Beverly Jacobs, Chef/Owner of Bamboo Fire Cafe, Dishes on the Six Best Things She Ever Ate
Categories: Behind the Line, The List
 |
| Jacobs feasts on a breakfast of red snapper with tostones in Nicaragua. |
Seeing as Jacobs has such a wealth of food experience, we invited her to share some of it with Clean Plate Charlie readers. The result is kind of like that Food Network TV show The Best Thing I Ever Ate. She's come up with a list of six of the best dishes she's ever tried. All of them make my mouth water -- and make me want to visit Bamboo Fire again soon too.
2. Corn soup: "This was in a little place in downtown Miami called Martini-28. It's run by a husband-and-wife duo. He cooks, and she works the front of the house. I'm kind of partial to places run by husband-and-wife duos, but the corn soup was delicious, creamy, rich, and studded with fresh kernels of corn. Just the way corn soup should be -- simple, filling, satisfying comfort-food."
 |
| The view from Jacobs' table on Corn Island. |
3. Red snapper with tostones: "Actually this is one of my best meals ever. It was 8:30 in the morning, and I had just landed on Corn Island, Nicaragua, after having missed my connection the night before." I ended up overnighting in a Best Western in Managua (another story). Anyway, they took me to this glorious oversized beach shack/palapa thingy restaurant. I could not order just pancakes or toast. Instead, I got this huge fried fish with tostones. The rest is history."
4. Fresh shucked oysters from Maine Avenue Fish Market in Washington, D.C.: "The 'Wharf' is not a fancy place, but there's nothing like it in Florida that I know of. It's a bunch of barges permanently moored in place on the Potomac with vendors offering fresh seafood, including renowned Maryland blue crab cooked to order and bushels of shrimp and fish. Anyway, the oysters are cheap and fresh. A little splash of hot sauce and/or lemon and it's usually a race to eat as much as you can before they're finished. I sauce them depending on my mood. Sometimes they're great plain with just the oyster liquor."
5. Roast pork with crispy skin: "Whenever I'm in the neighborhood, I stop in at Vinh Hung in Cocoplum Plaza in West Palm Beach," says Jacobs. "It's just a little market with Asian and Vietnamese products, but they also do a carryout with great banh mi sandwiches and pho. I don't know if the pork is cooked on the premises, but it is always fresh. I love the clean porky taste, and the crisp skin is chewy but tender. It goes fast, so you have to get there early."
6. Scorched conch: "A meal at Potter's Cay was the perfect end to a weeklong Christmas vacation in Nassau, Bahamas. I had conch pretty much every day in some form or other but waited until the very last day to order the scorched conch. The fresh conch is plucked from its holding place in the water, extracted from the shell, and washed with lime juice. It's then served cut up with onions, lime juice, and hot peppers. No tomatoes or bell peppers to adulterate the taste here. Just pure conch."
4. Fresh shucked oysters from Maine Avenue Fish Market in Washington, D.C.: "The 'Wharf' is not a fancy place, but there's nothing like it in Florida that I know of. It's a bunch of barges permanently moored in place on the Potomac with vendors offering fresh seafood, including renowned Maryland blue crab cooked to order and bushels of shrimp and fish. Anyway, the oysters are cheap and fresh. A little splash of hot sauce and/or lemon and it's usually a race to eat as much as you can before they're finished. I sauce them depending on my mood. Sometimes they're great plain with just the oyster liquor."
5. Roast pork with crispy skin: "Whenever I'm in the neighborhood, I stop in at Vinh Hung in Cocoplum Plaza in West Palm Beach," says Jacobs. "It's just a little market with Asian and Vietnamese products, but they also do a carryout with great banh mi sandwiches and pho. I don't know if the pork is cooked on the premises, but it is always fresh. I love the clean porky taste, and the crisp skin is chewy but tender. It goes fast, so you have to get there early."
6. Scorched conch: "A meal at Potter's Cay was the perfect end to a weeklong Christmas vacation in Nassau, Bahamas. I had conch pretty much every day in some form or other but waited until the very last day to order the scorched conch. The fresh conch is plucked from its holding place in the water, extracted from the shell, and washed with lime juice. It's then served cut up with onions, lime juice, and hot peppers. No tomatoes or bell peppers to adulterate the taste here. Just pure conch."
Location Info
Venue
Map
Bamboo Fire Cafe
149 NE Fourth Ave., Delray Beach, FL
Category: Restaurant
|
0 user reviews
|
Write A Review |
| Save to foursquare |
Email to Friend
Write to Editor
Print Article
