Pizza may be one of America's favorite foods, a food that has become more American than Italian, with slices in cities from east to west offering a different take on how to best combine three basic ingredients: dough, cheese and sauce. There's New York-style, Chicago and Sicilian. Some bake up a thin crust, while others are thick and gooey. And what was once basic shredded mozzarella has now moved to include dollops of cream-like goat cheese, or finely shredded blends of imported and aged specialties.

Today, when it comes to pizza, anything goes -- and personal taste means every place has its fans and its haters. In South Florida, we all have our favorites.

But there's still good pizza and bad pizza, no matter how you slice it. To help navigate the South Florida selections, we've taken the liberty of selecting the area's best pizza joints, from the old-school mom and pop spots that to the rustic coal-fired ovens that produce some stellar gourmet slices.

See also:
- 2013 Readers' Poll Finalists: Voting Ends May 29

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Umberto Brayj

American Craft Beer Week officially begins May 13 and runs through the 19; a whole seven days worth of events and special tappings to keep your taste buds excited and your liver in a state of confusion.

This year marks the eighth consecutive week by the Brewer's Association. As they state, "America's craft beer industry is thriving, with over 2,300 small and independent breweries responsible for not only advancing the food arts world, but pouring money into the economy via tourism and jobs while creating an overall vibrant craft beer scene nationwide. America's craft brewers are certainly something to celebrate."

Without further ado, grab a stool, and discover where beer geeks will cross paths and where you can pick up and enjoy that perfect pint.

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May the vote be with you.

Every year, the New Times Broward-Palm Beach staff goes to great lengths to find the very best of everything - from burgers to thrift stores - so that we can let you, our dear readers, know all about them.

But we also know you've got opinions of your own, which is why, as part of our Best Of issue, we include our annual Readers' Poll. The poll opened for nominations is April and last week we shut it down, tallied up the noms, and came up with five finalists in each category.

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Nicole Danna

If you were at Rocco's Tacos right now, you could be drinking this margarita.

Let's face it: with South Florida's heavy colorful Latin population, finding good latin cuisine isn't exactly challenging. But finding a good Mexican restaurant? Now, that's another story.

While lots of restaurants in the area produce a decent variation of authentic Mexican fare, true Tex-Mex or a good take on latin fusion style dishes, only a few make our list for the best in Broward and Palm Beach County, which takes into account food, atmosphere, drinks and music for the whole enchilada. Here's our list - in no particular order - of the Top Ten Mexican Restaurants in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

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- Cinco de Mayo Is This Weekend: Tequila Cocktails Recipes

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Some food items elicit intense reactions. New Yorkers smear any pizza anywhere outside of their dear city limits. Chicagoans eschew hot dogs without their traditional toppings. Kansas City residents scoff at any other barbecue.

While each city tends to have its own special dish, good burgers can be found pretty much anywhere. Even though the basics are all the same, bun, meat, and a couple of toppings, the subject of the bet burger tends to bring up an intense debate.

In case you didn't know, May is National Burger Month. To celebrate the month-long holiday we decided to come up with a list of the ten best burgers in Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Note: the burgers listed are in no specific order

See also:
- Ten Best Happy Hours in Broward and Palm Beach Counties
- Ten Best Inexpensive Restaurants in Broward County

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Ahh. Happy hour. That wonderful time of day when a smiling bartender, cheap booze, and inexpensive food are intended to dissipate all of your workday's stress.

Of course, you could go for a run or do something healthy to blow off some steam, but where's the fun in that?

To help you out with your happy-hour endeavors, we've decided to compile a list of the ten best happy hours in South Florida.

See also:
- Breaking News: You Can Get Good Pizza in South Florida! If You Agree, You Should Vote
- Bartender Q&A: Iliya Dimitrov of Valentino's Cucina Italiana on $500 Cocktails and the Dangers of Showing Off

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Gluten-free. Dairy-free. Vegan, vegetarian and raw. Alternative diets -- those that eliminate animal products and are largely plant-based -- are gaining popularity nationwide, urging people to put down the knife and start eating healthier.

The growing trend toward veggie-inspired restaurants is already popular in California, where all the health nuts flock to dine out at high-end restaurants in West LA and vegan lunch spots in Beverly Hills. There's even a new vegetarian-vegan restaurant chain serving only plant-based food. Known as Veggie Grill is slowly taking over the West Coast.

Here in South Florida, the trend hasn't caught on quite so feverishly. We're more about fried seafood, cheese plates and charcuterie, farm-fresh meats and have enough burger spots to keep us in a purpetual meat hangover -- at least until the cows come home.

But veganism is beginning to take root here, specifically with a number of restaurants offering menus that court omnivores, vegans and vegetarians alike and preparing "meaty" and meatless dishes that surpass the bland and boring foods so many people associate with the vegetable-focused fare.

Here, Clean Plate Charlie has compiled this list of the Palm Beach and Broward County area's best vegan and vegetarian-friendly restaurants. Even if your not 100% vegan, and don't love the idea of eating only living plants for the rest of your life, surely a meatless Monday now and then couldn't hurt, right?

See Also:
-- Ten Best Inexpensive Restaurants in Palm Beach County
-- Ten Best Inexpensive Restaurants in Broward County
-- Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach: Raw, Vegan Eats

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facebook.com/AmericanSocial

What better place to make your social network a reality than a bar called American Social? It's almost like we plan these things...

Need a drink? There's an app for that!

Say what you will about it, social networking isn't going anywhere. For some, that's a cause for sorrow and others a cause for joy. For the naysayers, the physical distancing, the impersonal nature of high-tech communication is what gets them down.

"What happened to interacting face to face?" they ask. And you know what, they've got a point.

Bars and pubs were the original social network, long before Facebook was a gleam in Mark Zuckerberg's eye. So, we've come up with an app and an event that brings the techies and the luddites into sync.

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Blame it on the economy. Blame it on sky-high fuel costs, droughts, and that locally grown, organic craze. Really, blame it on whatever you like. No matter which way you slice it, food just isn't getting any cheaper. Especially in Palm Beach County, where only a small percentage of the populace has pockets deep enough to dine at five-star restaurants seven days a week.

For the rest of us, however, the last thing we want to do is eat cheap -- but it's also the first place we cut corners. So Clean Plate Charlie proposes a compromise. Rather than resort to a diet of instant ramen, hardboiled eggs, frozen lasagna, and fast food, keep an open mind. There are still plenty of amazing places across Palm Beach County where you can walk out with a full meal -- a drink, sides, and even dessert -- for less than $10.

Here, we've compiled a list of our top picks for super-cheap eats from West Palm Beach south to Deerfield Beach, places recommended by some of the area's top restaurateurs, local chefs, and bartenders who know where you can snag an inexpensive meal that will rival those at some of the area's finest establishments.

Right now, we're all about pheasant sausage, spicy pork tacos al pastor style, conch ceviche, fried chicken 'n' waffles, and triple-decker burgers. Hungry for a good deal yet?

See also:
- Ten Best Inexpensive Restaurants in Broward County
- Ten Best Irish Pubs and Restaurants in South Florida
- Ten Best Gay Bars in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach

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Vote!

This just in! You can get good pizza in South Florida! (Also, in lots of other places that aren't New York City.)

Every year, to go along with our annual 'Best of Broward-Palm Beach' edition of New Times, we open up the Readers Choice poll.

The bulk of the "Best of" issue is a carefully curated collection of the best and brightest of what Broward and Palm Beach counties have to offer. We have meetings, discussions, and arguments, before choosing the winners. The biggest category - and we at Clean Plate Charlie might argue, best and most important - is food.

And, of all the food-related 'Best ofs', the most contentious category is always pizza.

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