first Miami food exploration of the new year
I’ve decided these flowers indicate the time of year when Miami food comes into its own. Driving into Coral Gables, I picked up my weekly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box from Bee Heaven Farms; the fresh greens that smelled of earth, eggplant, and starfruit spilled out of the box.
(I’ve been noting the contents of each week’s box with a little video, below is yesterday’s.)
Craving local tomatoes to accompany the greens, I set off in search of Miami’s Upper East Side Market in Legion Park–and found it fronted by yoga practitioners stretching under wide tree canopies–
You’ll know a Miami market by the seafood stand; stone crabs are highly prized here. Securing my tomatoes (Brandywine and Cherokee Purples), I also found cranberry beans, baby zucchini, and burrata.
Friendly vendors greeted regulars while I considered orchids as I always do (another fixture of Miami markets).
I thought about next week’s opening of more farmers’ markets here—a moment I’ve been waiting for since I moved in April (Miami market season is January through March) while I made an afternoon salad with the fleeting pei tsai lettuce from the CSA and young radishes.
Later last night, my lovely friend Jenne and I ordered sangria at Sra. Martinez, a new restaurant in the Design District (4000 NE 2nd Ave, Miami) and tried to decide what combination of tapas might be best. My favorite was the white bean stew (below) with large beans and foie gras/duck sausage in a port reduction.
Chatting with Sra. Martinez’s passionate chef, Michelle Bernstein, renewed my sense of Miami food possibilities in this new year.
As I showed Michelle Brightkite, the location-based social network I use on my phone to update friends on where I am (and often, what I’m eating), I smiled to think how many locations I have yet to pinpoint here.
So many things to try, beginning with a further exploration of Sra. Martinez’s menu. Shall I order a house-infused ham bourbon on the rocks with crispy artichokes? A poached egg draped over kale and jamon? A pork belly cube? An uni sandwich? Let’s start with Shrimp Tiradito with popcorn…
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Posted Sunday, January 4th, 2009, 9:03 am * Filed in Design, Food, Market, restaurant. * Tags: csa, Design, district, Food, kristen, kthread, local, miami, sra. martinez, tapas, taylor. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 5th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Chatting up a celebrity chef? Nice work. Michelle Bernstein, as you probably know, designs Delta’s first class and business elite menus. So, you two share not simply a Miami, but also an Atlanta, connection. The poached egg over ham and kale sounds delicious–real energy food. Thanks for the beautiful post.
January 5th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Of course she does. You can always makes those wonderful connections, Ben; I really like her and her food.
By the way, this is the perfect time of year to come visit Miami—promise we’ll make energy food and just wait until you try this yoga studio :)