MIAMI- The Food

I love experiencing and trying new things!  While I was in Miami I decided that I wanted to try some new food!  Here are the things I can now check off my list:

Frog Legs- (the first picture is of me holding a frog leg) I have always heard that frog legs tasted like chicken.  Well, they do in fact.  They were good, until I got down to the bone.  After I ate the meat off enough that I could actually grasp the bone I noticed that the bone was EXTREMELY sticky.  I don't even know how to explain the stickiness of these bones.  It was worse then any glue that I have spilt on my fingers.  It was so sticky that I couldn't even wash it off with an ice cube.  It kind of grossed me out enough that I didn't want to eat very many.  All-in-all, frog legs get an "eh" rating

Stone Crab- I have had crab before and love crab but have never had stone crab or heard of it, that I know of.  I'm not sure if it is endemic to the florida area but it supposedly is only in season for a few months.  We got there the week the season started!  You crab connoisseurs may know this but when you order stone crab they only bring out the front claws.  However, those front claws are enormous!  The shell is also the thickest shell I have ever seen and is probably why the claws came pre-cracked.  They also served it cold which was a new crab experience, one that I liked!  All-in-all, I loved stone crab!  Probably my favorite crab now!

Cuban Food- There are a ton of Cubans in florida and thus a ton of Cuban food places.  The Cuban food was REALLY good, however, I made the mistake of ordering french fries instead of the rice.  After ordering the fries my waitress (probably a pure cuban) paused, looked at me, and with attitude said "you want fries?"  It kind of caught me off guard but said yyyyees.  "Your at a cuban restaurant and you want fries instead of rice?"  I wanted to bring up the point that they WERE on the menu.  Perhaps she knew that we were trying to get the "cuban experience" and was just trying to encourage me to get the rice.  Either way I stayed with my fries but feared that my waitress was going to put in an order of "special fries", if you catch my drift =}  When the fries came out I gave them a careful look over, and for the record, they were probably some of the best fries that I have ever had!!

Alligator- Being in florida, gator land, I figured I HAD to try some alligator!  Another item you always hear tastes like chicken.  Again, I would agree that it does taste like chicken, however a chewy chicken.  It came as deep fried gator nuggets.  They were good though!  Perhaps McDonalds should look into switching over =)  And no, this is not a picture of the gator I ate.  It wasn't like red lobster where you can go pick out the lobster you want from the tank.



Don Shula's- This last one was not an exotic place but more of the experience.  My friend who I went down there with, as I mentioned before, is a big miami dolphins fan.  WEll, Don Shula is a famous coach in dolphins history.  He apparently has a steak house in miami built around his dolphins.  Jeff really wanted to go and since I love steak I agreed.  Since it was built around a football team we were thinking that it was going to be like a sports bar type of thing.  Oh man were we wrong.  My first clue came when we were driving to find the place and we realized that it was located inside of a hotel.  Locations inside of hotels are never good, price-wise that is.  My second clue came when were trying to find a place to park.  There were NO parking places anywhere.  It wasn't really that all of the spots were full, there just weren't any.  We noticed that there was a valet so we asked them where the parking was and they informed us that the valet was the only way to park.  But they insured us not to worry because the valet parking for Shula's was complementary.  Oh yeah right, don't worry!  I started sweating bullets.  When we finally made our way into the restaurant the lights were dimly lit and everyone inside of the restaurant were dressed all fancy sipping wine.  We were wearing jeans, however, with somewhat nice button down shirts.  Nonetheless I still felt WAY under dressed.  The menu was then handed to us on an autographed, handpainted football.  There were no prices and my next big clue was when they brought around a cart with the differing meats on them.  They explained each of the meats and then we picked which we wanted.  Everything was a la cart which meant things started adding up if we wanted anything beside the meat.  The place looked so fancy and I felt so out of place that I was afraid to order "pop" thinking that they might correct me and say "do you mean a chilled, treacle, carbonated beverage?"  I honestly, for the first time in my life, felt like white trash.  It didn't help that after the waiter brought us bread, I looked up and Jeff had butter hanging off of his nose =]  Yeah, we fit right in!!  I guess I thought the first time that I would go to a fancy restaurant like that it would be on a date and not with Jeff.  Oh well, it was still quite the experience!!

I was reminded by Kelly and Mom that I did not include what the Shula experience cost me.  I was planning on doing that, I just forgot.  What we ordered: 2 steaks, 1 side of mashed potatoes, and jeff got a caesars salad.  Take a guess what you think the price would be... It actually did turn out to be less than I thought it was going to be.... Oh, as you are taking a guess on the price, I forgot to mention that almost every time that someone (waiter, hostess, manager, whoever) came by the table they keep asking us if we wanted any wine.  The first time that they asked we explained that we don't drink but they kept asking, and asking, and asking.  As we kept refusing they actually seemed like they were getting upset that we wouldn't order any.  Oh well.
Perhaps it doesn't sound like much to you guys but the total came out to be about $150.  I thought it was insane, but I was expecting around $200.  It was probably the water that we ordered that sent it over the top...