Miami Food Blog

via miamigov.com

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via whillybermudez.com

​Whilly Bermudez is a right-handed, right-leaning, right-of-way, righteous republican, and as Tim Elfrink reported Monday on Riptide, he's got the support of Tubbs from Miami Vice in his run for a seat in the Florida House of Reps for the 116th district (unincorporated West Dade and Kendall).

Right on!

And in a move that may beguile liberals for generations to come, Whilly Bermudez is giving away food to poor people for free.

According to a press release, "On Saturday - November 21, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. he is leading a massive effort to feed the hungry of the Miami Rescue Mission in downtown Miami located on 2020 NW 1st Ave, Miami, FL, 33127."

The food drive is also very concerned with alleviating the struggles of water shortage. Water donations are highly encouraged.

Whilly Bermudez has already secured 100 volunteers for the food drive, but is looking for more, and is providing free transporttion for them. He also seeks corporate sponsors. Interested parties should dial up 305-807-1621 to be a part of the action.

Keep boobs alive.

​Breasts deserve to live, bounce, jiggle, and shake happily through cancer-free lives.

Fight the disease by funding the search for a cure on October 20th at the Newport Beachside Resort (16701 Collins Ave., Sunny Isles Beach) where Eleanor Hoh will run a Wok Star cooking demo followed by a food sampling, and Sunbox Eleven Winery will host a wine tasting.

There will also be a main event fashion show featuring complimentary food and drink.

Tickets run from $25 - $150, but get this, if you support the cause, but can't afford to contribute money, or if you just want to go, but don't want to pay, then you should volunteer to work the event.

Click here to log onto Volunteer Match, or contact the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation directly at jessica@fbccrf.org or at 954-454-4156.

Tickets for the event are available at floridabreastcancershadesofpink.eventbrite.com

Jackie Sayet

Culinary's cool

How can you not fall in love with her? Besides the fact that she is smart and talented, she happens to be one of the kindest chefs in the business. Always professional and always charming, Michelle also has serious cooking clout. She has used her expansive experience to create food that is deeply personal, refined and perpetually delicious, without being fussy.

​Top Chef Co-Host Gail Simmons of Food & Wine Magazine is of course dishing on our Michelle, Chef Michelle Bernstein, who recurs as guest judge on the Emmy-nominated show, (watch her on Bravo at 10 p.m. tomorrow night, September 23, on Top Chef Las Vegas.)

Dalé.

Sazon Goya is to everyday cooking in Miami as water is to the ocean. Give thanks and Rest In Peace to Jose Antonio Ortega Bonet for teaming up with the Unanues family, founders of the Goya food company, for bringing the world a line of products that find daily use in mostly Hispanic home-kitchens all over the U.S. and Puerto Rico, the Sazón Goya line of seasoning products.

"Pepe," or "El Gallego" as he was known to friends, lived and died in Coral Gables at the age of 79 of lung cancer. He was born in Havana, Cuba on October 27, 1929. He got married and had two kids there. The family later lived in Colombia and Puerto Rico where Pepe founded Sazon Goya in the 1960's before moving to Miami in 1976.

Pepe will be remembered as a philanthropist thanks to his donations to the the League Against Cancer, Jose Marti scholarships, Centro Mater Foundation, and Mercy Hospital.

Hooking up a café con leche. price - $1

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We're hungry.

Photo by Dorothea Lange via Library of Congress

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Jacob Katel

Farm Share clients

​Farm Share is a non-profit organization that provides food directly to 6,500 families a month. They also work with 250 agencies to distribute fresh produce, donated goods, and USDA commodities to people all over Florida.

Mayor Carlos Alvarez's budget proposal for 2009/10 eliminates funding for all Community Based Organizations. Mayor Carlos Alvarez's budget calls for the elimination of an established, efficient system for the distribution of surplus food to people who need it, at a time when they need it most, in a country where other cities are working to promote these type of services. Mayor Carlos Alvarez's budget calls for taking food out of the mouths of 6,500 Dade County families a month.

Log on to http://www.miamidade.gov/commiss/ and call and email our county commissioners to tell them Farm Share and community based organizations are important to us.

Here are some pictures of what we'll lose if you don't...

image via farmshare.org

Don't take food out of their mouths.

​What happens when a government starves its people? Dade County will find out the hard way if it axes Farm Share from its budget as proposals suggest.

Farm Share is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization that provides food directly to at least 6,500 Miami-Dade families a month.

They also supply 250 agencies using volunteer and inmate labor to distribute food donations from local farms, USDA commodities and other sources.

Their mission's focus is the distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables, as opposed to the canned offerings of most other organizations. Furthermore, these items move through a sophisticated distribution network that operates locally, and statewide. The county will literally take food out of the mouths of working class families, kids, and the elderly all over Florida if they decide to eliminate funding for Farm Share.

Demand a conscientious local government. Call Commissioner Joe Martinez, who has vowed to fight for the program, at 305-575-5511 and tell him it's important to you. Or email his office at district11@miamidade.gov

Log on to http://www.farmshare.org for more info

Jacob Katel

Burr's Berry Farm in South Dade

​In light of our current economic turmoil going-green is rooting out the red tape as conscientous local governments realize the benefits of urban farms on public property.

Today the AP released a story that details the explosive growth of community agriculture and volunteer farms that is occurring across urban areas of the United States.

The image above is from the historic and pioneering Burr's Berry Farm in South Dade (12741 SW 216th St), a commercial enterprise. The urban farms that are sprouting up are not for profit, provide produce for local food pantries, and feed their volunteers with the fruits (and vegetables) of their labor.

LocalHarvest.org will tell you where to find these farms and give you the contact info to get involved yourself. Click here to start your research.

Jacob Katel

Chef Sean Brasel passes on a photo op and asks his girlfriend to go one-leg-up for the camera instead.

​Chef Sean Brasel's popular Lincoln Road restaurant Meat Market is launching a new $10 appetizer menu at their bar daily from 5 - 8 p.m. starting tomorrow. Short Order ran into Chef at Taste of the Nation and asked him about charity and hurricanes. Here's the Q & A.

Jacob Katel

​ Former Top Chef contestant Howie Kleinberg has a restaurant in North Miami called Bulldog Barbecue (15400 Biscayne Boulevard). Short Order ran into Howie last night at Taste of the Nation, an event that tours the country raising money to end childhood hunger in America. We asked him some questions. Here's what Howie had to say about his restaurant, the food he serves, kitchen waste, fighting hunger and begging money on the street...

Home team advantage

​In a whirlwind of BBQ, BBQ, raw fish and more BBQ, Taste of the Nation was over, as it always is, too soon. Tons of money was raised for a good cause, so we can all go home feeling satisfied.

Stand out dishes included the hosting Ritz Carlton Key Biscayne's last minute switch from Tacos al Pastor to pork carnitas, which Chef Andres Parlange derived from an old family recipe passed down for many generations. Those are usually the best anyway, no?  Me thinks we need to delve deeper into this topic soon on Short Order, with both chefs and local home cooks. The carnitas were sweet and smokey, fall off the bone tender from slow braising, and delivered to the pie hole with a soft corn tortilla. Cactus salad (nopales,) red salsa and salsa verde accompanied. To set off and balance the flavors, a squeeze of fresh lime juice to finish.

image via krislitman's flickr

Back in November 2006 when Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo likened Miami to a third world country it was based on his own xenophobic worldview.

But with assault rifle fire ringing out in new and brazen crimes monthly, cops shooting unarmed tourists, no jobs, and a dismal housing market, his third world comparison is starting to fit the bill.

Add the possible closure of Stop Hunger Food Bank in Miami to the list. According to executive director Julius Littman via a CBS4.com report "This is the first time in 30 years that we have faced the problem of shutting down."

Stop Hunger Food Bank used to move approximately half a million meals a month, and not just to feed bums. They help struggling working class families and old folks too.

From a technological standpoint the food bank is severely lacking. They don't even have a website, it's been suspended. Short Order sees their need for social network saavy volunteers to give them a web based fund raising presence. $1 pay pal donations from around the world would be a very good look for them. All you high school kids out there on summer vacation could be getting your graduation hours off this.

Stop Hunger Inc. is located at 12050 NE 14th Ave in Miami. Their phone number is 305-891-8811. Log on to http://cbs4.com/neighbors for more ways to help. Miami stand up.

 

Share Our Strength

The children won't go hungry and neither will you

Let the chowdown countdown begin!  The 21st annual Share Our Strength Taste of the Nation is just four weeks away today in Miami, but event organizers already have a healthy crop of 19 restaurant newcomers confirmed for the July 30 orgy of eats. 

Is it promising or disconcerting that this freshman class currently outnumbers alumni?  Some of last year's participants hit the obits section like Prime Blue Grill, Tuscan Steak, and the KOBE Club. Others seem to just be holding out on us and the kids, like Michael's Genuine Food and Drink, and North One 10.  The Fontainebleau restaurants are noticeably absent from the proceedings, where other major competitors of our Ritzy host set rivalries aside for the good cause.

Without further adieu, here are the newbies and the returnees, so you can play judge...  

Jackie Sayet

I fetch like a dog. Can I come, too?

Your frisky feline struts her stuff to the soiree on a leash.

Kitty extends a peace paw to Jack Russell.

You show up dressed as your pet.

Your pet shows up dressed as you.
 
Fido gets carded, and flashes his own collar-handy ID, his graduation certificate from obedience school.

Your furry friend bribes the maître d' for entry inside the restaurant.

Your Saint Bernard pulls up to the bar to get you another brandy.

Your Retriever demonstrates unparalleled restraint, only jumping on one server to get at the Prosciutto di Parma.

In an astonishing display of Miami-style manners, your Pomeranian greets fellow pooches with a smooch on each side of the behind.

Your doggy raises a glass and barks a toast the Humane Society of Greater Miami for coming to the aid of animal kind!

Who: Bar Rosso and the Humane Society of Greater Miami
What: Light hors d'oeuvres ("small plates") and two complimentary drinks with a $20 donation.
Where: Bar Rosso's pet-friendly patio
19004 NE 29th Ave
Aventura, FL 33180
(305) 933-3418
When: Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 8 p.m.
Why: 100% of proceeds will go toward saving animals!

Got a special furry friend at home?  Leave a comment with their favorite human food!  My cat, Kittie, pictured, loves Pollo Tropical white meat chicken.


 

image via Pet Postcard Project

HELP SHELTER PETS!!!

Jamba Juice and Caribbean Conservation Corporation

Slirp for a good cause

It's a win win, folks.  Show up to Jamba Juice today, purchase a smoothie or other healthful snack, and the company will donate 20 percent of the sale to help ensure the survival of sea turtles.  It's all in cooperation with the Florida-based Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC), the world's oldest sea turtle conservation group, to celebrate World Sea Turtle Day.

This June 16 marks the 100th birthday of the late Dr. Archie Carr -- a veritable Jane Goodall of sea turtles. The CCC was founded in 1959 to support Dr. Carr's pioneering work in the study of sea turtle biology and life cycle.  The non-profit now carries on his legacy, dedicated to ensuring the survival of sea turtles through research, education, advocacy and habitat protection.

Coincidentally, Jamba Juice announced the roll out of its first "Grab and Go" food menu in California stores yesterday.  What a tease!  I guess we'll just have to wait until later in the year to give its "portfolio of ready-made wraps, sandwiches and salads" a test.

Support sea turtles at the following Jamba Juice locations in Miami today:

208 Miracle Mile      Coral Gables, FL 33134      (305) 446-8843
7704 N. Kendall Dr.     Miami, FL 33156     (305) 273-5536
1455 NW 163rd St.     Miami, FL 33162     (305) 944-9011
1455 NW 107th Ave     Miami, FL 33172     (305) 418-8723
13505 Biscayne Blvd Bay #28     North Miami Beach, FL 33181     (305) 948-9919