Just some random stuff from three days in Florida:
Was very surprised to go into a supermarket in Key West and find basically all the same fruits and vegetables I see here in Northern Washington or were standard issue in California. Only some tiny bananas, Chiquita brand but also labeled 'Manzanos', were outside the norm. I bought some: delicious. Very tangy, with more tannins. Wish I could buy those here.
First stone crab experience: purchased fresh but cooked from a fish market on one of the keys, we made a picnic dinner out of 3 lbs worth on our last night there which was spent, spontaneously, in Key Largo when returning from Key West it seemed we'd gone far enough and there was a sunset that needed attending to. Was surprised when I asked the crab clerk about the difference in taste or texture between the smallest, about 10 per lb, and the largest, which were maybe two per pound. "No difference." Aw come on, I said, has to be: shrimp gets bolder in flavor as they get larger, but the texture is usually a bit more coarse--something like that true? "No, no difference," she insisted. Believing she meant that but also believing I'd perceive a difference that would matter, I averaged my risk and bought the six per pounders. Loved them, but think I would rank them below Dungeness and King for flavor and texture. But for easy to eat, those lovely big fat claws have few rivals.
We had actually attempted to order stone crab in a restaurant on Key West the day before, but that didn't work out. We had decided to graze that night--dip in and out of four or five restaurants, sharing an appie or two and a glass of wine at each--after a long and leisurely night we'd have had a fun meal and sampled a variety of settings. Our first stop was a place called Michael's which had been recco'd on Chowhound for stone crab. Well, no stone crab to be had. They did serve it atop a top sirloin in an Oscar preparation, which the waiter said would be LOTS of crab. We bit: but alas, it wasn't even one claw's worth. Hardly a taste test. The rest of the menu there was disappointing--very throwback 50's Continental with some comfort cooking thrown in. Not special, and hardly the Taste of Florida we were looking for. From there we made our way down Duval Street, where we looked in the bars but didn't find ourselves in the mood to deal with that. And again, the hawkers were all trying to pull us in--after getting clawed at by three or four, we felt as cheap as they looked and wanted something else, something finer. So we ended up at Louie's Backyard--WONDERFUL place, and the kind of food and sophisticated casual ambience we had hoped for. But we ended up just having wine because after Michael's neither of us was actually hungry. We vowed to return for lunch the next day, even though the lunch menu was minus most of the exciting dishes we'd desired on the dinner menu.
But instead we elected to have our first Cuban restaurant experience: El Siboney. Bob ordered some grilled Mahi Mahi with rice and beans, while I ordered a puerco plate with tamale, shredded pork and boiled yuca, or casava. Mine came liberally topped with fresh thinly sliced white onions marinated in lime juice and salt. Everything was very good but most notably that was the best shredded pork I've ever had. Was surprised to see names I recognize from Mexican food, like the tamale, and something called an "enchilado" on their menu.
Our first meal, however, the day we arrived in Miami, was a late night dinner in the South Beach neighborhood of Miami where we stayed. By the time we checked in Sunday night, it was after 11 p.m. and every single restaurant I'd had on my list of good possibilities had already closed their kitchens (Setai, Asia de Cuba, Tap Tap, and a few others). The desk reccomended an Italian restaurant two blocks away but we didn't fly across the country to eat Italian, so we went cruising on foot. We were completely put off by what we found: lots of restaurants, but nearly every one of which had some kind of hawker standing out front trying to lure in gullible touritst with the likes of "Hey lady, steak and lobster only 9.99!" and pointing to an ugly wax recreation of what we might get. And if that wasn't bad enough, every 3rd or 4th place was some kind of a skin joint, or a cheap looking bar or a shop selling what I can only describe as hooker clothes. Not a prude, but this wasn't my idea of fun so we went back for our car and went hunting for something more dignified. When we saw Mr. Chow on the ground floor of the new W hotel, we pulled in.
I knew it would be expensive, but at least it wasn't sleazy. So we parked, threaded our way between the Ferraris and the Lamborghinis and the Bentley convertibles to the door, and were immediately seated. I'm actually not sure if I've ever seen so many fabulous looking people in one room before in all my life. All the women were beautiful, all the men handsome, and everybody was dressed to kill in white, offwhite or black. No exceptions except Bob in his blue Hawaiian shirt and me in...well, let's just say it wasn't a slinky black skin-tight minidress. A gentlemen in a white jacket and black pants to distinguish him from the wine servers and bus boys approached and explained that he would be our "guide" with the menu, would help us correctly choose two items from the first section of the menu and two from the second, which would create "a beautiful and balanced dining experience." I smiled, then advised him that we were hoping to have an all seafood meal, and wanted to spend a few minutes discussing the menu while he put in our wine order, an Umbrian chardonnay from Antinori at $90. All the wines were priced at about 3X retail and up.
By the time our wine arrived we were ready to place our order. We had decided on: scallops on the shell, Mr. Chow's noodles, black cod in a Szechuan sauce and Florida pink shrimp with I-forget-what-kind-of-glaze, but it turned out to be a sweet/sour which I wasn't expecting based on how it was described on the menu. A vegetable described as "lily bud with mountain potato" was also ordered, and a fried rice. But backing up for a second, you have to hear this. When I recited our desires, the waiter asked in a patronizing voice with the lilt at the end like you might use with a child or someone several shades dimmer than normal, "And do you know what black cod is?" Now there had been things about placing the wine order that made me suspect that we had been pegged as fresh off the turnip truck, but this was too much. So I responded, in a mimicry of his intonations but with a big helping of sneer on top, "YESSSSSSS. I order black cod in restaurants all the time at home, in fact I often buy black cod and cook it myself. Have you ever cooked black cod YOURself?"
At that point, most interestingly and most wisely, he excused himself and sent another waiter to our table to take our order. Our new handler, as we referred to that service provider from that moment on, took our order without complaint or criticism, and from then on we had a nice if ridiculously expensive meal, but sheesh. Oh, and this was also our first experience being charged an 18% gratuity automatically when there were only two of us. We wondered if that was Cod Man acting protectively or just South Beach SOP. Could be the latter as we were similarly taxed at another place we stopped at later for a nightcap.
Anyway, foodwise, that was pretty much the trip. Not quite what we planned, but we had trouble getting time and opportunity to coincide. Thanks everyone for your reccomendations.
Sure didn't expect it in Florida.
