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Wok Star Eleanor Hoh

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Culinary Events

Lebanese food and lounges encourages guests to cozy up and eat more!

June 22, 2022 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

Dining out has become more about providing a “cozy home” experience than a traditional dining experience with just tables and chairs! At Amal, a new and modern Lebanese restaurant, they have succeeded in providing that lovely “cozy home” experience! 

Amal means story and hope, love that! The same hospitality group who opened the popular Byblos, focuses on Mediterranean food in South Beach is responsible for Amal. 

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About the decor…

There are two sides to Amal with three types of seating! You’ll be able to view your dish being prepared in a spotless, open kitchen on the left. I discover Executive Chef Wissam Baki knew my ex-assistant when they were at The Setai. 

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On the right side, you can choose to sit at sofas divided by dining tables for a leisurely dine. 

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On the left has more of the traditional tables and chairs kind of dining.

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Or for bites while enjoying your cocktail, there are high round smaller tables and very comfy high bar stools. These are on one side of the sofa arrangement and also by the glass windows looking out to the garden. 

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Then there are cushioned banquettes by the glass window with chair arrangements. This is where my dining partner @Epicurean305 and I sat, a “power table” to view everything on the right side of the restaurant. And what an incredible coincidence, we sat next to a friend and yoga instructor, Tanya Pergola who was celebrating her weeklong birthday. 

Heads up: Our server mentioned they’ll be opening their rooftop with 360 views of my adopted city, Coconut Grove and a separate menu soon, woohoo! 

About Lebanese food…

I love that @Epicurean305 and I like the same kind of food, so it’s easy to share dishes. 

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We started with 2 Lebanese appetizers from the Starter section. I chose Crispy Eggplant & Zucchini. What a beautiful presentation and so addictive, they were stood up and wrapped with a slightly pickled zucchini slice sitting on a bed of labneh and garnished with snow pea tip tendrils. Colorful pomegranate arils dotted around a special Amal platter. 

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The other was a popular Lebanese appetizer, Truffle Rakakat, such a cute name. It’s like a Spring Roll but has Lebanese akawi cheese wrapped in phyllo and very, very lightly deep fried, then tips are dipped in chopped pistachios. Honey drizzled around them, garnished with mint leaves and grapes gave them a nice pop of color. 

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Next dish was Black Cod, perfectly cooked on bed of tahini, piled high with crispy pita chips, cilantro and garnished with pine nuts and edible flowers. Such an interesting combination. 

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You can’t go to a Lebanese restaurant and not have a Skewer! Minced lamb and beef skewer with their own house spice blend came on a bed of biwaz, a mix of grilled onion and tomato topped with more onions but raw. And pita triangles. Very tasty. 

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Our sweet end was a Date Cake with pecan tuile, vanilla ice cream and drizzled butterscotch sauce with a bright blue flower garnish. Our server swayed us from the typical Baklava, ha, ha.

My Verdict…

What a superb dining experience, not only with the cozy home feel but Lebanese food is so good for sharing over conversations about more food.

My approach to eating out…

We took a stroll around Coconut Grove, my adopted city and bumped into another friend, Brie having fun with friends.

Would you believe it? My dining friend, @Epicurean305 had another sweet!  A gelato at Bianco Gelato to “clean his palate”, what an excuse! We bumped into a lovely Chinese couple who own Sushi Maki and their 3 kids. 

Get out there, enjoy a wonderful dining experience and meet people! 

Filed Under: blog, Culinary Events, Miami restaurant

Highlights from South Beach Wine and Food Festival 2022

March 27, 2022 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

Excited to share my Highlights from South Beach Wine and Food Festival’s Grand Tasting Village, a fantastic fundraiser for FIU hospitality.

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It’s a Fun way to explore new bites and possibly recreate or be inspired to create something similar at home. There were also cocktails and wines! I’m lucky, I can’t really drink.

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I was most impressed with Finless Foods in where Chef developed a “tuna like” looking and texture using Chinese Winter Melon! It was delicious and so refreshing! Currently, only available to food service not consumers yet, boohoohoo!

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Proud of Mac Pub’s build out of beautiful Land Rover for Dos hombres. He’s a master at transforming vintage wrecks into beautiful beverage trucks. He’s also a Wok Star! More about him soon!

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Happy to see local representation like Tabenero hot sauce and Karinat yoghurt and fruit covered chocolates!

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Touching to hear Del Grosso’s, the daughter got choked up about her Dad, Uncle Fred developing the famous Del Grosso marinara sauce.

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Goya Foods put out delicious, chunky tuna on a plantain crisp!

So fun hanging with @epicurean305 as always! Thanks Brustman Carrino PR.

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I’ve included my vote for Yelp’s favorite bite, see if you agree?

Would love to hear which event you attended?

Filed Under: blog, Culinary Events, SOBE FEST, Uncategorized

GrowFest Chefs Cook Off

October 19, 2016 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

Redlands GrowFest held annually at Fruit & Spice Park encourages you to grow, can and preserve your produce and vegetables!  The most popular event there is the Chefs Cookoff and I was honored to be invited again this year to judge with Christine Najac, publisher, author, sommelier and food and wine blogger of South Florida Food and Wine, Farmer Grabiel Marewski of Paradise Farm and Tim from Fruit and Spice Park.
The Chefs did an outstanding job as there were a lot of distractions!  Judges asking questions, snapping photos, not forgetting Edible South Florida’s publisher, Gretchen Schmidt, Farmer Margie from Bee Heaven Farm and Fruit & Spice Director, Tim Stribling were describing tropical fruits, spices and produce to the audience the whole time.
Here are some behind the scenes I captured of the Chefs Cook off. Each chef was given a “secret ingredient” and a box of mystery ingredients and allowed to pick anything from the ingredients table. Winner announced below!
Bring your family to the next one and make it a day’s visit cause it’s a drive!  There are food booths or bring a picnic, lots of areas to lay out.

Redlands Produce
Redlands Produce chefs could use any of these.

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Chef Carolina’s starfruit in honey

GrowFest Chefs Cookoff
GrowFest Chefs Cookoff

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Chefs furiously prepping! I caught Chef Venoy’s adorable little girl sneaking a peek!

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Chefs cooking at their stoves in wind and rain!

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Kudos to all the Chefs for coming up with these delish surprises in an hour! We ended choosing two winners because it was so tough and they were: top left: Chef Loren Pulitzer of Simply Sharon’s mash yucca cake and middle right, Chef Venoy representing Slow Food Miami with his black eyed peas hash and perfect duck egg. Bottom right: Chef Carolina of The Whisk Cafe & Bakery’s rice pudding which had chilies, a little kick there and Chef Johnson Teh of LAN, Yugo & Burrito San’s interesting use of taro leaves. We didn’t realize the leaves made your tongue tingle, oops.

Filed Under: blog, Culinary Events, Miami Events Tagged With: 'farm to table', Chefs Cook Off, Cook Local, cooking competition, GrowFest, Miami Event

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