Las Americas Bolivian Restaurant
We visited: 700 South Royal Poinciana Boulevard, #120, Miami Springs
Now Located at 2772 8th St SE, Miami, FL
To say we had some difficulty in finding Las Americas would be something of an understatement. Yelp, you lie to us. The address you have on file is for their previous location, but Las Americas moved out from a busy, restaurant-filled strip of NW 7th Stret in Miami to the (correct) addressed listed above sometime last year. But their new location is definitely not where one would expect to find a restaurant: on a diagonal street in an office park, located on the ground floor of a nondescript mid-rise office building. If not for the Bolivian flag peeking out, we may never have found it. But we are glad we did.
See the Bolivian flag on the left? That’s how you know!
Las Americas is set up in a rather unusual way. It seems to serve partly as the go-to cafeteria for the office building, so there is a smaller interior space attached to a larger, partially open-air area with outdoor seating and a roof. It was a nice day (it’s Miami, after all), so we decided to sit out there, surrounded by a sprinkling of Bolivian artifacts and clothing on the walls. After a few minutes, the friendly owner came out and helpfully explained the menu to us. We were intrigued by a drink called mok’ochinchi, which we have never seen anywhere else, but the restaurant was out of it that day. Peruvian aficionados will also be familiar with chicha morada, and they make a good one at Las Americas.
On a recommendation both from the owner and from reviews, we started with a Bolivian-style empanada called a salteña (pictured above). Fantastic! Perfectly baked, its savory filling crossed with a sweet touch and a generous helping of olives. Pair with Las Americas’ signature spicy salsa (not for the faint of heart), and a few of these (only $2.50 each) are a meal in and of themselves.
The main entrees at Las Americas will remind patrons of Peruvian cuisine with less of a coastal influence: lots of starches, grilled meats, accented with vegetables, with a heavy emphasis on clean, simple flavors. We opted to split an order of grilled steak (bistec), which was served with the typical Andean starch accompaniments, potato and large-kernel corn. This was the first time we had ever actually seen the large kernels attached to the corn, so this was cool to see! The steak also came with a refreshing side salad of tomatoes, red onions, and a creamy cheese similar to feta. At $12.50, this was plenty for two people. Overall, Las Americas helped us check a new country off the list while satisfying our Andean food cravings. It’s definitely worth a try, and the office employees are lucky to have it for their lunch break!
Let’s be frank: we are total pizza snobs. When it comes to pizza, it takes a lot to impress us. Maybe it is because we 
So we first saw this pig on our first visit to Miami in January, and well…. we didn’t know if she’d still be around in February. Made into lechon, we assumed. We didn’t know if she was a pet or dinner! Turns out she is a pet, and her name is “Chucha,” and you can see her and her menagerie any day. It seems like she has a pretty content life. Case in point – we ordered two watermelon jugos one day, and Chucha got the entire watermelon rind, so we like to think we are contributing a little bit to her happiness. There is also a baby pig nearby, but you have to ask permission to see her. We’ll be back whenever we are in Miami – for the ambiance, the drinks, and to visit our favorite animals!
A new country! Miami finally provided us an opportunity to sample Nicaraguan cuisine. We’re sad it took us so long to get here: though there are no Nica places in Chicago, there are a TON in Miami. So, where to eat? The simplest answer is that you can eat at one of the many “fritangas,” a type of Nicaraguan restaurant where home-style food is served, often in a cafeteria setting and under heat lamps. But Cesar Perez and his sister Martha, the owners and operators of Chayito’s Fritanga, offer one better by offering una nueva experiencia en fritanga (“a new experience in fritangas”). The difference? Cesar and Martha make their food to order, as opposed to serving it on a steam table. That means everything is fresh!
While Enriqueta’s Sandwich Shop is in many ways a typical Cuban sandwich joint in Miami, it attracts a loyal and devoted following. A little off the beaten path, Enriqueta’s is a simple lunch counter with one side facing into the restaurant and another side with a window open to the street. Sometimes I wonder how a place like that can ever keep up with orders, but somehow they do, albeit a little slowly. Being from Chicago, I can’t quite ever wrap my head around the concept of an open air lunch counter, or frankly any outside window walk-up, so of course we had to order our food there. When in Rome…
Ba Le is such an old favorite we can’t believe that we haven’t written about it before. Honestly though, the more often we go to a place, the more often we assume we have already written about the place (as is the case with our favorite restaurant in Madison, Greenbush Tavern). Oops! In any case, Ba Le is certainly someplace you should not overlook. Their specialty is the Vietnamese 
One of our favorite cuisines is Thai, and though we love our go-tos, sometimes we get a little suck in a rut and keep ordering the same thing. However, Sticky Rice is the perfect antidote. Most Thai restaurants in Chicago specialize in Southern Thai food, and the cuisine of Bangkok. However, Chicago is lucky enough to have Sticky Rice, a Northern Thai restaurant that has dishes that are uniquely local. Sticky Rice is cute, clean and open, and was pretty crowded (though the photo from this angle doesn’t show it) when we arrived on a Saturday night. The menu is prodigious, covering, curries, soups and noodle dishes; but on this night we made a beeline for the Thai Northern specialties. 
It is particularly appropriate that I am writing this review of a little French bakery while listening to Julia Child’s “My Life in Paris” (so she’s not a pastry chef, but still…) We happened upon La Fournette after a trip to the Chicago History Museum, and we were pleased by the quaint ambiance and the large variety of baked goods. We were a little taken aback that we were greeted with a chipper “Bonjour” upon entering, but in the best possible way.
At Papa Llega y Pon, the pork is lightly but effectively seasoned, the hot sauce adds a tinge of spice (barely discernible to M), and the onions blend in with the rest of the pork, adding a little extra texture and variety to the flavors. Adding more texture is the obligatory chicharrón (fried pork rinds) mixed in with the pork meat. You can order yours without chicharrón, but you’ll get some strange looks from your servers. Overall, this is simple comfort food, so those expecting bold flavors or exquisite preparation will be disappointed. This is well-made, well-seasoned, and classically prepared food for those who have come to expect the best of the same. It definitely satisfied our lechón cravings, and there is no wonder it is so popular in Miami.
While we are frequenters of Mexican, Haitian and Thai grocery stores, until this trip we had never visited a British / Irish grocery store in the United States. Selling everything from Dairy Milk chocolates to house-made British sausages and back bacon, Spencer’s can fulfill almost any British grocery craving. When we found out that this little grocery store also served high tea we knew we had to visit ASAP.
Eating The World 