Cindy Fuller wrote:
> SO and I were in Miami to visit his mother. A few culinary high- and
> lowlights follow.
>
> Our first night there SO's mom took us to a very old-school continental
> restaurant called La Paloma. The ambience was very 1950's--heavy
> draperies, assorted tchotchkes, and very dark. SO and I were about the
> youngest diners there. The menu was heavy on the cream sauce. Even the
> veggies came slathered with buttered crumbs.
>
> Then followed two nights in Key West. Mangrove Mama (home of the
> state-of-the-art key lime pie) was closed, alas. On the way down we
> stopped at the Islamorada Fish Co. A decent meal, although the conch
> chowder was not up to our standards. We stayed at the Merlin Guesthouse
> two blocks from Duval St. We had a nice little cottage with a separate
> bedroom for the mom and a sleeper sofa for us. It also had kitchen
> facilities, which we didn't use. The person at the front desk got us
> reservations the first night at a restaurant called Seven Fish, which is
> supposedly one of the best places in South Florida (if you believe
> Zagat). The food was excellent. The three of us split a bottle of
> wine. Needless to say, the wheelchair was weaving all over what little
> sidewalk there was on the way back to the guesthouse.
>
> We had lunch the next day at the Pier House restaurant, which supposedly
> had good red conch chowder. No mas--they only had white (cream-based)
> chowder. What we did get was overpriced and underwhelming, which we
> expected from a previous visit. Our table supposedly overlooked a
> topless beach. All of those going topless were male, and they shouldn't
> have done so. (Beer bellies and hairy backs do not do much for one's
> digestion.) Dinner that night was at Blue Heaven, a funky little place
> that has outdoor dining complete with chickens and cats. The critters
> were reasonably well behaved. The food was good, but our waiter was a
> bit on the spacy side.
>
> Seattle is woefully deficient in deli food, so we needed to get our fix
> while down there. We got takeout at Rascal House, then had lunch two
> days later at a little place on Biscayne Blvd. called New York's Big
> Apple Deli. I got my fill of pastrami and whitefish salad (at different
> places, not simulataneously), SO and mom opted for chopped liver.
>
> We came home yesterday, but not without a little drama. When we dropped
> the rental car at an off-airport location in the wee hours of the
> morning, we just missed a smash and grab robbery of a Japanese family
> who were doing the same. SO called 911 and I stayed hunkered down in
> the rental car until the taxi came to take us to the airport. So when
> the cheery customer service person called us before 7 am today to ask
> how our rental experience was, I told him in no uncertain terms that
> they needed better security at that location.
>
> Dinner last night was simple, due to serious jet lag: spaghetti with
> Canale's sauce (straight from Oswego NY, courtesy of my mother) and
> frozen snap peas.
>
> Cindy, awakened at 4:30 this morning by feline with affection-deficit
> disorder
>
Have you tried the salumi at Mario Batali's dad's deli in Seattle?
Italian-style rather than Jewish, but might be very good nevertheless.

There's a Cuban restaurant in Key West with great paella.

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Regards

Louis Cohen

"Yes, yes, I will desalinate you, you grande morue!"

Émile Zola, Assommoir 1877