San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Conch fritters to Key lime pie to tantalize your tastebuds
The COVID-19 outbreak has hit South Florida particularly hard in recent weeks, but that won’t keep us from visiting the sandy shores of Miami from the comfort of our kitchens.
This week we bring you the second installment in our fourweek Summer Kitchen Travels series. After cooking our way through New Orleans last week, the itinerary brings us to the Magic City, with stops in California’s Napa Valley and New England to follow in the coming weeks. We’ll be dishing the musttry menu items from beloved restaurants and bars in each of those destinations for you to re-create at home.
While Miami is probably best known for its pristine beaches and jetsetter lineup of A-list celebrities clubbing on South
Beach, we’re going to spend most of our trip in the kitchens of Little Havana, the beating heart of Miami’s Cuban community.
There aren’t any Cuban establishments in Miami more iconic than Versailles Restaurant, which opened in 1971. A guest there is just as likely to rub shoulders with multigenerational families enjoying a feast as posturing politicians trying to secure the city’s Cuban vote.
The Cuban-style arroz con pollo is a staple at Versailles — bright red with a flavorful annatto-based seasoning and sprinkled with green peas and diced pimentos. Their recipe, which transforms a whole chicken and a couple of cups of rice into a meal
that can easily feed a family for days, is a rib-sticking delight most home cooks can feel confident re-creating.
Versailles is also one of the city’s top stops for a classic Cubano sandwich — a concoction of ham, roast pork, Swiss cheese and pickles on fluffy Cuban bread. While we don’t have Versailles’ exact recipe for lechón asado — that’s the garlicky roast pork at the heart of every great Cubano sandwich — we have included a recipe that will satisfy any sandwich cravings.
After all that heavy eating, we’re going to take a long stroll down Calle Ocho, aka SW 8th Street, to the historic bar and music venue The Ball & Chain for a minty mojito. The bar has existed under several similar names since 1935, and played host to legends including Billie Holiday and Count Basie in its heyday.
Then we will move on to the shores of South Beach. Deep-fried Bahamian conch fritters have entrenched themselves on menus across Miami. Some are little more than chopped conch meat and batter sizzled to a crisp, while others incorporate a wide variety of vegetables and spices.
We’re sharing a recipe laced with onions, peppers and cilantro from Art Deco icon The National Hotel. Conch meat, which doesn’t have much flavor on its own, can be found frozen at Groomer’s Seafood in San Antonio. Chopped shrimp or clams (canned or fresh)
also can be used as a substitute.
And while we’re in South Beach, we’re going to make one last stop for dessert. Joe’s Stone Crab is arguably the city’s most popular restaurant. It’s specialty is, naturally, stone crab claws, often dunked in a mustard-based sauce. But no meal there is complete without a slice of its famous Key lime pie.
While Key lime pie can be made with fresh or bottled lime juice, one touch makes Joe’s version special: a generous dose of grated lime zest in the filling. It’s a step you won’t ever skip again, and the sweetest possible way to end a tour of the Magic City.