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Brazilian churrasco may not be American, but it's a fine way to spend Memorial Day.

Chances are, you'll be heading to a barbecue on Memorial Day, and unless the hosts are serious foodies, you will probably be served the same old Bubba Burgers and Hebrew National Hot Dogs that are standard at most American get-togethers. This year, take back the holiday and host your own barbecue Brazilian style.More >>

flickr4jazz via Flickr Creative Commons

Competitive cooking: It doesn't get anymore American than that, does it?

Everyone loves to brag that his chili (or ribs, hamburger, etc.) is the best. But it helps to be able to point to a first-place finish in a public contest to drive that point home. The Junior League of Greater Fort Lauderdale is hosting its seventh-annual Chili Cook-Off on Saturday, April 21, at Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale, giving amateur cooks a chance to battle for that honor. 

Junior League members, in addition to friends and family, are invited to sign up to compete in  the cook-off, from noon to 3 p.m. All manner of recipes are welcome, including traditional, veggie, turkey, or your own crazy concoction. 

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Meet your meat at NYY Steak.

​Would a former New York Mets star dine in a Yankees themed steak house in a casino in Coconut Creek? This is the question my dinner guest and I mulled over for the latter part of our meal at NYY Steak in the Seminole Casino in Coconut Creek on Thursday night. For the record: if the mustachioed man seated in the back of the swanky lounge portion of the New York based micro-chain wasn't former first baseman and Seinfeld alumnus Keith Hernandez, it's a testament to the deceptive powers of low lighting and suggestive setting.

It doesn't seem a stretch to imagine movers and shakers of a certain ilk -- particularly those with NYC leanings -- gravitating to the newly opened steakhouse in the casino which recently underwent a $150 million expansion.

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Photo: Misha Grosvenor

​When I think back on my golden years in college, I remember all of the good times that I had with strangers friends. Days spent camping out for seats at basketball games, grossly misusing credit cards, and repeatedly surviving untreated alcohol poisoning are all fond memories. I was cool back then, really cool... OK, not that cool. I wore vintage clothes, listened to obscure bands, and, of course, I was vegetarian.

I ate free vegetarian lunch provided by the Hare Krishnas. I inhaled carbs like it was my job and tortured my family every holiday season. Life, like my ghee-saturated lunch, was good.

Over time, my new vegetarian diet turned me into a doughy, malnourished mess; mainly
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​One of my roommates is a highly driven young entrepreneur raised in Asia by American parents, and he is an enthusiastic consumer of all ingestibles, be they solid, liquid, or smoke. Like me, his favorite foods are uni and foie gras. Like me, he loves excellent craft beer, appreciates delicately carved usuzukuri, and values freshness of ingredients. He's a goddamned snob, frankly. Yet perhaps once a month, an evil gleam appears in his eye, and he says, "Brandon, you deserve a break today."

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​Whether they're seasoning a whole pig or smoking tasty pig parts over hickory, the folks at Mickey's Bar in Pompano Beach have been hosting a monthly pig roast they're calling Hillbilly Cookout.

"We've been pulling in a younger crowd that's different from our usual crew," said manager Lisa Carter who's in charge of roasting the pig. "We're trying to mix it up." When New Times named Mickey's "Best Biker Bar" in 2004, we wrote of its location in "a backwash of a neighborhood, an aging industrial ghetto just west of I-95."

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Gift Couture

Gift Couture's awesome cheeseburger wrapping paper - hold the pickles.

​If you've been searching for the perfect way to wrap your favorite foodie's gift but the gingerbread men and candy canes just aren't edgy enough, how about wrapping their gifts with a burger?

Start-up company Gift Couture has come out with a wildly delicious and inventive way to wrap gifts. Wrapping paper comes in five different graphic rolls: bun, burger, cheese, lettuce, and tomato. So... if you wrap six packages (one each for buns), you'll get a perfect burger stack of gifts.  We've figured out some additional combinations, like:

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Photo:Misha Grosvenor

Kyle Schmitt chows down on a tasty wiener.

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Due to our current recession economic downturn, there has been a resurgence of potluck groups nationwide. Wiener Wednesday is just one of many new potluck groups popping up all over South Florida.

When I first found out about Wiener Wednesdays from Deirdre Funcheon, managing editor at New Times, I dropped to my knees and thought, "Yes! My prayers have been answered. Finally a group that shares my passion for mystery meats in a tube."

My second thought -- how many bad wiener jokes can I fit into one blog post? 





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Melissa McCart

​ "This is my life," said Dave Crumbaker of Smitty's Old Fashioned Butcher Shop in Oakland Park. It's where he's worked seven days a week, even when it's closed on Mondays, for the past 30 years. On a recent afternoon, a handful of people browse among the pork bellies, crown roasts, filets, rib eyes, and veal chops in the deli case. A man strides in to talk with Crumbaker. "I've known this guy since I was a kid," he said. "And look,
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