Saturday, August 13, 2011

Miami Spice is Nice (so far..)

Scoreboard Says- 3 Spices, 3 Winners!!!

Tudor House

I've done 3 spice meals this year which I think surpasses my combined total for the last two years. Anyway, all 3 were for lunch which are not necessarily great values for me because I never have dessert at lunch.  Nevertheless, all 3 of these were outstanding and offered good value and a nice way to sample their current menu offerings.

My first lunch was unexpected, landlord duties called so I was on South Beach during lunch time with time to kill.  Shout out to Master Maids who did an outstanding move out/in cleaning job.  Thanks to Chef Jeremiah for the recommendation.  Anyway, I recalled being intrigued by the new Tudor House menu and opted to head there.  After perusing the menu it was clear that the spice menu was the way to go since it offered several interesting choices and an overall value.

I started with the Greek Salad Panzanella, featuring heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers and of course, bread.  This was a generous portion and a great tasting combination.  I followed that with the Ricotta Gnudi, paired with heirloom beets, English peas and petite basil.  I really enjoyed the texture of the gnudi along with the fresh beets and accompanying pea/basil combination.  This was a great dish.  As usual, dessert was completely unnecessary but delicious. I went with the Strawberry Shortcake, served with strawberry sherbet, mascarpone cream and strawberries.  This was a nice light dessert and the perfect end to a great meal.

Lunch number two was a pit stop on our way down to a one day staycation at the Gansevoort Hotel. I'm not a huge fan of the Vegas-esque Fontainebleau complex for a few reasons but primarily because of the chaotic and slow valet scene.  That said, it is the home of two of Miami's better restaurants, Scarpetta and Hakkasan.  Both offer very good Miami Spice deals with Hakkasan offering a dim sum lunch option on the weekends.  This was on my Miami Spice must do short list and a no-brainer on the way down to South Beach.

Simply put, Hakkasan's dim sum lunch provides a tremendous amount of awesome food at an equally great value.  I'll spare you on the details of the menu and simply point you here dim sum menu.  I will tell you that the dumplings alone are worth the price of  lunch.  I forgot how good they are and was wondering why it took me so long to go back, until I returned to the valet stand...

The third Spice (Posh is one, right? so Sporty spice??) was the result of serious inclement weather.  Since it wasn't a beach day I was able to work another meal into the itinerary.  It was lunch time again so I successfully lobbied for a visit to Tudor House.

On this go round I had to change it up and went with the a perfectly prepared  Nicoise Salad with tuna Conserva, garden beans, and a soft cooked egg.  I rarely order a nicoise but really enjoyed their version.  However, Chow P's starter, Bruschetta Tasting of crab, burrata and chick peas was outstanding and the best thing I sampled their to that point.  It was a unique and interesting combination that worked perfectly.

Next up for me was an absolutely awesome “Cuban Style” Pressed Sandwich, featuring pork belly and pickled cucumbers.  Run don't walk to try this sandwich spice or no spice.  This is a real winner.  Chow P went with the aforementioned ricotta gnudi and enjoyed it so much that I barely got a taste.  For dessert, we opted for the Strawberry Shortcake along with the Key Lime Ice Cream Sandwich.  Both were great and a nice end to another great Spice lunch. 

Batting 1000

1 comment:

Laura said...

I finally went to the Tudor for dinner, but ended up ordering off the regular menu bc they changed the spice menu. We got the Steak Tartar(it was ok) Branzino (Delish), Fried Chicken (Delish)and the Carrot Cake for Dessert (Double Delish). I want to go back and try the cuban sandwhich !!