This weekend is the 18th annual event at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.  Fairchild continues to expand on their festival with a series of mangophile events, including a culinary conference, mango brunch, and weekend festival.  This year, the mangos of India are highlighted. The events begin Friday with an all day Mango Culinary Conference.  James Beard award-winning [...] » Read more..

* * *Fairchild Tropical Fruit Curators Noris Ledesma and Richard Campbell (in the brimmed hats) in India. /Courtesy of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden* * * Dr. Richard Campbell loves his job. This is a man passionate about mangos, as evidenced by his recent cover photo for Edible South Florida magazine.  Campbell is one of [...] » Read more..

Mangos aren’t just for desserts, snacks and cold appetizers.  The past few weeks, I experimented with mangos in savory dishes.  Here are some remarkable main courses you can prepare with the fruit. Laylita’s Mango, Avocado and Arugula Salad During my search for mango recipes, I discovered a new favorite food blog.  Laylita’s Recipes, by an Ecuadorian living [...] » Read more..

Here are some quick mango snacks to refresh you this summer. Mango Lassi I love yogurt.  So, of course, I love a  lassi, the Indian yogurt-based drink.  This cold beverage has the texture of a smoothie, so it’s a filling snack when you’re feeling peckish around midday. I used a recipe for mango lassi by Emeril Lagasse, [...] » Read more..

Saturday, I spent the morning and early afternoon at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden for the 17th Annual International Mango Festival.  The heat was insidious and the crowds made me feel slightly misanthropic, but I enjoyed my day.  Fortunately, several events took place indoors.   One of these events was the Mangos [...] » Read more..

I served my community by judging the pie contest at the Slow Food Miami picnic on Saturday.  The picnic took place at The Barnacle in Coconut Grove.  Please visit this lovely place if you’ve never been.  It’s a gem of a spot for a picnic. It’s just a dollar to visit, and on Sundays there [...] » Read more..

* * * Summer bean salad adapted from a recipe in The Constable’s Larder * * * Here are some lunch links! I’ve combed the (mostly local) blogs to get some ideas for dishes that would make lunch-worthy leftovers! Lately, I bring a large container of a main course to work. I leave it in [...] » Read more..

I used the spoils of this week’s summer fruit to make colorful fruit relishes. I played with combinations of sweet, tangy, and savory. The other night I made a jerk pork tenderloin which needed some kind of complement. So, I created a relish from pan-roasted red onions and starfruit, Florida avocados, lime juice and salt. I [...] » Read more..