Home, again

So, here it is four months after my last post, Yikes.

We're back home in Florida to spend time with The. Mrs. family. Her sister is in town from Moscow, so we made the sojourn down to see her. As always there is an ulterior motive to these trips, namely alcohol and food. This means that in the two full days that we've been here we have already visited the local brewery for a couple of pints and hit the liquor store pretty hard, picking up a bottle of Willet Rye, Deaths Door Gin and a bunch of beer we can't get in NC. This is probably the first trip of two to a liquor store while we're here. Tonight we will further our booze fueled adventures with a trip to Ft.Lauderdale's Mai Kai, the last of the original 50's TiKi bars in S.Florida. It really looks promising. Full details tomorrow.

Our other vice being food, and having in our midst's a vegetarian, last night we made our way down to Sublime. Sublime is a full vegan restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale that uses some of it's proceeds to support animal rights groups. Now, as anyone knows, this is not really high on my list of things of importance, but I do like a good meal. SO, if the food is good and it supports a god cause, win-win. I am happy to report, this is indeed a true win. The food was excellent, the service was spot on and the setting was just right.

I was a little concerned when we pulled up, since the restaurant is the size of a strip mall, in which a restaurant like this would normally be housed in a small corner on the dark end of the parking lot. Inside it is a cavernous space that immediately reminded me of an all you can eat Chinese restaurant circa 1991; all earth tones and pastel lighting.

The bar menu was short, but took advantage of the tropical location, and included fresh juices and fruit. Unfortunately, almost every drink name ended in -tini or -jito, but, whatever. The Mrs. had a Tangjito, which I'm sure you can guess, is Tangerine with white rum and vegetation. I had a glass of red wine. There were also a couple glasses of beer and, by all accounts, a very tasty traditional Mojito.

To start, we ordered a plate of Broccimole, which was basically a white bean dip with broccoli and avocado incorporated into it. It sounded better than it actually ended up being but was still quite tasty. We also ordered Frito Misto, which was a plate of, what can only be described as, sweet and sour cauliflower. Fried hunks of cauliflower in sweet and sour sauce. It was absolutely amazing. We also had an amuse bouche of pesto polenta cake brought to the table, very tasty.

For the main coarse, I had a dish called Singapore street noodle, which was cellophane noodles with veggies in the sweet and sour sauce. The Mrs. and her mother each got the mushroom ravioli, Mrs.'s father got a veggie cutlet picatta and Mrs. Moscow got a "Rueben". We all cleaned our plates, and each others plates, as food flew around the booth like like planes in a busy airport. The winner, hands down though, was the Reuben. I'm not sure how anything that doesn't include animal products is that rich or succulent but, damn if it wasn't. When the waitress came back with a dessert menu, I stayed above the fray, content in my ability to enjoy whatever ended up on the table. A slice of key lime "cheese"cake was decided on and when it arrived, we all marveled, again, that it was dairy free. They are either lying or using black magic in that kitchen.

While it was not an inexpensive meal, it was not unreasonable, and completely satisfying. I hope the Mai Kai can hold it's own.

Sublime - (Ft. Lauderdale) website -http://sublimerestaurant.com/