Food and Dining in Miami
The city is teeming with celebrity chefs, and most have an inventive flair derived from flavors found in kitchens around the globe. Miami's New World Cuisine was formed about a decade ago, when a group of master chefs dubbed the Mango Gang created a new genre that makes splendid use of fresh native fruits and vegetables and local seafood, spiced up with Caribbean and Latin influences. Tropical treats such as mango, starfruit, avocado, papaya, cilantro, yucca, guava, and plantains are used lavishly, and stone crabs, conch, grouper, and Florida lobster make frequent mouthwatering appearances, sometimes along more contemporary or Continental items.
Restaurants in the Miami area range from Wolfie's, an old fashioned deli which came with New Yorkers who were one of the "immigrant" waves to the area. There used to be many more of these places, but as other people came south, restaurants changed. Norman van Aken of Norman's restaurant of Coral Gabels, received the prestigious James Beard Award as the Best American Chef in the Southeast in 1997. Allen Susser of Chef Allen's won the award in 1994. Miami is no longer a place to learn to be a great chef, rather it is a destination. This is an area of fresh food, tropical ingredients and seafood. There are Caribbean and Asian influences in the food as well as classic European restaurants. If you want to describe the local cuisine you need to look at old Florida, California nouvelle as well as the Cuban influence. The idea is to use locally available tropical ingredients such as mango, papaya, avocado, jicama, coconut, snapper, lobster and stone crab. This is the land of jicama slaw and mango-infused oils as well as jerk fish. And if you need it there are still great bagels and smoked fish, chicken soup and breads and cookies to "nosh".
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
||
 |
|