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- I'm Burt Wolf.

- And I'm Nicholas Wolf.

- In this series of "Travels & Tradition" shows, we will be traveling around the world, bringing you stories from some of our favorite restaurants.

- I'm very excited to join my dad and continue the legacy of "Travels & Traditions."

- I'm kind of excited myself.

(upbeat music) "Travels & Traditions with Nicholas Wolf" is a series of programs in which Nicholas travels around the world discovering what people eat, why they eat it, and how their classic dishes are prepared.

Warning, these are not programs you should watch on an empty stomach.

- This program is about Miami, Florida.

Miami is a subtropical city.

It's as close to the equator as the Sahara Desert.

For many years, Miami was thought of as a gastronomic desert.

Things have definitely changed.

Today the food in Miami is known for having some of the greatest cuisine.

The food found in Miami represents the various groups that moved here.

New Yorkers that moved here to live in a warm climate.

Cubans who moved to avoid Castro.

Haitians who moved looking for a stable government.

And of course, many members of my family who moved here to get away from other members of my family.

One of the places we'll be checking out today is called Sofia Design District.

Imagine if an art gallery had a child with an Italian restaurant.

Well, in fact, the love affair between Italian cuisine and art goes back many centuries.

(mellow upbeat music) All right chef, walk me through.

What are we cooking today?

- All right, so we're cooking our cacio e pepe al tartufo.

- Cheese and pepper.

- Cheese and pepper, yes sir.

- And a little truffle.

Why not?

We're getting.

(chef laughs) - All right, so get a nice salted pasta water.

- Okay.

- Put our bucatini noodle down.

- Does the salted pasta water help it cook faster or that's a myth?

Because I've heard chefs say yes, the salt helps it cook faster, and no it doesn't.

- We just add the salt for seasoning, for taste wise, to make sure that the pasta has its own flavor.

We're gonna add a little bit of heavy cream.

- Okay.

- About four tablespoons.

- No need for measuring at this point, right?

- When you're too experienced, you made it a couple of hundred times.

- What you putting in there, chef?

- So this is our onion soubise.

It's our white onion puree.

- Okay.

I see.

A little French sauce coming into the Italian dish.

- Absolutely.

- A little Euro crossover.

And you're using bucatini here?

- Yeah, we're using bucatini.

- So that's spaghetti with the a hole in it.

- Absolutely.

- What does that do?

- So it gives a nice texture.

It's a little bit thicker than your regular spaghetti.

A better bite.

And also that hole in the middle hold a little bit of sauce.

Makes it a little bit more flavorful.

- Look at that come together.

- Just, yeah, bringing it all together, nice and emulsified.

That's with that starchy pasta water, our nice cream base, our soubise, all coming together.

So we'll go first with a pecorino.

- It's like 11:00 AM, but it's never too early, never too early for pasta.

- And this is our truffle pecorino.

Another (indistinct) cheese.

- All right.

- This one just happens to have truffle in it.

- We're putting the cheese in cacio e pepe.

- [Chef] Absolutely.

All right guys, so we're gonna plate our cacio e pepe.

Like to do a nice twirl in our pasta.

Go straight down into our bowl.

- Nest that baby up.

- Nice little nest.

There we are.

And a little bit of shaved Parmesan.

Finish with a couple drops of black truffle oil.

- Okay.

- And we finish with our beautiful- - The good stuff, right?

- Nice black Italian truffle right over the top.

(soft upbeat music) - All right, I'm gonna dig in.

I don't wanna let this pasta sit.

Italians get mad if you let the pasta sit and no one eats it.

Gotta eat it fresh.

(soft upbeat music) It's creamy.

It's rich.

The truffle comes right in there.

I saw you got the truffle oil, the truffle cheese, and the fresh truffle.

Triple truffle.

I like it.

It's perfect.

Perfectly aldente.

Everything's great.

You killed it.

- Awesome.

Thank you so much.

(soft upbeat music) - In 2,000, Miami took another international turn when the Mandarin Oriental Hotel opened its doors.

The view from your table definitely won't disappoint.

However, the view that I'm most interested in is the one inside the kitchen.

His restaurant is called La Mar.

And today we're cooking with Chef Jean-Paul Fung, who has a background that is Chinese and Peruvian.

But weirdly enough, his first name sounds very French to me.

All right, chef.

What's on the menu today?

- Today we have Peruvian lomo saltado.

- Stir fried loin.

My Spanish isn't too rusty after all.

- This is a Chinese-Peruvian dish actually, inspired by the immigrants that came to Peru in the 1600s.

- Talk to me about your background, where you're from.

- I'm actually half Peruvian, half Chinese.

- Perfect for the dish, Peruvian-Chinese dish.

- Yeah, so we have our nice tenderloin here.

We're gonna salt it first.

Open up the (indistinct) to get all the flavor in.

Gotta go in.

- Right.

Beautiful.

So the stir fry really comes from the Chinese aspect of the dish, right?

- That's correct, yes.

That is correct.

- Gotcha.

- So you wanna sear the beef.

You don't wanna play around so much with it.

Once you see the nice crust on the sides, you can start flipping it.

- Look at that, golden brown.

That's what we want.

- That's what you want.

You want all the flavors in there.

We're gonna go ahead and take that out.

Really, really fast 'cause of the high heat.

- All right.

That was like under a minute and it's already done.

- Okay, now, now we're gonna add our veggies.

Gonna go in with your onions.

- Red onion, we love that.

- Yeah.

They were actually brought in to Peru by the Spaniards.

A little bit of everything.

- And tomatoes.

All right.

- Tomatoes right there.

- Woo.

- You want that hot, you want that flavor in it.

We're gonna throw in some garlic and ginger.

Some aromatics.

- You don't even need any lights, just let the fire do the work.

Okay.

Tell me about the sauce.

- This is the base of flavor of the lomo saltado.

We here have a soy sauce, we have vinegar, and our secret is a little bit of oyster sauce.

- Oh, got you.

- Some fresh cilantro there.

- Add a little color, right?

Why not?

- Green onions.

- Love that.

- And we're ready to serve.

- Looks like a stir fry.

All right, fantastic.

- So here we have our Peruvian potatoes.

This is actually yellow Peruvian potatoes.

- Wow.

- We have over 5,000 varieties of potatoes in Peru.

- I see.

- And it's just one of them.

- So this is where the dish gets really interesting, stir fry with potatoes.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You get, you know, your proteins, your carbs.

And in Peru, we love potatoes.

We're gonna put a bed of potatoes in the bottom, they're super crunchy, nice.

Gonna serve our loin on top.

You want the juices to coat the potato of course.

- [Nicholas] Yeah, I'm already hungry, man.

So where did you grow up learning to cook like this?

- Actually, my dad is also a chef and my mom is a baker.

So had I that.

- That's the perfect combination, right?

- Yeah, you know, have dessert ready and my dad cooking.

- Love that.

- Yes.

So we have the crispy potatoes on top as well.

You want that crunch.

- If it tastes as good as it looks, we've got a good dish going.

(soft music) Wow.

Look at this?

Beautiful.

I'm gonna dig in here.

Don't mind if I do.

Mm.

It's beautiful, chef, everything.

The beef's perfectly cooked, chef.

You got a nice little sear on that.

A little tanginess from the sauce, it kicks.

I love it chef, you did a great job.

- Thank you.

- Looks like my appetite just opened up.

I'll catch you at the next place.

(crowd cheers) - [Reporter] In his lifetime, a bearded cigar smoking idealist has become a legend.

- In the late '50s, when Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba, many wealthy Cubans fled the country.

They feared losing everything they owned to the new communist government.

Many of them picked up their well-loved recipe books and moved to Miami to start a new life.

Cafe La Trova in Little Havana is a place where many in the Cuban community found a home away from home.

Its retro Cuban atmosphere, live music, and highly skilled Cuban bartenders won over Miami locals and tourists alike.

I don't know about you, but when I think about Cuban food, a place like this comes to mind.

(upbeat music) So chef, what are we making today?

(Chef speaks in Spanish) Whatever he said.

Okay, I see, putting chorizo in there.

- [Chef] Garlic.

(Chef speaks in Spanish) - [Nicholas] All right, he got his aromatics in there.

He got his garlic and ginger.

(Chef speaks in Spanish) - [Chef] Red pepper.

(Chef speaks in Spanish) - There he goes.

A little spicy red pepper.

Now he's going in with the shrimp.

He's seasoning it- (Chef speaks in Spanish) Salt and pepper.

And in the oil.

Look at that.

He's using a surprisingly small pan.

I'm not sure how he's gonna fit it all in there, but I'm sure he got technique to it.

It looks like he knows what he's doing.

(Chef speaks in Spanish) So now he goes in, splash of white wine.

Look at that.

Simmer it down.

Let it all render together.

(Chef speaks in Spanish) Now he goes in with his beans.

Sort of a little bit like dried tomatoes.

Kind of half dried.

So look at that.

He turns the heat off.

He's gonna let that simmer down and thicken up.

(Chef speaks in Spanish) Of course, pinch a lime.

Love that.

Love that.

He's not spilling a drop.

The best part.

A little taste, huh?

All right, let me dig in here.

I don't want to be left out.

(upbeat music) Mucho gusto.

Ooh, that's embarrassing.

Stir fried loin.

My Spanish isn't too rusty after all.

Looks like I spoke too soon.

That's fabulous already.

It's already rich, it's creamy.

It's coming together nice, I can tell.

All right, now he's plating it.

Look at that.

(upbeat music) Wow.

Okay, and the part which makes the dish, that beautiful bean sauce.

Just coming down right on there, ooh.

(Chef speaks in Spanish) And then it wouldn't be done right if it didn't have a little bit of green, add some color.

Dig in here.

(Chef speaks in Spanish) All right, thank you.

I've been looking forward to this for the whole five minutes that you cooked it for, but.

I'll get to it.

Get a nice little sauce pull there.

(upbeat music) I did get a little sneak peek when I tasted it over there, but when it comes together with the shrimp and the beans all together, that's a killer.

That's probably one of my top three dishes.

Definitely my new favorite Cuban dish.

So chef, you did a great job.

We were done in the kitchen, but the food just kept on coming.

And who am I to refuse Cuban hospitality?

I'll see you guys in the next one.

Let's dig in, boys.

(upbeat music) Naples, Italy claims to be the home of pizza.

And in a way, it is, a pizza with a topping of tomato sauce probably originated in Naples.

But the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians all ate flatbread with some form of topping.

Originally, pizza was a street food, nothing special.

Chances are, wherever you go in the world today, you'll find someone making pizza.

I've made plenty in my day.

From in Naples, Italy to even on a volcano in Guatemala.

But never once have I put pineapple on it.

Gotta draw the line somewhere.

Mister O1 is Miami's answer to the traditional pie, elevating the farmer's meal to an elaborate dish.

Come on, let's check it out.

(upbeat music) - It's super crispy.

We also use multiple different ingredients from different cultures.

Like you will see some pizzas that have truffles or pizza that have corn.

I feel like pizza is a food that unites people from different cultures.

Like whatever the occasion, wherever the person you're eating with, it connects people.

- All right, chef, let me guess.

We're making pizza today.

- We are making pizzas today.

This is Mister O1 flour.

- All right, specialty recipe.

- Special recipe.

- Can't tell me the ingredients, right?

- No.

- Are you gonna flip it up in the air, like the pros?

(both laugh) Where's the pizza toss move?

Need a couple more months training for that?

- I need a little bit of training for that.

- All right, no worry.

- We're gonna make Elisa right now and that's, we don't apply marinara sauce to that.

- [Nicholas] So just mozzarella, right?

- Just mozzarella.

- Okay.

Kinda like how they do it back in Napoli.

- Exactly.

- What you got there, chef?

- This is ricotta.

The ricotta's gonna give you that taste.

- Oh honey.

A little unconventional, but I like it.

- And there you go.

Now we're gonna put it in the oven.

(soft music) - All right, chef.

The best part, the taste.

I see you got that truffle oil on it.

- So we added a bit of truffle oil and black pepper.

You can taste it.

- Mm!

- The honey gives it a little extra kick to it as well.

- Cheesiness.

The yeastiness of the dough.

Everything about it, the crunchiness.

It's awesome, chef.

But I know some of you folks up north are gonna be complaining, "No way in Miami pizza's that good."

Well, don't bash it until you come try it.

Chef, you killed it.

- Thank you.

(soft upbeat music) - Another great stop in Miami's design district is Michael's Genuine Food and Drink.

It's exactly what the name implies.

Genuinely good.

The vibe is casual, warm, and welcoming.

The food is unfussy and delicious.

My kind of place.

Today, Bradley is cooking crispy, sweet and spicy pork belly with kimchi and crushed peanuts.

Many years ago, during a trip to Taiwan, I was introduced to pork belly.

I don't think I liked it.

So we have some pork belly over there.

Could you- - The Genuine pork belly, we marinate it with kimchi base, which is like chilies and garlic.

Then we slow cook it for about eight hours til it's tender.

- Gotcha.

- Then we press it, then we cool it down.

So it's this nice homogenous loaf.

And then we're able to cut perfect squares out of it, so that when we deep fry it crispy, the middle will be nice and gooey, gelatin.

- What I'm looking at right now is that sauce.

Tell me about it.

- So the sauce, we take some of the kimchi base, which was the marinade, and honey.

Put it over honey and we just mix the two.

- I see.

- We made a lighter version of a pork and kimchi dish, 'cause the normal ones, it's a.

- A heavy dish.

- They're pretty funky, fermented and this is more of a lighter approach.

'Cause Miami, it's hot.

The kimchi is nice and light.

- Yeah.

- Right?

Not too stinky.

- So this restaurant has been open for 15 years.

That's a long time.

Is this one of the first dishes you have on your menu?

Wasn't one of the first, but once it hit, it stayed on forever.

- It stuck?

- Yeah.

- All right, let's get into it.

Let's start with the sauce.

- Okay, so for the sauce, we're gonna take the kimchi base.

- [Nicholas] And that's the same stuff that's marinated in the vegetables.

- Yeah.

Yes, exactly.

- All right.

- A good workforce sauce and then straight up honey.

- [Nicholas] Beautiful.

That sweet taste to it.

- And then we just mix it until the whole thing's homogenous, you know, incorporated.

So this is a really technical, super technical, years to teach people.

(Nicholas laughs) - Oh gee, I don't know if I could do that myself.

Beautiful.

So it's been precooked already and we're just getting that nice crispy texture on the outside?

- Super crispy, yeah.

And also it renders some of the fat, so it's not too fatty.

So the pork belly is nice and crispy.

You can see.

- Golden brown.

- Golden brown.

- How we like it.

So now you're gonna plate it.

Tell me about it.

- You can see all the layers, right?

There's the meat, fat, meat, fat.

That's what we like about pork belly is the balance.

It's like 50% fat, but there's enough meat to where it doesn't feel like it's all fat.

- In Miami, I'm sure they're familiar with it.

Maybe less so the Korean barbecue.

- Maybe less.

So a little bit of the kimchi, some of the kimchi glaze that we made that we're just gonna drizzle over the top.

- Oh yeah.

Heavy handed with that.

I like it.

- Yeah, you gotta have a little bit of the sweet and salty.

- [Nicholas] A little crunch to it.

Why not.

- Peanuts, there's your crunch.

And then some scallion and cilantro to brighten it up and give you that (indistinct).

- Okay, I think it's time to dig in, right?

- Get some.

- So tell me chef, am I gonna go pork belly and kimchi in one bite?

Is that the way to do it?

- Yeah, that way you get the balance and the sweet and spicy of the pork belly and the refreshing kimchi.

It'll balance itself out.

- Beautiful.

Whoa.

Gooey gelatinous.

Gooey gelatinous, like you said, inside and crunchy on the outside.

And that kick of spice from the kimchi, finish it right off.

That's a great dish, chef.

- Great, thank you.

- It's a great combination.

It just works, chef.

I don't know what to tell you, but I'll definitely be eating here sometime.

- Awesome.

Awesome.

(upbeat music) (upbeat rock music) - When I heard there was a barbecue joint inside a warehouse that served portions that even I couldn't finish, well, I was on my way.

(upbeat rock music) - So I got one in already.

We got the smoker hot.

These big boys right here, these are huge.

These are about 16 pounders.

These are gonna take like 15 hours to cook, man, at that temperature.

They're gonna take a little while.

So what we're doing, we're going fat side up.

So you're grabbing it like this, I'ma just throw 'em in here.

- All right.

What's your favorite part of the brisket?

- [Chef] The deckle, man.

I like it nice and fatty, man.

- [Nicholas] What do you really get from using wood instead of charcoal?

- Flavor, man.

It's all in the flavor.

So we get Compart pork, we get really good pork, we get all prime briskets.

But this is our main stunner.

This is what people come for.

- Salt, pepper.

- Same seasoning.

- All right.

- Nothing other than salt and pepper on beef.

- Keeping it simple.

- Keeping it simple, keeping it traditional, man.

- What's your internal temp looking like?

- We do it by feel.

We don't do it by internal temp.

We touch everything.

So everything's by hand.

All right, we're gonna close it up.

Let's cut some brisket.

This is the deckle.

This is the best part.

You got some fat on the bottom, some fat on the top.

That's what people love, you know what I mean?

So we start off right here.

The first thing you wanna do is separate the lean.

- Beautiful.

- From the fatty, right?

- Look at that.

Just dripping out.

Beautiful.

- Here you go, man.

- All right, look at that.

Just falling apart right away.

Mm, mm.

I could eat this with a spoon.

It's just falling apart.

And look at that.

You got that.

You got that smoke ring perfectly, but it's not too much.

So it's not chary, it's beautiful.

- [Chef] This is actually a beautiful brisket.

- [Nicholas] And that bark, ooh.

- So we're gonna take some of the ribs.

Gonna mop it up first.

Let me get some sauce.

This is called rib mop, so it's cider vinegar, Worcestershire, and a couple other things.

But that's the base of it.

- Ooh.

Like painting a picture right here.

All right, I gots the meats.

(upbeat rock music) And over wood again, right?

- Over wood.

All wood, no charcoal.

So this is quick.

You don't wanna burn it either, right?

'Bout to take this off.

Bring it over.

(upbeat rock music) All right, so we're gonna come right here.

We're gonna cut this chime ball off first.

Get rid of that.

We usually get rid of this first bone.

- And then we dig in.

All right, let's go.

- All you right here, man.

Just cutting down.

Right between the bone.

Uh huh.

- Look at that, woo, juicy.

Look at that, little smoke ring around there, too.

And I like that, that little final sear at the end added to the bark.

Little char, time to dig in.

Mm, mm.

- Perfect bite.

You see- - That's good.

That's crispy on the outside.

I like that.

- See you get the bite, it's not falling apart, that's just pulling off the bone.

- Little kick at the end.

- Looked like a shark bite.

- Little kick at the end there, you know?

That's beautiful.

Some of the best ribs.

(upbeat rock music) A food show in Miami wouldn't be complete without checking out Joe's Stone Crab.

The restaurant was founded in 1913 by Joe Weiss.

He started as a fisherman selling crabs from a small lunch counter on Miami Beach.

It's run by the fourth generation of the family, Steve Sawitz, and over the years it's been featured in many movies and TV shows.

(upbeat music) - The hash browns were like the kind your mom never had the time to make or the talent.

(upbeat music) - These claws are caught by our fishermen and our fisheries, back down in the Keys.

They end up here, getting cracked within a couple of days.

So they're caught, let's say on Monday.

By Tuesday and Wednesday, they're being cracked.

We probably go through close to 1,500 pounds a day.

At the busiest time of the season, maybe 2,000 pounds a day.

- And is this how Joe would do it back in the day?

- This is exactly how they did it.

My grandfather did it, my dad did it, and I do it.

I wouldn't do it in a suit, but I could.

- I'm a little hungry, so I think I'm gonna go for that later on.

- That's, yeah, that's the idea.

- All right, I'm eyeing the hash browns over there.

Talk to me about 'em.

- Okay, it's our number one selling side dish.

So we have the gentlemen over there.

He's making the hash browns.

He's protecting his hands with, his left hand.

Usually has those, the towels in his hand.

He's dropping grease into the hash brown pans over an open flame.

He's got eight flames typically going at once.

He's managing those eight pans at once.

- It looks like he knows what he's doing.

- He could do it with his eyes closed, but I recommend doing it with your eyes open.

- You gotta have willpower to stand around here and not eat everything.

- We have the mustard sauce here.

Okay, that's the dipping sauce for the stone crab.

- So no seasoning, it's just the sauce.

- Correct, some people consider the stone crabs the delivery system for the mustard sauce, 'cause that's so good.

Now- - Yeah, I need a full tutorial on this.

- Okay, well this is the tip part of the shell, the knuckle.

And you peel these shells off.

We're gonna save the mac daddy for the end.

You peel these off.

Now you have your little cocktail fork, right?

- Yep.

- Now what you're gonna do is stick the cocktail fork in that and pull out some meat and then dip it in here.

- Another little chunk.

- [Steve] Dip it a little, touch.

You got a great chunk there.

- Yeah, I'm going a little heavy on the, a little heavy on the sauce.

- That's okay.

- Oh wow.

That's juicy.

You bite in, it's succulent, it's soft, it's tender.

- I'll break some off here.

- Number one side.

- A little bit easier for me.

- What I like about these is that sear on top.

You got them crispy ones on the top, and then under, you get the soft potatoes.

They just fall apart in your mouth.

- Right.

They melt.

- You don't even need to chew, you just.

(upbeat music) Thanks for joining me for what's cooking in Miami.

I'm Nicholas Wolf.

- But wait, there's more.

For daily reels featuring interviews, stories, and recipes filmed during these shows, visit NicholasWolfTV on Instagram or BurtWolfTV on YouTube.

(mellow upbeat music) (mellow upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] Travels and traditions is made possible by Chemex coffee makers.

Makers of scientifically designed coffeemakers and filters since 1941 Pure design, pure flavor, Chemex.

And by Artrepreneur, a global platform for artists.

Empowering artists to succeed and connecting art lovers, designers, and collectors with curated works.

Artrepreneur.com.

And by YP Foundation, helping those in need through education and improving life skills.

Guided by the principles of good deeds, charity, and public welfare.

YP Foundation.

And by Five Star Travel, Inc.

In Las Vegas, Nevada, since 1985, Five Star Travel has been developing and delivering detailed itineraries for trips, cruises, and vacations to destinations around the world.

Five Star Travel, Inc.

(gentle acoustic music)