Broward Palm Beach Food Blog

Brett Gillin

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John Linn

A plate of Rock 'N' Roll Ribs' baby backs, smothered in sweet sauce and grilled to a caramelized char.

​That's right, folks. This week in Dish we finally hit the metal and review the rib and 'cue joint from Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain, Rock 'N' Roll Ribs. We first took a look at the now mega-popular rib shack when we interviewed owners McBrain and Rick "Moby" Baum back in October. Then, we gave our first impressions just a few weeks after opening, when rock 'N' Roll Ribs was slammed with Maiden and BBQ fans alike. Now, we're unveiling a full review on the place tomorrow. A quick excerpt after the jump, plus more pictures from the restaurant.

John Linn

A bowl of spicy chile con carne using home-ground chili powder. Nothing's better.

​Yesterday, I talked about how to turn dried, Mexican chiles into powder or paste that can be used in any number of dishes. Today, we're going to put those ingredients to use in a batch of chili con carne, Texas-style.

I haven't always made chili sans beans, the method most commonly appreciated by the chili cooks of the Longhorn state. But in recent years I've taken to trying out the various recipes posted on the International Chili Society's website, better known as the home of the annual World Chili Cookoff. The recipe of every WCC-winning bowl of chili is listed here, and if you read them all you'll start to notice a pattern: Nearly all the winners -- and most certainly all of them in recent years -- use tri-tip or sirloin tip roast (ground beef is almost never used). Also, not one of them features beans in the recipe.

Flickr: Masala Cha Photography

​With the biggest sports game in America now over with, us ladies have exactly six days until the biggest commercialized holiday of the year. And what's the best way to a man's heart? Well football is over, so his stomach, of course.

Women are simple. We are materialistic. Give us something shiny and take us out on the 2nd busiest restaurant day of the year (falling behind only to Mother's Day) and we are happy.

Men are even simpler. Cook them a meal, get them a beer, and you've scored the winning touchdown of Valentine's Day meals. On Sunday, make sure he takes you out to eat early, because with this chicken parmesan you're going to make him, you'll need an appetite.

John Linn

From left to right: Ancho, cascabel, and arbol chile powder made at home from dried chiles.

​A couple weeks ago, I asked readers if they had any suggestions on what to do with some dried, Mexican chiles I had purchased at a local grocery store. I bought a bag of cascabel chiles and a bag of ancho chiles, and was looking to make something fun with them. Our reader, Freakerdude, came through and offered this advice:

Chili is one recipe you can use them in. Take about 3 ancho, 3 pasilla, and 3 guajillos and remove the top and seeds. Hyrdate them by boiling lightly for a few minutes. Combine them in a blender. Strain the mixture through a fine screen into your pot of chili.

An awesome al pastor is my favorite recipe though. I always have 3 kinds of hand....ancho, chili de arbol, and guajillo. I also keep chipotle and pasillas on hand. I'll send you my al pastor recipe to check out.

I decided to run with Freaker's ideas for a Super Bowl gathering at my house last night. I made beef sirloin chili con carne with ancho, cascabel, arbol, and chipotle chiles. I also made an al pastor marinated, barbecued pork shoulder and a lamb leg with the same preparation. And, for the most part, each dish came out fantastic (the lamb didn't, exactly, but that's another story).

I'm going to start off recapping the weekend-long cooking session by talking about how I prepared the chiles for each dish.

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Photo by Flicker user Bahman Farzad

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Patty Canedo is a pastry chef at a famed, private country club on Palm Beach and writes weekly about her kitchen exploits.

The time clock beeps, taking my finger prints and snapping me out of a daze. "9:55 a.m." I quicken my pace up the stairs. I walk past the empty chef's office -- no activity before 10 a.m. is a good sign, because things are always more hectic when the boss is around. Into the pastry shop, I drop my knife roll and take in the pungent smell of developing yeast.

"I love when you are here in the mornings," I say to Anne, the baker, who's hand rolling today's bread. I quickly head to the main kitchen to sign in. The two sous chefs are passing jokes while prepping, working at a normal pace. Luke, the Chef de Cuisine, is not in the kitchen -- all good signs. Adam, the a.m. sous, greets me

•    Medic! Delray's new Heart Stoppers Café may be on life support with the filing of a federal lawsuit alleging the local temple to caloric and cholesterolic consumption illegally swiped its unhealthy medical theme from an Arizona eatery called the Heart Attack Grill. Heart Stoppers' owners don't see it that way, though, so you can bet it's the lawyers who will make a killing.

•    As a restaurateur, Carlos Santana is a great. . . musician. At least that's how it seems at Boca Raton's Town Center mall, where the long-promised debut of Santana co-owned Maria Maria proved to be as ephemeral as a guitar solo. Though the chain of upscale Mexican eateries recently opened a fifth outlet in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Town Center location just ain't gonna happen, though a Southwestern restaurant will reportedly take over the space.

•    And to the list of stick a fork in 'em, they're done local restaurants, add two more. Bice Bistro in Palm Beach Gardens and Gigi's Tavern in Mizner Park have gone to that great dumpster in the sky. Rumors have long had it that local restaurateur Karl Alterman, one of the original owners of Gigi's when it opened more than a dozen years ago, will be involved in its replacement but for now that can neither be confirmed nor denied.

​Nothing kicks a taco from good to great like fresh, hand-made tortillas. 

Good luck finding those in our moonscape of Mexican cuisine. 

So, food-obsessed taco addict that I am, I did the next-best thing: fill my suitcase with packages of hand-made corn tortillas at Trader Joe's (if you didn't know, a sort of Costco for foodies) every time I made a trip to California. These thick, rustic, corn-y tortillas are great stuff, even after several months in the freezer. But last trip to California I couldn't get to Joe's for my fix, so I had a friend in San Francisco pick up a few packages and overnight them to me (they're very fresh and very, very perishable). 

John Linn

Breakfast from Dyan's Country Kitchen, one of the restaurants we reviewed this week in Dish.

​This week on the blog:

• Our new columnist, Patty Canedo, dishes on cooking with liquid nitrogen.
• We hold a queso blanco party in the office and detail the fun.
• A whole new week of 100 Favorite dishes rolls out with Peruvian-style pollo from La Granja.
• The Jupiter Craft Brewers Festival was last weekend, and we list our top beers from the event.
• Are the winners of Ted Allen's Food Network show Chopped fixed?
• Our dish review this week looks at breakfast spots in South Florida, including Cypress Nook, Dune Deck Cafe, Atlantique, and Dyan's Country Kitchen.
• Throwing a Super Bowl party? Check out these tips on how to make it trouble free.
• Love is in the air at Jason's Deli.
• We give you a listing of special Valentine's Day menus at restaurants across South Florida.
• Schnitzel is back, baby, at a quirky, new Oakland Park restaurant The International House of Schnitzel.
• Celeb TV chef Rocco DiSpirito gives us a quickie -- interview, that is.
• Genesee Cream Ale in a can is our Beer of the Week.
• Satisfy both man and woman with our Valentine's Day inspired meat cupcakes.
• Some SoFla restaurants are giving away free food during the Super Bowl.
• We brave intestinal trauma to give you a review of Domino's new, redesigned pizza.