Emeril's Miami Beach

On our recent spring break trip to Miami, Chris, Jenny and I took a side trip to Emeril's Miami Beach. Emeril Lagasse, the head honcho of New Orleans cuisine, took his cajun-style and transported it sea side to the glorious sands of Miami. Combining his classic fare with a fun-in-the-sun attitude, Emeril succeeds in bringing some spice into your midday beach experience... which really only prompts you to pass out in the sand with a beer in hand. Mmmm.... spring break!

We entered the restaurant after a quick search (iphone aided, of course) and were greeted by this smiling face:

... and we knew that it was EMERIL TIME! BAM!

Going for lunch meant our entrees were mainly sandwiches, but we decided to go all out and order appetizers in order to really make the experience worth while.

Foley ordered the barbeque shrimp, which ended up being great of course, but only came with four pieces of shrimp. For a growing boy like Chris, this was disappointing. Luckily, Jenny ordered a heaping pile of fried calamari and there was enough food for all. These were calamari like no other: covered in tomato sauce and olives, it was an abundance of Greek-Cajun fusion. We debated whether these beauties were finger food or fork food, but really, the calamari was just a race to the finish... fork or finger, we just wanted them in our mouths! Lastly, I ordered the parmesan oysters. I've only ever eaten raw oysters before, but these were garlicky and cheesy while still retaining their fresh ocean flavor, and I just wanted to drink them up.



As for our mains, Foley had the chicken wrap, Jenny ordered the shrimp po boy, and I ended up with the blackened salmon sandwich. We all wanted to order something different so that we could take fullest advantage of Emeril's menu, but then we ended up misunderstanding Foley's sharing-standards and didn't eat any of his plates and didn't offer him any of ours. Oh well! It didn't matter at all, really, and we all were happy with our plates. Emeril can't really go wrong in our books. Also: please note how amazingly thin the home made potato chips are!



At this point, we were all stuffed, but couldn't forsake Emeril's famous banana cream pie. THIS IS THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER EATEN IN MY WHOLE LIFE. Thick and creamy, filled with banana, and topped with caramel and chocolate, I wanted every bite to last for hours. I started to get delirious as I kept delicately sneaking spoonfuls into my mouth... and by the end, I felt like banana and cream was seeping out of my pores... but OH MY GOD, was it worth it! I will never again in my life eat banana cream pie like this one... ahhh.

Now in complete delirium from food coma, we decided to mimick Emeril's classic BAM motion to express gratitude for such a delicious afternoon:

BAM!
BAM!

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Israeli Barbeque

Even if there's no such thing as good hummus in America, we Israeli food-o-philes try to make the best of the diaspora with the limited ingredients at our disposal. Last weekend in Santa Barbara, my friends Yoav, Harry, a bunch of Israelis and I threw together an Israeli barbeque as best we could... well, mostly Harry and I watched in blissful awe counting down the seconds til we can make aaliyah while Yoav and the Israelis chopped, blended, fried and threw together the most satisfying meal ever. The kind of meal that can only be better when washed down with a Goldstar beer. Pictures can't really do the meal justice, especially because I am obviously a klutz with the camera and my shadow is in the front of every photo!

Yoav handled the grill: beef and turkey kebabs. The beef kebabs were round, and had pine nuts, parsley, and cumin mixed into the meat. The turkey kebabs were "the long kind" (as Yoav called it), and were a sweeter, with cilantro, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Both turned out AWESOME, especially when dipped in the homemade tahina (sesame paste, lemon, garlic) and hummus (chickpea, paprika, olive oil).

We heated the pita on the stove, to make them soft and warm:

The hummus:

Israeli salad (for which I did not chop the vegetables small enough, says Yoav), along with the tahina and onions for the meat.

SHNITZEL! Yoav's favorite. Pounded chicken breasts, covered in bread crumbs with sesame seads and zatar seasonings. We thought we made enough so there would be leftovers for a straight-out-of-the-fridge-dip-in-hummus- midnight -snack, but we clearly finished them all no problem. Oh well.

Yoav makes a sandwich with his:

And, just so readers get a sense of the table, here is one side:

And the other:

Our side of the table ate more, clearly!