Miami, the entertainment and pleasure capital of Florida, wants to become a culinary “Garden of Delights” on weekends with the opening of Smorgasburg Miami, a lively and exciting open-air market in the artistic neighborhood of Wynwood, which It has about 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 El Bosco’s “Garden of Earthly Delights” , within this voluptuous Miami market there is no punishment, but the reward of a culinary heaven devoted to the pleasures of good food and authentic flavors.
“Visitors will be able to embark on a unique culinary adventure at Smorgasburg Miami, featuring Asian specialties such as So Sarap’s Filipino and Yakitori Japanese or Hispanic and Vegetarian street food, as well as duck, meatballs, baked goods, skewers, fresh oysters or delicious ice creams” , says the director and promoter of this market, Gaston Becherano Cohen, in an interview today.
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), Colombian natural 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 some 70 stalls 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” , as will happen from March 12, 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 adds.
Undoubtedly, 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 the Cuban chef Monika Domínguez at Dale.
HISPANIC TRADITION AND INNOVATION
“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 coloration and the filling. That is what makes us different ,” says Carlos Santos, creator 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.
You can also og your eyes at Dale’s alluring stall, where Cuban chef Monika Domínguez offers seductive Cuban-Asian fusion cuisine with dishes like yakitori croquettes (a type of Japanese-style skewer), Cuban tamale with ropavieja, suckling pig roll (in roll) or the fried ‘noodles’ (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 to finish off, the irresistible sweet shop for “donut addicts” offered by Pink Love Donut, with more than 80 varieties of this type of spongy fried dough bun: from the 4 milk donut and the tiramisu one, to the spicy bacon one, strawberries with dark chocolate, fruit, crème brûlée or vegan, the latter square-shaped and without ingredients of animal origin or eggs.
“We try to have the largest number of flavors and donut options for different palates; options that are very Latin and others for the very American public ,” says Argentine Diego Macedo, owner.