"miami herald" news and stories

• Cook's Corner offers tips for an out-of-work reader who doesn't know how to use the instant potato flakes they got from the Food Bank. Hint: They do more than just thicken soup!
• Oh the Shrimp Shack is a little old place where we can "eat with the fleet!" Shrimp Shack bay-bee. (In Key West!)
• Asian buffets popularity on the rise with the budget-dining crowd.
• Cuban coffee and pastelitos on the menu at Yiya's Gourmet Bakery, a "dream come true" for a Miami couple who used pan con lechon (shown above) to convince the mayor to help them green-light building permits.
• Your grandparents have finally discovered pad Thai, and they're flocking to Origin Pan Asian & Sushi to eat it. The Herald likes it too. They've given it three stars.

Have you ever had herbal coffee? For people who are extremely sensitive to caffeine, to the point where even decaf is intolerable, or those who have sensitive stomachs and cannot drink the brew without discomfort, there are several faux coffee products on the market. The Miami Herald conducted a brief tasting of four easily available versions of the herbal brew, each of which is intended to look and taste similar to coffee. The emphasis is on the word similar, since they consist of ingredients such as barley, rye, chicory, wheat, beets, figs and chicory. Their reactions:

• Pero - glossy black with a faint, unsatisfying taste that was described as "elusive," even when brewed at double strength
• Cafix - tasted "roastier and more coffee-esque" than Pero, which isn't saying all that much. Its main claim to fame is that it gives you coffee breath.
• Postum - "Grim."
• Teeccino - available at Whole Foods, this drink is brewed (not instant, like the others) and comes in flavors like "Amaretto Almond" and "Hazelnut." Overall, it was the most similar to real coffee and the most worth drinking.

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