food

Aventura Wine and Food Festival 2014

January 12, 2014 By Eleanor Hoh 3 Comments

So it seems every single city has its own wine and food festival and today Aventura presented its first festival on a beautiful sunny day. The concept is a great idea because it’s a fabulous way to hang out with friends, taste a lot of different cuisines from local restaurants and try a variety of wines all in one place! Just be aware of long lines to enter and at the food and wine tents and wear appropriate clothing and shoes!

I only managed to get tastings from 3 restaurants: Mister Collins (Bal Harbour); Toro Toro (Pan Asian fusion inside downtown Intercontinental Hotel) and Fish Fish (North Miami). All served ceviche cause it’s the easiest dish to serve! So disappointed Chef Ryan Harrison didn’t have cooking facilities for his spiced popcorn at the Mas Vino tent, maybe next year!

Foodies in South Florida

March 17, 2011 By Eleanor Hoh 3 Comments

If you know of any foodie groups, underground supper clubs, food happenings,

please share with us: wokstar at eleanorhoh dot com

HOH WOK CLUB: I put this sorta Asian supper club together to celebrate and explore new foods, friends and exchange ideas. When I find a good Asian influenced restaurant, I organize a special tasting menu with the chef so we can get a flavor of what they offer. Subscribe to my newsletter in right side bar for updates of these gatherings and all things Asian and beyond.

Shelley-Belly’s Underground Supper Club is an amazing way to experience intimate dining in a beautiful environment, get pampered, meet interesting folks from all walks of life and just enjoy. All shrouded in secrecy with passwords and you don’t know the menu till you arrive! I love all that and if you like the sound of this, get on Shelley’s email list or follow her on twitter to find the next Underground supper

ChatChow TV, a mouth-watering video podcast where we go behind the scenes with the chefs, owners and mixologists of Florida’s celebrated food industry. Hosted by Lauren Bernat, the viral Wii Fit Girl sensation, the show consists of 6-10 minute episodes each individually highlighting some of our favorite food personalities.

Cobaya Miami is an “underground supper club” started by 3 foodies so South Florida chefs can experiment on human guinea pigs! I’ve been to one, it was so much fun to scuttle between food stations and meet new folks but way too much food in one session for me personally, here’s my post. You have to be a member to participate, sign up on their site. Featured here is Gastropod, Chef Jeremiah Bullfrog’s shiny, airstream and now there’s two of them!

Digest Miami : Our mission is to go beyond cooking and explore the many stories behind the food we eat and the people that make up our culinary world. From the concepts that inspire great restaurants to the vision behind each Chef’s signature dish, we are committed to the exploration of food as a lifestyle and not just a commodity. We hope to share our passionate adventures with you.

Miami Culinary Institute is a fantastic, brand new, state of the art facility in downtown Miami. They not only have a cooking school for those who want to be professional chefs but also have classes for ‘food enthusiasts’ which include wine appreciation and many innovative topics. I got the grand tour at their opening and they’ve done a beautiful job. They also have their own food truck, Alphabite! I give them a mention here. They recently added an organic edible garden.

Miami Food Tours started by architect Kelly Woodward is a fabulous way to discover different areas and get a tasting along the way. One new tour that I participated in is Swooped with Forks! Instead of walking, we took a fun ride in an electric open little car from South Beach to Design District and Buena Vista. It was such a treat. Even as a local, I was fascinated with the history and cultural stories and it helps when it’s a journalist/underground chef Shelley that was giving us the tour!

Miami Culinary Tours What a great way to experience local culture, cuisine and people all in one go! I got a chance to do the SOBE FOOD TOUR and it was a blast! Of all things, I ended up in a group of nearly all Asian gals in a hen party, post coming. I can’t wait to do the Little Havana Tour for a hispanic version!

South Florida Foodies: This is a closed group, you have to request to join but what a fun group of foodies! They organize gatherings at the latest, trendiest, yummiest restaurants. A recent gathering I participated in was an ‘Avant Garde Pot Luck’ in a private penthouse apartment for just 30 and I got in! I’ll be posting about this event soon.

South Florida Food Swap: I made kimchi to swap with Marie’s (founder) aji (Colombian chili sauce) but didn’t quite make it to the swap cause I was on my way to Hong Kong. You can find out how it all works as well as upcoming swaps in your area!

South Florida Food and Wine Blog

The go-to resource for all things food, wine and events from Palm Beach to South Beach. We write about and share what is hot, hip and happening! Christine is a hospitality marketing specialist, freelance writer, certified sommelier and the owner of a gourmet food company. Christine and the team at South Florida Food and Wine bring you fabulous food and wine experiences and information from Palm Beach to Key West, only writing about places they are “enthusiastic” about; “we’re enthusiasts not critics”. I first met Christine at a foodie gathering at Hakkasan where she ‘won’ my cooking class certificate.
Latest update, Christine just came out with her new book, Food Lover’s Guide to Miami & Fort Lauderdale: The Best Restaurants Markets & Local Culinary Offerings (Food Lovers’ Series), you can order it here.

South Florida Gourmet is a Miami-based company dedicated to local and world wide distribution of information on food and wine.
Simone Diament, editor and publisher has graciously included my cooking classes on her site for many years.
Together with Carole Kotkin, Simone also host a radio show, FOOD & WINE TALK WSFG

Twitter Live Chats

1. FoodieChats is a twitter live chat and also has an interview series on Facebook. I was honored to be chosen as their first guest! I love this idea, you’re able to view the complete interview here.

Use #FoodieChats with @stevegogreen on twitter every Monday at 8pm ET for themed foodie chats.

2. The Hungry Goddess, A Food Blog to satisfy the Ravenous Soul by Kimberly Moore in conjunction with FoodiesUnite, Beverly Pipes who also produce a few other food blogs as well as a food chat.

Join #HGEats on twitter for foodie topics and entertaining tweeps every Wednesday, 12 – 1pm ET with @HGEATS @HungryGoddess @Healthy_Goddess @DrunkenGoddess

3. Please join @TableFare and @MySpiceSage for #SpiceChat, first Wednesday of each month from 4:00 to 5:00pm EST.
Myspicesage is one of my partners that sponsors my Wok Star Kit with their curry powder and 5 spice powder. You can find out more about them here.

Katy Lynch has evolved from publishing Dine magazine to creating events for food and wine enthusiasts, visiting the latest South Florida restaurants with Savor Tonight. It’s a perfect way to get a taste before you go full throttle at a restaurant and a fun way to meet people. I’ve been to one at Lucky Strike and got a game of bowling in and another at Haven South Beach where the lychee cocktails were addictive!

Sample great food. Meet great people is Dishcrawl’s slogan. I’ve not attended so can’t give any personal recommendation but sounds interesting. When the time is right, I’ll go. They have these in other states too.