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The Infatuation
5 Wonderful Things Miami Has Done To Foie Gras
By Virginia Otazo, Mariana TrabaninoRyan Pfeffer,
12 hours ago
There's probably never been a better time to be a lover of foie gras in Miami. Because we've noticed a proliferation of fascinating, delicious, and undeniably Miami versions of foie gras lately. The good citizens of this city are shoving the delicacy into pastelitos, resting it atop tamal en cazuela, and pairing it with tropical fruits. It's also worth noting that three of the five dishes on this guide come from the Ariete team. So if you see foie gras on the menu at one of their spots, order it.
Think of it as a French take on chicken and waffles, only with foie instead of fried chicken, canelé instead of waffle, and a tangy berry reduction instead of syrup. The foie is scored and seared on either side until the outside is caramelized. It’s topped with cocoa nibs that add a barely bitter chocolate flavor, and surrounded by vinegary berry gastrique. When you eat the creamy, fatty foie with every sweet and acidic component of this dish, your brain stretches like a dog after a delicious nap as it tries to absorb all the flavors at once.
The foie gras itself is very similar to Laurel’s—a fatty hunk of seared liver topped with cocoa nibs for a touch of crunch and bitterness. But the presentation and taste couldn’t be more different. It wades in a gooey caramel that’s sweet and tart from sour orange juice, which is used all over Cuban cooking, including the mojo criollo your neighbor uses to marinade the caja china pig every Christmas. You’d think that’d be enough Miami-fication for one dish. But Ariete takes the concept of a classic potato pavé and applies it to sweet plantains. The pavé is crispy on the outside, soft and sweet inside, and looks like one of those square wooden pegs you used to force into round holes when you were a kid.
This Hialeah French restaurant seems designed to trigger core memories for anyone who’s ever been overfed while getting their cheeks pinched in a grandparent's cluttered living room. So, just about every major culture on the Miami pie chart. And La Fresa’s discovery that foie gras and guava go so well together inside a pastelito should be international news. This could be one of Miami’s greatest contributions to the planet. We need to get this pastelito a director of communications.
On our list of Things We Never Thought We’d Be Eating At A Casual Bar On Coral Way, this tamal en cazuela with roasted foie gras is high up there. But that’s also why we love Gibson Room: it feels like a fun bar that snuck off and stole the menu of a fine-dining restaurant a la Plankton from SpongeBob. This tamal is our favorite thing on that menu. The little foie gras island that rests in the center of the cazuela is rich and buttery. The crispy duck chicharron adds a salty crunch. If we ever go missing on a rainy day, look for us at The Gibson Room’s bar, hunched over a bowl of this with a rum cocktail within arm’s reach.
Boia De's menu can always change, so it's probably a good idea to get into this tiny Italian spot before this dish disappears forever. On one side of the bowl is a smear of silky chicken liver and foie pate. On the other, a sweet strawberry substance (it could also be mango or some other tropical fruit, depending on what’s in season). And in the middle is a pool of chicken jus. Your task is to try and get a little bit of everything on the toasted bread it comes with. Take that job seriously, because it has the potential to be one of the greatest bites of your life.
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