Your Morning Sift [UPDATED X2]

Good morning.

I'm feeling a little under the weather so I won't be making my daily sojourn to Miami to clock in. I know, I know, BIG disappointment here. Make the most of your Miserable Monday by starting off with a well-fed morning Sift...

A- Artlurker has a very interesting interview of Miami artist David Rohn that discusses, in part, the art scene in Miami back in the early 90's before there was a South Beach.*

There weren’t any galleries to speak of but there were a lot of open studios in storefronts on Lincoln Road - which at the time was completely dead as a retail area. It had one restaurant and a few stores for things like orthopedic shoes but not much else except artists and it was deserted after dark.

In the afternoons you might see some people around (other than the rows of 80-somethings parked in wheelchairs in front of their buildings) and maybe at the beach on 23rd street or South of 5th too but it was mainly in clubs like Warsaw, Torpedo, and Boomerang. There you could see that a very grass roots and rather gritty (by current standards) community had somehow congealed in a place that was otherwise literally dying right before your eyes.

B- Food For Thought shares the lessons they learned working beside the high-energy and creative chefs in the Paradigm kitchen.

Mise en place is where it's at. I know this is really basic and that just about any book about cooking will tell you the same thing. But there is simply no way any menu like this can be done, or indeed virtually any professional kitchen could function, without a lot of advance prep work.

C- There was some rain to dodge but Mango&Lime says the Toyota Los Sabores del Mercado Venza held yesterday in the Lincoln Road area still happened and she has a bunch of pictures to prove it.

Lately I’ve found myself caught in the South Florida rains quite a bit. It happened yet again yesterday at Toyota’s Los Sabores del Mercado Venza. The rain surely deterred many from coming, which in a way made it better for those who attended because we were able to watch the chefs and taste the food without fighting crowds. Still, a good amount of people showed up even with the poor weather conditions.

D- At least one reporter at The Washington Post apparently has blogger envy, according to Bark Bark Woof Woof.

E- Incertus files a rare food review.

Finding a pizza in Fort Lauderdale with good toppings isn't difficult, and that shouldn't be surprising--good toppings are easy. Just use quality ingredients and use them in good measure. The tricky thing with any pizza is the crust, finding that balance between crunchy and chewy, especially when it comes to leftovers--a good crust holds up to the ingredients. It's the crust that sets Franco & Vinny's apart from other pizza places in Fort Lauderdale.

......

* I've been emailed that the Artlurker link in "A" is not working. Apparently, Artlurker has removed the post, for whatever reason. We're going to keep the link up there for now, hoping that the post is reinstated in the near future. [Note: the link is working now]

.