So Annoying

Please ignore the weird white highlighting on certain sentences in my recent blog posts. I'm really not trying to highlight those phrases. It's embarrassing. Bear with me as I try and fail to fix the problem. Thanks!

My Take on The Meatball Joint

Remember when I mentioned my dinner at The Meatball Joint oh so long ago?

Here's a recap of what I ate, followed by an article I wrote before it opened.

I shared a Calle Ocho Sandwich (pork ball with caramelized onions and mojito sauce) and the Lamb Ball Sammy (flattened on focaccia bread and served with tsatsiki sauce). Both meatballs were the day's special.

I suspect that The Meatball Joint will be one of those places where the special, very creative and very delicious, will always be too good to pass up and just go for the usual: Classic Italian (beef and pork), South Beach (turkey) or West Hollywood (vegetarian). But I still want to try them all - I wish they let you mix and match!

Also couldn't resist upgrading to the veggie of the day: deliciously roasted brussel sprouts along with broccoli, carrots and-- surprise-- pear! My friend also got the mozzarella balls with cherry tomatoes. Very fresh.

Oh and of course we had to get the ice cream balls squeezed in a sandwich of one chocolate chip cookie and one white chocolate macadamia nut cookie. Also sweet but hard to eat.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the night (besides eating! because trust me, that was certainly the most enjoyable part) was scribbling my order down on the dry-erase menu with a marker. Fun and whimsical.

Anyway I loved it all and want to go back. It's super cool how Chef Bernie Matz can put his spin on any concept and, in my opinion, it's a success!

Check it out at www.themeatballjoint.com.

P.S. The hostesses, waiters and staff are all very friendly! Yay.

So, as for the article, I wrote this prior to the restaurant's opening (on May 21) for a school project. Because it was never published, and I figure I might as well put it somewhere, it's going on my blog.

If you want more specific details on the restaurant, go somewhere else: Miami.com, Thrillist, Eater, etc. I sat down to talk with Chef Bernie Matz, so I'm hoping you find that this story has a more personal look at the thought process behind starting up the meatball concept.


Let me know what you think! And if you've eaten at The Meatball Joint already, feel free to tell me how you enjoyed your meal too.

---

April 9, 2012

Chef Bernie Matz brings meatballs to Miami Beach

BY LYSSA GOLDBERG

The Meatball Joint, next to Chef Bernie Matz's L.A. Cafe, has taken the spot of Alton Road's King Kone.
COURTESY MIAMI NEW TIMES

Bernie Matz sits at an outdoor table on Lincoln Road. Dealing with his waiters at the end of their shifts, Matz sips his ice water from a compostable, plant-based plastic cup—one of the many personal touches he brings to his restaurants.

Chef and owner of Bernie’s L.A. Café and the Café @ Books & Books, Matz connects his passions for nutrition and the environment to his work everyday. Fresh, natural ingredients and modern, South Floridian recipes are the key at his two Miami Beach restaurants.

Now Matz will bring his foodie flair to a third eatery this May.

The concept for The Meatball Joint was born just six weeks ago, meaning Matz has taken on the task of planning and executing an entire restaurant in only two months.

This is possible, Matz said, because he’s ready to embrace a more minimalist attitude.

While his two cafés serve various sandwiches and New South Florida-style hot meals, the focal point of The Meatball Joint menu will be combinations of meatballs and sauces.

“After having all these broad, creative menus, the beauty is the simplicity,” Matz said.

The Meatball Joint’s menu will be fun and encourage sharing, but the idea is also to keep a typically messy meal “girl-friendly.”

Matz settled on the meatball-themed restaurant after the landlord of the storefront—who will also be his partner in the business—challenged Matz to come up with something simple enough to operate out of the existing space. The Meatball Joint will be housed in a tiny space that seats 32 people, conveniently located on Alton Road, right next to L.A. Café.

Several fast food venues surround his location, but Matz is confident that this is a risk worth taking. Noting demand and excitement from friends in the food industry, he hopes to see the same success that New York City’s The Meatball Shop has had. This success has allowed the similarly run restaurant to open up three locations across the city.

“People’s eyes light up and they go, ‘Oh, it is a pretty cool idea,’” he said. “And there isn’t one down here.”

Matz wants The Meatball Joint to be a casual neighborhood hangout. He hopes that Miami Beach locals and tourists love The Meatball Joint enough that he can expand it around South Florida.

Keeping with his healthy food philosophy, Matz has designed special offerings in addition to the traditional meatball—all sorts of veggie balls with low-carb and whole grain options, too.

Matz has had a blast playing around with recipes for vegetarian options, with ingredients like quinoa, black beans and sweet potato. The challenge is making sure that they not only taste good but also hold together nicely and feel like a meatball, he said.

Although coming up with recipes can be a guessing game, he made sure to stick to what he knows.

“A real musician knows what it’s going to sound like before he starts to play,” he said, drawing a comparison to his culinary experiments.

Like at his other venues, the wine selection will be “cool, fresh and unpretentious”— keeping prices as low as $6 to $10 a glass. 

“I like value,” he said. “I don’t like making people spend $400 or $500 on a bottle of wine.”

Wines will be imported from around the world, primarily California, Chile, Argentina, South Africa and New Zealand.

Matz has been in the business since opening Wet Paint Café—one of the first restaurants on Lincoln Road—back in the late ‘80s. As a child, he loved food and loved to cook.

“My mother always encouraged me to be a chef, but I didn’t envision it at all,” he said. “Does a kid that paints very well dream of being a painter when he grows up?”

Matz, the type who is early to bed and early to rise, said the restaurant industry is not for people like him. Still, he was lucky enough to find the leeway to shape his cafés around his own lifestyle.

That means hungry patrons on Miami Beach are just as lucky to have a meatball place coming soon.

Mmm...Decorated sugar cookies

Look what I found at Epicure Gourmet Market in South Beach Friday night!

...The super duper cute Fourth of July iced cookies I've been learning so much about recently. I just had to buy the package of red, white and blue mini stars, of course. I couldn't resist once I saw them in person.

The store is clearly getting in the mood for the American holiday, but there are other adorable handcrafted cookies too! Cupcakes, snails, flowers. All very pretty and pink :)

By the way, you know how perfect-looking cookies never taste as good as they look? The ones I bought surprised me. They were sweet but subtle, not too overwhelming, especially since I think it was just after breakfast when I ate one the next morning. Such a treat.

That is all I wanted to share. Hope you enjoy this eye candy from the screen of your computer. Just a note, all Whole Foods Market stores across Florida carry them too!

P.S. I was in South Beach Friday night trying out The Meatball Joint. I might post about that in the future as well. IT WAS SO GOOD.

Recent Food Adventures Recap

Here are a few foodie facts I've learned recently.

1. Too much food isn't always a good thing.
A family friend made a huge country feast for my mom's birthday. We ate: chips and bean dip; cheese and crackers; jumbo shrimp cocktail; salad with hearty onions, tomatoes, cheese slices, banana peppers, red peppers and balsamic dressing; rare, juicy prime rib; baked potatoes with bacon, cheese, and sour cream; apple sauce; caramel apple pie and rich chocolate cake.

It was delicious but unbearable. It was simply impossible to eat it all. Yes, I wish I could go back right now and grab a couple of extra shrimp and maybe a few more bites of prime rib. My mouth is nearly watering just remembering it. But gosh - this could have made for three separate dinners. When I'm older and host my own dinners, I want to impress the guests just as my mom's friend did, but I'll make sure not to overdo it. Did I mention the potatoes were the size of rocket ships?

This potato is really as large as the one on my mom's plate.

2. Pumpkin seeds are a heartier and more flavorful salad topper than sunflower seeds.
A neighbor and another friend of my mom also invited us for dinner for the occasion of my mom's birthday - this time on the actual date of her birth. She made some healthy parmesan salmon, red quinoa with homemade basil pesto (I want to remake this pesto. It had such a sharp bite but it tasted so fresh and added some much-need flavor to the quinoa!), and an all-you-can-top salad.

My favorite topping to the salad - amongst the feta cheese, sundried tomatoes, and greek yogurt caesar parmesan dressing - would have to be the pumpkin seeds. Hands down. I'll have to buy some of my own and remake that salad. Or just munch on toasted pumpkin seeds during the day. I think I'm a new fan.

3. Bring your eggs to room temperature before baking.
With the help of my BFFL, I made yellow cake with chocolate frosting, along with similar cupcakes with red and white (and pink) sprinkles: sort of Miami Heat themed. Nothing fancy (as you can see below) since we were working with bare-bones ingredients that we gathered quickly at a convenience store, but they were quite a hit with my boyfriend's family at his Heat vs. Celtics Game 7 "watch party."

We let the eggs adapt to room temperature as patiently as we could, as per the advice of Wendy. The desserts came out great (despite a mishap in the message written on the cake). Check it out:

My friend thought the Heat would lose.

Red & white sprinkles!

4. I can buy ingredients for, make and eat tacos in less time than it takes you to watch a movie.
Sunday night I was tired. After coming home from a Marlins game, I just wanted to relax. But I was determined to have a home-cooked meal that night. And that meant I was the only one who could make that happen.

I decided on tacos so that I could get away with ground beef being the only thing I'd actually need to cook. I challenged myself to return from the supermarket in less than an hour (including drive time), and made it home in under 45 minutes (one of my life's greatest accomplishments)! By an hour after that, I'd already prepared the meal and served it to my parents as well as downed both the hard and soft tacos.

Not the actual tacos. Source: GOOGLE

Though I used pre-diced red onions and shredded iceberg lettuce, the four cheese Mexican blend and hand-scooped avocado guacamole really freshened up the meal. Those were some darned good tacos. I think the best part was that I didn't overdo it by adding refried beans or diced tomatoes or guilt-laden sour cream. I could actually taste every flavor and I loved it.

5. I love naan.
This is the first time I have bought and tried naan on my own. I never thought I'd really have use for it but it was on sale, and I couldn't resist. After all, this is a summer for trying new things. Garlic hummus (so much better than original) with naan brushed with olive oil and toasted in the oven - delish. That's all I shall say.

Oh and also that I had some more tonight as a midnight snack because I was craving the naan & hummus combo after eating a light dinner and some chocolates (which I received as a surprise from my boyfriend) for dessert.

In addition, here are a few of my desires inspired by my internship with foodie clients at a PR firm:

• Be rich and go to the Hamptons in NY and eat at high-end, trendy restaurants that charge $35 a plate!
• Stock up on decorative iced sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies and cookie sandwiches from Cookies by Shar.
• Go to fantabulous food events like the NYC Wine and Food Festival.

My avocado ripened

Me: ...I wanted an egg and avocado sandwich for breakfast but I have to wait days for the avocado to ripen.
Wendy: Ugh I hate when I find that out about the avocado. Mood ruiner...


And then a few days passed... and my unripened avocado became this:

I think the avocado became too ripe, actually. Either that or I was used to the Haas avocado I had eaten most recently (the one with dark bumpy skin). Maybe that variety isn't typically as soft and creamy. I'm not really sure. Ask an avocado expert.

Regardless, my avocado then turned into this...

Me: I made an avocado sandwich with turkey slices today.

Imaginary Person Reading My Blog: Don't you mean a turkey sandwich with avocado slices?

M: I'm not dyslexic. I'm just an awful sandwich maker. I kind of overdid it with my ripe avocado.

IPRMB: Oh.

M: Yeah.

Are you an avocado lover who doesn't believe that there's such thing as too much in a sandwich?

PROOF: The layer of avocado is thicker than the turkey.

In conclusion, this is what I learned:

• Buy an avocado ahead of time so that it's ripe when you want to use it.
• Don't wait too long because it gets too mushy and doesn't hold together the sandwich as well.
• Maybe even toast the bread a little more.
• And don't bother making a sandwich like this for a transportable lunch at all, for that matter.

And this is what you learned:

• Instagram makes food look better than it tastes. Don't be fooled by the Internet.
• This weird girl Lyssa really likes to tell stories using imagined dialogue and pseudo-hipster snapshots.

I'm glad I didn't promise anyone a post today

I made no promises so that I could maybe come home and relax today - possibly read a book, eat some good food. But after discovering a new blog today, I couldn't quite keep away from my own (By the way, check out the blog I'm referencing here. Food, quotes, movies, TV, music. Did I mention food?). I once told my best friend that I'd never get a blog because, once I started, there'd be no way to stop me. Too bad I didn't listen to myself.

I still have fun things to write, and I've been writing them in my head as always. (Is that normal or only something I do?) But I don't have much time tonight, and I do want to enjoy my nightly slice of chocolate cake before going to bed (Healthy, right? Don't worry. It's just a recent ritual. There won't be any left soon.). Anyway, so once again, my discussion of previous dinners and other items will have to wait.

However, I'll leave you with this: I would like to mention that, after visiting Sushi Samba's website today, I've decided that I will be eating there as soon as I am rich. Which I currently am not. What inspired this?

Gorgeous pictures.

Food porn worthy.

My goal in life is to eat meals with exotic ingredients and succulent flavors. Pictures of food are what drive me. It's the highway to happiness, I believe. In order to accomplish this, I will own a restaurant one day. Watch me.

Last thing: I promise not to use so many parentheses next time.

[Photos courtesy of Thrillist Miami]

Pasta with Roasted Broccoli and Almond-Tomato Sauce

So about that dinner two nights ago: It seems that a classic home-cooked dinner really can make for the perfect date. My boyfriend and I made penne pasta with tofu and broccoli tossed in an almond tomato sauce. The recipe, of course, came from my new Food Network Magazine.

When we were trying to figure out what to do Friday night, we tossed around typical ideas like seeing a movie at the theater. But when my boyfriend suggested making dinner at his house, that was the end of our discussion. The foodie inside of me geeked out for a moment at the thought of actually making use of my new magazine so soon - especially with someone that I love spending time with.

Though we chose a recipe based on the fact that most of the ingredients were already in his refrigerator, we still had to make a Publix run. Searching for the ingredients, and finding them impressively quickly, was fun. We grabbed blanched almonds, frozen microwaveable broccoli (to make things easier), canned whole tomatoes and a few other items.

We also encountered Crazy Apples during our trip. Crazy Apples are essentially flavored apples, which allegedly are neither genetically modified nor poked and prodded to add in the flavoring. This blog is dedicated to gushing about food I love (because the truth is, there's little that I don't), so I won't go into what we personally thought of them. But check out the company's website. It's a pretty interesting concept, to say the least.

We made it out of Publix in relatively good time and got cooking. We made the sauce by toasting the almonds and chopping them in a food processor, along with garlic, basil (grown fresh from a plant sitting on his kitchen windowsill!), olive oil and pureed tomato. Combining that with whole wheat penne pasta, broccoli and tofu makes for an easy dinner, but it took a tad more effort than you'd imagine, considering we're total amateurs.

Just to touch on the tofu - I'm not typically a fan. Tofu is strange and mushy and rather flavorless. But we wanted to add protein to our meal and he had some in the fridge. So I told my boyfriend that it was up to him to cook it right, or face the consequences. Before fully reading through the recipe and understanding the Italian nature of the dish (a lesson learned), we decided to marinate the tofu in an Asian sauce and add a sesame seed coating before grilling it. So the dish turned into an Italian-Asian fusion pasta with a coarse almond texture and sharp garlicky bite. It was an unintended result that turned out well. Who really ever sticks to the actual recipe anyway?

You can check out the original pasta recipe from Food Network here. Ours looked nothing like that - it was quite a mess honestly. But it definitely tasted better than that pasta even looks, in my opinion.

For dessert, we surprised his mom and brother with strawberries and chocolate sauce. This was no ordinary melted chocolate; we used dark baker's chocolate, heavy whipping cream, butter and vanilla extract. The chocolate sauce was rich and delicious. (Note: The recipe in the magazine calls for 3 oz. of chocolate but 4 oz. of cream. That didn't quite work out, so if you plan on trying it, I suggest an extra ounce of chocolate!)

The best part of the dessert? Adding in a sliced bubble-gum-flavored Crazy Apple and serving it to his mom and brother without them knowing the truth. (This is why I mentioned them before.) They didn't really notice the difference because of the chocolate dip but it was still pretty silly and sneaky. Once we told them, they identified the subtle hint of bubble gum. If nothing else, the apple offered a few good laughs.

I'll touch on Saturday's crazy country-style dinner this week. But I hope to write more about nights like these (making food from the intriguing recipes in my magazine) soon too. I hope I have the time. Fingers crossed.

My apologies

Today was a busy day so I did not get to write about making dinner last night as I'd promised. Because I felt like I owed a post to all zero of my readers, I have decided to leave this update and make a public to-do list about things I still need to write about.

• Dinner last night, inspired by Food Network Magazine
• Epic dinner tonight at my mom's friend's house
• Crazy, funny things in Food Network Magazine
• Something else I can't remember right now and other things that come up in the future

All right. I have nothing else to say besides the fact that I am stuffed full of homemade chocolate cake and apple pie! I also already have 26 page views and I don't know how or why. The Internet is a peculiar thing.

I shall return with more detail tomorrow - I hope. Good night!

Oh, your blog title rhymes. How creative.

Yes, it does. Thanks for noticing. So magazines and Piroulines... in case I have to make this clear, magazines represent writing and Piroulines represent food items that rhyme with magazines. Though I love Piroulines (who doesn't), I have no particular affinity for them and would have never thought to include them in the title of my blog had I not had such a knack for rhyming.

Yes, I consulted RhymeZone.com to help me craft my blog title, but Piroulines was not a suggestion. I came up with it on my own before I went through these other options (thanks in part to my friend Wendy):

• Magazines Pork and Beans
• Magazines and Collard Greens
• Magazines and Salad Greens
• Magazines Rice and Beans
• Magazines and Green Beans
• Food in Magazines and TV Screens

Note how my ideas became progressively longer and more idiotic. (If you believe any of those are better, please don't tell me; it'll probably just make me feel stupid.) Also note how the only ideas I came up with were rhymes. Generally speaking, the depth of my literary talents extend no farther than alliteration, rhymes and puns. Sorry in advance.

So I'd like to thank Piroulines for making a product that is not only delicious but also rhymes surprisingly well. I hope that using your potentially trademarked name does not put me in any awkward positions, involving lawsuits and the like.

Now that I've needlessly ranted about my blog title, I hope to write blog posts in the very near future about Food Network, food and cooking in general, and anything else that comes to mind. I'm very excited that I'm doing this. I've kind of been writing blog posts in my head for the past couple of days (ever since I bought the June issue of Food Network Magazine at Publix the other day). I didn't actually think I'd sit down and make this happen, though.

Heading off to Publix soon to make dinner tonight! Hopefully it tastes great and makes for a great post tomorrow :)