What's a fair without food? Residents of Broward County, Fla., are about to find out.
As the Broward County Fair doesn't have a fairgrounds of its own, it found itself homeless this year after its previous host, the Fort Lauderdale Stadium, closed for renovations. Scrambling for a solution, the fair relocated to a shopping mall.
"We'd rather have something than nothing at all," said the volunteer who answered the fair office's phone.
The Pompano Citi Centre has plenty of space for competitions and exhibits -- the spelling bee is scheduled for a room over LensCrafters, and student gardeners will display their plants at Lowe's -- but there's no room for rides or food vendors. According to the volunteer, who identified herself as Denise, the only food at the fair will be the canned beans, pound cakes and other edibles submitted for judging.
On Saturday, the Guinness Book of World Records certified a 1,316-pound sweet made by Passion for Sweet in Boca Raton, Fla. The giant cupcake was sponsored by Big Top Cupcakes -- a company that makes giant cupcake molds for home baking -- as part of the Think Pink Rocks breast cancer fundraiser.
Of course, this cupcake knocked off a previous title holder. Check out that photo after the jump.
Florida's honeymakers, already adept at catching flies, have lately been buttonholing politicians, successfully pressing for new legislation that experts say should save the state's honey industry.
The Florida legislature this month approved a bill prohibiting the production and sale of adulterated honey -- a racy-sounding term that encompasses the honey-fructose blends and chemically treated honeys that have flooded the market over the past decade. While Florida is the first state to issue an official honey standard, Nancy Gentry, who chairs the Florida Honey Bee Technical Council, says as many as 28 states are contemplating similar legislation.
"We're already seeing significant changes," Gentry reports. "We're going to take blended honey products off the shelf in Florida."
Redlight Redlight in Orlando, FL. Image: Redlight Redlight
A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.
Last week, What's On Tap suggested craft beer seekers crash the college town of Athens, Ga., while the students are away. This week, why not leave your kids at home during that summer trip to Orlando? Drop the tykes off at Grandma's, lie about the location of Disney World and add world-renowned Florida bar Redlight Redlight to the vacation itinerary.
For more than four years, this hip and particularly well-stocked pub has been a must for seekers of rare brews. And now is as perfect a time as any to pop in as they celebrate Christmas in July. "We saved most of the Christmas beers," says owner Brent Hernandez, including a couple kegs dating back to 2005. "We do a lot of aging and have a pretty solid vintage list."
See all 21 beers on tap as of Monday and learn more about Redlight Redlight after the jump. ...
Gourmet's Barry Estabrook investigates the plight of Florida tomato pickers. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.
A little slavery is okay, just not too much of it.
At this writing, that appears to be the official government position in the state of Florida, and it could explain why the fields of the Sunshine State provide such fertile ground for modern-day slavery. In the past dozen years, police have broken up and prosecuted seven slave operations there, freeing more than 1,000 men and women who were kept captive and forced to work for little or no money and threatened with death if they tried to escape. (For more on the plight of the Florida tomato pickers, see my article "The Price of Tomatoes" in the March 2009 issue of Gourmet.)
Late last year, two members of the Navarrete family, the operators of what has been recognized as the most brutal slave ring the state has seen, were sentenced to 12 years in prison; two others received lesser sentences. Justice having been done, it was an ideal opportunity for Governor Charlie Crist, who enjoys a very high approval rating, to spend a bit of that political capital to condemn the practice and announce bold steps to prevent it.
On the Today show, Epicurious.com Editor Tanya Steel shows Hota Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford how to make a simple key lime pie.
Even if you can make a key lime pie in your sleep, it's a fun video (even though they say to use pre-squeezed key lime juice if you can't find limes - eek! That's like using lemon juice instead of real lemons in lemon squares!) The taste just can't compare.
Well, the video is fine until good ol' Kathie Lee ruins the moment by first commenting on the amount of calories in the condensed can of milk (Steel smartly replies "Yeah, but who's counting calories?") and then likens the ingredient to colostrum (and Kotb remarks, "Buzzkill.")
Cook much, Kathie Lee? Yeesh - don't invite her over when you're making key lime pie. She'll totally ruin your appetite.
It's a good weekend for attending a food festival if you:
a) are a hipster of the American Northwest b) love wine c) have never attended a crawfish boil d) are hungry
If you, like me, find yourself nodding emphatically at these criteria, read on! This weekend offers food festivals sprinkled across the country, promising some of the most interesting and delicious foods I've seen in a while.
There are always excuses to eat, but I find that there are rarely opportunities to just completely go nuts and eat everything in sight. So when these opportunities do come along (vacations to Europe, birthdays, Thanksgiving), it's best to take complete advantage. For me, food festivals definitely qualify as all-you-can-eat events. I remember my parents bringing me to Taste of Bethesda every year when I was growing up, and how exciting it was to chow through streets and streets of delicious foods.
Starting right now, I'll be giving you guys a weekly heads up about upcoming Food Festivals from around the country. Sadly, we don't have too many in the Philadelphia area, so I'll be living vicariously through the comments of those of you who are able to attend -- please relay all of the juicy details!
There are details about this weekend's festivals after the jump. For those who can't attend, perhaps this sweet gallery from Taste of Vail (April 2-5, 2008) will carry us through. Expect more to come!
Apparently, a year-and-a-half later, the problem is still around. The Statesman Journal is reporting that restaurants in many parts of Florida are still passing off Asian catfish, tilapia or other cheaper species like emperor fish, hake, sutchi, bream and green weakfish as grouper. It's not the other fish are unhealthy or taste bad. In fact, it probably tastes just fine. It's that real grouper costs something like $20 a pound and the other fish are much cheaper.
Why don't restaurants just serve whatever fake grouper they're serving as what they really are?
Our sister blog, Luxist, picked up the story of a Florida couple who received an unexpected year-end bonus, a rare purple pearl.
While enjoying some steamed clams at Dave's Last Resort & Raw Bar with his wife, Leslie, George Brock suddenly bit down on something hard. By now you've guessed that what stopped him midslurp was the aforementioned pearl. It's safe to say that the couple didn't expect anything from their $10 investment other than fresh seafood. Turns out they got much more than that: A gemologist's appraisal pegged the pearl's value at $25,000.
I'm no gemologist, but the last time I checked pearls, purple or otherwise, are found in oysters. I've eaten my share of oysters and clams both raw and cooked. Heck, I've had conch freshly plucked from the clear blue waters of Nassau, and I'm always game for giant clam at the sushi bar. Some might say that I've been lucky to have found only grit and stray bits of shell in my mollusks and not a nasty bug. However, the Brocks' purple pearl and the arrival of 2008 have given me hope. I resolve to eat more mollusks this year, if only for health reasons.
We're not quite sure what the big deal here is with California. Florida already has oranges, so why wouldn't they want to keep California oranges out of the state? We're sure there are plenty of people on the western half of the country who can eat all those oranges.
So far, Nicole and Sarah have given their thoughts about Alan Richman's GQ list of "The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die." (A .pdf of the entire article is available here.) Since Sarah and Nicole have both hit at least a few spots on Richman's list, I figured it was time I start catching up, especially since I live only minutes away from the restaurant that occupies the number one spot on the list, Le Tub, in Hollywood, Florida. Le Tub has had roughly the last half a century to garner praise for its burgers, and the evidence, in the form numerous framed and yellowing newspaper clippings, is obvious throughout the restaurant. The rest of the decor is also worth mentioning. The rickety, open-air bar and restaurant sits perched on the Intracoastal Waterway, and it's as if the entire place has been whittled from a huge chunk of driftwood and is now held together by little more than fishing nets, banyan roots and the occasional rusty nail. And, of course, there is a bathtub planter outside, as well as a variety of toilets and toilet seats strewn about the lush, overgrown property.
They may look ugly, like many heirloom and heirloom tomato crosses, but taste sun ripe like they grew in your backyard. As of January 18, 2007 the Ugly Ripe tomato from Florida will be allowed to be shipped out of state to markets across the country. You can now go to your market and get tasty tomatoes during the winter months until late spring.
There have been legal battles for several years about this relatively new breed of tomato. It was introduced to the public in 1999 and for a few years prior to 2003 the tomatoes were test sold to see the public reaction, which was positive. Then, since 2003 the Florida Tomato Committee, which controls a majority of the $500 million dollar industry, has prevented the farm that grows them from shipping the fruit out of state. The supposed reason is that the Ugly Ripe breed of tomatoes are not uniform in shape and color, even if they taste great, and if they allow these tomatoes to be shipped then others may try to ship non-uniform specimens of regular, tasteless commercial tomatoes.
Personally I think that the pretty but flavorless tomatoes should be composted, and I'm all for ugly but tasty. So look for Ugly Ripe tomatoes, sold under the brand name Santa Sweets, at your local market. Since they are picked and shipped ripe they will be packed in white netting to protect them from bruising and will be easily identified. There is already a great demand for them, so they may not be available in large amounts for a few weeks. Hopefully the price will be as good as the taste.
The words "all natural" on the packaging of Capri Sun juice drinks have prompted a Florida woman to file a lawsuit against Kraft Foods, Inc., the drink's producer, the Associated Press reported. Assisted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Linda Rex of Boynton Beach, Fla., claims that the inclusion of high fructose corn syrup is what makes the drink in the little silver pouch less than "all natural." You might remember the CSPI from when they filed and then withdrew lawsuits against Kentucky Fried Chicken over trans-fat use last year, or for their similar actions against Starbucks. A recent press release from CSPI points out that the organization has also challenged 7UP's use of the word "natural." A statement from Kraft says that the "all natural" label was already on the way out and will soon be replaced with packaging that claims "no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives,'' the AP reported. CSPI's always-witty executive director Michael Jacobson, coiner of phrases such as "venti-sized health problems" and "Kentucky Fried coronary," said HCFS "would more accurately be called 'Fresh from the Factory.'"
Earlier this year, Disney announced that their theme parks would start selling healthier fare. The said that they would eliminate trans fats, place limits on the number of calories per portion and limit fat and sugar for snacks, sides and main dishes. Not wanting to be left behind, or accused of not caring about the health of their visitors, Universal Studios has announced that they will also be eliminating trans fats from their park menus.
The first phase of the switch officially took place on Christmas Eve, though the foods have been in development for some time, and now over 90% of the foods at Universal Studios locations are cooked in trans-fat free oils. The few items that are still cooked with trans fats, including churros, will be trans-fat free by the end of next year.
The parks will also be offering other healthy options, like fruit bowls and skim milk, both on kids and regular menus.
It's a good weekend for attending a food festival if you: 
There are always excuses to eat, but I find that there are rarely opportunities to just completely go nuts and eat everything in sight. So when these opportunities do come along (vacations to Europe, birthdays, Thanksgiving), it's best to take complete advantage. For me, food festivals definitely qualify as all-you-can-eat events. I remember my parents bringing me to 
When Slashfood alum Nick Vagnoni 
Our sister blog, Luxist, picked up the story of a Florida couple who received an unexpected year-end bonus, a rare purple 
If you're a college football fan, then you know that states have been facing off with each other since last week. However, in what we could call a foodish Citrus Bowl, 
They may look ugly, like many heirloom and heirloom tomato crosses, but taste sun ripe like they grew in your backyard. As of January 18, 2007 the 
The words "all natural" on the packaging of Capri Sun juice drinks have prompted a Florida woman to file a lawsuit against Kraft Foods, Inc., the drink's producer, the 
Earlier this year, 
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