Food and literature are long-term lovers. And poetry, in particular, has had a romantic relationship with all things edible throughout the ages. From Shel Silverstein to Jonathan Swift, some of the most famous scribes have penned odes to their favorite bites.

Poet and editor Kevin Young has compiled some of his favorite such poems in The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food and Drink, and he'll do some food-related readings at Friday's Animal Spirits event at the Freehand Miami as part of the ongoing poetry festival O, Miami.

Young has written poems about everything from okra and boudin to gumbo and sweet-potato pie. He even penned an ode to pork. That's a man after Short Order's own heart. So we spoke with Young about some of his fave food topics, his restaurant picks, and Pablo Neruda's elemental odes.

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Courtesy of Eddie Leon

So you're a homebrewer in Miami and you want to start a brewery. If population density is any indicator, the market is ripe compared to Asheville, North Carolina, a city of 83,000 people that has at least a dozen breweries (including brewpubs) and counting.

Eddie Leon, 44, founder of Most Wanted Brewery in Doral, is one of two brewery startups in Miami-Dade. Along with Wynwood Brewing Company, Most Wanted is on the rise.

See also:
- Misfit Home-Brewers Help Lead Miami's Craft Beer Invasion
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Ziggy Marley

For more on the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, check out New Times' Taste guide, hitting newsstands Thursday, February 21.

Ziggy Marley comes from musical royalty. His parents are Bob and Rita Marley, who, with the Wailers, brought Jamaican reggae from the Kingston ghettos into the mainstream. Being the eldest son of musical icons has rubbed off on Ziggy. At age 44, he's already had a musical career spanning three decades, receiving five Grammy awards in the process. Marley has also acted, most memorably portraying Ernie the Rasta Jellyfish in Shark Tale. He has also grown his family's Tuff Gong label into a worldwide enterprise, created the Marijuanaman comic book, and is active in many charities.

Marley is also passionate about advocating for the labeling of GMO products in our foods, and he's launched Ziggy Marley Organics, a line of products that are USDA-certified organic, non-genetically modified, and kosher. The products include flavored coconut oils and hemp seeds.

Marley combines his passion for music and food at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, where he's closing out the weekend's events at Guy Fieri's Reggae Jam with Ziggy Marley Live (6:30 p.m. Sunday, February 24, at the Ritz-Carlton South Beach, $95). The Caribbean-themed evening will feature a full concert by Marley, and partygoers will have a chance to try the hemp seeds and coconut oil.

We caught up with Marley, who spoke to us about how food and music play into his culture and lifestyle.

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Photo by Scott Duncan

Martha Stewart

For more on the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, check out New Times' Taste guide, hitting newsstands Thursday, February 21.

Martha Stewart is the woman who does it all. Just reading her list of accomplishments -- author of 77 books, host of an Emmy-winning television show, and founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia -- is enough to exhaust the average person. The "domestic diva" shows no signs of slowing down.

She's just released Meatless, a cookbook filled with 200 vegetarian recipes from the kitchens of Martha Stewart Living, and is serving double duty at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

On Saturday, February 23, at 11:15 a.m., Stewart will be conducting a demo at the Grand Tasting Village, showcasing a vegetarian meal from her new book. Later that day, Stewart will trade in her apron for evening attire when she serves as mistress of ceremonies at the annual Tribute Dinner honoring Nobu Matsuhisa and Christophe Navarre at the Loews Hotel on Miami Beach. In addition to her "official" role at the festival, look for Stewart at the various other SoBe Fest events during the weekend. In past years, she's been spotted at Burger Bash and Diamond Dishes, enjoying the food and chatting with fellow chefs.

We spoke with Stewart about her part in the festival and her plans for the weekend.

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The Perennial Plate

A cilantro merchant in Udaipur, India

Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine do not curse on-air. They don't film extended reels of themselves, eating late-night street food across Japan. While shooting in India, they don't murmur hyperbolic "mmm's" between bites of panipuri. And they definitely don't ramble about the nuanced flavors in a well-executed bhel puri.

In 2010, the duo founded The Perennial Plate, a weekly online video series dedicated to social responsibility, sustainability, and adventurous eating. Unlike other food and travel shows, The Perennial Plate is not about exoticism or condensing chef interviews into newsworthy soundbites. This is a series about people, their stories, and their food.

"The purpose of the series was really to get people thinking about their food more and to start a dialogue," says Klein. "It's about developing an emotional connection to those who grow food. We are advocating for a better food system in the world in a format that's entertaining and positive."

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Flickr CC

Biodynamic cacao is grown according to regulations stricter than those required for organic certification.

To understand biodynamic agriculture, consider egg labeling. "Free-range" stamps previously suggested eggs laid by chickens raised on pastures. Then, it turned out, they were laid by chickens with access to the outdoors. Whether they spent time outside was (and still is) arguable. 

As demand for sustainable eggs increased, farmers evolved the lexicon. Eventually, terms such as cage-free and free-roaming came into use. Then the word pastured was born.

In a similar way, the biodynamic movement wants to go beyond the overused term organic. Santiago Peralta, founder of the organic and biodynamic-certified, bean-to-bar, award-winning, Ecuadorian Pacari Chocolate, who was in Miami this weekend for the International Chocolate Festival at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, believes biodynamic agriculture is a step beyond organic. It yields a superior product. He also thinks it's the future trend in chocolate -- and sustainable agriculture.

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Zachary Fagenson

Afternoon tea at The Biltmore.

More and more these days, we hear Miami touted as a "World-Class City." Putting marketing copy aside, it isn't really a town to which you'd attach adjectives like old world, el;egant, or classy.

So it's not the kind of place you'd expect daily afternoon tea accompanied by live classical music from an acoustic guitar. But head to the Biltmore. There, you'll find more than two dozens varieties of tea rolling around the lobby on a hardwood cart along with dainty, crust-less finger sandwiches and sweets.

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Courtesy of Luis Brignoni

There is a mantra that goes something like this: do one thing and do it well. For Wynwood Brewing Company's brewmaster, Jim Patton, that one thing is making good beer.

Patton joined Luis Brignoni's brewing operation last month. He, Brignoni and Luis Brignoni Sr. are currently preparing to open the first brewery in Miami city limits since the Wagner Brewing Company in 1934.

See Also:
- Milestones in Beer History
- Wynwood Brewing Company Signs Lease, Plans to Open by November
- Beer Snobs Rejoice! Wynwood Brewing Company Soon To Open
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Amaris Jones

The words pork-free seem to be the only thing people remember when Short Order broke the news of South Street's arrival at the former Sra. Martinez space. Not that we blame you. How can you make delicious soul food -- or in South Street's case neo soul food -- without it?

Alas, Amaris Jones says you're just going to have to try it. She isn't going to spend time trying to convince you.

See also:
- South Street Restaurant & Bar Moving Into Former Sra. Martinez Space

What we do know so far is the self-proclaimed lifestyle maven has paired up with restaurant and nightlife impresario Amir Ben-Zion to bring a jolt of food and music to the Design District. Jones talks about South Street being equal parts restaurant and live music venue, where blues, R&B, and jazz commingle with the food Jones grew up eating and cooking.

So while you await South Street's arrival (we're told December actually, South Street's Facebook page says it will open this Friday), Short Order spoke with Jones about how she came to work Ben-Zion and who will be helping out the self-taught cook in the kitchen.
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Cyril Camus, Dashing Cognac Heir

See also "Cognac Heir Cyril Camus on Hunting Wild Boar with Only a Knife, Calls Incredible Hulk 'A Bit Redundant'"

If you're the dashing heir to a cognac empire like Cyril Camus, you've been drinking the stuff since your parents put it on your gums as a baby. But for the rest of us who are merely heirs and heiresses to mining or shipping dynasties, we might be able to use a little help when it comes to selecting and enjoying cognac. Not to mention faking like you know what you're talking about.

Despite being the fifth largest cognac house in the world, Camus only entered the US market three years ago. This summer, they have introduced a new line of cognac expressions to the US market. We sat down with Cyril Camus, president of Camus Cognac, to figure out how we can make like a cognac heir, without the whole squaring-off-against-wild-boar-with-only-a-knife thing.

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