miami - #sobewff day two

day two:

denise and i went looking for a place to get lunch and on our walk, we came across this cute, quaint street - espanola way.  felt like a italian village.

at night, we went to #sobewff second night, wine spectator's best of the best event.  this was by far, my favorite tasting event for the weekend.  the event was at the fountainebleau, another beautiful hotel in miami.

there were over 75 wineries participating at this event!

this is a yogurt lollipop prepared by the FIU students - this was amazing!  that's a frozen board - he piped down a strawberry yogurt, adds a lollipop stick, adds a dollop of whip cream on top and THEN soaks it in nitrogen really fast to give a quick flash freeze.

amazing AND delicious!

look how gorg!

black truffle.

does she look familiar?  yup, this is anita lo - she was on top chef.

you can see her again in september at our festival!

and of course, we went to go eat after!  tonight, we went to scarpetta, an italian restaurant in the fountainebleau.

hamachi.

mediterranean tako.

ummm, yah, that's a steak tartare under alllllll that shaved black truffle.

burrata.

from top left to right to bottom:  tagliolini (butter & parmigiano AND shaved black truffle - my FAV), spaghetti - simple but delicious, and butternut squash raviolini with veal cheeks.

long island duck.

polenta crusted cheesecake with strawberry gelato.  i've never had polenta crusted before, but it worked well!

pistachio souffle.  eaten together with the cherry gelato was perfection.

this was my fav.  budino di mascarpone with mango sorbet with homemade crisp mango fruit roll-up!

dinner was amazing.  there was an after party at the sls hotel, although denise, roy and jackie didn't want to go with me, i wanted to check it out - so i went solo.  and i left solo.  ;)

mastercard was a sponsor, can you tell??  the after party was cool - they had a cigar bar, a oyster bar, and a photo booth.  if only i had someone to party with....!!

i left shortly after making my round.  miami has lots of interesting people walking around late at night.  reminded me of my life in downtown la, but a bit more crazy!  sophisticated men trying to start a fight with a bum (as if the bum doesn't have enough problems..), people yelling at cars passing by, cab drivers yelling and throwing their hands up, security guards scolding pedistrians...  haha, jeez.  it was quite entertaining walking and watching all this happen!

i was able to fall asleep around 2am that night.  one more day of excitement and learning~