best thing i ate last week (jan 11-17) - short rib carpaccio at Kris Wessel gastroPod brunch

Only a week behind now! It's been mostly home cooking since returning from our winter break Southern expedition, but a Kris Wessel sighting was enough to get me to venture out. Wessel, chef of the much-missed Red Light on Biscayne Boulevard (who then passed through Florida Cookery and Oolite), surfaced to do a brunch with Chef Jeremiah Bullfrog of the gastroPod. Fortunately the rains let up and the winds calmed down enough for them to serve up five courses the Sunday before last.

It was all good and tough to pick a favorite, but the standout for me may have been the short rib "carpaccio" – thinly sliced boneless short rib cooked at low temp to bring it up to medium rare and melt all the connective tissue, brushed with warmed beef fat, and plated with slivers of fresh and dried pears, nutty asiago cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. Also in the running: Kris' eggs creole with tropical BBQ goat, and Jeremiah's chilaquiles spiked with gochujang and sprinkled with crumbled chevre.

(You can see all the pictures in this Kris Wessel gastroPod brunch flickr set).

Maybe the best news is that Wessel is close to getting back in the game in Miami – be looking for more details soon on a "southern tropical" BBQ spot in Little Haiti.