​With Pottermania gearing up for perhaps it's last big hurrah with the release of the eighth and final film this Friday, a cookbook full of British favorites and wizard treats could not have been better timed. The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook: From Cauldron Cakes to Knickerbocker Glory - More than 150 Magical Recipes for Wizards and Non-Wizards Alike by Dinah Bucholz.

First off, why a Harry Potter cookbook?
That is a good question. It goes back to when I was really into the Harry Potter series, the sixth movie was about to come out and I was rereading the series. I was really into the food - it sounded so good but I really had no idea what most of it was. Treacle is Harry's favorite and it sounded really good but I had no idea what it was. The idea came to me in a flash. If there had been one of these books out there I would have been the first to buy. As soon as I got home I searched to see of there was one. There wasn't. So I said, "There has to be one!"
More >>

​In Food Trucks: Dispatches and Recipes From the Best Kitchens on Wheels, author Heather Shouse visits more than 100 food trucks across the country (including South Florida) and handpicks recipes from some of the tastiest trucks in the roadside business. Shouse talks to Clean Plate Charlie about everything from how the food truck's image has risen from dingy pushcart operation to gleaming Airstream trailer serving up everything from Vietnamese tacos to escargots puffs; how the lure of the four-wheeled food business attracts a certain, rebellious personality type; and the odd pairing of Miami's barbecue pits in strip-club parking lots. Read on...

More >>

Patty Canedo is a chef in Palm Beach. She writes frequently about her kitchen exploits in her column, Half-Baked.

Photo by sun dazed

​We all know that food can do more than just nourish us. If you work in the food industry, you're bound to unlock some of its awesome power. You may get bored and begin messing around, stumbling on to some benefits that wouldn't normally occur to you. Either way here's some fun and handy ways to play with your food. These tips come right off the line.

More >>

Bimini Bay Bar isn't your average dive; it's a special haunt nestled in a nondescript industrial section of town near the FLL airport. Beers are cheap, cigarette smoke burns your eyes, and porn is blasted on the TV. 

Brittany Bleidt

​On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, the bar is a little more crowded. Why? Maybe it's because sexy bartender Brittany Bleidt is working. And she's not just a pretty face. For the past two and half years, she replenished your empty drink and offered a friendly wink while you watch her porno playing behind the bar.

Read Clean Plate Charlie's Q&A with Brittany after the jump.

More >>

Plenty of bars in South Florida want to lay claim to being "authentically Irish."
Charlie has been in and out of these places, some of them blaring Top 40 music and flashing lights, others covered in wall-to-wall green. Authentic? Hardly. Maguires Hill 16 is the real deal. 

Charlie spoke with James Gregory, who hails from Ireland and whose family has owned Maguires for the past 12 years.

Clean Plate Charlie: How did your family come to own Maguires Hill 16?

Erin Go Braugh

​More >>

"Add two inexperienced crewmembers, an anorexic diva and her bully of a husband, a CEO who thinks he's in charge, a randy wife who is bored of her own marriage and looking for a diversion and a drunken first mate. Stir it up with a violent storm and rapidly flooding engine room."More >>

NBC Universal

Fabio Viviani Dishes For Us

​We're continuing our interview with Top Chef contestant and chef, Fabio Viviani. Part one of the interview can be seen here. More >>

NBC Universal

Fabio Viviani

​If you watch Top Chef, you know Fabio Viviani. This "cheftestant" from season five might not have walked away with the title, but his clever quips delivered in broken English, his charm, and his skills made him a fan favorite and brought him back for the current Top Chef All-Stars.

When not competing on Top Chef, Viviani owns two restaurants in California, Cafe Firenze in Moorpark and Firenzi Osteria in Touluca Lake. He also hosts a radio show, has written two cookbooks, has started the Firenze4Kids foundation and is a frequent blogger. Recently Fabio took time out from blogging about why he hates cilantro to talk to us. Below is the first of two parts.

More >>

Laine Doss

Obama Hopes for Fish Sandwich

​Kentucky Fried Chicken in China is certainly different than here in the states.  Here in the states, KFC sells buckets of chicken suitable for eating. In China, however, KFC apparently sells giant fish sandwiches suitable for squashing Democratic leaders.

China's KFC is running commercials for their new fish sandwich featuring a President Obama lookalike. In the commercial, "Barack" is at a political rally, speaking to a cheering public. "Change is good. Not only for your Mom, but for you, for your stomach, for a better taste". Then a giant fish sandwich drops down and squashes him like a bug.

Could this be just a hilarious commercial by a Chinese ad agency or a sinister plot to have Communism take over the free world via giant fried fish fillets?  Watch here and decide for yourself.

More >>

Monica Uszerowicz

​Monster Subs is known for one thing in particular: the generosity of its owner, Salomon Mizrahi, who offers meat samples to waiting customers and assures each of them to "pay whenever."

Even the sandwiches the place is known for -- which are fresh, scrumptious, and generously filled without being gargantuan -- are not quite as famous as their maker.

Mizrahi's customers tend to become his friends -- he even has pet names for them. Monster Subs shares a plaza with Subway, but it seems there's no conflict -- a reasonably priced Monster Sub contains quality ingredients that have the spot, which has been open since 1976, bustling at lunchtime.

It was unusual to arrive there at 9 a.m. on a Friday, when Salomon was setting out the vegetables and blasting the oldies -- at that hour, it's unusually quiet, save for the relatives (it's primarily a family-run business) and friends who stop in for prework sandwiches.Mizrahi  chatted with me about Monster Subs' beginnings and how it became one of the best places to get lunch for less than a ten spot.More >>