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Miami Herald Food and Dining Editor Carlos Frias Wants You To Read Hungry

When Carlos Frias sits down at a restaurant, he doesn't just focus on the food. He's actually more interested in the people who've created the meals.  And when he writes, he likes to write stories that will make you hungry. 

We talk to the Miami Herald Food and Dining Editor to hear more about how a sports reporter ended up writing about food and -of course- what are the best places to eat in Miami right now.

How did you become a food writer? 

Well it's funny. It's one of those things I kind of fell into. I had been a longtime sports writer  -believe it or not- and then started to do features for the Palm Beach Post because I wanted to write about regular folks. And I found that so much in food connects us to our stories to our past and our backgrounds.

The more I write food stories, the more I realized that the food that we eat tells so much about our history, about where we are and where we are going. So I wanted to do more of that. I wanted to write stories that involved food, but weren’t about food, they were about people. And I think if you pick up the Miami Herald's food sections on Wednesdays and Saturdays, you'll see that. You'll see Miami reflected in those stories.

What stories catch your attention in the food industry?

Carlos Frias took over as the Food and Dining Editor for the Miami Herald earlier this Spring.

  I care about the smaller stories. I care about the people behind the food specifically in Miami. I care about very Miami stories. You know, the firefighter who's opening a pie shop. I care about one of America's best grill masters - who I wrote about on Wednesday-, who has lived in Coconut Grove for 25 years. I care about people that are really embedded in the community that are from Miami.

I was speaking to a local here Zach Stern, who a lot of folks know as Zak the Baker. We see his bread everywhere. He said, 'you know we have to stop importing our culture from New York and from San Francisco.' And I completely agree.

There are too many people here in Miami, in South Florida, who are doing really interesting things, who are trying to define themselves and their food. There are too many of those people for us to be losing focus and just wondering what New York chef is opening another version of his restaurant, that he'll never be at, on the Beach somewhere. Yes, we care about those too. We care about those those big names that help bring people to Miami. But I'm curious about writing about the people that feed Miami who are from Miami.

What's your goal when you write about a new restaurant or food trend?

I want it to relate. I want it to be useful. I want that when you pick up the paper or you go online and read my story, it is to be something that will help you know which restaurant to go to, know what to order when you get there. I want you to know of things that are interesting or I want you to try to cook something at home.

Food is a form of entertainment now. Food is just as important to folks as going to a Heat game or going to a Dolphins game. Where are you going to spend a hundred bucks with your significant other? You are going to go try a new restaurant. You're going to take pictures of it. You're going to put them online. Food is definitely a form of entertainment, so that is how I try to think of it. I try to write stories that will surprise, entertain and also will make you hungry.

What are the best places to catch a bite right now in Miami?

I always ask folks, what part of town do you live in? Where did you last eat that you love? And then I try to give them a recommendation, because the truth is there are all this little places popping up throughout the county that are interesting.

It used to be that you couldn't get fine dining in areas like the Kendall. And then you have Chef Adrianne's, who opened out in the Hammocks area, past 147th Avenue. Just north of that you have Finka, which is another nice little spot just north of that. Again, places where you couldn't get that kind of cuisine ten years ago.

Obviously everything pops up on the Beach, that's where folks go to, but now there are more opportunities to eat interesting food elsewhere. There are more folks who are really trying really specific things with food that you couldn't get five or ten years ago in Miami.

So let's get a little bit more personal. What is your favorite food? What's the first thing you go to when you're hungry or when you need a snack?

 I hate to admit this, but I'm kind of a food slut. I have not met a food group that that I didn't love!

I just had a really great ramen in Coral Gables at a place called Ichimi.

I love gastro-pubby-food, the kind of stuff you find at like Michael's Genuine. When I go there, I prefer to have a nice juicy burger. I love to finish it with a craft beer, depending on what I'm in the mood for.

And then again, I like a place like Alter Out in Wynwood, where every dish is conceptual. Every dish looks like a piece of art and they serve it to you this in tiny portion on this enormous white plate and you think 'this is not going to fill me.' And at the end of five or seven courses, your eyes want to roll back in your head because you are in a in a delightful food coma.

I have tried to really expand my palate. There's no part of a pig that I won't to eat. And I think that's part of the adventure: trying new foods. But also it's a little bit of a nod to how our parents and grandparents ate, that nothing goes to waste.

I really appreciate restaurants that are trying to do interesting things with parts of the pig or parts of the cow that we weren't used to eating. Now you see grouper cheeks on menus. Alter does a delicious grouper cheek on their menu. You see things like places doing sausage made out of a pig's head. It's incredibly delicious! You almost have to get out of your head, no pun intended, and try it because there's more to life than meat and potatoes.

What's your ideal meal?

Credit https://twitter.com/carlos_frias
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https://twitter.com/carlos_frias
Frias enjoys a simple dish of pizza and beer with the family.

  It depends. When I'm with my daughters, I love buying really good ingredients and making a pizza at home. Just making a nice pizza dough, letting it sit in the refrigerator overnight so it gets nice and yeasty, stretching it out with the girls. And making my own sauce. A little bit out of a can, semi-homemade.  You take some crushed tomatoes and  add seasonings, some garlic and fresh herbs. And then just finish it with some mozzarella cheese, good chorizo, sprinkled with some arugula when it comes fresh out of the oven. And with a nice beer from Due South Brewing in Boynton Beach or something like that, a local craft beer. Sometimes, being with my family, making something together is my favorite comfort food.

Are your daughters as interested in food as you are? Do they come with you on your on your trips out?

I am scared that they are more interested in food than I am! And they're all still in pretty good shape, so I got to make sure to keep that up.

But, yeah, they are totally into food. They actually have their own little food blog, the threelittleforks.com.And they just write about anytime we go out or we make stuff at home and take their pictures. It's something I like to spread, eating well at home and when you go out.

What's one important aspect of food writing? 

When you write about a restaurant, you got to treat it as a person. You got to write it as if you were writing a personality profile on an actual human being, because they have their own characters, they have their own spirit, they have their own livelihood. And that's what I try to convey.

I always try to include people because nobody cares so much about four walls. They care about the people behind the food and you want to know that they care about how they're feeding you.

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