- Texas de Brazil Miami!
If you like meat like we do, you'll appreciate this great Brazilian style steakhouse that brings you an ultimate "all-you-care-to-eat" meat feasting experience. Texas de Brazil is a family owned restaurant "collection" with multiple locations, including three in their home state of Texas. To make it work at every location, quality control is essential, and at Texas de Brazil they do it right. Yes, the packaging is beautiful, but the food is truly the star of the show here.
Texas de Brazil is another entry in a growing list of Brazilian churrascarias serving traditional rodizio -- specially grilled meats that are delivered to you right at the table. The tradition is almost as old as Brazilian ranching. The gauchos or cowboys would hold periodic feasts for their families and friends. The meat would be slow cooked on a spit over an open fire. As the meat cooked, the gauchos would slice thin pieces from the skewers and serve them to the party goers.
Texas de Brazil is all about meat! They have their own team, of "gauchos" who bring roasted meats fresh off the grill to your table, and they keep bringing them until you tell them to stop. They make it easy with a little card you keep by your plate. The green side means "keep it coming," the red side means "OK, enough already!"
We've heard of people bringing vegetarian friends to this restaurant, and they do have a great salad bar. However, with so much meat constantly parading by, your vegetarian friend is either going to run from the restaurant screaming, or better yet, soon convert to meat loving normality...(more) 
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Cookie on Calle Ocho
Cookie has to be the happiest lady on Calle Ocho! Step into the small shop run by Cookie, her mother, and her sister, and you can't help feeling great! There is a lot of energy in this small shop, which features Calle Ocho memorabilia items, many handcrafted by Cookie herself.
Cookie on Calle Ocho features many hand painted items with a Cuban flair -- everything from cafecito cups to coasters and refrigerator magnets.
For a truly unique souvenir of your visit to Calle Ocho, be sure to stop by Cookie!
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- We know it's hard to believe,
- but as this picture proves,
- we obviously haven't aged a day in 20 years!
Yes, 20 years ago the Three Guys from Miami came together for the first time. The occasion? Jorge's wedding in Iowa City, Iowa. It all happened over Thanksgiving weekend in 1983. (We know, we got so busy with our Christmas and New Years preparations that we completely forgot to celebrate!)
Raúl and two of Jorge's nieces were the only members of the Miami family who could afford to fly up for the big event.
"You have to remember that at that time the Castillo and Musibay families had only lived in the United States for a few years and money was tight," says Jorge. "Raúl's English wasn't the greatest and he needed his daughter and her cousin along just to help him translate."
Raúl didn't come empty handed. He brought a "care package" filled with Cuban food from Miami, including a small pork leg prepared Cuban style.
"I first met Raúl in the kitchen at Jorge's house the night before Thanksgiving and we immediately hit it off," Glenn says. "Raúl has a great, good-natured sense of humor, a true love of life, a hearty appetite for good food and a great party."
Raúl found in Glenn a guy who shared his love of fishing, who loved to joke and most of all loved good food in abundance. With each bite of Cuban food, a strange transformation began. Little by little Glenn's formerly Swedish body was being taken over by pure Cubanismo.
"Within a year, I would have pure mojo flowing through my veins," Glenn adds.
"Glenn had what we called in Cuba 'chispa' -- a certain spark," says Raúl. "We became fast friends, helped along by our mutual love of Cuban food. Over the years Glenn has become more and more Cuban."
The following summer Glenn flew to Miami to meet Jorge's extended family. As soon as he got off the plane, he realized he was in a different world.
"Midwest airports are as quiet as a funeral home," Glenn says. "In Miami, people were loud, and laughing, and having fun! I felt like I had walked into one big party. People were speaking Spanish and English and 'Spanglish' and everyone was so happy to see the people who were arriving."
Raúl and Jorge took Glenn to Calle Ocho and he fell in love with the people and the culture.
"I bought a raspadura at a coffee window; I tasted my first coco frio, Cuban sandwich, and later that week Jorge's sister's picadillo," Glenn says. "I couldn't believe how friendly the Cuban people were; they even encouraged my few feeble attempts at speaking Spanish. Women greeted me with besos y abrazos -- hugs and kisses. For me, Miami was something else, a tropical paradise."
That was how everything began for us. Somehow over the course of a few fishing trips and many vacations, something more than a friendship -- a bond of brotherhood developed between two Cuban guys from Cayo la Rosa, Cuba and one American guy from Minneapolis...(more)
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Cake Emborrachado
Frequent contributor Marlen Roth of Miami sent us this delicious recipe. Over the years we always counted on Marlen for low-calorie recipes. (grin) The Food Police would have a heart attack if they saw this one... (more)
Tocinillo de Cielo is a distant cousin of flan. It is sometimes mistakenly called "Tocino del Cielo," which literally means "bacon from heaven." It doesn't look like bacon, it doesn't taste like bacon -- in fact, there's no bacon in it. So why people started calling it this, we'll never know. In English, we call this one "heavenly custard."
No matter what you call it, Tocinillo de Cielo is sweeter and lighter than flan, light on the tongue -- you'll find yourself tempted to inhale this stuff! There are two types: One has a slight lemon taste, the other tastes like almonds. This is the recipe for the lemon one. To add an almond flavor, use the variation at the end of the recipe...(more)
Here is a great recipe for sweet plantains with sherry. If a recipe calls for ripe plantains, you need plantains that are black! They may look like you should throw them out, but under that ugly peel is a sweet treat.
Ripe plantains are easier to peel than green plantains. For both varieties you can make the job easier by cutting the stem end off each end to get the peel started. Sometimes you need to slice the skin lengthwise to get it off...(more)
It May be Cold Where You Are...
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