A culinary “Garden of Delights” takes over the streets of Miami; with a fusion of Hispanic flavors outdoors

Miami, the capital of leisure and pleasures in Florida, wants to become a culinary “Garden of Delights” on weekends with the opening of the smorgasburg miamia lively and exciting open-air market in the artistic district of Wynwood, which has some 70 gastronomic stalls and a lot of Hispanic flavor.

The initiative makes available to Miami a culinary experience already successfully consolidated in New York and Los Angeles, cities where the Smorgasburg arouses the appetite of residents and tourists since 2011 with spaces dedicated to barbecues, hamburgers and pinchos, salads, fried foods, meats, fish, all kinds of artisan confectionery and even dishes for vegans.

Unlike Garden of delights, of Boschwithin this voluptuous Miami market there is no punishment, but the reward of a culinary heaven focused on the pleasures of good food and authentic flavors.

“Visitors will be able to embark on a unique culinary adventure at Smorgasburg Miami, with Asian specialties such as So Sarap’s Filipino and Yakitori Japanese street food or Hispanic and vegetarian, as well as duck, meatballs, baked goods, kabobs, fresh oysters or delicious ice creams”says today in an interview with Eph the director and promoter of this market, Gaston Becherano Cohen.

This gargantuan banquet, which opened its doors this week only to the media and guests, naturally has many tasty Hispanic incentives in Miami.

Young emerging chefs facing the pandemic

They are “greatly talented” young chefs who “are doing something special and delicious that you can’t find anywhere else, who had to reinvent themselves when their businesses were hit by the pandemic,” Becharano says.

For example, artisanal arepas (The Maiz Project), Mexico City-style tacos (The Wolf of Tacos), Dominican cuisine (Fusión Fuego) and Cuban-Japanese (Dale)the natural Colombian empanadas (Nadas) or the traditional Puerto Rican cuisine of D’Pura Cepa, including vegan dishes with a Venezuelan imprint such as those proposed by Rutina Verde.

Becherano, 26, participated as a vendor in New York’s Smorgasburg in 2017, but grew up in Miami and thus knows all too well the rich mosaic of Hispanic cuisines that populate this city. And how seductive it is for the diner.

With about 70 booths spread across its 50,000 square feet of land adjacent to Wynwood Walls, “Our Miami location ensures a large number of Hispanic vendors and dishes”adds this young hospitality entrepreneur and passionate gourmet.

Becharano highlights the “spectacular” opportunity that Smorgasburg represents for “emerging chefs who want to grow, refine their ideas and dishes while serving thousands of diners”how will it happen starting this Saturday, when the market opens to the general public.

“That was what happened to me” in the Smorgarburg New York until I opened my own restaurants, although “I had to close” due to covid-19, return to Miami and start this culinary project, he added.

Definitely, this succession of gastronomic stalls fuels our atavistic rural desires to eat outdoors, under the open sky, in joyful brotherhood while savoring proposals such as the delicious Colombian empanadas at Nadas or the wise inventiveness of Cuban chef Monika Domínguez at Dale.

Tradition and innovation of Hispanic stamp

“We take care of the entire process of making the empanadas, from the selection of the corn grain to make the flour to the organic coloring and filling. That’s what makes us different.” he says Eph Carlos Santos, architect of Nadas, a project that emerged as a will to survive during the pandemic.

The Nadas empanadas, which are already a success in New York, are exciting in their variety and presentation: guava and cheese, al pastor meat, chicken, sweet potato and even vegan chorizo.

It’s also ogling at Dale’s alluring stall, where the Cuban chef Monika Dominguez offers a seductive Cuban-Asian fusion cuisine with dishes like yakitori croquettes (a type of Japanese skewer), Cuban tamale with ropavieja, suckling pig roll or fried noodles with suckling pig.

Smorgasburg Miami is a “super interesting project to be able to offer my fusion of Asian cuisine with my Cuban culture and roots,” and eventually open my own place, says Domínguez.

Another interesting Hispanic stamp stall in this open-air market with rustic wooden tables in the center is D’Pura Cepa, which preaches the art of the traditional and typical Puerto Rican mofongo, of African origin, based on fried plantains and other ingredients. .

And as a finale, the irresistible sweet shop for “donut addicts” offered by Pink Love Donut, with more than 80 varieties of this type of fluffy fried dough bun: from the 4 milk donut and the tiramisu donut, to the spicy bacon, strawberries with dark chocolate, fruit, crème brûlée or the vegan one, the latter square in shape and without ingredients of animal origin or eggs.

“We try to have as many donut flavors and options for different palates; options that are very Latin and others for the very American public”he says Eph the Argentinian Diego Macedoowner. (I)