Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
getables are also grown in Florida. The major agricultural region is around Lake Okeecho-
bee, with field upon field and grove upon grove as far as the eye can see.
With the advent of the USA's locavore, farm-to-table movement, Florida started featur-
ing vegetables in its cooking and promoting its freshness on the plate. Florida's regional
highlights - its Southern and Latin American cuisines - do not usually emphasize greens
or vegetarianism. But today, most restaurants with upscale or gourmet pretensions promote
the local sources of their produce and offer appealing choices for vegetarians.
That said, old habits die hard. The further you get outside of places such as Miami, Or-
lando, Sanibel, Fort Lauderdale, St Petersburg and college towns, the fewer the dedicated
vegetarian restaurants. In many rural areas and in parts of North Florida, vegetarians can
be forced to choose among iceberg-lettuce salads and pastas.
One indigenous local delicacy is heart of palm, or 'swamp cabbage,' which has a delic-
ate, sweet crunch. The heart of the sabal palm, Florida's state tree, it was a mainstay for
Florida pioneers. Try it if you can find it served fresh (don't bother if it's canned; it won't
be from Florida).
rates and supports local, sustainable farming, culinary artisans and seasonal produce. It
publishes editions (print and online) for Orlando and South Florida.
Libations
Is it the heat or the humidity? With the exception of the occasional teetotaling dry town,
Florida's embrace of liquor is prodigious, even epic. And as you ponder this legacy - from
Prohibition-era rumrunners, spring-break hedonists and drive-through liquor stores to Ern-
est Hemingway and Jimmy Buffett - it can seem that quantity trumps quality most of the
time.
Yet as with Florida's cuisine, so with its bars. Surely, Anheuser-Busch's Jacksonville
brewery will never go out of business, but Tampa also boasts several handcrafted local mi-
crobreweries. Daytona's beaches may be littered with gallon-size hurricane glasses, but
Miami mixologists hone their reputations with their designer takes on martinis and
moji-
tos
.
Indeed, Cuban bartenders became celebrities in the 1920s for what they did with all that
sugarcane and citrus: the two classics are the Cuba libre (rum, lime and cola) and the
