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THROW A KENTUCKY DERBY PARTY WITH $1,000 WORTH OF STYLE

The Kentucky Derby isn’t just a two-minute horse race. To Southern folks, it’s also bourbon, hats, food porn — and $1,000 Woodford Reserve mint julep cups. (Photo by Dan Dry)

You may think the Kentucky Derby, which is held at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., every first Saturday in May, is just a two-minute horse race. But to folks in the South, it’s an excuse to look damn good and drink mighty fine-tasting mint juleps all day long. We like to think of it as Easter with horses, bourbon and even better-looking hats. So make like you’re on a plantation, follow these guidelines for a Derby party and join in the fun. We promise it doesn’t hurt.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The mint julep was created to relieve pain. Tim Laird, the chief entertaining officer of Brown-Forman, a Louisville-based producer of quality wines and spirits, explained that this classic cocktail was actually considered medicinal on the horse farms in Virginia where it originated. “Back in the day, there were no convenient pain relievers and farming was a laborious task,” he said. “To help loosen the muscles, farm workers would add sugar and mint to whiskey as a morning bracer. They could then do a full day’s work.”

The mint julep was created to relieve pain — which is probably why it tastes so darn good.

Indeed, that sounds like a fine plan for any employee in any occupation. Here’s how to give it a shot:

Start by composing a mint simple syrup (recipe below). “This takes away the task of having to muddle mint and sugar together,” Laird began, “which doesn’t always work well because people tend to over-muddle the mint, giving the drink a ‘woody’ character from the stems. Plus, it is difficult to dissolve all the sugar, which leaves gritty granules in your drink.”

Having the mint simple syrup on hand allows you to easily make mint juleps (recipe below) to order, including alcohol-free ones for what Laird called “responsible entertaining.” For that, he advised using unsweetened iced tea instead of Woodford Reserve Bourbon, which is the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby. For either version, however, he said to garnish each glass with plenty of fresh mint. “Part of the sensation is smelling the fresh mint before you even take a sip,” he noted.

Want to go a significant style step further? Purchase one of the 90 $1,000 Mint Julep Victory Cups, designed this year by Alabama-based fashion icon Billy Reid in conjunction with mixologist Pamela Wiznitzer. Handcrafted at Louisville-based jeweler From the Vault, each individually numbered cup features engraved roses, along with the Derby date and Woodford Reserve logo, and is accompanied by a gold-plated drinking straw. It arrives nestled in an oak box, designed by Nashville, Tenn., woodworker Christian Fecht, and lined with a custom silk fabric, also designed by Reid. (For a different kind of statement, you can purchase bow ties and neckties made from the same fabric on Reid’s website.)

In addition, 10 gold-plated Winner’s Circle Cups are going for a mere $2,500. Also numbered and engraved with roses, the Derby date and the Woodford Reserve logo, these cups feature a sterling silver crest and silver straw.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the $1,000 Mint Julep Cup program donates proceeds to a different charity each year; in 2015, the Wounded Warrior Equestrian Program, which supports veterans and others who require healing through horses. Cups can be purchased online on a first-come, first-serve basis until Thursday, April 30; unsold cups will be available at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day, which is Saturday, May 2.

If all this talk of juleps and drinking cups is sparking your appetite, never fear. Included below are recipes for two signature Derby appetizers, including Benedictine Bacon Toasts. A Derby favorite, the name is derived from a caterer in the early 1900s whose name was Benedict. Laird and his wife Lori advise making plenty of those because they say people can’t get enough of them. But don’t just take their word for it — do a trial run. You’ll see what they mean as soon as you taste your first one.

Mint Simple Syrup

1 part water 1 part sugar 1 part loosely packed fresh mint leaves

In a saucepan, combine the water and sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. When the water is clear and the sugar is dissolved, remove from the heat and stir in the mint leaves. Let steep for 20 minutes.

Strain into a glass container and store in the refrigerator.

The Perfect Mint Julep

In a tall glass with crushed ice, add:

2 ounces Woodford Reserve Bourbon (Official Bourbon of Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby) 1 ounce of mint simple syrup (adjust to your sweetness level by adding less or more) Stir and add a large bouquet of mint and stir straw

Goat Cheese with Mint

(Photo by Dan Dry)

12 ounces soft goat cheese, room temperature 3 tablespoons milk 2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds 1 teaspoon dried dill ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper 2 garlic cloves, crushed 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 20 mint leaves, thinly sliced Crackers

In a small bowl, combine the goat cheese, milk, cumin seeds, dill, black pepper and garlic. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Flavor is best if made the night before. Transfer cheese to a platter, form into a mound, sprinkle with mint leaves then drizzle with olive oil. Serve with crackers.

Serves 8

Benedictine Bacon Toasts

(Photo by Dan Dry)

1 English (seedless) cucumber, peeled 1 medium onion 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened 2-3 drops green food coloring Dash of hot sauce 1 pound bacon, cooked crisp, crumbled 1 loaf whole wheat bread, sliced

To make the Benedictine: grate the cucumber and onion (easiest with a food processor). Drain well by placing in a strainer and pressing down with a spoon to remove all of the liquid. In a small bowl or food processor, add the cucumber and onion, cream cheese, food coloring and hot sauce. Mix well, until combined.

Lightly toast the bread slices then, using a cookie cutter or the top of a jar, stamp out 1 ½-inch bread rounds. You can usually get three rounds per slice of bread. Spread a generous amount of the Benedictine on a bread round, then dip it in the bacon pieces. They will stick to the bread. Repeat the steps for each bread round.

Serves 8-10

Jen Karetnick is a contributing journalist for TheBlot Magazine.

29 Apr 2015

How I Scored Nordstrom Rack’s Elusive One-Cent Deal

FEATURE

JEN KARETNICK Apr 27, 2015, 11:00a

If shopping is good therapy for an unsettled mind, then the one-cent Nordstrom Rack deal is a month-long, all-expenses-paid stay at a spiritual retreat in Bali. One night last fall, it certainly helped me achieve inner peace—or at least kept me from disrupting someone else’s equanimity with a slap upside the head.

I was in a foul place that evening. I needed something pink to wear for Breast Cancer Awareness Day at the school where I teach. Given my slightly olive complexion, pink is hardly my color, although I can get away with certain, more vibrant shades of it. But I’d had a bad day dealing with some shameless students. The last thing I wanted to do was spend my measly salary on an item of clothing that I’d forever identify with their behavior.

Fortunately, a Nordstrom Rack was located close to where I was running errands. I’d never been in, but I’d always intended to give it a try. That evening, browsing not only became a shopping victory, it gave me the soul-soothing benefits of a yoga session capped off with a glass of wine.

I immediately found a pair of Coach stilettos in my size. I didn’t need them, but they were reduced from $345 to $100, and just by handling the finely tooled leather, I could feel the remnants of the day fading from my brain like a bad nightmare. Done deal, I thought, and put them in my basket.

However, the hot pink cashmere tank top I found on the reduced  rack, even though it was marked down several times from a very overpriced $129 to $19.99, still had me hesitating. While it’s hot and humid outside during autumn in Miami where I live, inside schools and office buildings the air conditioning can make your bones as brittle as a Charleston chew in the freezer. I wasn’t sure how much use I’d get out of it. I went back and forth internally until I finally became so annoyed with the sound of my own inner voice that I gave in and headed for the register carrying both the shoes and the admittedly soft and comforting scrap of pricey pink. The heels rang up as marked: $100. That was enough to begin some serious mood improvement. Then the bar code for the top registered: $0.01. I was about to alert the clerk that there was a mistake when she congratulated me. “Good for you! You found a one-penny deal. You must be a really lucky person.” Me? The person who had just that day discovered two sophomores engaged in an exchange of body fluids in a place they had no business being? And who then had to spend long extracurricular hours filing referrals and awkwardly informing the parents about what their beloved children had been doing with each other? I was lucky?

In fact, the deal was completely legitimate, the clerk confirmed. I really was able to buy this item for a cent. Not only that, because I had spent more than $100—literally $100.01—if I opened a credit line, I would be eligible for a $20 gift certificate. I gave her my details, as eager as an overachieving student receiving extra credit, and in return was given a temporary Nordstrom card along with my purchases. It was like ingesting instant-activation anti-anxiety pills.

As it turns out, the one-penny opportunity is something of a cross between extreme couponing and gambling. Two or three times per week, the salesgirl told me, the staff is required to roam the floor with scanners and read all the price tags, especially those of items that have been on clearance for a while. When a top or dress or pair of shorts rings up for a penny, that’s an alert that it needs to be pulled from the stock and sent back to the central warehouse. Staff isn’t allowed to buy it. However, if a customer finds the item before the staff pulls it, she’s allowed to walk away with a steal—and a story.

Nordstrom spokesperson Naomi Tobis hesitates to confirms this. “Technically, there shouldn’t be items in our stores for a penny,” she notes. “We make every effort to ensure the price of an item rings correctly. However, we have heard [of] this happening on occasion at our Rack stores. In the limited case an item rings at a penny, we will honor that price.”

I can certainly understand why Nordstrom would not be happy allowing items to escape their outlets practically for free. The mechanics of how the scanners and tags are coded to alert the clerks—by initial coding date? by reprogramming?—remain a company secret.

So are there ways you can be a repeat winner? I asked deal-hungry friends and scoured the Internet to see if there were any secrets. There’s no surefire process, and every markdown-conscious fashion-lover seems to have her own method. Still, if you’re a diligent shopper, the following tips may help you score a one-penny deal for yourself.

1. On the sale racks, search for out-of-season, heavily discounted items. The more times a tag has been reduced, the more likely that the piece of clothing or pair of shoes is soon going to be targeted for shipment back to the warehouse.

2. Frequent a less-populated store. Stand-alone stores or stores in strip malls are often better targets for bargain hunters than those in popular, crowded centers. When traffic is slow, prices go low.

3. Look for a Nordstrom Rack in a geographical region where it either has a lot of competition from other high-end outlet stores—Saks Off 5th, for example—or in neighborhoods where upscale clothing traditionally doesn’t sell well. Unlike areas where a Nordstrom Rack has a monopoly and the merchandise moves quickly, here the clerks have the option of re-stickering articles over and over in order to get them to sell.

4. Conversely, busy Nordstrom Rack stores that may be understaffed, temporarily or otherwise, don’t have the option of checking tags as often as they should. If you know of a store that has tons of merchandise but not enough employees, it’s prime for spotting a penny giveaway. Waiting on line for a clerk is the only price you’ll have to pay.

Ultimately, in Nordstrom Rack as in life, don’t be afraid to take the chance on something. You can always say no at the register if you don’t like the price after all. But if you’re a regular shopper, armed with your card and the subsequent coupons you earn with points for spending money, you just might find that even if you don’t get a one-cent steal, the buys are well worth it anyway. They’re certainly cheaper than hiring a therapist who practices mindfulness-based stress reduction, and can help you un-see something you never wanted to view in the first place.

28 Apr 2015

Reinvention Without Affectation

by Jen Karetnick | Photography by Michael Pisarri |

Miami

magazine | April 3, 2015

If you consider a liberal dose of stress par for the course for a luxury meal at an upscale Miami Beach establishment, then it’s time to switch to decaf. And by decaf, I mean Seagrape.

The latest entry from James Beard Award-winning chef Michelle Bernstein and her manager-husband David Martinez, Seagrape at the Thompson Miami Beach is the epicurean equivalent of a spa. Dining amid the MiMo midcentury decor, which plays up the Kobi Karp-restored and Martin Brudnizki-designed art deco property, allows you to seriously decompress. Inside, comfortably low ceilings; wood-paneled room dividers; textiles in blue, green and butterscotch; and light oak tables absorb and dilute noise instead of amplifying it. The temperature of the multilevel room is more comparable to your own living space than it is to a refrigerator set to mold Jell-O. Low lighting with golden tones from wall and ceiling sconces flatters patrons in every way.

You register all this well-being while enjoying Bernstein’s divinely crafted, European-influenced fare, which begins with a basket of parkerhouse rolls—the latest bread craze to take Miami—plus a dish each of sweet butter, smoked fish dip and house-pickled locally grown vegetables that carry a palatable tingle. That’s when you realize, perhaps, that it’s a bit difficult to read the menu, given the lighting and some less-than-perfect or, dare we say, aging eyesight. But you don’t have to fret for long. Your server will notice your discomfort and present, as she did for me one recent evening, a selection of reading glasses that the front desk keeps on hand for just such a case.

Little touches like this are what separate nuanced restaurateurs from newbies. They tend to think of everything: pashminas if you’re chilly, cushions to prop you up from behind in the banquette if you’re too small. You may not find Bernstein in the kitchen every single night—as the head of several properties and the mom of a 3-year-old, she’s wise enough, and has learned enough, to delegate. But I’ve seen Martinez roaming the floor every time I’ve visited, even when it’s a Sunday night after a holiday. Without posturing and posing, this is a pair that’s dedicated to the business.

You can also tell this is a veteran team by the slight shifts in the menu. After all, as Washington Irving said in Tales of a Traveller, “There is a certain relief in change, even though it be… a comfort to shift one’s position and be bruised in a new place.” Vets like Bernstein and Martinez, who have quite literally rolled with some punches at times, are hardly afraid of a few contusions if it will make the operation better in the long run.

To that end, in the early opening days, the tuna tartare, a fan favorite, was simply big, ruby jewels of fish. Mixed with soy, dotted with black pepper and speckled with sesame seeds, the glistening cubes were topped with long curls of scallion and just the right heft to be scooped up with prawn and puffed rice crackers. Now, Bernstein and her chef de cuisine, Steven Rojas, have added hamachi to the blend for color and textural diversity. It’s a small adjustment but a noteworthy one.

Likewise, a rather complicated roasted halibut with ajo negro (fermented black garlic), sultana grapes, Swiss chard and pickled Swiss chard stems was replaced with a friendlier, less time-intensive, pan-seared Arctic char, which is supported on the plate by a celery root puree, potato gnocchi, lemon butter and a dab of smoked trout roe for some pungency. I believe the two Florida snapper dishes outshine both, however. One, a fillet, features crisp skin and is plated over a paella-like rice cake, with an aromatic sofrito broth softening the thick base of pan-fried rice. Chunks of savory chorizo made from shrimp rather than pork lend important additional notes. The second, a whole snapper, is also crispy, but more because it’s beheaded and deboned then seasoned and fried. This dish features Bernstein’s beloved Vietnamese flavors, with an addictive fish sauce that transforms it into an Asian fish and chips too good to be denied.

Similarly, mixologist Julio Cabrera’s cocktails have evolved. What has become my favorite drink, called a Raspberry 75, comprising Belvedere vodka, muddled berries, lemon juice and prosecco served in a Champagne glass, wasn’t on the menu until recently. A cucumber gimlet, though—Elyx vodka, lime juice, mint, black pepper and a long, thin slice of cucumber snaking inside a rocks glass—has remained. Both takes on gin classics, these cocktails have grabbed the fancy of diners, perhaps because their cosmopolitan simplicity matches the so-billed Florida brasserie cuisine of the eatery so well.

Other dishes have remained constant and aren’t likely to change—nor should they—one iota. The striking Spanish octopus, one long and tender tentacle posed on a cushion of potato foam and dressed with an orange-infused gochujang (Korean fermented soybean-pepper paste), appears on nearly every table. The coriander-roasted beet salad is a stunning visual, with coins of mandolin-shaved beets shining over some of the freshest greens I’ve ever had the pleasure of greeting. (Like several other native or longtime regional chefs, Bernstein has contracted Redland and Homestead farmers to grow particular varieties of vegetables and fruits specifically for her.) With its cucumbers, fried chickpeas, sumac-scented yogurt and hummus made with avocado root, I’m told this Mediterranean-inspired salad has become a must-have favorite. Another locally provided delicacy, squash blossoms, which I’ve heard some naysayers describe as overkill, are a seafood-corn fiesta for me. Stuffed with shrimp mousseline, they’re embedded on corn grits in a zesty shrimp nage, thanks to an infusion of Aleppo peppers with a foamy corn emulsion on top.

I have a similar gimme-more reaction to the quartet of Maine lobster ravioli. A brothy red curry sauce tempts you to take a tablespoon to the rest of it after you’re done with the crustacean-swollen pasta, which also benefits from fried ginger and puffed lobster coral for additional flavor. That broth is just one more reason why you won’t want the busperson to take those aforementioned parkerhouse rolls away. The other reason is the cassoulet of poulet rouge. A deconstructed classic cassoulet, this is a plate of young, braised root vegetables, white beans and dark, earthy mushrooms in a fragrant red wine jus that beckons the winter-chilled palate—and it works just as well in warm and sunny Miami. The piece de resistance lays on top: sous vide chicken breast, so tender it falls to pieces at a glance, with impossible-to-resist chicharron-charred skin.

I equally admired the Ellensburg lamb chops, which are two highly marbled chops. Rich and medium-rare, their umami is compounded by the fregola (couscous-shaped pasta) stewed with lemon confiture and yogurt spiced with chermoula (a Moroccan blend). The fregola itself is strewn with chunks of crisp-edged sweetbreads. It’s difficult to keep yourself from simply scooping the pasta up with a spoon and picking up the lamb chops to nibble on the bone. And, indeed, I felt so contented and calm at Seagrape that for the first time in my long dining career, I ate the last dregs of the meat off the bone right at the table. Both Emily Post and my mother would have been horrified, but I make no apologies. These two hearty dishes may not lighten up this spring or come summertime with some different vegetables, but they could disappear from the menu for a bit. With this knowledgeable squad, who are quick to observe seasonal and trend fluctuations and even faster to act on them, anything could happen. I’m trying to prepare myself for that. Still, should those decisions be rendered, something delicious will take their places, and there’s always the year after to look forward to their return.

Seagrape Thompson Miami Beach 4041 Collins Ave., Miami Beach, 786.605.1043

Raw selections, $7-$36; noshing dishes and starters, $9-$25; main dishes, $21-$39; steaks, $36-$78; sides, $9; desserts, $9-$12 Breakfast, lunch and dinner: Sun.-Thu., 7am-11pm; Fri.-Sat., 7am-midnight

Sweet Surrender Like Seagrape itself, Executive Pastry Chef Max Santiago’s sweets are visually arresting, but not so artful you’re put off from eating them (as if). His berry-angel food cake concoction is an edible floral, fruit, frozen yogurt and cake masterpiece worthy of seconds.

Blast From the Past Beyond Seagrape, 1930s House is a funky, indoor-outdoor, Mediterranean-inspired speakeasy located in a renovated bungalow originally built in the 1930s across the street and moved to the current property in the early 2000s. Stop in there for cocktails before dinner.

Room Service Seagrape supplies all the Thompson’s meals 24/7—and that includes everything that goes to its 380 rooms and 30 suites—so you won’t be short-changed if you book yourself an impromptu spring staycation.

- See more at: http://www.modernluxury.com/miami/articles/reinvention-without-affectation#sthash.saSRaQAG.dpuf

27 Apr 2015

1

Brie Season: Review

Brie Season by Jen Karetnick

(White Violet Press, Paperback, 95 pp., $17.00)

Reviewed by Bonnie Losak

   I am not an adventurous eater. Unlike Jen Karetnick, author of Brie Season, I will not try anything once. Instead, my taste is guided by texture, by color, by smell, and too often, by familiarity. So I opened Karetnick’s new collection of poems unsure of whether food-focused poetry would be at all to my liking. But it was. Not only because Karetnick fills this collection as much with sensory experience as with culinary trends and woes, but because Karetnick is so skilled at noticing and celebrating the world around her and serving it up in delectable, lyrical morsels.

  Thus, in the second poem in this collection, “A Note to GK Chesterton,” Karetnick pauses to consider the unreliability of cheese as muse when there are great white herons that,

amuse toddlers by stalking reef geckos not quite camouflaged among the grasses growing like lies on the sand-held bricks of driveways,

and,

the children we never bore are regrets, difficult to census yet kept warm in the nests of plume-hunted, colonial egrets.

          One of my favorite poems in Brie Season is, “At the Holocaust Memorial,” perhaps because this memorial was an obsession of my younger daughter when she was four or five. “Tell me the story of the hand,” my daughter would say each time we passed the huge sculpture of an arm stretching upward, reaching, grasping. I told her as much as I thought her pre-school mind could understand. “There was a bad man,” I’d begin, and she’d listen, patient, as though she were following the intricacies, the horror I’d not quite described.

  The next time we’d pass the sculpture, though, usually the very next day as it was on our route from home to almost anywhere, she’d ask about the hand again, never quite satisfied with the telling from the day before. I wish I’d had Karetnick’s words to help my daughter understand the suffering the memorial decries. The speaker in Karetnick’s compelling poem recounts her “first time touching the iron” of the sculpture:

Nearly one hundred degrees under the sun, the metal brands the skin of my thumb; ribbed with the twenty-eight concentration camps, a masonry tunnel traps the heat, denies breezes.

   Like “At the Holocaust Memorial,” “Wake” is a poem that has both an international reach and a distinctly South Florida flavor. “Wake” is divided into three parts, the first of which is titled, “The Third Time Castro Died.” Here, Karetnick deftly describes the party preparations that follow yet another rumor of Castro’s demise:

Before the doubled police force tightened security, we laid in supplies as if for a hurricane party: limes, mint, all the makings for mojitos. The gas stove stood at the ready, the pots and pans for ad hoc feasts.

   “First Drowning of the Season,” is also notable for its distinct South Florida feel. In this poem, Karetnick captures the manner in which a devastating event can become sadly ordinary:

The restaurant’s summer staff has seen it before: the lifeguards, the Coast Guard helicopters humming violently overhead, the red rescue boats trawling, doubling and tripling back for the first drowning of the season.

In Brie Season, Karetnick has managed to braid together her love of food and dining with the distinctive features of the South Florida culture to create a collection of poems that are intimate, intense, and wholly satisfying.

Bonnie Losak is an attorney practicing in Miami, Florida, and a  MFA candidate at FIU. She lives and writes in Miami Beach.

24 Apr 2015

1

33138

zipodes:

Spirit Animals Miccosukee no longer paddle up canals trading venison for mangoes. Still the ghosts of deer hang like fruit.

(Jen Karetnick)

(Source: edibleodes)

22 Apr 2015

2

33138

zipodes:

Voting Venues

Committees of vultures hold council, decide policy from the highest roof, corroding all they survey with their waste.

(Jen Karetnick)

(Source: edibleodes)

22 Apr 2015

2

Poetry pop poem! Courtesy: Randy Burman.

21 Apr 2015

In the author’s suit and setting up for the mango salsa tasting event at UCF Book Fest – one of the most organized festivals I’ve been to this year. Next book, I’m definitely going back! (If invited, of course ;)

20 Apr 2015

2

Soliloquies Anthology 19.2

Concordia University’s undergraduate literary journal, featuring new poetry, fiction and nonfiction from across the world. Edited, designed and published in Montreal, Quebec.

Polarizing reactions on my non-fiction piece on melasma, “Facing away from the Sun,” but not from whom I thought. Check it out and feel free to tell me what you think, as long as you keep anti-Semitic, anti-female identity gender thoughts to yourself.

19 Apr 2015

10 REASONS TO CARE APRIL IS NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

Jen Karetnick

| April 9, 2015 |

If you last read a poem in high school, here are 10 real-life reasons why the far-from-dying art of poetry is important — and not only to poets who know it.

April is National Poetry Month, and since the Academy of American Poetsinvented it as a promotion akin to Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March back in 1996, it’s been a veritable bonanza of verse for the literati. Booksellers, librarians, teachers, students, erudite citizens — and, obviously, poets — immediately got on board to help revive the art that Joseph Roux calls “the truth in its Sunday clothes.”

Like other celebrations that have taken on lives of their own, it’s fairly clear what poets and those with related professions get out of it: renewed exposure to what some people call a dead or dying art through readings, events, festivals and other celebrations. But what do those of us who aren’t academically minded get? The last time most of us read a poem was likely in high school, and it’s probably because it was required.

But even for admitted philistines, there are benefits. Here are 10 real-life reasons why real-life people should care.

1. ICE POPS

O, Miami, a month-long poetry festival invented by poet-preneur P. Scott Cunningham in 2009, brings poetry to the people in various forms — literally and metaphorically. This year, Cunningham and crew, which include artist Randy Burman, Italian popsicle and gelato shop Eccolo Pops and performer Randy García, acting as ice cream man “Shel Shiverstein,” are handing out strawberry and mango “Poetry Popsicles,” which are printed with lines from local poets on the wrappers. Shiverstein appears all over town at venues ranging from cultural institutions to Miami International Airport.

See Burman’s photos of some of the poetic popsicle wrappers below:

2. CROSSWORD ANSWERS

Sure, you know a nine-letter word for “famous.” It’s — wait for it — legendary. But unless you’re a student of prosody, you may forever puzzle over the poet whose letters are embedded in stainless steel on Drottninggatan Street in Stockholm. (OK, it’s Johan August Strindberg. But we’re only telling you because it’s National Poetry Month.)

3. GRATITUDE

Mary Gannon, associate director for the Academy of American Poets, notes that absorbing the organization’s Poem-a-Day e-mails “requires us to slow down, to take time to pause. As poet Naomi Shihab Nye has said, ‘When you live in a rapidly moving swirl, you can only view your surroundings with a glance.’” Reading poetry teaches us to appreciate the little things.

4. IMPRESSIVE SOCIAL MEDIA APP COMEBACKS

After you swipe right, you may have visions of an Elizabeth Barrett Browning “I love thee” future. Then the date happens, and you might find yourself with a need for something a bit angrier. This is where knowledge of a little Sylvia Plath wouldn’t hurt: “Out of the ash/I rise with my red hair/And I eat men like air.”

5. THAT GO-TO FEEL-GOOD FEELING

A study published in the Journal of Consciousness Issues reports that areas of the brain that respond to music, going so far as to stimulate dopamine release, also react the same way to poetry. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, the researchers found that emotional response of subjects “share ground.” In other words, you cognitively know the difference between Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj and Beyonce. But chemically, to regions of your brain’s right hemisphere, it all registers as Maya Angelou. Now you know why the caged bird really sings.

6. FULL POCKETS

Some of us keep our keys in our pockets. Others jingle loose change in there. Occasionally, when we’re not looking at them, our smartphones might wind up in one. But most of the time, the only things in our pockets these days are our hands. On April 30, though, you can have a poem in your pocket, especially in you live in Charlottesville, Va., where the staff and volunteers of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library will hand out more than 7,000 poems to passersby and visitors along the popular pedestrian mall. Rolled into scrolls, poems are also delivered to local schools, hospitals, nursing homes, senior citizen centers and various downtown business centers. Another Academy of American Poets initiative, National Poem in Your Pocket Day, which varies by date but always takes place in April, is one way to ensure that Americans have verse in their reach at least once per year.

7. MEMORY

According to neuroscientists, physicians and nurses working with patients suffering from dementia, poetry has emerged as a positive intervention, a useful tool in sparking buried or damaged memories. Reading and writing it also strengthens our memory skills in general and may serve as a preventative measure. Hear that, Alzheimer’s? Poetry is a weapon, and it’s aimed right at you.

8. SELF-REFLECTION

Whether it’s used intentionally “for healing and personal growth,” as PoeticMedicine.org defines it or it’s a beneficial side effect, reading poetry grants us insight — into ourselves, the action of others, the world around us. The National Association for Poetry Therapy was incorporated in 1981, and if you’re a literary sort of person who is looking to develop self-esteem or coping functions, hiring a poetry therapist to help you get there is a valid option. Or just buying a book of verse now and then, written by a really smart poet, may work, too.

9. EMPATHY

More studies — this time from both the University of Liverpool and the University of Buffalo — indicate that those who read poetry link themselves personally to the poems. Brain scans from the first showed autobiographical memories responded to particular pieces, and the second suggested that readers put themselves in the place of the poets’ protagonists, thereby sharing their experiences as they would if they were watching an effective movie.

About the art in general, inaugural poet Richard Blanco says, “In our hectic, multi-tasking world full of distractions, we so often forget to feel. [Reading poetry] gives us a quiet, powerful moment to feel and connect with our deeper selves. It’s a grain of sand that cultivates a pearl of understanding.” The outcome? Maybe poetry can make the world a more peaceable place. Or perhaps it can simply spark a new appreciation for chick flicks. Still, it’s a win-win.

10. COFFEE

Now that you know about National Poetry Month, you’re ready for World Poetry Day. During its 30th session, held in Paris in 1999, UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, proclaimed the day to be March 21. “Every poem is unique but each reflects the universal in human experience, the aspiration for creativity that crosses all boundaries and borders, of time as well as space, in the constant affirmation of humanity as a single family,” Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO, wrote about World Poetry Day.

This year, according to The Guardian, to promote World Poetry Day, Julius Meinl Coffee, a Vienna-based company, turned to another universal language to communicate: caffeine. In 1,100 establishments that spanned 23 countries, the company offered a cup in exchange for an original poem. So keep an eye on March 21 next year, not to mention the rest of April this year. Because if you’re handy with a haiku, you can actually fuel up in Budapest, thanks to the Third Annual Poetry Month #Haiku Challenge. Co-sponsored by the Library Hotel and the Aria Hotel Budapest, the competition provides stays in both hotels for just three well-chosen lines, tweeted to @LibraryHotel and @AriaBudapest (be sure to include #haiku), that best exemplify the establishments’ message: the joie de vivre that the arts can provide us.

Jen Karetnick is a contributing journalist for TheBlot Magazine.

10 Apr 2015

2

Post-Modern

If you build it, you will stay in it, now.

We have no destinations, now.

The house is an ark and we sleep like bats in hammocks, now.

Our eyes are sanded with washed-up glitter, now.

We write our stories with burning bark, now, the letters veining the clouds.

The guitar is a Moses basket, now. The flute is a pipe. We make music like trees.

We have no art, now.

No one goes to school, now.

The ocean is our education, the tides our teachers, now.

The cats have no kittens, now, or drop them in the forks of roads that wash clean like memory with the moon.

We eat our fruit green, now.

We no longer defend everything we’ve ever known, now. We no longer lay claim to everything we’ve ever owned, now. We are nothing but ourselves, now.

We are pioneers, now. There is a new frontier, now. We go east, now, we go east.

We are not young, now. We never were young, now.

This is not the end, now, but neither is it the beginning.

Now is not the time to panic.

We have work to do, now.

+

9 Apr 2015

2

5 FOODS YOU’VE BEEN CONSUMING RANCID (AND HOW TO STOP)

Jen Karetnick

| April 2, 2015 |

You may be consuming more rancid foods than you think just by reaching into your pantry. Here are five common culprits and advice on how to keep them fresh.

Plenty of pantry items have staying power, but that doesn’t mean the foods will keep forever. If you’ve made a recipe and it tastes “off” in a way you can’t quite identify, it may be because one of the ingredients you used has turned. Read on to find out which pantry items most commonly go rancid and ways to prevent that from happening. We’ve got one word of advice: Refrigerator.

1. OILS

Some oils turn more quickly than others. The general rule of thumb is that the softer and riper the ingredients that were used to make the oil, the quicker the fats in it will go rancid. You may notice a greasy or waxy mouth feel or the oil itself might have changed colors, tastes like burned candles or melted crayons or have a swampy, moldy odor.

Keep it from happening: Always store oils in a cool, dark place. Sunlight or bright florescent bulbs make them turn faster. In addition, use them quickly, if not immediately, at least within a year of purchase. Oils are best when they’re fresh-pressed; they’re not meant to last indefinitely. And because they are often the first element of a dish you put in a pan, if you’re employing a rancid oil — even if it’s just barely so — you’re ruining your recipe from the word “go.”

2. FLOURS

Like oils, some flours have staying power, while others need to be used when they’re fresh. But none last forever. (If you’ve ever noticed bugs hatching in your highly processed, bleached, all-purpose white flour, then you already know this.) For the most part, the less processed a flour is, the more likely it is to succumb quickly to spoilage. Processing rids the flour of the germ, which contains the oils. So anything that’s whole grain or ground from ancient grains like amaranth or quinoa or seeds such as rye or rice, has more oils in it by nature and is therefore more prone to going bad faster. Here are some interesting stats: 1 cup of whole grain wheat flour has 2 grams of fat in it, while the same amount of bleached, enriched, all-purpose, self-rising flour has only 1 gram of fat, and the non-enriched kind sometimes has zero. Surprisingly, corn flour can have as much as five grams of fat per cup — even the most finely ground, enriched white masa has 4 grams — and surprisingly, rice flour has 2 grams per cup, but they both keep longer than nut and seed flours because of processing. As for nut and seed flours, they have 8 grams of fat per cup.

Keep it from happening: Pay attention to shelf life and expiration dates recommended on the package. Most people don’t even look at these. Also, like oils, keep flours in a cool, dark place where the heat won’t warm them unduly. But in general, ancient grain, nut, barley, oat, flax seed, rye and brown rice flours shouldn’t be kept after four months while blue corn, soy and whole grain wheat flours after six and the most processed and enriched white rice, yellow or white corn or bleached white wheat flour should be tossed anywhere between nine months and a year. If you remove them from their original packaging and store them in resealable plastic bags in the refrigerator or freezer with the air pressed out, however, flours of any type may last between six months and a year.

3. NUTS

Because nuts of all types have such a high oil content, they spoil fast — must faster than you might suspect. In fact, once that vacuum seal is released, nuts are only good for one month at room temperature. After that, they’ll soften and taste like the paste you used to enjoy in kindergarten. It’ll happen even more quickly if you live in a hot climate or if your kitchen is in continual use and the temperature there runs on the high side.

Keep it from happening: Store nuts in an air-tight container at room temperature for one month, then transfer to the refrigerator or freezer. Don’t use anything metallic, as that contributes to warming; instead, use glass or plastic. Also, peanuts and pecans are among the nuts that spoil the most easily, cashews and almonds among the least. If the nuts are soft but not yet rancid, you can always re-roast them lightly in a single layer on a cookie sheet in a 350-degree oven, and they’ll return to crunchiness. But nothing can save them once they’ve gone foul. Note: Whatever can happen to nuts can also occur to flours and butters that are made from them. In other words, if you think your peanut butter smells funny, then it does. Store it in the refrigerator for greater, longer-lasting value, especially if you buy the “natural,” more-oily kind.

4. CRACKERS AND CHIPS

Whatever happens to oils, flours and seeds and nuts can happen to crackers and chips, as these are the materials that make them. Sometimes you open a bag of crackers or potato chips and they taste like putty right away; they’ve been on the store shelves too long. Other times, they’ve been open in your pantry. Either way, if it tastes unpleasant, it’s turned on you.

Keep it from happening: Like anything with oils, crackers or chips will oxidize if kept in bright, warm places. In other words, they’re not cookies, so don’t keep them on a counter in a jar. Behind closed pantry doors in a sealed plastic bag is best, and if you live in a humid climate, there’s nothing wrong with keeping crackers and chips, if you have the room, in the refrigerator. Just keep in mind that oily items, like potato chips, will take on the flavors of other foods once in the fridge. Air-tight containers are key.

5. BUTTER

Because butter is already refrigerated, we tend to think it’s immune from spoiling. Not so. If it’s left on the counter — and let’s admit it, it frequently is — in the bright, warm and sunny kitchen, those fats in it are going to oxidize. Then your butter is going to have that classic taste that we call “refrigerator-burned,” but is in fact exposure to the elements.

Keep it from happening: If you like to leave your butter out to soften before using it, employ a butter bell. Covering your stick of butter with specially made china or crockery will keep it from taint, both in and out of the fridge, and it looks so much nicer that way than it does being mashed up in an old wrapper. Sticklers actually keep their butter in plastic bags with the air sucked out and in the freezer to keep it as fresh as possible. Incidentally, sweet cream butter will go rancid in a shorter amount of time than salted butter, as it’s generally higher in fat content and doesn’t have the salt acting as a preservative. So if you appreciate the saltier side of life, extend that to your butter and you’ll see it last longer.

3 Apr 2015

1

River of Grass: A Guide to the Everglades National Park

by

JenKaretnick

April 1, 2015

The River of Grass – the nickname bestowed upon the Everglades National Park by naturalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas – sounds like an impossible description. But one visit to this enormous subtropical wetland and you’ll see exactly what she meant…

The ecosystem, by definition a watershed, incorporates standing and tidal waterways of varying salinity with pine forests, sawgrass prairies and mangrove islands. In fact, there are nine distinct habitats contained within the Everglades National Park, including ponds, sloughs, marshes and uplands – a mosaic of varying blues, greens and golds.

A World Heritage Site, International Biosphere Reserve and a Wetland of International Importance, the Everglades is home to countless species of land and aquatic plants and animals, including those rare or endangered such as the elusive Florida panther, the manatee, the American alligator and the American crocodile. For those toting binoculars and a scorecard, the Everglades are an aviary paradise, with a rainbow of birds that range from the small yet brilliantly hued Indigo Bunting, Purple Gallinule and Roseate Spoonbill to the ungainly Great Blue Heron, Sandhill Crane and Wood Stork. The Everglades is also a winter nesting area for America’s pride and joy, the Bald Eagle. The boardwalk at the Anhinga Trail, named for the oily, black bird that spreads its wings like a cape to dry, and Eco Pond Trail, where wading birds gather in the morning, are two of the renowned locations in the park for bird-watching, especially during the winter dry season.

Indeed, the very vastness of this historic wetland, coupled with the amount of wildlife you can spot and the adrenaline-inducing activities you can take on, is almost stupefying. At more than 1.5 million acres, it ranges from the southeast coast of Florida to the southwest, with points of entrance only an hour from the metropolitan areas of Miami or Naples on either side. That said, the Everglades aren’t nearly as expansive as they once were. Before the land was “reclaimed” (drained) for human development, it covered nearly 11,000 square miles. By the early 1940s, the damage to the fragile ecosystem had been done, but thanks to advocates such as Douglas, the Everglades National Park, the third largest in the nation, was established.

Like most national parks, the Everglades has several entrances and visitors’ centres with concession stands and rangers, and precisely where you drop in depends on your particular interests. From the southwest, sightseeing tours and fishing charters for Bass, Bluegill, Redfish, Sea Trout and Snapper in the Florida Bay, Whitewater Bay or the waters around the Ten Thousand Islands by boat should be booked at the Flamingo or Gulf Coast marinas. (Fishing by shore is extremely limited and not recommended.) You can also kayak or canoe, and if you’re an enthusiast, the Wilderness Waterway is a 99-mile camping and paddling pursuit that will take you at least a week. Any journey by any kind of boat, however, should be a guided one unless you’re experienced with the area, as the shallow flats and passages through sea grass are rife with oyster beds, reefs and sandbars that aren’t always marked and difficult for novices to read.

If you desire a closer, more immediate experience, you can hike or bike through the Everglades National Park in the areas between Miami and Naples on US 41/SW 8thSt/Tamiami Trail: Along the Pineland Trails of the Long Pine Key Area, which are basically ruts that were created by loggers and farmers back in the 1940s. Alternatively, try the Old Ingraham Highway, a 22-mile round trip, or on the Flamingo Trails, including the Snake Bight Trail and the Rowdy Bend Trail (hiking is allowed on all nine of the Flamingo Trails, but bicycles on only the aforementioned). On the southeastern coast, Shark Valley, a fifteen-mile paved loop where alligators sprawl uncaring along the road, soaking up the southern sunshine, is one of the most popular places to ride. While it may seem scary to step or ride around the reptiles, keep in mind that they only hunt when they’re in the water, and unless you provoke them, they’re completely disinterested in you while they’re on the land. And if you don’t feel like you’re up to fifteen miles of exercise, you can take a guided tram tour, a two-hour encyclopedic journey.

On the way to Shark Valley, you’ll pass the Miccosukee Village. The Miccosukee was one of the tribes of Native Americans that existed long before Ponce de Leon “discovered” America 500 years ago. Today, the Miccosukee and Seminole tribes maintain government-sanctioned reservations in the Everglades National Park, and visitors are welcome to the villages they maintain to demonstrate their way of life. The Miccosukee Village features an Indian Museum with historic artefacts, Tribal art and photography. It also offers demonstrations on traditional craft-making, alligator and wildlife shows and airboat rides to a 100-year-old hammock Indian camp. Finally, the Miccosukee restaurant allows you to taste native delicacies including fry bread, frog legs, ‘gator and catfish.

If you just can’t bring yourself to sample the wildlife you’ve just viewed, stop in at the Pit Bar-B-Q for smoked chicken and ribs, plus beans and rice with a Latin flair, which is also located on Tamiami Trail. Restaurants located in the Everglades itself tend to serve good ol’ Southern cuisine or focus on regional seafood, such as the historic Everglades Seafood Depotand City Seafood, both located in Everglades City. Others have developed from airboat concession stands, such asCoopertown Restaurant on Miami’s side of the Tamiami Trail, and offer a dose of local colour to go along with the cornmeal-breaded, fried alligator tail that’s on the menu.

As for airboats, they’re not allowed in the Everglades National Park. However, a northern tract of the River of Grass was added in 1989, and it’s here on the Tamiami Trail, running between the two coasts, that private concessions operate tours. Some find the airboats loud and intrusive, but children tend like them, and the tours are generally educational. Plus, locals who regularly fish the area for bass and trout rely on them to move over mere inches of water. Sometimes, they’re the only way to get into a deeper part of the ecosystem without getting your feet wet. Then again, some don’t mind a little water. If that’s you, feel free to join a ranger for slough slogging – a wet hike through the River of Grass – for the ultimate up-close Everglades experience.

Header image: Lane River © Everglades NPS

Connecting you to numerous destinations across the United States and Canada, our partnership with Delta makes it simple to book a trip to Fort Lauderdale, or direct to Miami with Virgin Atlantic.

Have you explored the Everglades National Park? Let us know in the comments section below.

Written by Jen Karetnick

2 Apr 2015

Making mango salsa at Joe’s Place Bookstore, Greenville, SC

29 Mar 2015

2

You Heard It Here First: Mango Is the Next Kale | TheBlot

Info about the next trend… mango!

22 Mar 2015

Food Truck Trouble? Do You Know What You Are Getting?

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2015/01/29/food-truck-trouble-do-you-know-what-you-are-getting/

January 29, 2015 11:04 PM

Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter

MIAMI (CBSMiami) — Food trucks are a fun and popular way to dine out but how do you know what you are getting?  When you see what CBS4 discovered, you may lose your appetite.

Food trucks bring delicious smells, a variety of food, and incredible recipes passed down from Abuela. A food truck owner presses a mouthwatering steak sandwich. She pulls out a special bottle of sauce. “My special butter cream with something else and something else.  Keeping a little secret from Grandma,” she told CBS4’s David Sutta who said it’s as delicious as she lets on.

Perry Kochavi loves food trucks. “Because you have all these local, maybe family recipes, that you are able to experience out and about rather than having to experiment with a restaurant,” he explained.

But a few months ago, Perry’s love affair with the trucks ended.  Some bad burritos made him sick.

“I was vomiting.  I had a lot of loose stool,” he recalled.

Even worse was his friend had bean in her burrito, despite repeated instructions to the chef she absolutely couldn’t have them.

“She’s anaphylactic. Anaphylactic, their throats get big and they can’t breathe. You have to stab their legs with adrenaline to alleviate the situation. It was very traumatic,” said Perry.

When Perry confronted the food truck owner about what happened things didn’t get better.  “He started yelling at me, cursing at me, telling me to get out of here. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that I’m getting yelled out for telling this guy he messed up our orders.” Perry explained.

His experience is not alone.

Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation has a long list of food truck complaints and lots of people get sick.  Florida conducts surprise inspections to make sure the trucks are cooking up to code. They check things like food temperatures, cleanliness, and whether the cook knows about food safety.  For the most part, food trucks pass.

In a check of inspection reports though we found some serious violations.

For example, the Sabor Criollo Cubano truck, racked up a record 37 violations last summer.  They were cited with everything from not washing their hands to undercooked food.

When asked about it they owner told CBS4 “everything is fine.” They had a follow-up inspection. Some issues were resolved and new ones were noted.

A lot of it has to do with who is running these food trucks.

Food critic Jen Karetnick says a lack of experience is what often leads to food truck disasters.

“Some of them are chefs. Some of them are entrepreneurs. Some of them are regular people who just have a great idea,” she explained.  “If you know what you are doing and you’re used to working in a small space there is not a problem.”

How do you know though what you are getting?

Karetnick fired back.  “That’s a good question because sometimes you don’t.  The trick is you don’t always know what you are getting in a standalone brick and mortar restaurant either.”

In a sea of trucks at the Hollywood food truck night, three had had serious violations in the last year.

Karetnick smiled.  “It’s actually safer than I would have suspected,” she said.

Still, you can’t ignore the violations.

The most serious violations noted serving food well under safe temperatures.

What happens if food is not kept at a right temperature? “That’s what leads to bacteria growing.  E-Coli and Salmonella,” Karetnick explained, which can get you quite sick.

In Perry Kochavi’s case he never went back.

“I haven’t gone back.  I used to go two times a week, three times a week and haven’t gone back to food trucks since,” he said.

So how do you stay safe?

Karetnick says you can check public records and social media or you can do what she does.  Follow the herd.  “Go where everyone else is going.  If you see a line at that truck, that’s where I would go.”  In other words, avoid the lonely food truck.

For the most, part food trucks are safe.

At the weekly event in Hollywood roughly 10-percent did have a questionable inspection.  Some people may not be comfortable with that.

CLICK HERE to see look up recent inspections and to see how your favorite food truck faired.

16 Mar 2015

Virginia Festival of the Book

Jen Karetnick

Mango

Brie Season

Prayer of Confession

Jen Karetnick, author of the cookbook Mango, the poetry book Brie Season, and the poetry chapbook Prayer of Confession, is based in Miami. She works as the creative writing director for Miami Arts Charter School for grades 6-12 and as a freelance dining critic and writer for numerous publications.

Author’s Website

Author’s Facebook

Author’s Twitter

Genre: Non-Fiction, Publishing

Appearing

Good Food: Growing (and Cooking) Mangos & Tomatoes Fri. March 20, 10:00 am The Happy Cook1107 Emmet Street North, Charlottesville, VA 22903 Authors Jen Karetnick (Mango) and Craig LeHoullier (Epic Tomatoes: How to Select & Grow the Best Varieties of All Time) share great information on growing, harvesting, and cooking.Why Should You Attend?Everything (and more than you than you could imagine) about luscious mangos (and how to use them) and more than 200 tomato varieties (and how to grow them).

StoryFest & Pub Day: First Pages for Teen Writers Sat. March 21, 10:00 am Village School 215 E High Street, Charlottesville, VA 22902 Hosted by: Charlottesville-Albemarle creative writing teachers and Young Writers Workshop of the University of Virginia A StoryFest and Pub Day Event! Are you a teen (13 to 18) who likes to write? Teen writers may each submit one page (no horror or erotica) to receive anonymous feedback from authors Jen Karetnick, Jeff Martin, and Jodi Meadows. Priority will be given to pages submitted [email protected] March 16. You may bring a page to the panel, but we cannot guarantee that it will be discussed.Important! To make sure that we have time for as many entries as possible, each page must be no longer than 250 words AND properly formatted. (See example here: Teen 1st pages submission format.) We will return improperly formatted submissions.Why Should You Attend? You will have a terrific opportunity to learn from the authors’ feedback, but only if you submit!

3 Mar 2015

Tropical Brunch in the Garden

Description:

Join Savor Tonight and Les Dames D'Escoffier Miami (LDEM) for a Tropical Brunch in the Garden. This brunch, taking place at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden, will go to to benefit Les Dames D'Escoffier’s educational and scholarship programs and will help maintain the chapters recently installed culinary garden at MB Botanical Gardens.

Guests will enjoy samples of brunch menu items from a fantastic line-up of South Florida chefs, farmers, restaurants and authors. Participants right now include Oolite, Basil Park, Smith & Wollensky, Siam Oishi, Le Provencal restaurant Francais, Front Porch, A Fare to Remember, Pastry is Art and more.  San Ignacio College and Miami Culinary Institute will host quesadilla and omelet stations, while Le Cordon Bleu and Les Dames Miami will host additional culinary stations.

Republic National Distributing Co. and Sangria Lola will offer satisfying libations, while Patron and Smirnoff will host a Bloody Mary Bar.

In addition to the brunch, there will be a raffle featuring fantastic prizes; cooking demonstrations and authors Ellen Kanner and Jen Karetnick, will offer signed copies of their books – “Feeding the Hungry Ghost,” and “Mangoes,” respectively.

The cost of the event is $55 for adults and $20 for children when purchased in advance or $65 & $30 at the door. Children under 10 are free. For more information and to purchase your tickets, visit Les Dames Miami online or call 877.467.7725

** Please note that you must purchase your ticket through Les Dames website & not through Savor Tonight.

Date: March 8, 2015

Address: Miami Beach Botanical Garden 2000 Convention Center Dr Miami Beach, FL 33139 Map and Directions

2 Mar 2015

1

"Mangos and Brie: A Match Made in Poetry" Author: Jen Karetnick

Food Author and Creative Writing Director of the Miami Arts Charter School, and Dining Critic, MIAMI Jen Karetnick will present her books"Mango", “Brie Season”, and “Prayer of Confession”. This program is part of the Selby Food series. Sponsored by Friends of Selby Public Library.Book Sale & Signing to Follow

1 Mar 2015

Food Poetry: “Segments of an Orange” by Jen Karetnick

February 26th, 2015  //  Food Poetry, Poetry //

Segments of an Orange

How can I rest? How can I be content when there is still that odor in the world? — Louise Gluck

Hours before she died, my grandmother sucked dry three segments of a navel orange and, claiming her appetite had a short range, hooked out the pulp with her finger, shreds catching on her ring. With delicate theater, she wrapped the untouched sections in a napkin she’d halved down the center folded line to keep them fresh for later.

I fly in to sit shiva from Orange County, where the branched that bear citrus are bent by a greedy public who can’t resist loading their bushels with questionable bounty– the hard, yellowing rinds left hanging by migrant workers, who know best this business

of surplus, and restraint, and what to pick when. And all at once, oranges are everywhere: In the shampoo I use to wash my niece’s hair. In the disinfectant wiped onto porcelain fixtures in the home where the dead are lain. On the plates I fix for guests too old to rise from chairs; nestled, smugly poisoning the air from grass-filled bamboo baskets sent by friends.

My niece balances the fruit on her baby-fat palms before rolling them to the great-aunts, who can’t remember the exact numbers of their ages but who speak with accents Polish enough to date them. “Range,” Corrie says. She’s learning to want the meaning to match the sound, so when she plucks

it on the string of her tongue over and over her relatives will marvel and give applause. She bowls the fruit at every leg in the house, each pant-suited visitor a pin to strike and quiver. Tomorrow, one of my grandmother’s sisters will trip on a forgotten orange and break her hip, and the doctor will adjust his face and pat her silk-clad shoulder, and call her, “Helen Dear.”

And in the hospital, she’ll tell the story of my frugal grandmother’s last day to the congregated bedside brood, and claim she’d prefer a fruit with more glory. “But should the season call for an orange,” she’ll say, “at least make it blood, my darlings. Make mine blood.”

                                                                   – Jen Karetnick

Jen Karetnick and I share three things in common. First of all, both of us are intensely interested in food to the point of working in the field of food writing, and specifically are entrenched in our appreciation of restaurants. She writes for a Miami magazine as the local restaurant reviewer; I credit my work in the food field with my first job at a bakery. Then there’s the fact that both of us studied for MFA’s in literature, diving into trying to better our craft through directed programs. But I’m most interested in the link we share where food poetry and recipes converge. In the same year that her first cookbook, Mango was published, her first full-length book of food poetry was bound and released in the collection, Brie Season. She sent me the latter book to read and of all the poems in the book, her poem “Segments of an Orange” is one that didn’t let me go quite so easily after the poem finished.

Part of what gripped me in this poem is its certainty of place and the ways the narrative keeps the symbol of the orange before us. The details make this poem come alive like the moment when her grandmother folds the napkin to save the rest of the orange for later, as if she would have more time or as if she is saving it for someone else to finish. We then begin to see and smell oranges in places outside of that hospital room. Fake oranges in shampoo or disinfectant. The narrator even travels to Orange County as if she cannot get away from the tidal wave of grief that can assail those who lose someone they love. From the very old who pass away to the very young who are still learning to form their mouth around the word, settling on “Range,” the poem takes a turn to somewhere in between in the end. This time the orange has afflicted a mishap on a character in the poem that takes us back into the hospital but doesn’t take a tragic turn. Instead the grandmother’s sister exerts her power over the obstacle calling for something “with more glory.” That she requests a blood orange bewitches the poem with the duality of the symbol. She contrasts her living with her sister’s dying: “Make mine blood.” Wow. What a brutal and breathless way to end the poem! I was struck with how powerful this poem is. Being haunted by symbols of the person who has passed away and then being able to keep the trope going to an unforeseeable end is exhilarating.

About Jen Karetnick Miami-based poet, writer and educator Jen Karetnick is the author/co-author/editor of 12 books, including three published in 2014: Mango, a cookbook (October); Brie Season, a full-length book of poems (White Violet Press, September); and Prayer of Confession, a chapbook of poetry (Finishing Line Press, June). Her poems and essays have been widely published in Cimarron Review, December, North American Review, Poet’s Market 2013, Poets & Writers, River Styx, Seneca Review, Spillway and the Submittable blog. She works as the Creative Writing Director of Miami Arts Charter School; as the dining critic for MIAMI Magazine from Modern Luxury; and as a freelance writer for outlets including The Atlantic.com, Destinations MO, Food Arts, TheLatinKitchen.com, The Local Palate, Morning Calm/Korean Air, Southern Living and USA Today.

[kavetchnik-blog]

Invasive Species

Found in a shed, curled and content, the mini-van-length reticulated python did not have a microchip, the news reported.

But he did have several household pets in his digestive track, perhaps the cause of his docile drowse. Like most constrictors

headed for the Everglades, he likely had been released by an owner. The authorities intend to use him now to train the men who hunt

that which does not belong, or implant in him transmitters and release him to engage a broody female. Serial impregnator, unwitting

traitor, this is where he will just follow his instincts. He doesn’t mean to trap her. Oh, how familiar all this sounds.

2 Nov 2015

1

Thanks to Sivan Butler-Rotholz for the feature of my poems, forthcoming in American Sentencing (Winter Goose Publishing)! (via SATURDAY POETRY SERIES PRESENTS: JEN KARETNICK)

(Source: asitoughttobe.com)

4 Oct 2015

2

The Effective Digestive

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/09/the-effective-digestive.html

A humble cookie with healing powers.

By

Jen Karetnick

|  September 17, 2015  |  12:00pm

FOOD  |  FEATURES

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Like many women, I have a delicate digestive tract. I have no difficulties shoveling in the food. It’s the elimination that’s problematic. And disruptions to my regular schedule, such as plane travel, or discomfort, like staying in an unpalatable setting, can cause delays in my system that would put American Airlines to shame.

Of course, this is all kinds of ironic for a food-and-travel writer. But then, life is a series of poignant incongruities, isn’t it? I vividly recall a whitewater rafting trip on the Salmon River in Idaho. It was supposed to be “glamping,” that portmanteau of glamorous camping. But when the guides introduced us to the toilet tent – literally a box with a teepee draped over it – the women on the trip exchanged knowing looks that said yup, we’d be constipated for a week (the other option being a shovel). When the lodge where we were staying on the last night came into view, we collectively broke into a grateful run.

I expected a similar situation when I traveled to Canterbury in Kent, England, this past July. I’d been warned that the accommodations in this ancient, walled city were on the negative side of lacking; after all, there’s only so much you can do with fifteenth-century buildings. It’s true that my room at The Victoria House was about the size of my walk-in closet at home, and about as ventilated. The shower door had been derailed by someone who was perhaps marginally larger than me, and I’m five-foot-two. Add in that I’d be touring for the first seven days with my parents, who had come overseas to meet me, and then presenting four workshops at an academic conference for the last three, and I expected a colon filled with the equivalent of cement.

Oddly, it didn’t happen that way. I hit the ground running. Well, not running, as the euphemism implies, but after the first day or so, I was as regular as if I’d been starting the day with café Cubano. At first, I put it down to the welcoming atmosphere at the hotel. Though hardly a five-star establishment, the staff was bend-backwards pleasant; there’s a pub with outlets on the ground floor where no one cared if I worked all evening on a laptop over a couple of pints; and the room, as teensy as it was, was meticulously cleaned daily. Housekeeping also always left a package of coarsely textured cookies on the desk next to the electric kettle and tea bags every evening. I felt it was my duty as a polite, paying guest to consume them.

It occurred to me about four days into my stay that perhaps the digestives, what the British call these semi-sweet, whole-wheat (or whole-meal in the UK) biscuits, had some beneficial properties. I’d always enjoyed a digestive now and then, especially those coated on one side with milk chocolate, ever since my sister had spent a semester in London when she was in college several decades ago and I visited her. But it had never occurred to me to question why they were called that in particular.

After a little research, I discovered that the digestive was indeed developed to aid people with poorly functioning metabolisms like me. In 1839, two Scottish scientists developed them using a goodly dose of sodium bicarbonate to prevent indigestion. Bakers subsequently added diastatic malt extract, which they assumed “digested” the starch in the dough, a process called saccharification. The baking powder idea was a failed experiment; once the cookies change chemically in the oven, the properties are lost. But the fibrous content of the biscuits turned out to be an aid.

Depending on the brand, however, some digestives may actually be more effective than others – a fact I discovered when I returned to England for a second time, accompanying my son so he could play soccer for a week. I stayed in a Travelodge next to an Aldi, and the only digestives I could acquire were the store’s Belmont brand, similar in look, flavor and structure to the popular McVitie’s brand. Sadly, while they’re tasty indeed – and I managed to find three varieties, including those with dark and milk chocolate – they didn’t alleviate the angst of navigating Miami and Heathrow airports with twenty teenagers, then staying in a room that smelled like cat urine and had neither phone nor hairdryer. Nevertheless, I diligently ate my cookies, hoping for an appetizing cure.

As it turns out, the original commercial digestives, starting with Huntley & Palmers in 1876, included more of the whole grain, given that millers were less sophisticated then at separating the grain into parts. Today, finely milled flour is the rule of thumb. So if you’re actually eating them for a singular purpose, read the label to see if whole-meal flour is the first ingredient and if oats, bran or wheat germ – all good signs that the fiber will be helpful – are added. Sainsbury’s is one brand that roughs up the texture with oats. Tesco’s Everyday Value also includes oatmeal, and as a bonus, deletes the artificial elements and hydrogenated fats (but keep in mind that the brand’s regular digestives are free of oats and full of preservatives). Hovis includes wheat germ in its recipe, which is also accommodating for those of us with a sensitive nature.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get any brand but McVitie’s in the States for a reasonable price. On the other hand, in the comfort of my own home, I don’t need digestives for any reason other than enjoyment. Which is why I went to the Aldi the night before I left England for the second time and bought as many tubes of digestives as would fit in my suitcase, brought over half-empty for just that tasty purpose.

Jen Karetnick is a Miami-based lifestyle writer, poet and author of 14 books, including the cookbook Mango (University Press of Florida, 2014).

24 Sep 2015

1

The Heat is On

The Heat is On

https://www.fsrmagazine.com/growth/heat

GROWTH

//

JEN KARETNICK

//

SEPTEMBER 2015

Miami’s resurgence hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down.

When Miami Beach was incorporated first as a town and then two years later as a city, wealthy entrepreneurs such as John S. Collins, Carl Graham Fisher, the Lummus brothers, and the Pancoast family had high hopes for the tropical paradise. Exactly 100 years later, the collective vision these intrepid pioneers had of drinking tropical cocktails, dining on sumptuous treats, and cavorting in Eden-like circumstances has paid off, not only for Miami Beach but for the entire Miami-Dade County region.

For 2015, the National Restaurant Association has predicted that Florida will be the No. 2 market in the country in terms of growth, with sales projected to reach $34.6 billion. Miami is largely responsible for that position, and CREW-Miami, an association of commercial real estate professionals, confirms the Magic City is “fueling the growth of the entire state’s industry.”

Such a forecast is noteworthy for any market that isn’t New York City, Chicago, or San Francisco. But it’s even more remarkable for one that has been devastated by Category 5 hurricanes twice. A city that has absorbed wave after wave of political refugees from Cuba, Haiti, and other countries. And, one that was allowed to fall, during the ’70s and ’80s, into an economic slump that could have spelled the end of what is today considered one of America’s most significant architectural districts. As it turned out, the inclusion of that Art Deco District (otherwise known as South Beach) on the National Register of Historic Places, and its subsequent rescue-by-renovation, was one of the most instrumental elements in Miami’s extraordinary comeback and the city’s current food-and-beverage market growth.

Landmarks Then and Now

Some restaurants have not only survived since those early days, they’ve also thrived. Joe’s Stone Crab, located at the southern point of South Beach, is a case in point. Open since 1913, it began as a simple lunch counter, serving fish sandwiches; morphed into a seafood restaurant with clients including Al Capone; and, in 1921, began experimenting with stone crabs. Boiled and served cold with mustard sauce at 75 cents per order, stone crabs were an immediate sensation. Joe’s began to draw an even larger crowd that included celebrities and socialites and—even when Fort Lauderdale, in the throes of spring break fame, was as far south as visitors would stay—Joe’s was considered a mandatory epicurean experience for residents and tourists alike. Today, run by Jo Ann Bass, Joe’s granddaughter, with her son Stephen and daughter Jodi, Joe’s Stone Crab is a multi-generation enterprise that grossed $35.3 million in 2014—and it doesn’t even stay open year-round, closing after stone crab season ends on May 15 and reopening when it begins on October 15.

The Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel, located about 40 blocks north of Joe’s, has a slightly rockier history that reflects the ups and downs that have plagued the city. Once the site of Firestone Mansion, it debuted in 1954 as the largest property in the entire South Florida region and was an instantaneous hit with the reigning luminaries of the time, including Elvis Presley, Bob Hope, and Lucille Ball.

After 25 years, the Fontainebleau, like every other property in the Magic City, lost allure. And when South Beach began to re-emerge from its slump in the mid-1990s, the historic resort was miles north of the excitement.

Enter perhaps the smartest business decision made in the new Millennium: A $1 billion investment to renovate and expand the structure. In 2008, after three years of construction, the Fontainebleau Miami Beach unveiled more than 1,500 luxurious guestrooms, the high-energy LIV Nightclub, and 12 restaurants and lounges. These include Michelin-starred Hakkasan, Scarpetta, and StripSteak and Michael Mina 74, both from award-winning chef Michael Mina.

Bringing in Chef Mina, who also operates Bourbon Steak Miami, one of the two signature restaurants in Turnberry Isle Miami (the other is Corsair by Scott Conant, also of Scarpetta), was a distinct coup.

“The Fontainebleau is an iconic destination that draws visitors from all corners of the globe who have a distinct expectation for great experiences,” says Joshua Summers, vice president of operations, food, and beverage. “Michael Mina is one of the best out there and … brings an elevated, freshness-focused culinary experience that is a hit for our market.” Nor is the Fontainebleau management content to stay stagnant for a moment, Summers notes. “In the past 18 months alone, we’ve really pushed the envelope. We developed BleauFish, an ocean-to-table program complete with our own commercial fishing boat and six massive saltwater tanks in our basement, and we opened Chez Bon Bon, a coffee and patisserie shop [in the hotel lobby].”

Not to be left behind, the neighboring Eden Roc Miami Beach partnered with Nobu Hotels to become the Nobu Hotel at Eden Roc Miami Beach, which after a multi-million-dollar renovation, will house the largest Nobu Restaurant and Bar Lounge on the planet.In Coral Gables, the celebrated Biltmore Hotel, a national historic landmark, is also keeping up with its contemporaries, albeit with a smaller food-and-beverage program that stays true to its roots. Its signature French restaurant, Palme d’Or, has undergone several revisions throughout the years, from offering nouvelle cuisine to molecular gastronomically influenced fare with James Beard–nominated chef Philippe Ruiz. Now the restaurant offers a prix fixe tasting extravaganza under Michelin-starred executive chef Gregory Pugin, who imports ingredients daily from his native France.

From a caretaker’s standpoint, careful and intelligent investment in viable concepts—not wholesale change—is the key to keeping a property compelling. Shareef Malnick, who took over the beloved Rat Pack–era restaurant The Forge from father Al in 1990, has installed, among other improvements, an Enomatic wine system to complement the establishment’s famed cellar. The wine collection took a multi-million-dollar hit when Miami Beach lost electricity for weeks after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, but the restaurant has added “Winebar” to its moniker and now serves 80 vintages by the glass.

“I reinvested in the restaurant in part because the city has been consistently improving as a tourist destination and as a bastion for international and national migration,” Malnick says.

Magic City On the Move

Miami has a reputation for being a place for transients, and that’s not completely incorrect. Part of what creates the city’s compelling culinary energy is the immigration that continually sweeps through, adding layer after layer of flavor. But just as the restaurateurs and chefs of Miami’s iconic properties have been shepherding them into the future, the stalwarts of the city’s initial revitalization have also remained true to the region.The original James Beard Award–winning outliers of New World Cuisine, once dubbed the “Mango Gang”—Mark Militello, Douglas Rodriguez, Allen Susser, and Norman Van Aken—have all moved on from the restaurants that made their reputations in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But they’ve stayed local for the most part, working on various projects throughout the decades.

Allen Susser, for instance, now owns and operates the Daily Melt, a chain of grilled cheese sandwich shops that on the surface is 180 degrees from his special occasion Chef Allen’s, but includes all the little touches that turn it into something special—like homemade mango ketchup and house-cured pickles.

As for Van Aken, he is readying a cooking school in the freshly remodeled Vagabond Hotel in the Miami Modern Historic District, where the restaurant, innovative cocktail bar, and pool lounge are hip hangouts—quite an accomplishment for a derelict property that recently housed a rundown, if architecturally worthy, motel. Vagabond Restaurant & Bar partner Christopher Wang says the opportunities to re-evaluate such properties and install high-energy establishments in them are the culmination of Miami experiencing “an economic boom unrivaled by most cities in this country.”

Now is perhaps the golden era for the Magic City, as Wang adds there is “a once-in-a-lifetime confluence of different people and ideas in Miami. For restaurateurs, Miami affords so many conceptual options because the demand just keeps building both in numbers as well as cultural representation. … It is one of the epicenters for entrepreneurship in the world at the moment.”

Graziano Sbroggio, founder of the Graspa Group, is one such entrepreneur and (at press time) was preparing to re-open TiramesU. The groundbreaking restaurant launched on a largely untouched Ocean Drive in 1988 and moved to Lincoln Road in 1997. In April 2014, Sbroggio decided to move the restaurant back to its origins—or at least as close as possible. Now on Washington Avenue, TiramesU retains Chef Fabrizio Pintus, who has been executive chef since 2010.

Meanwhile, Sbroggio and Graspa Group have introduced revolutionary projects all over town, from Spris and Segafredo L’Originale to Salumeria 104 and Midtown Oyster Bar. The latter, an “ocean-inspired” departure for Graspa Group that serves dishes such as crab cakes, Maine lobster rolls, and “Oyster Rockafella,” became a resoundingly popular destination in less than a year.

Sbroggio hints that even with two restaurants debuting this summer, he’s neither finished nor forcing the issue of expansion. “It’s important to mention that, in our growth process, every step is carefully considered to ensure we provide our patrons with the highest quality ingredients, with a knowledgeable team, and with a welcoming laid-back environment. And although Miami is going through a growth spurt in the restaurant industry, we want to nurture the fundamental values of it in our concepts.”

Other small, Miami-based groups similarly see multiple opportunities. As one of three partners of The Pubbelly Restaurant Group—which owns Pubbelly Gastropub, Pubbelly Sushi, Barceloneta, and PB Station and Pawn Broker (coming this fall)—Andreas Schreiner says, “The city was still starting its growth in the gastronomic scene back in 2010 when we started. We saw more opportunity here versus a city like Chicago that was already at the forefront of all the major culinary trends.”

Chef Cindy Hutson and business-life partner Delius Shirley are also devoted to growing the local epicurean scene, and opened Norma’s on the Beach in 1994. When the location in an outdoor pedestrian mall became too, well, pedestrian for their tastes, they moved their business to Coral Gables’ Miracle Mile and renamed it Ortanique on the Mile. Currently, the pair, who also run restaurants in the Caribbean, are working on Zest and Zest MRKT, Asian-Latin-Caribbean fusion restaurants scheduled to open this fall in the Southeast Financial Center.

Shirley, who sees a thriving market for growth, offers this advice: “Get in now while you can because the city is being snatched up à la minute.”

FENNEL CARPACCIO FROM KLIMA // KLIMA MIAMI

The Sixth Borough and Beyond

New York City and Miami have always enjoyed a reciprocal relationship, so much so that many visitors fondly refer to Miami as “the sixth borough.” While Miami enjoys the tourism trade from the Northeast in the winter, it has also benefited from chefs and restaurateurs who see the Magic City as an easy way to expand outside Manhattan without changing time zones.

Samba Brands Management is just one of the restaurant groups that has been investing in the area for more than a decade. Shimon Bokovza, concept developer and partner of Samba Brands Management, recalls how warmly the locals received SushiSamba Miami Beach. “We opened right after September 11th [2001], and that was very tough. However, it was amazing to see how the community came together and embraced us.” Today, with four restaurants in the city, including the James Beard–nominated Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill in Midtown Miami, Bokovza says, “We are solidifying Miami as our No. 1 market in the United States.”

Another New Yorker come South is internationally acclaimed chef Daniel Boulud, who first opened in South Florida in 2003 in Palm Beach. Chef Boulud acknowledges that in opening db Bistro Moderne Miami in the JW Marriott Marquis Miami, “We were early to the scene and it just keeps getting better. We like that we appeal to local residents and travelers, and that people seek us out for the quality of our cuisine.” Partnering with Ricardo Glas, whom he calls “a transformational developer,” Boulud continues, “We were and are excited about the future of downtown Miami and the buildings and the people the area is attracting. The economies of the Caribbean and South America keep growing, and we want to be part of that.”

He’s certainly not alone, and the chefs willing to speculate on opening Miami restaurants are no longer mainly from New York or Chicago. A list of chefs and restaurateurs who recently came to town or are in the process of opening reads like an international Who’s Who of gastronomy: Tom Colicchio, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Stephen Starr, Danny Elmaleh, Juan Manuel Barrientos, Itay Sacish, Paul Qui, Francis Mallmann, Gaston Acurio, Masaharu Morimoto, and Jonathan Lane.

New Developments

Unfortunately, growth doesn’t always arrive without the pain of change. New construction in areas like Downtown/Brickell, Wynwood and the Design District, South Beach, and Doral promise more space for culinary ventures, but can impinge on restaurants that already exist. Chef and restaurateur David Bracha has seen an 18 percent drop in business at his River Oyster Bar on South Miami Avenue thanks to construction. Still, Bracha expects he will remain in the location at least three more years. He’s taking this opportunity to update the River’s interior and rework the menu.

Likewise, James Beard Award–winning chef Michelle Bernstein and husband David Martinez closed the eponymous Michy’s on the Upper East Side in June 2014. After debuting Seagrape at the Thompson Miami Beach in November, Bernstein and Martinez unveiled CENA by Michy in May, a completely reworked concept in the same Upper East Side space.

SALPICON DE MARISCOS FROM BULLA GASTROPUB // JUAN CARLOS MARCHAN

Michael Sullivan, who like Chef Bernstein is a Miami native, is also experiencing growing pains. In June, he closed his well-liked business, Over the Counter—the first high-end, over-the-counter eatery in the city—to focus on the launch of Golden Fig, a sustainable farmhouse restaurant with regional and seasonal ingredients informing the menu. He’s ready to take a chance on something new, he says, precisely because there’s change all around him. “It’s an interesting time for us because there has been an incredible amount of momentum over the past few years. Each day that goes by, more big-name chefs are making their way to Miami,” he says. “With that in mind, I believe it makes Miami a safer bet for future growth. There are multiple opportunities to be the first restaurant doing certain things, whether it’s the food, décor, or location, which can make it easier to have a more successful restaurant.”

Others, however, are experiencing such rapid growth they almost have no choice but to expand. Juan Carlos Marchan, vice president of Centurion Restaurant Group, which operates Bulla Gastrobar in Coral Gables and soon-to-be Bulla Gastrobar in Downtown Doral, as well as Pisco y Nazca forthcoming in Downtown Doral and Town & Country, says his company has seen phenomenal success. “Our goal [was] to return our investment in a period of at least five years,” he says. “With our Bulla brand, we have achieved that in three years.”

Certainly no one can question that the Spanish and Latin American interest in Miami is intense, perhaps at an all-time high. That attention is creating a spiral of additional interest. Pablo Fernandez-Valdes, Barcelona native and co-founder of KLIMA Restaurant and Bar on South Beach, says, “Some world-class names from the culinary world—including from South America and Europe—are viewing the region as a serious investment opportunity. … It is undeniably the right time to invest in Miami and capitalize on its growing economy.”

Whether it’s investment or concept, the concentration on all things Spanish and Latino isn’t likely to suddenly dissolve. MR Hospitality has hired eminent executive chef Jean Paul Lourdes to head the forthcoming Marion Mediterranean restaurant and El Tucán Cuban cabaret. And the Pacha Group is working several Miami-based managing partners on an exclusive Ibizan nightlife concept called Lío—a fusion of club, restaurant, and cabaret—that will open its first international location in Miami Beach in November.

DRAWING ROOM BAR & LOUNGE // DRAWING ROOM BAR & LOUNGE

Spirited Sales

As it is elsewhere, Miami’s craft beer industry is exploding, with several breweries, including J. Wakefield, Wynwood Brewing Company, and Concrete Beach all recently debuting.

Also impressive is the amount of promotion that imports such as Estrella Damm are willing to undertake. Brewed in Barcelona, Estrella Dammfinds a unique way to market its product by pairing the beer with prix fixe menus in local Spanish- and Latin-influenced restaurants includingDolores But You Can Call Me Lolita, Fooq’s, Jimmy’z Kitchen Wynwood, multiple Novecento locations, Perfecto Gastrobar,Piripi, Tapas y Tintos, The Embassy, Tongue & Cheek, Wynwood Kitchen and Bar and Xixón.

Additionally, the Miami region is home to two national wine and spirits distributing companies: Southern Wine & Spirits and Premier Beverage Company. No doubt, the quality wine, beer, and liquors that flood this market as a result enhance restaurant numbers and inspire the city’s reputation as a culinary destination. Festivals, including the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival, are numerous. And launches of specialty liquors are commonplace—like Whistle Pig’s Old World 12 Year Whiskey at barbecue joint Pride & Joy in Wynwood.

Bacardi is also based in Miami and debuted its Bacardi Tangerine in July. While Afrohead Rum, crafted in small lots, was launched in Miami in January. Other luxury, independent spirits companies, such asWilliam Grant & Sons, hold their national sales meetings in the city, precisely because the tourism, dining, and mixology scene enables sales associates to be tutored in a “show, don’t tell” way.

Largely, then, the mixology scene is driving sales. Sparked by well-traveled barmen including Gabriel Orta and Elad Zvi of The Broken Shaker, who helped design many restaurant and lounge cocktail lists including W South Beach’s Living Room. The booze boom has been beneficial to drinkers and distillers alike.

For the aficionado, there’s now a host of bars and lounges where inventive cocktails are the norm not the revelation: The Drawing Room Bar & Lounge at the Shelborne Wyndham Grand South Beach, for example, where mixologist Albert Trummer labels his menu “A Selection of House Medicines;” The Rum Line, an al fresco Caribbean-inspired bar on the terrace of the St. Moritz Tower at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel; theRegent Cocktail Club in the Gale South Beach, where master bartender and managing partner Julio Cabrera mixes classics; and Radio Bar South Beach and Bodega Taqueria y Tequila, both from Menin Hospitality.

23 Sep 2015

(via 4 Healthy Reasons to Sleep on Your Side | Mental Floss)

(Source: mentalfloss.com)

22 Sep 2015

Competitive Writing

The Atlantic article on teen writing competition is hitting some nerves … in a good way….

(Source: therumpus.net)

14 Jul 2015

HAPPY NATIONAL MANGO MONTH!

1 Jun 2015

GOOD TASTE IS ALL IN YOUR GENES

Jen Karetnick

| May 12, 2015 |

Your personal tastes might not dictate your hatred of saffron, cilantro or other foods you can’t stand — it very well might be your genetic makeup.

In recent years, a controversy over cilantro — the leafy part of the coriander plant — has developed. It’s used widely, both fresh and cooked, in cuisines ranging from Vietnamese to Mexican.

Some factions love it; culinary proponents can’t imagine their pho or guacamole without it. Others find it unbearable, however, claiming it tastes like shampoo or soap. In fact, they go practically purple prose on what many cooks find a bright, citrusy herb. There’s even an IHateCilantro.com page, where commenters have compared it to “crushed stink bugs,” “burned brake fluid” and “mule urine.” The word coriander, it also should be noted, stems from the ancient Greekkoriannon, which is a hybrid of koris — a stinky bug — and annon, a fragrant anise. Coriander literally means, then, “a plant that smells like a bug.”

Such coriander leaf partisans include the late chef and cookbook author Julia Child, so you know it’s not nearly a whim; the woman had an impeccable palate, yet she claimed that, along with arugula, she’d pick cilantro out of whatever was served to her and throw it on the floor.

So what’s the reasoning behind such rabid dislike?

Cilantro.

In 2010, The New York Times published a column on why cilantro haters couldn’t be held responsible for their personal taste. The fault, the author surmised, lay in the aldehydes, which are modified fat molecules similar to ones also found in soaps and lotions. In the piece, chemists and neuroscientists reasoned that some people’s brains retained a hunting-gathering mentality. They couldn’t distinguish between the olfactory threat that the aldehydes presented, hinting that an item was poisonous and not to be eaten, and the pleasing aroma of the aldehydes, signaling that a food was consumable.

Two years later, a new study confirmed that while “delayed evolution” was a valid theory, there was a little more to it. Nature reported that about 25,000 people tested in a survey led by the genetics firm 23andme had linked cilantro aversion to the gene OR6A2. This particular olfactory gene is one variant linked to cilantro’s perception, and there are two copies of it, which makes it even more complicated to trace definitively. Suffice to say, though, that if you think cilantro tastes like soap (or burned rubber or some kind of animal urine or a simile too unappealing to repeat here), there’s a good chance genetic mutation has been at play.

CILANTRO VS. SAFFRON: WHAT’S HATED MORE?

To date, these two tropes — paleo intuition and genetic variation — have been replayed everywhere from The Huffington Post to blogs on NPR.org whenever the subject of cilantro comes up.

Oddly, there’s a faction of people who feel just as strongly about saffron, but they’ve been flying under the epicurean radar. If you search online, you’ll find a couple of questions posed on food sites, such as on Chowhound (“Does saffron taste like plastic to anyone else?”) or Serious Eats (“Is it just me, or does saffron taste terrible?”). But there are no organized saffron splinter groups like there are cilantro cliques, posting hate messages about saffron or threatening to commit spicy crimes of passion. You won’t find much in the way of correct answers, either.

Indeed, many people who despise saffron have been left wondering why. My husband, Jon, is one of them. He has always disliked paella, which is cooked with this spice that is harvested from the flower of the Crocus sativus plant. True saffron looks like red threads — these are the dried stigmas of the flower — and cooks up into a yellow-reddish color. Given that it takes 75,000 saffron blossoms to create one pound of saffron, and it all has to be done by hand, saffron is considered an extravagance.

Not by Jon, of course, but we could never define why he was so unenthusiastic about it until we were dining at a Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant called the Matador Room in Miami recently. “I know what it is,” Jon exclaimed. “Saffron tastes like iodine.”

I blew on the steaming, light-yellow rice and sampled it again. “No, it doesn’t,” I said. I should know, after all; I’ve been a dining critic for 23 years. He’s a physician. He’d probably been smelling iodine in the hospital all day, and it had remained in his soft palate. Who knows? Maybe all of his food smells and tastes like iodine.

But he was insistent that the paella had a medicinal quality, and because we long ago figured out that Jon is a “supertaster” — he can discern flavors above and beyond what most people can, including metallic elements in spring water — I decided to indulge him. “Fine. Let’s Google it.”

Saffron.

He teases me for my tendency to do research for whenever I want to know something, especially when it’s at the dinner table, but in this case it hit pay dirt. I entered the key words “iodine” and “saffron” on a medical application, figuring that it would at least distract him from continuing to find fault with the finest paella I’d had in years. But to our mutual surprise, the answer that came up is that being able to detect the flavor of iodine in saffron is actually keyed into your genetic code.

THE BITTER TRUTH ABOUT TRAITS

Like detecting aldehydes, tasting bitterness in general is an inherited trait. Identifying it is linked to the naturally occurring chemical phenylthiocarbamide (PTC), which was discovered in 1931 by DuPont chemist Arthur Fox. He perceived, after an accident with the substance, that some people in the lab could detect its presence in the air and others couldn’t. After he did trials among family and friends, scientists replicated his results and determined that tasting PTC was such a strong indication of genetics that it could be used to rule out paternity. This, of course, was before DNA testing became a thing.

Today, the Journal of Natural Science, Biology and Medicine notes that “Bitter-taste perception for PTC is a classically variable trait both within and between human populations. Many studies have reported that in world population, approximately 30% of them are PTC non-tasters and 70% are tasters.” A Smithsonian Magazine article called “The Genetics of Taste” adds that while this trait is coded onto a single gene, it further differentiates itself into two common and five rare forms. Thus the gene creates multiple variations of itself that are subsequently passed on. And one of these variants is responsible for whose palate interprets saffron as a medicinal menace rather than a luxury flavoring.

The good news is that once you figure out that that these both of these interpretations are genetic perceptions, you can change them. For cilantro, start by reducing the herb’s potency. Cook it thoroughly instead of eating it fresh or barely heated to limit aromatic exposure. Combine it with other ingredients or make a pesto or a salsa or a marinade.

For saffron, it’s a little trickier. While frequently employed as a flavoring agent, the Crocus sativus stigmas are also made into supplements to treat everything from menstrual cramps to alopecia. In fact, saffron has such a range of medicinal properties that humans have used it for asthma, whooping cough, hardening of the arteries, heartburn, infertility and premature ejaculation.

Coriander, too, has benefits that help reduce inflammation and blood sugar. It’s used to treat a host of digestive and urinary tract symptoms. With its leaves often distilled into an oil, it can be a blood-thinning agent and an analgesic.

So if you prefer to treat yourself holistically, it may be worth acclimating yourself to both saffron and cilantro.

Still, even if you’re completely devoted to Western medicine and have no interest in pho, guacamole or paella, you may want to consider learning to tame your taste buds and appreciate both the herb and the spice — because they are both, supposedly, powerful aphrodisiacs. And it’s pretty darn hard to seduce someone with a dish made with either one of them while your genetic code is insisting that you spit it out.

Jen Karetnick is a contributing journalist for TheBlot Magazine.

14 May 2015

The Milo Review

VOL. 3 ISSUE 1 | Spring 2015 Poetry by Jen Karetnick Whatever a Sun —for my sister Twice has its choice of idioms – you can be shy twice, you can fool someone more than once, you don’t have to fret about lightning doing what it does best. But there is also this larger honesty: He gives twice who gives quickly; that’s double the nice. Love me two times. Twice is a couplet. It is “the root of the root and the bud of the bud.” It is the pollen that feeds the bees and forces the fruit to flower wherever they land, however they get there. It is the hand that picks the flower, that holds another hand, open-handed, a bouquet of fingers wrapped in gold and set in a hand-blown vase marked with a pattern of hob-stars and strawberry diamonds, twice is the sustenance in the vase, twice are the tears from whatever a sun that provides for the most generous and faithful of gardeners.  ♦

10 May 2015

3

THANK YOU, JUDGE JUDY

by Jen Karetnick

I’m a poet and fiction writer by vocation and a journalist by trade. The first two I learned in school, ultimately ending with two MFA degrees, one in each genre. Journalism I was taught on the job, trained by several editors. But seven years ago, when the economy crashed and the future of print journalism was a serious concern, I took a job in a charter school for the arts, charged with creating and teaching a program for grades 6-12 that included poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction.

For poetry and fiction, I had few worries, but for personal essays and memoir, I had to expand my repertoire. That’s when I began to watch the television show Judge Judy, and found that everything I needed to know about writing and teaching creative non-fiction was an oft-repeated truism that came directly from the Honorable Judith Sheindlin’s lips.

I didn’t come to this conclusion right away. At first, I started to watch the show because it was on when I got home from school. I was so exhausted from my unexpected new career path that I immediately took to my bed, unable to do anything else but gaze in stupefaction at the television.