What Do Yelp and Tripe Have in Common?

I'll admit it. I was once "Yelp Curious." I was younger, and I experimented with it, and I found out it just wasn't for me. For me it was just a phase. But to each his own, live and let live, and so on. I believe in tolerance. So I have no hesitation in noting that Yelp has come up with something that caught my attention: "Yelp Eats! Week."

From July 20 - 26, a dozen local restaurants will be doing special prix fixe dinners at $25. A few things impressed me: (1) $25! (2) it seems some efforts were made to discourage restaurants from just offering the "same old" (i.e. the Miami Spice trifecta of chicken paillard, skirt steak, and farmed salmon), with some of these menus actually showing some variety; and (3) andouillettes?!?

Among three entrée choices at Au Pied de Cochon is the rather innocent sounding "grilled andouillettes." Which, for Mrs. F and me, brings to mind a dining experience from our younger days. Not long after we were married, we took a trip to Paris for a week. One of our first meals when we were there was at Le Procope. Le Procope was founded in 1686 and is said to be the oldest operating restaurant in the world. It was the haunt of folks like Voltaire, Rousseau, Balzac and Hugo. There is a hat on display which was supposedly left there by Napoleon.

Neither Mrs. F nor I speak French, and so we were phumpering our way through the menu (since then, I've developed a savant-like ability to read menus in several languages even though I am otherwise completely incapable of communicating in any language other than English). I ordered a duck dish, while Mrs. F saw something called "andouillettes," and figuring it be something comparable to an andouille sausage, which we were familiar with, she ordered it. Our dishes came out, my duck looked quite nice, Mrs. F's looked like a large, greyish beige sausage. I started to dig in, and she took a bite of hers. She's looked at me, and I couldn't quite make sense of her expression. It was initially puzzlement, but then shifted to mild distress. After a lengthy pause, she said: "I just bit into something. It wasn't meat. It wasn't fat. I don't know what it was. It felt like a rubber band." Another pause. "And this smells funny." We switched plates, and I had the dubious privilege of eating the rest of the andouillette.

It turns out that andouillette is a particularly visceral tripe sausage, usually coarse ground, and often with pork intestines in the mix as well (hence that rubber-band texture). It has been described as "a pale, lumpy sausage made from pigs’ intestines that smells like a pissoir," and "like chewing on rubbery . . . poop." Apparently Seattle chef Tom Douglas' assistant recently made the same andouille/andouillette mistake that Mrs. F made, and likewise concluded that "it wasn't my cup of tea." Needless to say, the French have an association dedicated to their appreciation, the Association amicale des amateurs d'andouillette authentique (or AAAAA).

I have enjoyed more than my share of tripe in the intervening years, and have even started to come around to pig intestines, though I'm convinced there must be a better way of preparing them than the simply grilled chinchulines that are often served at Argentine parrillas. So of course I now feel obligated to pay a visit to Au Pied de Cochon to see if they're serving real-deal andouillettes, and if so, whether I'll like them better than the first time. Somehow I think Mrs. F will be sticking with the duck.

Not the Yelp/Tripe connection you thought I'd make? Anyway, here's the full rundown of menus on offer:

660 at the Anglers
1. Andalusian Gazpacho or Risotto & Mushroom Croquetas
2. Pappardelle Carbonara or Half Chicken "Al Mattone" or Moules-Frites
3. Liquid Center Chocolate Cake or Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta

AltaMar
1. Peruvian Style Ceviche or Peruvian Style Tiradito or Bahamian Conch Salad
2. Grouper Ravioli or Yellowjack with mustard sauce or Breaded Filet of Mackerel
3. Passion Fruit Mousse with Crème Anglaise or Tiramisu

Au Pied de Cochon
1. Warm Crispy Camembert Cheese, Beetroot & Apple Salad or Escargots Vol au Vent Provencale
2. Grilled Salmon Filet or Grilled Andouillette or Duck Confit Parmentier
3. Red Fruit Clafoutis, Raspberry Sorbet or Apple Tatin Tart, Sour cream, Caramel Sauce

Cafe Sambal
1. Organic Greens Salad or Pork and Shrimp Shu Mai
2. Salmon Teriyak or Wok Seared Kobe beef or Chicken Pad Thai or Tofu Vegetable Pad Thai
3. Mango Rice Pudding or Coconut Flan

Casa Toscana
1. Sausage, cannellini beans, tomatoes, and greens casserole or Mixed Plate
2. Spaghetti with littleneck clams or Pappardelle with mini veal meatballs or Risotto of the day prepared with vegetables seafood or meats
3. Homemade amaretti gelato or Ricotta almonds chocolate figs semifredo

Escopazzo
1. Eggplant timbale or Baby arugula salad or Beet carpaccio with celery salad
2. Pasta or risotto of the day or Large shellshaped pasta or Pennette or Crepes filled with ham, fontina cheese and cabbage or Giancarla's fish stew
3. Selection of homemade desserts

Grazianos Brickell
1. Grilled Homemade Argentine Style Sausage or Bay Scallops Involtini
2. Hand Cut Angus Sirloin Steak or Egg Pappardelle or Grilled Free-Range Chicken Breast
3. Graziano's caramel filled (Dulce De Leche) crepes Flambé with orange liquor or Argentine style cake

Jaguar
1. Choice of three Ceviche Spoons
2. Mexican Tortilla Lasagna or Rice Platter "Chino del Chifa" or Chopped Celia's Salad with Chicken
3. Palomas de Cajeta or Flan de Queso

La Cofradia
1. Pears and Manchego Salad or Goat Cheese and Yuca Croquettes or Tapa of Ceviche
2. Chicken Saltado or Salmon with Scallops or Fettuccini
3. Peruvian Style Dulce de Leche Topped with Port Meringue or Sorbets

Pacific Time
1. Hot and Sour Popcorn Shrimp or Sesame Chicken Salad
2. Skirt Steak or Grilled Fish Szechuan Style or Spaghettini
3. Drunken Grape Parfait or Vanilla Creme Brulee

Red Koi
1. Tuna Tartar or Tuna Yuke or Thai Combination Platter
2. Chicken Teriyaki or Santini Roll or Mitch Roll
3. Fried Ice Cream or Thai Donuts or Green Tea Ice Cream

Red, The Steakhouse
1. "Red" House Salad or Classic Caesar
2. Bucatini, Meatball, Red Lead or CAB Prime Sirloin Steak or Fish du jour
3. Housemade Sorbet or Molten Chocolate Cake

Paradigm Series Named "Post of the Month"

Thanks to South Florida Daily Blog and its readers for voting the three part series documenting my experience in the kitchen for a "Paradigm" dinner at Neomi's in Sunny Isles as the June "Post of the Month."

The original links are here:

In the Test Kitchen at Paradigm (Part I) - Sunny Isles
In the Test Kitchen at Paradigm (Part II) - Sunny Isles
Lessons Learned in the Test Kitchen

Frank Bruni Gets in on Pizza Crawl

Look what we started! In today's New York Times: The Cult of the Artisanal Pizza - Crust Is a Canvas for Pizza's New Wave, with comments on nearly a dozen new New York pizzerias. Can't wait for the "What does Bruni know about pizza?" chorus from the NY pizzerati to begin.

Sketches of Spain

A couple meditations on Spanish themes to start the day:

Por Fin in Coral Gables is offering the chance to "Experience the Running of the Bulls Without Getting Gored." In celebration of the foolhardy annual tradition of running down Pamplona's cobbled streets with six one-ton bulls in chase (typically after staying up all night drinking the evening before), Por Fin is offering two-for-one drinks (including sangria and kalimotxo, the red wine & cola concoction that is one of the Basques' few uncharacteristically questionable contributions to gastronomy), $5 tapitas, and flamenco music from 5:30 p.m. to closing on July 8-12. Only four people were injured in the opening day of this year's run. Hopefully Por Fin's body count will be even lower.

Meanwhile, UrbanDaddy reports that Solea, a Mediterranean (hey - at least it's not a steakhouse!) restaurant in the new W Hotel South Beach, is open for business, and gives a link to the Solea menu which shows some prominent Spanish leanings. While UD picked up that the restaurant is managed by the same folks who run Quattro on Lincoln Road, New Times' Short Order adds that the chef team is Michael Gilligan (formerly of Atrio in the Conrad) and Norman Van Aken protege Arthur Artiles (last at the now-closed Brosia in the Design District).

Miami Pizza Crawl - Part III - South Beach Edition

After forty pies, are we becoming jaded and world-weary pizza eaters? Was the rainy, humid weather putting a damper on the pizza ovens? Whatever the reason, Round 3 of the Miami Pizza Crawl seemed like something of a letdown, though it finished on an up note. This portion of the tour covered Lincoln Road - the newly opened Sosta Pizzeria, as well as a couple more established pizzerias, Piola and Spris. About 15 hardy pizza fans braved the foul weather to sample the following:

Sosta Pizzeria
Sosta (sundried tomato spread, mozzarella, burrata, prosciutto crudo)
Carpaccio (tomato sauce, mozzarella, beef carpaccio, arugula, parmesan)
Siciliana (tomato sauce, mozzarella, anchovies, capers, black olives, basil)
Brie & Speck (just like it says)

Piola
Piola (fresh mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes, basil, tomato sauce and mozzarella)
Carbonara (bacon, egg, parmesan, tomato sauce and mozzarella)
Curitiba (catupiry cheese, hearts of palm, artichokes and mozzarella)
Posillipo (fresh mozzarella, anchovies, oregano, cherry tomatoes and tomato sauce)

Spris
Carbonara (tomato sauce, mozzarella, pancetta, egg, parmesan and black pepper)
Ortalana (tomato sauce, mozzarella, grilled eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, roasted peppers and portobello mushrooms)
Frutti di Mare (tomato sauce, mozzarella, calamari, clams, shrimp and mussels)
Patate e Pancetta (mozzarella, pancetta, potatoes, rosemary and parmesan)

Here's my take:

Sosta -

We started the evening at Sosta, a spin-off of Quattro Gastronomia, which opened on Lincoln Road a few years ago. I hear the space is very nice, but I arrived late and immediately sat at our outdoor table and never got a good look inside. The menu features a lengthy - nay, intimidating - list of about 30 pizza options, though some of them require careful study to find what ingredient distinguishes one from another (sort of like the Monty Python Spam restaurant).^[*]

One of the unofficial rules of "Pizza Crawl," starting with the "Joey's Pizza" at Joey's Wynwood, is that if there is a pizza named after the restaurant, then it must be ordered. Unfortunately, the "Sosta" pizza made little impression, other than that the sun-dried tomato spread with which it was anointed instead of sauce was too sweet. If there was burrata, it was wasted, as it was was indistinguishable from the mozzarella.

The carpaccio pizza, topped with slices of raw beef which in short order were cooked pink from carry-over heat, was likewise curiously underflavored, the beef tasting like not much of anything when raw, and like under-salted steamed roast beef after it sat. The Siciliana fared better than the others, simply because its flavors (anchovy, caper, olive, basil) were bolder, and used decent quality ingredients (a pit in one of my olives was testament to them not using pre-pitted olives). The brie and speck also just wasn't doing it for me, but that may just be a matter of personal preference. The crust on all of their pies was good if a slight bit soggy, but likewise surprisingly lacking in flavor. Having heard some very good things about Sosta, I had expected it to fare better. Maybe we just had an off night there.

Piola -

Piola has its roots in Italy (Treviso, to be exact, which - someone please correct me if I'm wrong - is not exactly pizza headquarters of Italy; it has a location in Naples as well, but it's Naples Florida, not Naples Italy), but has an even stronger presence in Brazil where it has 9 outlets. The menu, even more encyclopedic than Sosta's with over 50 pizza options all prepared in a wood-burning oven, shows a distinct South American bent. We tried one of these, the "Curitiba" with catupiry cheese, hearts of palm, artichokes and mozzarella. While the creamy catupiry cheese was an interesting change of pace, it was something of a one-note wonder, and the hearts of palm and artichokes tasted straight from the can (and we're not talking any artisanal Spanish canned goods either). The "Piola" was bland, and the "Carbonara" had not been given sufficient time for the bacon to crisp so it tasted fatty and flabby.

The "Posillipo" was found in a separate section of the menu and was described as a version of a traditional Neapolitan style pizza, supposedly shaped smaller with a thicker crust and edges. I could detect nothing different about the crust other than that the cornicione was perhaps a wee bit wider. The anchovies it was topped with were saltier and furrier than those at Sosta (and I am a big anchovy fan, so this is no slur on anchovies generally), and the one cherry tomato I came across was green and under-ripe. I've had good pizzas at Piola, but this was also a pretty disappointing showing.

Spris -

At least we closed out the evening on a high note. At Spris we easily had our two best pizzas of the night, their Carbonara and their Patate e Pancetta. The Carbonara had nice crispy pancetta, an oozy fried egg, big shards of shaved parmesan, and a fine dusting of ground black pepper. The Patate e Pancetta, though somewhat similar, was also done well, with thinly sliced potatoes that were both tender and a bit crisp, salty pancetta, more of that generously shaved parmesan, and a whiff of rosemary. This was a vast improvement over the similar "Genovese" pizza at Andiamo we had in Round 1.

The Ortolana was a difficult pizza to share, because the assortment of vegetables - roasted green peppers, grilled eggplant, thinly sliced zucchini, portobello mushrooms - were artfully arranged in separate sections rather than scattered. Aside from the arrangement, though, I felt the ratio of topping to crust on this pizza was out of whack, way too laden with vegetables even if it was generous. The Frutti di Mare, while an interesting idea, will not cause anyone to forget New Haven style clam pizza any time soon. I couldn't really detect any seafood other than ringlets and more ringlets of calamari, which were a bit bouncy (probably breaching the "2 minutes or 2 hours" rule for cooking calamari by virtue of their time in the pizza oven).

While Spris certainly was the best pizza of the night (the two best pizzas actually), I wouldn't put it ahead of either of my winners from Round 1 and Round 2 - PizzaVolante and Racks.

Update: For other takes, here are links to Mango & Lime (with pix!) and Blind Mind's recaps of Pizza Crawl Pt. III.

Sosta Pizzeria
1025 Lincoln Road
Miami Beach, FL 33139
305.722.5454


Piola
1625 Alton Road
Miami Beach, FL 33139
305.674.1660


Spris
731 Lincoln Road
Miami Beach, FL 33139
305.673.2020

^[*]Another crawler has suggested a "Cheesecake Factory / Nexxt Cafe" like similarity between Sosta's menu and that of nearby Spris. I'm not sure I agree. Several of these are pretty common pizza nomenclature - "capricciosa" for a pizza with ham, mushrooms, artichokes and olives, "quattro stagioni" for the same done in four separate sections, "ortolana" for a vegetable pizza, "diavola" for spicy sausage, - and others are just common ingredients - prosciutto cotto e funghi, tonno e cipolla, etc.