer of Riesling at Terroir Wine Bar. During that summer if you wanted white wine by the glass at his bar, your only choice was Riesling. The goal was to get people to try the grape and dispel the notion that its [...]

‘Tomatoland’ Author Barry Estabrook at Books & Books

paula — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:03:27 +0000

Florida’s tomato industry has been on the news quite a bit in the past few weeks thanks to the release of Barry Estabrook’s new book, “Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit.” In the book, Estabrook, a journalist and author of Politics of the Plate, traces the history of the tomato from its [...]

Mango Mini Tarts

paula — Mon, 23 May 2011 02:32:17 +0000

It’s been so long since I asked for suggestions for a Florida recipe using puff pastry for an assignment by Pepperidge Farm. I got some great suggestions in the comments, including using hearts of palm or callaloo, but I took the obvious route and made mango tarts. Mangoes were the first thing I thought of when [...]

A Cobaya Dinner with Michelle Bernstein

paula — Fri, 20 May 2011 19:35:56 +0000

When I got the announcement for Tuesday night’s Cobaya dinner, the usual email came with an unusual line. It was a clue about who would be preparing our meal, one that built up the anticipation among the diners lucky to get a seat. The chef was Michelle Bernstein and the dinner took place in the atrium [...]

Baking for Share Our Strength

paula — Tue, 10 May 2011 04:12:24 +0000

Last year, Renée Joslyn of Flamingo Musings asked me to bake for the National Bloggers Bake Sale to raise funds for Share Our Strength. Not being much of a baker, I wasn’t too convinced I should do it but I gave it a try and made some pretty decent zucchini bread. Now here I am [...]

Fertile Earth Foundation: Closing the Food Loop

paula — Fri, 06 May 2011 19:07:59 +0000

While doing consulting for a Miami Beach hotel with her environmental consulting company, Ecosante, Lanette Sobel realized just how much organic waste hotels produce. The estimate was one ton per hotel room per year in food scraps and yard debris – waste that can be composted and put back into the earth but mostly isn’t.

Welcome the Miami Culinary Institute

paula — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:02:10 +0000

Hiding behind a giant apron, the new Miami Culinary Institute in downtown Miami awaited its unveiling yesterday morning. Outside, guests helped themselves to non-alcoholic spritzers and small bites inside a large tent set up in a blocked-off section of Northeast Second Avenue in front of the school. Stilt walkers in chef’s coats moved among the [...]

Room 4 Dessert – A Pop-Up

paula — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 03:55:06 +0000

Last Saturday, I had the chance to attend pastry chef Will Goldfarb’s Room 4 Dessert pop-up. I’ll confess I knew little about Goldfarb before I bought my last-minute ticket to the dessert tasting but I’m so glad I was able to go. Goldfarb’s culinary trajectory started in France and he followed with stints at restaurants like [...]

Next Week, Eat for Common Threads

paula — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:56:18 +0000

A while back I wrote about Common Threads, a Chicago-based organization dedicated to teaching low-income children about healthy cooking and eating. The Miami chapter, founded by local chef Michelle Bernstein, is about to wrap up its second year and currently has four groups of kids going through the program. To help it add a fifth [...]

On Farmers Markets and Permits (Updated)

paula — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:20:06 +0000

As many of you probably know, some 30 to 40 people showed up yesterday at the site of the Roots in the City Farmers Market to protest a city of Miami code violation citation that the market received the previous week. The technicalities of the permits and what permits the organizers thought they needed versus what [...]

Muriel’s Little River Kimchee

paula — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:01:56 +0000

On Sunday afternoon, I joined some 25 people at Muriel Olivares’s Little River Market Garden to learn how to make kimchee. Sitting in the perfect shade of her mango tree, we watched as Muriel made a huge batch of this popular Korean dish made by fermenting vegetables and chilies. Before starting Muriel warned that the way [...]

At Chow Down Grill, Soy Sauce and Tofu Are Made In House

paula — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:28:27 +0000

Chow Down Grill is a restaurant that I don’t go to as often as I would like but every time I go I have a great experience. I love the food and the enthusiasm that chefs Joshua Marcus and Jason Suttmiller show for everything they do, whether it’s making a sauce or hosting an underground [...]

Judging Bobby Flay’s Key Lime Pie Throwdown

paula — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:59:19 +0000

It was a real surprise when I was contacted to be on a Food Network “special profiling a chef in the Keys” last year. I’m not even sure how they came across my blog. All I know is that soon after, on a Monday in December, I was on my way to Marathon to tape [...]

A Little Bite of Puerto Rico at the Kiosks of Luquillo

paula — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 23:05:58 +0000

I just got back from an almost week-long trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where one of my greatest friends was married last weekend. I must admit I didn’t pack my agenda with restaurants to try. In fact, aside from the wedding-related events all I really wanted to do was lounge in the sun. But [...]

Not Going To South Beach Wine & Food? Try These Events (2011 Edition)

paula — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 05:11:39 +0000

The 2011 South Beach Wine & Food Festival kicks off on Thursday and thousands of people — locals and visitors — will descend on Miami Beach for four days of events, Food Network celebrities and celebrations for the festival’s 10th year anniversary. There are still tickets available to a few of the festival’s smaller events. [...]

New Upper East Side Farmers Market Opens Saturday

paula — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:47:14 +0000

A new farmers market is coming to the Upper East Side. The market opens this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Cookbook Giveaway: Michael’s Genuine Food (Updated)

paula — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:19:42 +0000

“Food is not about impressing people – in fact it’s just the opposite; it’s about making them feel comfortable. The perfect meal is simpler than you expected and better than you remembered.” ~Chef Michael Schwartz in the intro to his book I love getting new cookbooks in the mail and last week I got a sweet surprise [...]