why miami beats LA and NYC in the burger department

miami is a burger kinda town. It's not surprising, amidst a culture of sandwiches that piles shredded pork atop ham atop more pork, that the magic of a good patty never fades. We've mused over the burger craze taking over South Miami, longed for, and then fully taken advantage of the Shake Shack openings and goo-goo for gastro-pub's burgers with fried eggs or pork belly on top.

The news of LA based Umami Burger coming to Miami was exciting but not all that surprising; we're pretty used to LA and New York staples opening Miami outposts. But suddenly, I was stuck with a thought - Miami has a Shake Shack and now we have an Umami. The mighty rival coastal duos of upscale fast food. Does LA have a Shake Shack?!! I wondered. Does New York have an Umami??!

The answers are no and no. So, Miami wins. We have both.

Umami is an LA burger chain that locals go totally wild over. There are locations all across the sprawling city and an off-shoot market called Umamicatessen.

top image (of Umami's Cubano Burger) via umami.com 

restaurant: matsuri

There's a rumor that Madonna eats at Matsuri when she's in Miami. That can't really be confirmed, but the idea of the one and only Material Girl eating at a sushi joint in a strip mall on Bird Road and 57th Avenue, under a blood bank and next to a Cuban food-by-the-pound cafeteria is very, very nice. Matsuri is in a strip mall, the location is unusual, but have you seen Jiro Dreams of Sushi? The world's best sushi restaurant is in a subway station. 

The chef at Matsuri doesn't just stick to California and Dragon Rolls, there's an unusual addendum to the usual roll, sashimi and sushi fare, a "Matsuri's New World" section that you should order from - almost exclusively. Matsuri's New World includes items like a "Matsuri's Risotto" with brown rice, Japanese scallops, bacon and mushrooms is ooey-gooey cheesy, but an exercise in the restraint required for a good risotto. The Negitoro Wasabi Ae, a chopped toro and scallion with spicy wasabi sauce topped with a raw quail egg conjures up memories of another raw egg tartare at Pubbelly. This dish is a must-have, a serious must-have at Matsuri. 

Have anything off the Matsuri's New World menu and you'll want to try every other dish on there - but you'll probably have to order this one every single time you go. If you're unfamiliar with the minty, cilantro-y taste of the shiso leaf, a Japanese herb, now is your time to dive right into this strange and fresh herb. For a taste of what they can do with an actual sushi roll, try the sampler-style Invitation From The White House (one of a few politically inspired menu item names). Each of these charcoal-broiled sushi rolls is so tasty, so layered, that you'll try and eat it in more than the usual face-stuff-single-bite of all your past rolls. 

What's really amazing about Matsuri is that while they do a thorough job of listing menu items, each dish is a kind of mystery wrapped in a simple description. The Spring Tornado is described as an "avocado, shrimp, vegetable, crabmeat and roasted pork rolled in rice paper" but it comes on a flat dish served with a peanut sauce that has a hummus-like consistency. The chef behind the sushi counter answered a question about what was in the mystery-hummus-sauce he stopped his chopping and thought for a second, "a lot of things" he answered. This made sense. The flavor was complex, clearly peanut based but the texture and the subtlety suggested there were more mystery ingredients wrapped in there. He confessed there was sesame paste (alas, the hummus texture) and some mustard-iteration (which explained the grainy texture). 

Every dish on the Matsuri's New World menu is equally as complex. 

dine at swine

run pig run to swine, yardbird's sister restaurant now open in Coral Gables. 

full write up coming soon. 

2415 ponce de leon blvd. 

fendi's ultra fur

it's called Fashion Week, but anyone who knows anything knows that it's really Fashion Month, a week after week long marathon that takes place across continents and hemisphere - the fashion world is a serious place guys. 

It's so serious that Fendi is pumping out looks that are perfect inspiration for your ULTRA outfits; we know you take that seriously. There's fur slap bracelets (last image), goggle-like rhinestones glasses with electric blue fur legs, pops of neon stripes by way of clutch purses and wrap skirts and, best of all, colorful fur mohawks. Colorful fur mohawks. 

Not only does this scream DIY but it's also a sweat proof way of incorporating a little fuzz into your PLUR look - because the ultimate raver staple, the fur legwarmer, has got to be hot this time of year. 

images via style.com

green soup, a healthy soup for a hearty appetite

I licked my bowl clean at carrot ginger soup at Bugatti in Coral Gables. The very next night, less than 24 hours later, I tried to make a quick call in post yoga class and scoop up a container to-go; while this sounds like an on-the-fly decision it was a calculated move and there were several downward facing dogs sustained by the promise of Bugatti's carrot ginger soup sipped from my couch. Turns out, they don't do takeout at Bugatti - they won't do takeout at Bugatti. They refused, I begged. I vowed to make a healthy, non-dairy based, vegetable soup of my own. Now, I don't need to and you're snooty no-takeout policy! I have this coconut milk based broccoli and kale soup, a totally original recipe that I'm totally proud of.

As you can imagine, a kale and broccoli soup is, by design, a healthy soup. I'm a JugoFresh fan, I like Choices, a frequent customer of The Last Carrot and a newbie to the culty Beehive Natural Foods; I want to be healthy but I'm a girl with a hearty appetite (see: Macchialina, Best Food Coma In Town). This is a soup that's satisfying as a meal and has nothing in it but coconut milk, broccoli, kale, onion and garlic.

Vegan Broccoli and Kale Spiced Soup 

Vegetable measurements are pretty loose. This serves two full bowls.

1 small head of broccoli, chopped
1/4 sweet yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves chopped garlic
two handfulls of kale (any variety is fine, if you don't have kale handy spinach or arugula would work fine, but we're fans of kale for the superfood value and earthy flavor)
1 teaspoon yellow curry powder
1 can light coconut milk (available in the Asian aisle at the grocery store)
juice of 1/2 an orange or 1 lime

Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a deep pot over medium heat. Add broccoli and onion and saute until broccoli is bright green and onions have softened. Add kale and stir to cook evenly for about five minutes - it doesn't really matter how cooked any of the ingredients are, this soup would probably work raw, but we like to get them nice and toasty, cooked through. Add garlic and curry powder and still until curry powder coats the vegetables, about a minute.

Pour coconut milk over and reduce heat to low. Let sit until the coconut milk starts to bubble. Take off heat and mix with immersion blender*. If you don't have an immersion blender (get one, they're great for making soups on the fly and fresh salsas etc, a totally beginner friendly tool that makes you feel like a real Top Chef and are super easy to clean) wait for the soup to cool and blend in a blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Add juice from orange or lime.

Reheat if necessary and serve.

All vegetables courtesy of Jerry's fresh fruit and vegetable stand at the Coral Gables Framer's Market (Saturdays), Pinecrest Farmer's Market at Pincrest Gardens (formerly Parrot Jungle) and the Ocean Reef Farmer's Market. 

hi, hialeah

a few snapshots from a quick drive through Hialeah. Fresh shrimp for sale in a front yard for $2 a pound, M&M Liquors always has clever and poetic political quips on their sign, and a food truck by Tere who tells it like it is "UN POCO TARDE Y CANSADA PERO SIEMPRE LLEGO." 

how pinteresting

just a friendly reminder that our Pinterest account is very nice, updated daily and we've added new boards including AQF, Ay Que Fancy, for fancy-dress event inspiration, Patricia Necesita, miami nice editor Patricia's picks for things that are generally impractical but she really wants (Dolce Gabbana raffia flats with pom poms, earrings of jumproping children, woven baskets) and more.

flamingo finds, tv estan

for just $90 you can take home this concrete, "TV ESTAN" from Flamingo Plaza's Community Family Thrift. 

macchialina, best food coma in town

macchialina, the sister restaurant to the Pubbelly boys off of the Venetian Causeway, is located a little bit away from Pubbelly, Pubbelly Sushi and Barceloneta in the distinctly more "South Beach" location on Alton and 8th but it's no less distinctly delicious. 

The entrepreneurial minds behind Pubbelly Andreas Schriener, Jose Mendin and Sergio Navarro are the champions of the gastropub scene in Miami and deliver some of the best dishes in the city. Pubbelly, Pubbelly Sushi and Barceloneta serve up renditions of fare that they don't want called "fusion" (it says so on their website), but it's at Macchialina, the more conservatively Italian restaurant that the trip really showcase their talents for food - good, clean, well prepared, ingredient rich food. At Pubbelly, you'll get a Pastrami & Sauerkraut Dumpling that tastes better than you can imagine, because it's hard to image what a Pastrami & Sauerkraut Dumpling would taste like; at Macchialina you get the best pasta you've ever had. 

According to our waiter, who so clearly loved his job we kept asking him questions about the restaurant just to indulge him in answering them, the restaurant is the fruit of a new partnership with Michael Pirolo Eatery, an ex-chef of the Fontainebleau's Scarpetta. The most popular dish at Scarpetta is the spaghetti, plain ol spaghetti, so it makes sense that the pasta of Pirolo's new venture would be important to him. They couldn't poach the pasta guy from Scarpetta, who allegedly makes each fresh batch in a secluded room so no one can see, and consequently steal, his technique - so they flew in his brother and he taught him the family trade. This brother now works at Macchialina, where the pasta comes in more inventive dishes than spaghetti bolognese and the best dish we tasted all night, unanimously, was the truffled mushroom pasta (far right in above image). 

Actually, that's not entirely true, the creamy polenta with sausage ragu and cipollini tied for first place in the eleven courses of our very reasonably priced $45 tasting menu. Yes, eleven courses. Eleven delicious unbuckle-your-jeans-so-you-can-eat-more courses. 

The amuse bouche was a bite of burrata and after that it just kept flowing: steamed mussels; warm butternut squash salad with kale, prosciutto and hazelnuts; broccolini al cesare; the aforementioned polenta and mushroom truffle pasta (taglio li ni ai funghi); beet filled mezzaluna; spaghetti con vongole - by the time that the whole chicken came to the table it was a laughable experience. The word food coma has never rung truer. The tasting menu at Macchialina is a Man v. Food worthy meal. Then they brought a plate of scallops and four desserts. 

I will probably never order the tasting menu at Macchialina again. This being said, you should absolutely do the tasting menu on your first time there. It's a bargain, it's the best way to taste everything on the menu and it's probably the best meal you'll have this whole year. So far, it was mine. 

here I am in full food coma, leaning on the wall for stability and trying to convince myself that "walking it off," like, walking to the car, will help. While simultaneously planning to come back again, maybe next week for the daily $10 pizza and pint happy hour.

beware of human

"Aqui Tenemos Gatos y Siete Camaras Para Proteger Los Gatos" "Our Cats Are Protected By 7 Surveillance Cameras in this house" (sic).

And they have a security dog. Animal lovers/ People haters. Only In Miami.

so long string bikinis

roksanda Ilincic's geometric swimsuits are crisp and clean and would certainly make a statement in a sea of string bikinis and ill-fitting monokinis, but they come at a price. These striking suits price at just under $500, here's to hoping that designers at lower price points take a cue and give us some an alternative to the triangle top and the bandeau and the mom-one-piece. 

        

images vie netaporter.com

turkey picadillo lettuce wraps

Have you heard Paula Deen's son that has a tv show called "Not My Mama's Meals," that pretty much banks of Paula Deen's diabetes and rethinks her butter filled recipes into healthier more modern dishes? No? It doesn't really matter, we've never seen the show either, but we're totally onboard with the idea: take flavors that you love and are familiar with, flavors you don't want to part with totally but know better than to eat everyday and rework them into recipes that are healthier and just as flavorful. Because no one wants diabetes. 

Turkey picadillo is probably the most successful recipe we've had thus far in this endeavor. Now, we're not claiming to have invented this, in fact, since I started spreading the good word of turkey picadillo tons of people have told me they too eat it. With brown rice. With whole grain pasta. With whatever because it's totally addictive and crazy versatile and takes about half an hour to make - and most of that is spend letting it simmer on low heat.

Ground turkey is leaner, an easy way to avoid red meat, has half the saturated fat of ground beef and frankly, is just as tasty. Now, we aren't claiming this is like, the Weigh Watchers recipe, or the ultimate weight loss trick, it includes ketchup, which is a preserved sugary food and if you're using this to shed pounds, not just switch to a healthier lifestyle, I guess you can double the tomato sauce or just brown the turkey and use it in the lettuce wrap plain, but this is how we make it.

Here's a recipe for turkey picadillo lettuce wraps. We'll be posting more turkey picadillo recipes in the next few weeks, because one of the best parts about this meal is that it stretches for a few more. One standard package from the grocery store will last for at least 5 meals.

Turkey Picadillo

1 package of ground turkey 

1 can of diced tomatoes 

1 chopped yellow onion 

2 chopped peppers (we used green) 

olive oil (about a teaspoon)

1/4 cup ketchup

tomato paste 

1 chopped cloves of garlic 

sea salt and pepper

sazon completa

Heat olive oil over medium heat and soften the chopped onion and peppers until soft, about five minutes, we like to leave them with a bit of crunch because they're still going to simmer in the pot for a while. Add the turkey and brown, just as you would with ground beef. Add garlic, salt and pepper and sazon completa. Seasoning is a pretty personal decision, so let's not get into that, but I think a teaspoon of sazon completa, a big pinch of sea salt and a big pinch of pepper will do. 

Add can of tomato, and about a quarter cup of ketchup - go ahead and add more ketchup depending on how what consistency you like your picadillo, for this recipe it works better on the drier side so the lettuce wraps stay together and don't cause a drippy (but delicious) mess. 

Turn down the heat to low and let it simmer for a while, at least 20 minutes. 

Lettuce Wraps 

1 package of hydroponic butter lettuce 

1 package of bean sprouts 

chopped cilantro 

chopped scallions 

hoisin sauce 

Sriracha 

Set out the ingredients and assemble to your liking. If you want a stronger Asian flavor, you can mix the hoisin and Sriracha in while you cook the picadillo, but if you're going to be using the picadillo for a couple other recipes later, put in on top like we did. 

check out our recipe for quinoa con frijoles

haulover's bitches

haulover Beach, up by Bal Harbour, is best known as Miami's nude beach but on Saturdays and Sundays they open the beach to another kind creature that doesn't wear clothes - dogs. 

"Dogs on the Dunes" at Haulover Beach from 8 am to 3 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. 

108th street and collins ave

dolce havana soda

dolce & gabbana Havana Soda t-shirt 

via the outnet

rodarte lets it slip

the newest Rodate collection was a flash back to the design duo's roots as teenagers in Santa Monica, and where there's a boardwalk, there are bathing suits and where there are bathing suits there are wardrobe malfunctions - this collection was about making swimsuit wardrobe malfunctions cool. It's totally Miami even though it was made with the West Coast in mind. 

Go ahead, convince your skinniest friend to emulate this look on the next boat day. 

images by style.com

i spy with my little eye

a couple peacocks hanging in the trees. 

coconut grove.

it's gettin hot in here

was it hot in "here" or some variation of "herr"? Either way, it may technically be winter, but it's getting hot in here, like, crank the AC summer time style. Ok, maybe not summer stim style, but it's so hard to remember exactly how hot it gets.

These hand fans by Emanuela Ligabue would come in handy, we're sure they're a logical purchase. Totally sure. 

images via here