“Seen Eating” is a new Miami Dish interview column. I will provide a brief glimpse into the food habits of pillars of our community. Of course, I am the subjective judge of who make up the pillars of our community. To me, they are the people who make living in Miami more interesting, sane, and worthwhile.
Brian Antoni is a self-described “writer and voyeur.” He is back at his Miami Beach home after spending the last several weeks on book tour promoting South Beach: The Novel. South Beach: The Novel is a semi-autobiographical tale about the heady days when the Beach was young, full of old people, and all manner of decadent, artistic, and entrepreneurial “dreams could come true”.
Mr. Antoni, who is known for his fabulous fêtes, throws the unofficial Miami International Book Fair launch party each year. He likes mixing up the guest list, inviting the likes of Candace Bushnell, George Plimpton, Cameron Diaz, the neighbors, and some drag queens. When he’s not throwing fantastic parties, he’s in search of them. Mr. Antoni is a regular at world festivals like Mardi Gras, Carnival, and Fantasy Fest. His daily goal is to “get up every day and ask what would give me the most pleasure today and get beyond my own ego? Like what could teach me the most?” He adds, “I try not to have average days. An average day for me would be an unsuccessful.” It helps a little that money is not an issue: “I was very lucky that I chose the right grandparents.”
Breakfast this morning: I ate nothing. I didn’t get up in time for breakfast.
Do you ever eat breakfast food?: Mostly at 4 in the morning. Grand Slam. Moon Over My Hammy. It’s always at some diner somewhere. Lots of eggs, what most people eat in the morning. Swedish pancakes at IHOP. I’m a serious dieter.
Favorite places to eat in Miami: Garcia’s on the Miami River, Sobe Social, Pollo Tropical, the Café at Books & Books
Food you miss when you’re not in Miami: I miss Cuban food. I miss pork. I love lechon asado — also stone crab. I miss it when it’s out of season too. I go to Joe’s takeout. I’m not important enough to go to Joe’s itself but I take it out. Then I don’t have to bribe anyone to get in.
Any particular good/new foods you tried while on the book tour: New Orleans is my favorite food city in America. A beautiful lady came to my reading and bought fifteen books. She told me South Beach: The Novel changed her life. Her name was Tanya Boswell. She and her husband, Chef Scott Boswell, own Stella restaurant in the French Quarter. They invited me to an amazing meal. I ate two fantastic, unusual desserts at Stella. One was a grilled cheese sandwich dessert. I didn’t want it. They made me try it. It was a fancy French Delice de Bourgogne cheese and dark chocolate ganache concoction in toasted brioche bread with passion fruit compote sauce.
Stella served an amazing version of crème brûlée. It was frozen and infused with ginger and Grand Marnier. Crème brûlée is one of my favorite desserts. My mom made it since I was a kid and I thought it was called “crème hooray” when I was growing up. I would yell “hooray” every time she brought it to the table. I would gently tap off the crisp burnt sugar topping and hold it above my head and say, “Take this all of you and eat it.” Like the priest would do with the host in church. I used to love to crunch the burnt sugar because it made the same sound the glass eater made when he crunched glass at the native show at the Holiday Inn up the beach from our house.
I also had a very memorable breakfast at Roscoe’s House of Chicken’ n’ Waffles in LA on my tour. What can be better than an expertly fried chicken and a perfect waffle on the same plate?
I also set a scene in South Beach: The Novel at The Forge. My friends Nick D’anunzio and Tara Solomon recreated the meal in my book to celebrate the publication. When the waiters lift the silver tops off the dishes in unison at the Forge, I always feel special, like I am in a glamorous old movie. It is so dramatic!
I also remember the meal I had at the Chateau Marmont on my tour, but more for the number of stars eating around me than for the food.
I also remember the crab cakes at the Rooftop Cafe in Key West on my tour. The chef told me the secret to their great crab cakes was to add chunks of Key West pinks to them.
What are some of your food loves right now?: First, let me tell you about a food hate. Right now I am living on protein shakes and protein bars. I am trying to get back into shape after the tour. I hate them. The drinks taste like gruel and the bars like card board.
One of the foods I love most is conch. I am from the Bahamas and we eat conch every way possible. I wrote all about conch in my first novel, Paradise Overdose. I make the best conch salad in the world. The secret is sour orange, a weird kind of half lime-half orange that grows wild in the Bahamas. If you can’t find that, add a little orange juice to the lime juice in the salad to give it a little sweet. I learned this secret from Mr. Conch who would always win the Deep Water Cay conch cracking contest.
I also love dhalpuri roti. My family is from Trinidad where they eat roti like Americans eat hamburgers. Roti is the fast food of choice in Trinidad and was brought there by immigrants from India. It is a pancake bread made with ground yellow split peas, cumin, garlic and pepper. The bread part is called the roti skin and is filled with curried meat or seafood or vegetables and then kind of sealed like a tortilla. My favorite roti is stuffed with stewed goat. Roti has sustained me through many carnivals in Port of Spain.
Any particular food trend you are loving or hating?: I am experiencing fusion burnout. I am starting to prefer my ethnic food pure and not mixed. I am also getting tired of drizzle, squirt, height and the sauce under the food. I can’t stand foam. I don’t care what they put in it. It tastes like the stuff that floats on the water when you are boiling eggs.
Favorite family dishes: I am a pyromaniac, so I love all food that is flamed. Every Christmas my mother makes a special plum pudding. The recipe has been handed down in my family for generations. My mother soaks the fruit she uses in the pudding for six months in the fridge in a big jar. Every Christmas, I pour Trinidad Vat 19 over the pudding and light it up and every one at the table sings, “Bring Me Some Figgy Pudding.” We put hard sauce on top of it which is made from butter and more rum. The dessert is basically rum solidified. It is my favorite family food memory.
Keeping with the rum theme as family food: We have a special family punch, called the Paradise Overdose. I named my first novel after this punch. The recipe comes from my great-great grandfather. According to his will, he was buried in a cast of rum because he couldn’t face the afterlife without his favorite thing–rum. The recipe format is based on a Caribbean drink ditty:
One of sour–one shot of lime juice
Two of sweet–one shot of sugar syrup and one shot of grenadine syrup
Three of strong–three shots of dark rum
Four of weak–four ice cubes
A little bitter for good luck–a few drops of Angostura Bitters
Another favorite family dish is Chateaubriand. My mother would make it every year on my birthday. As a kid I thought it was named after me. My house in South Beach is named Chateau Brian.
Final words: If you can’t laugh at yourself, then I don’t want any part of it.
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