My bloodtype is gravy. Mmmm.....gravy.

​You could say fat runs in my family. Like, genetically. That's my great grandpa to the right. They called him Chins Mulliggan.

He was an Irish gangster. A hard drinking killer that carried tripe in his overcoat pockets, and taught my father to do the same.

So I don't entirely blame the fast food industry for suckering me into a lifelong obsession with fried foods via the toys they used to market their food to me as a kid.

Fact is I probably would've weighed 320 regardless. Plus, I still collect the toys.

Here are some of my favorite retro fast food toys:
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Chef Cindy Hutson in the kitchen at Ortanique On The Mile.

​Cindy Hutson started her professional cooking career in 1994 when she and her partner Delius Shirley opened Norma's On The Beach. They named the place after his mother, Norma Shirley, a famous chef who Food & Wine once called the "Julia Child of the Caribbean."

Cindy says "Our first restaurant, Norma's, we took over the Lazy Lizard on Lincoln Road in 94' and completely gutted the place. About a month before we opened Delius said 'well, you better write the menu.' I said 'what?!' I'd never worked in a restaurant in my life. I thought his mom was cooking.

I didn't wanna waste no money on knives and aprons. I used to be in the kitchen in flip flops and a sundress. The first six months I cried every night, 'I can't do this, I wanna go home.' Well, when the first review came out it was top of the line everything, they loved it, and that was the New York Times. That's when I said 'I can do this.' Then the articles kept coming out, so I finally bought some knives and an apron, but I didn't wanna buy anything if I wasn't gonna make it.

We named it Norma's because she was famous and nobody knew who I was, everybody thought she was the one cooking, but once it was established that I knew what I was doing you better believe I let everybody know it was me in the kitchen."

Norma's closed in 1999, the same year Ortanique on the Mile opened. Here are some pictures from the kitchen.
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via chipotle.com

​

​Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza is offering local football fans a chance to win the ultimate "Dolp-fan" package: Two club seats, a parking pass and Anthony's tailgate food for 10 will be given away to each home game. In order to qualify, you have to pick up a form available at any of the ACFP locations and drop it off at the register. Sole Miami-Dade location is in Aventura (17901 Biscayne Blvd.; 305-830-2625).

Of course now that Pennington is out for the year, the value of this promotion has plummeted a bit. Still, club seats are club seats, and if the tailgate food includes Anthony's delectable coal-oven pizza, this is quite the winning proposition for any football fan. And even though you probably won't win, stopping by Anthony's for an 800-degree anthracite-fueled pie is never a bad idea. BTW, Dan Marino is one of Anthony's partners.

via Miami New Times Archives September 28 - October 4, 1988

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Caipirinha and Pisco Sour

​I'm sure we can all agree that Latin America has some gastronomic traditions that would make Anthony Bourdain run screaming into the Amazon.

I'm also sure that Latinos sure know how to drink.

Need proof?

​1. Aguardiente: At between 29 and 60 percent alcohol, this Colombian drink has enough  kick to be vodka's sexier, bigger-breasted sister. Aguardiente which, by the way, means "fire water," is distilled from sugar cane, giving it a smooth, almost-sweet taste. If you can't make a trip to Colombia, don't fret -- aguardiente brand Cristal is readily available in the U.S. in its many flavors, like "Xtreme Wild" (seriously).

2. Pisco: If you want a drink with some...history, pisco is the way to go. Peruvians have been drinking this grape brandy since the late 1550's, when Spanish settlers began to plant, harvest, distill, and presumably get wasted off their colonial behinds on the stuff. As the drink nears its quincentennial anniversary, it remains hugely popular -- probably due to the infamous pisco sour, a cocktail containing lemon juice, egg whites, syrup, bitters, and, of course, pisco.

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pollotropical.com

​It was the breast of times, but not the wurst of times, because Pollo Tropical has got chicken on lock, but they're not slanging sausage.

Cash in your gut check with Pollo Tropical's new Tropical Trios, any combination of 3 wings, a quarter rack of ribs, a quarter grilled chicken, or a half a churrasco steak, and 2 sides for $7.99.

The way the press release we received via email was worded it seemed like you could get four items for the price of three. When we called company representative Jack Wolfe from Impact Miami Public Relations he said "Its four you can choose from, but you only get three, other than that it would be a cuatro and I dont think we've invented that yet...but you also get the two sides. I had one yesterday. I had the chicken, wings, and steak. It was pretty good."

According to their website Pollo Tropical has 33 Miami-Dade locations. log on to pollotropical.com for more info.

• A kid eats octopus in Miami, his mom writes a book. Foodie parents. [DailyNewsOnline]
• Miami based Burger King corp running one dollar hollers in the burger war of 09'. [BaltimoreSun]
• AP report say Miami is one of the U.S. cities with largest income gaps, and nationwide foodstamp usage jumped 13 percent last year to 9.8 million households. [AssociatedPress]
• Catholics in Iowa pay to assemble meals that will get trucked to Miami before being shipped to Haiti. [THonline]
• Miami to open a distribution center for Sardinian water from Acqua Smeraldina. [CarriageTradePR]
• Buenos Aires governor in Miami for Conference of the Americas comments on 40 day armed conflict at Kraft Food Company plant in Pacheco, Buenos Aires, Argentina. [BuenosAiresHerald]
• University of Florida "authority on Cuban agriculture" says Cuba could solve their food crisis "in a minute, with the stroke of a pen." [TheDay]
• Alison Austin, CEO of the Belafonte Tacolcy Center, talks to a California paper about banning donuts, sodas, and sugary items from the office. [SanLuisObispo]

Jackie Sayet

Can you handle it?

​Are you a beer purist or do you like your hops with a scoop of ice cream, a splash of Moet Chandon, or Reposada? 

Owner Eric Fried of 8 Oz. Burger Bar (1080 Alton Rd, Miami Beach; (305) 397-8246‎) has something for everyone with 12 new draught lines installed last week and a menu of 16 house-designed mixed drinks to make them shine. 

Mixed Berry Beer Float?  Yes, it works.  Surprisingly well.

The 8 Oz. brand is licensed from Chef Govind Armstrong, who exited Miami with the Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing of Table 8, now left with New York and Los Angeles locations.  The City of Angels is also home to the only Govind-owned 8 Oz. Burger Bar.

Fried, a native New Yorker turned Miamian three years ago, isn't about to let the mark's woes scar his operation. Look soon for his new 'Suds & Sliders' menu of baby burgers paired with a flight of what's new on tap, like Shipyard Pumpkin Head Ale, Boulder Beer Company's Hazed and Confused, Dogfish Head 60 and 90 Minute IPAs, Chimay Triple Grand Reserve, and Lindeman's Lambic Framboise (averaging about seven bucks for a pint a la carte.)  In addition to sporting unique handles, the draught's M-Star kegs are housed for all to oogle in a unique glass tender held steady at 34.8 degrees.  Pretty snazzy.

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Daisy looking rather un-chef like

​The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, in partnership with Johnson & Wales University, is presenting the second season of its' Celebrity Chef Series for the 2009-2010 season. Over the coming months, three such chef shows will be held on the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall stage. Jacques Pépin, Eric Ripert, and Emeril will be guests at upcoming events, but the first performance of the series will feature Lorena Garcia interviewing "internationally acclaimed chefs" Ingrid Hoffmann and Daisy Martinez -- in honor of  Hispanic Heritage Month.

Not to quibble, but Ms. Hoffmann and Ms. Martinez are food entertainers, which is far different than being an internationally acclaimed chef. That's not to say that the "intimate interviews, live cooking demonstrations and question-and-answer sessions with audience members" won't be interesting -- in fact, these food personalities will likely be more engaging than the dull white guys Ripert and Pépin.

Date is October 16th.
Time is 8 p.m.
And cost is, ahem...$69 to $600!!! Tickets are supposedly by subscription only (meaning to all three chef series events), but individual tickets are on sale as well. Call 305-949-6722 or just go here.