Miami Design District and the Rubell Family Collection

Miami, like any large city, is divided up into little neighborhoods. We had heard good things about Wynwood District and were eager to see all this amazing graffiti we had been told of. Unfortunately, we were rather silly about the way we read the map and confused one 2nd street with another and ended up in the Design District. No matter, we heard they had galleries there so we decided to look around.

Unfortunately the galleries we did find were closed for the day but the sun was setting and the area looked like an interesting mix of urban and modern so we just strolled and snapped pictures.

On our second trip to the Design District we got a little wiser and went directly to the Rubell Family Collection. It's one of the largest privately owned collections of contemporary art in the world. With artists like Keith Haring, Cindy Shermam, Kara Walker and Jean-Micheal Basquiat kicking around in their vaults we were eager to get a look.

Photo credit: Marty Cherry. This piece was part of their American Exuberance collection and it was pretty cool when you got up close to it. It was like looking at coulds - there were all sorts of figures and animals in it.

We weren't sure if this was an interactive piece of art out on the patio or just an interesting cone shaped lounge chair. In any case we enjoyed it.

Where To Eat Vegan: T.h.r.i.v.e. Restaurant - Miami, FL

While I've been vegan for almost two years now I still consider myself quite a novice in the raw food department. Part of this has to do with my cashew allergy (sad I know) that has prevented me from wanting to try some of the offerings of the raw foodies, and the other part has been a lack of raw restaurants available in my area. As luck would have it my travel companion Marty was more than willing (excited even!) to try raw food and suggested we eat at t.h.r.i.v.e..

The restaurant is tucked back behind a garden shop on a non-desrcript looking street in South Beach. When we walked into the intimate little space we were immediately greeted by the 3 ladies who acted as cooks, juicers and servers all at once.

There was so much on the menu that I wanted to try but I also wanted to push myself just a little. So I resisted the raw burger (next time you will be mine, burger!). I resisted the urge to fall back on my love of carbs and go for the sandwiches. I considered the Pesto Alfredo, Spaghetti and Nut Balls, and the Avocado Soup.

In the end we took the advice of our lovely hostesses and tried two of the daily specials.

Thai Peanut Kelp Noodles with a t.h.r.i.v.e salad.

Spinach and Cheese Lasagna with a t.h.r.i.v.e salad.

As you can see it went over quite well! I really loved the tangy noodles and while I only got a bite of the lasagna I was quite impressed with it and a little mystified by its rawness. I'll admit that I was too busy shoveling this (daintily and like a lady of course) into my mouth to try to decipher or pick apart all the ingredients and layers. Alas, raw food is still a mystery to me. A delicious mystery.

We decided to force in some dessert (I ate entirely too much on this trip) and went for the raw berry crumble. I have to say..I am a big big fan of crumble...and this was not to my liking. It was not at all crunchy and perhaps thats just not possible with raw crumble but I felt like some raw crushed nuts on top would have added some bite to it perhaps.

I should have gone for these tasty looking truffles perhaps.

On my next visit to South Beach I would like to swing by for their brunch because I'm really curious about RAW tofu scrambled with sweet potato hash browns, sprouted flax banana pancakes, breakfast tacos and a garbanzo scramble. Has anyone tried them?

Also, t.h.r.i.v.e. offers juice and yoga detoxes! Check out their website if you plan to be in town or need a vacay and some good food to reboot.

Location:

1239 Alton Rd. Miami Beach FL 33139

Hours:

Mon - Thurs 12-7pm
Friday - 12-9pm
Saturday - 11-9pm
Sunday Brunch - 11-4pm

Thanks to the ladies at T.h.r.i.v.e for making our meal so relaxing and delicious!

A Stranger By the Pier

Some of you who have followed the blog for a while may remember my Inconnu series from France. I've been getting into the idea again of photographing strangers. While in Miami I wanted to try to work in some street photography and a stranger portrait or two.

On our first night in Miami we went down to the pier to take in the sunset and I spotted this woman drinking a beer. Her image was so striking that I stared at her outright before deciding to just ask if I could photograph her. She obliged and this is the image I was able to capture of her.

Here are a few more pictures I snapped of the sunset light.

Lots more pictures to come!

Little Havana Part 2

After spending some time watching the domino players we went over to Azucar for some frozen goodness. This place had the most amazing selection of flavors like Sweet Potato, Guinness, Dulce de Leche, Sweet Cream Corn and of course Key Lime Pie. Unfortunately for me those flavors were not vegan but they did have some delicious sorbets made with fresh tropical fruits and so Marty and I had some treats and walked around the block for a bit.

Little Havana Part 1

Every day in Maximo Gomex Park the locals of Little Havana gather to trash talk, smoke their cigars and play some good ol' fashion dominoes. These guys were so used to being photographed that simply raising your camera to your face was enough of a request and they would distractedly nod or crack a momentary welcoming smile before throwing down their next bone.

Where to Eat Vegan: Lemoni Cafe - Miami, Florida

In our attempt to find Wynwood District, which I will post about in great detail later, Marty and I landed upon Lemoni Cafe and stopped for lunch.

I ordered the Soy Burger Wrap with hummus, greens, carrots and sprouts served with a 4 bean salad. It was simple, fresh and satisfying. On a second trip I ordered the Assia's Soy Burger Wrap which was deliciously stuffed with grilled onions, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, spinach, and sundried tomatoes.

I was pleased to fall upon these little Miami treats, cutely named Om Nom Nom Cookies. Anthea Ponsetti - self professed Head Cookie of Om Nom Nom and her two Miami based cohorts make these cutely packaged little treats. These three baked up this cookie company a year ago and are steadily growing it seems.

Location:

4600 NE 2nd Ave
Miami, FL 33137
Design District

PS: They also have some delicious smoothies!