Laine Doss

Dunkin' wants to make you a star!

​If you're a Dunkin' Donuts superfan put down the coffee cup and head over to the Dunkin' Donuts at 2720 South Dixie Highway in Coconut Grove today until 5 p.m. for a chance to star in their new "What Are You Drinking?" commercial.

The commercial is part of a series of local Dunkin' commercials. A few weeks ago, the donut chain was looking for Spanish-speaking caffeine addicts. This time the casting is for English-speaking coffee lovers.

We spoke with Danny Martinez, casting director for Element Productions, the company charged with finding new caffeine-addicted talent, who told us that the casting for the Spanish-speaking commercials was incredible.

"So many talented people showed up. Those people were stars."
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Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

What did our ancestors eat? Not three or four thousand years ago. What did they eat 90,000 years ago? How did they survive in the wilderness? They weren't at the top of the food chain. In, fact, humans were probably delicious hors d'oeuvres for an assortment of four-legged predators.

In the endless quest for modern day restaurateurs to find the newest "gimmick" that will make them rich and famous, a place in Berlin has ventured into the distant past and come up with a unique concept for your curious palate.

Sauvage, (meaning Wild in French), is the latest dining endeavor created by a couple of adventurous Germans, named Boris and Rodrigo. The concept is described as Paleolithic cuisine, which offers patrons free-range meats from organically fed cattle and a large variety of fruits, nuts, herbs and even cakes and pies that are 100-percent free of processed ingredients. There are no breads, rice, pastas, trans-fats or sugars on the menu. "We leave those utterly bland and boring tastes behind us and offer you crackers and bakes made from seeds, vegetables and nutflours," said Boris Leite-Poco, "hard work for us, delicious tastes for you. You will find the over consumption of grains in traditional cuisine often makes you feel bloated, tired and uncomfortable after dinner. Our meals will make you fully sated but feeling light as a feather at the same time."
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Welcome back, friends!

​The day has finally arrived: those sugary, sweet, crunchy, soft, delightful (and, yes, fattening--especially if you eat a whole box in one sitting) Girl Scout cookies are hitting the streets. Last week we tried the new flavor, Savannah Smiles, and gave a review. This week, we provide weird facts -- like just the first shipment to South Florida, where about $2 million was earned last year from cookie sales, fills five warehouses. Here's more:
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Hostess/Facebook

There may soon come a day when we say, "remember the Twinkie?"

​The bad economy has been hard on everyone, and apparently depressed people without jobs no longer eat to dispel their feelings. Hostess, which just emerged from bankruptcy in September of last year, is at it again with an impending refiling reported by the Wall Street Journal.

WSJ cites the $860 million dollars of debt on the books as a major reason behind the move to restructure, but one has to wonder if perhaps Twinkies are simply on the endangered food species list?

With high fructose corn syrup requiring its own publicist (oh those commericals, SNL's spoof really hits home) maybe it is time to consider the death of Twinkies, which are rumored to have an infinite shelf life. Apparently it costs more to produce, distribute and sell cheap baked goods than they actually net from the endeavor.
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via Wikimedia Commons/CC

​In our experience, trips to Miami International Airport are anything but good for our health. Between the stress of parking and getting through security to the greasy cheese pizza we shovel down before running onto a flight, every airport trip feels like it takes a year off our life.

But according to the 2011 PCRM (Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine) report, MIA is one of the country's best airports to find heart-healthy food.
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Farm workers will protest Publix on International Human Rights Day

​The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) are planning to picket the newly opened Publix on KIllian Parkway and SW 104th Street on December 11th, International Human Rights Day.

The protesters, comprised of dozens of farm workers from Immokalee, Florida, will join other supporters to call on the supermarket chain to participate in the Fair Food Program, which guarantees Florida farm workers a living wage and better working conditions.
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​As another testament to the power of social media, Coca-Cola has abandoned the holiday save-the-polar-bear white Coke cans after a number of tweets and Facebook posts from confused consumers.

Complaints were posted to the company's official blog, Facebook, and Twitter over how the white can resembled the silver Diet Coke can.

Posts also expressed dissatisfaction over taste, saying it differed from the formula in the red cans. Others drew comparisons to the '80s "New Coke" fiasco when company executives changed the original recipe after 99 years.
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​Miami-based Burger King may soon lose its spot as America's second-largest fast food burger chain to the red-headed stepchild, Wendy's, market analysts say.

Both burger joints have competitive dollar menus, but Wendy's went further by adding additional amenities to about 20 percent of its restaurants. Janney Capital Market analyst Mark Kalinowski says in a recent report that he expects Wendy's to soon surpass Burger King sales if it continues to overhaul its restaurants with flat-screen TVs, modern fixtures and fireplaces. 


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All photos by Laine Doss

Mr. Moe's turns ten on Saturday - we want the bear to wear a party hat.

​A hunting lodge in Coconut Grove. That's what the owners of Mr. Moe's wanted to recreate ten years ago, so they imported river rock from Colorado, logs from Nova Scotia, and a whole lot of stuffed animals -- including one big ole bear. The philosophy being if you build a log cabin in the middle of the Grove, they will come.

And they did. For ten years, Mr. Moe's has been one popular bar, serving tourists and families by day, college kids by night. Never to be confused with the trendy lounges and clubs of downtown Miami and South Beach, Mr. Moe's caters to people that want to get their drink on, ride a mechanical bull, watch sports, and listen to live music.

ESPN loved the joint so much, it named it as one of America's best sports bars in 2010. Not too shabby.
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A 44,000-year-old jawbone fragment found in England

​A piece of jawbone first unearthed from a cave in England in 1927 was discovered last week to be 44,000 years old, providing evidence that modern humans existed in Europe thousands of years earlier than previously thought. This dating also confirmed the contested theory that early humans co-existed with Neanderthals.

Being obsessed with food, we immediately started wondering what these ancient people would have eaten.

Their lifestyles are supposedly what the modern "caveman," "paleo," or "primal" diets are modeled after. Essential to these diets are grass-fed meats, fish, vegetables, fruits, roots, and nuts. Excluded are grains, legumes, dairy, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils.

But how accurate are these attempts at ancient diet reproductions? What were ancient humans really eating 44,000 years ago, and were their diets superior to our modern food habits?
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