Broward Dining: How Do You Roll?

How Do You Roll @ Sawgrass Landing
13775 W. Sunrise Blvd.
Sunrise, Florida 33323

Web Site: http://www.howdoyouroll.com

Twitter: @how_do_you_roll

Quick Serve Restaurants, or QSR’s, are all the rage right now in casual dining. The trend of serving “faster, but higher quality” food items than what is served fast food establishments can largely be attributed to Chipotle, which is now a huge success story in the food and restaurant industry.

Since Chipotle made it big, others are trying to figure out what the next big QSR concept is. A lot of stuff since has been various re-spins on the burger concept. Asian cuisine, particularly sushi, is not something QSR as a whole has attempted to tackle yet, due to much higher sanitary standards as well as issues of keeping fish fresh.

How Do You Roll, a QSR chain that originated in Texas (and was profiled on the TV show “Shark Tank“)  is attempting to recreate Chipotle’s “Roll your own” model and success but with sushi and other Asian items. There are currently two locations in Florida, one in Sunrise and the other in Gainesville.

Rachel and I had the opportunity to visit the Sunrise HDYR location on a torrentially rainy saturday night with a group of sushi fans from Meetup.com when business was slow, so we got a chance to observe the franchise under optimal conditions for photography but not necessarily to see how service would perform under busy conditions.

As I mentioned, HDYR is a “Roll your own”, QSR restaurant where you pick from a list of ingredients and the sushi chefs put together your custom sushi roll, rice bowl or ramen soup.

HDYR is most definitely a “beginners” sushi place because there are only 3 raw fish types you can choose from, Tuna (Maguro), Salmon, Escolar (a bland white fish, sometimes referred to as “White Tuna”), and “Spicy” variants of the same. Additional proteins that can be rolled are cooked Beef, Chicken, Crawfish Tails, Surimi (“Krab Sticks”), Shrimp, Eel and Tofu.

There is also a nice variety of fruits, vegetables and a number of different sauces and toppings/condiments which allows for a good combination of things for the diner to create. Pre-designed roll combinations range from $3 to $7, so you’re looking at about half of what a mid-range sushi restaurant charges for similar items.

Like at a Chipotle, or a sub shop chain, you order at the counter and they give you a number and you sit down. When your number is called you either go up to get your order, or depending how busy the place is, they bring it to you. The place was so completely dead that evening due to the weather that we got first class table service.

Is How Do You Roll a fresh or a dead fish? Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

Florida Dining: Jersey Dawg

Jersey Dawg Food Truck
(305) 582-8849

Web Site: http://www.jerseydawg.com

Twitter: @jerseydawg201

Jersey Dawg Food Truck, parked in the Shell Station on the corner of Cypress Creek Road and Powerline in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

I’m frequently asked, “Is there life after Jersey?”

It was almost one year ago that Rachel and I packed up what remained of our belongings and set forth in a Volkswagen to South Florida. We got on the New Jersey Turnpike, and drove until it became I-95.

A week later, we found ourselves in the Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach area. Which we now call home.

I’ve made my choice and I’m very happy with it. The weather is fantastic, I have a lovely home. The food down here is great. I have no complaints.

Well, maybe one or two.

There are certain types of food items that are either difficult or impossible to find in South Florida. You either have to go to great lengths to get them, or they just plain do not exist. And there’s certain things I fully accepted I would never have again, unless I returned home.

Like New Jersey-style hot dogs and sliders.

I mean, you don’t even think such a thing would exist here, so you don’t go looking for it. Sure, we have some really good burger and dog places. We even have a food blogger down here that specializes in it. He’s practically a celeb.

But these are substitutes and not full-blown replacements. The only way you can replicate this kind of food is to have the exact ingredients and to prepare it exactly the same way. By someone who is intimately familiar with such things.

So when I heard about Jersey Dawg, a new food truck that recently started doing Jersey-style hot dogs and sliders, I couldn’t wait. I hadn’t had either one in a year.

Yes, fairy tales can come true. It can happen to you. Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more. 

Florida Dining: Yardbird

Yardbird Southern Table & Bar
1600 Lenox Avenue
Miami Beach, Florida
305.538.5220

Web Site: http://runchickenrun.com

Since moving to South Florida in July of 2012, I haven’t really done much with investigating the local fine dining scene. My food blogging activities have been more or less curtailed by my new job, and also by focusing more on technology writing.

But now that things have become a bit less crazy, I’m easing myself back into the food blogger seat again.

There was no better opportunity to do this than with a recent business lunch I had with two like-minded foodie colleagues, who suggested we meet at Yardbird, a modern Southern restaurant in South Beach.

Yardbird, which was a 2012 James Beard Award Semi-Finalist for Best New Restaurant, and was named one of the 50 Best New Restaurants in 2012 at Bon Appetit Magazine, is definitely a destination for anyone looking to indulge in updated, classic Southern American fare.

I would compare Yardbird favorably to places like the very excellent JCT Kitchen in Atlanta, as well as any number of well-known “New South” type places in New Orleans, such as Luke.

The main dining room at Yardbird is bright and warm, mixing southern hospitality with Miami chic.

It’s time to head to South Beach for the winter. Be sure to check out Yardbird. Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

Broward County Dining: Bagels & Whole Lot More

Bagels & Whole Lot More
10281 West Sample Road, Coral Springs FL 33065
(954)575-8130

Web Site:  http://www.bagelsandawholelotmore.com

If you’ve been watching my Twitter feed, you probably know by now that Rachel and I have arrived in the Sunshine State.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks — not just because we decided to move to our new home during the brutal South Florida summer heat and humidity, but also because a number of logistical issues have prevented us from unpacking most of our belongings. We’ve been sleeping on a mattress on a floor in our family room and our bedrooms are currently being tiled. And all our new bedroom furniture is on order.

I have only one of my computers working, which is propped up precariously on a folding table in the living room. And my Mac with my photo editing suite isn’t unpacked yet, so I’ve been doing all my food photography with Instagram on my Android phone.

This and a pending swimming pool construction project is enough to drive you completely crazy. We’re roughing it, and we’re doing the best we can. At least I have my new Weber Genesis S-330 LP gas grill set up and running on the patio and we have cable TV and Internet.

And oh yeah, the air conditioning is working flawlessly.

Priorities, you know.

Speaking of priorities, I have already begun the task of seeking out the things that are essential to the survival of a native New York/New Jersey expatriate: Decent Asian food, Pizza… and Bagels.

Now, there’s no lack of bagels in South Florida. In fact, there’s probably a bagel store a five minute drive (or less) from everywhere in the town where we’ve settled, Coral Springs.

Coral Springs is a huge sprawling town of over 120,000 people. If I were to compare it to a town in New Jersey, I’d say it was demographically similar to Paramus, but it’s laid out in a grid form, with six times the population, with all of the commercial and residential zoning laid out in distinct squares, and none of the two mix.

It’s like someone who was a fan of the original SimCity computer game decided to apply its simplistic urban planning methodology to reality, and stuff it full of strip malls and gated communities and landscape it with palm trees and lush tropical plants.

I’m not complaining, I love my new environs. But clearly Toto, we’re not in Jersey anymore.

Anyway, back to the bagels. There’s lots of bagels to be found, but none of them are legit. The problem with South Florida bagels is that because of the huge elderly and retiree population, they’ve been adapted to local tastes. That means making them softer in consistency. To do that, virtually every bagel store steams rather than boils the bagels before baking them. This makes the resulting product more like a roll than a bagel.

Others have attributed the problem to the quality and mineral content of NYC water versus Florida water. I say horseshit. It’s all in the boiling and traditional preparation methods, especially once you put in a good water filter system. The difference in mineral content is going to slightly change the “terroir” of the bagel, but it will still end up a legit bagel.

After doing a bit of research, I have found a legit bagel bakery in Coral Springs. It’s called Bagels & Whole Lot More, and it’s only a few months old. The owner is from New York, has imported his bagel making equipment from Long Island and filters his water with a reverse osmosis system. And he’s doing everything the right way.

Bagels & Whole Lot More in Coral Springs, FL. 

Ready for real New York-style bagels in South Florida? Click on the “Read the rest of this entry link below” for more.

Miami Dining: Late Night on Calle Ocho

South Florida may be the land of senior citizens and early bird dinners, but late at night, Calle Ocho is hopping with activity.

Last week I went on a last minute business trip to Florida, with my base of operations being very close to Miami International Airport.

While I dreaded the idea of having to work what would certainly be very long days confined to conference rooms and then emerging late at night ravenously hungry, there was some consolation in the fact that unlike other parts of South Florida, where your food options late at night are restricted at best, downtown Miami and the neighborhood surrounding 8th street (“Calle Ocho”) which calls itself Little Havana (home to Free Cuba in Exile) has some of the best late-night eating anywhere in the state, and probably in the entire country.

Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.