The summer gastronomic itinerary in Miami necessarily leads to places where the freshness of the raw material is privileged, a cuisine of light, healthy and rich dishes to escape the rabid heat that bites the city these months.
Those who were born to die eating, that is, those belonging to the Sanchopancesca brotherhood, also find in the sweltering subtropical summer of Miami comforting stops where to assault summer dishes.
Well, this route through the fresh vitality of Miami cuisine It takes us to establishments of Mediterranean cuisine and other latitudes where it appeals to ceviches and tiraditos (La Mar by Gastón Acurio), salads and gazpacho (Tuyo), tuna tartare (Klima), cod or beef, octopus, luxurious seafood (Joey’s) or fish and vegetables (Cena by Michy) grilled or baked.
The capricious summer has its classics, such as the Spanish Klima and Barceloneta, where the exqueixada of the first, based on cod of first quality, dehydrated tomato, kalamata olives and onion, and the cod croquettes of the second, are to “die eating”.
The gazpacho offered by the restaurant Tuyo, in the urban center of Miami, is well worth a stop for refreshments, as well as its endive salad and arugula with apricot vinaigrette with blue cheese and hazelnut.
Safe from advertisements for excursions and beach umbrellas, the parish fond of marine pleasures (of good food) can take refuge in superb places such as La Mar by Gastón Acurio, with the sea in the background; My Ceviche, in South Beach, or Ceviche 105, where you can taste aromatic, powerful and fresh ceviches.
But, without a doubt, the restaurant Cena by Michy is the surprise of this summer in Miami, the most recent bet of the renowned Argentine-Jewish chef Michelle Bernstein, always restless, tireless, a cook of nerve that has a legion of supporters.
The dinner menu privileges vegetables not as a garnish, but as a main dish from which all its splendid culinary possibilities are extracted.
Proof of this is the cauliflower fillet, cut and cooked as if it were a New York Strip Steak on a bed of ali-oli sauce and topped with marconas almonds and raisins. Or the succulent roasted beetroot risotto with fresh cream.
“Our menu is very focused on vegetables as a main course, on healthy eating. We prepare vegetable dishes differently, it’s surprising, and customers love it once they try it,” said Mikey Mayta, chef of Cena by Michy and Bernstein’s right-hand man.
The variety of textures, complementarity of flavors and careful preparation are some of the main successes of a menu that also includes pastas as requested as cavatelli with goat cheese and stracciatella and a simple homemade tomato sauce, explains this chef of Colombian origin.
The dishes that arrive at the tables exhale an aroma of traditional cuisine with a touch of creativity. So the braised beef rib served with a vegetable ragout and vegetable puree or the whole spineless snapper stuffed with leek and fennel and served with braised lettuce.
Cena by Michy welcomes the diner with an attractive, cozy bar at the entrance, and its dining room is unpretentious, familiar, bustling and relaxed.
A whole summer to enjoy a menu that, with numerous preambles such as scallop tempura or grilled prawns with green sauce, bets, in short, for simpler elaborations to convince (which is always more than beating) the loyal customers of this chef.
