Salads. The standard sort consists of shredded mixed greens or iceberg lettuce and sliced tomatoes with a choice of dressing: creamy, tomato-flavoured French, Russian (mayonnaise, tomato ketchup), Thousand Island (mayonnaise, chilli sauce, pickle relish), Italian (oil, vinegar. garlic, herbs) and Roquefort.
Cole slaw is often served with hamburgers, sandwiches or fried fish. Usually the shredded cabbage and carrot are mixed with mayonnaise, but a sweet vinaigrette dressing may also be used.
Many restaurants feature a self-service salad bar, laden with greens and a variety of garnishes. A salad can be a meal in itself. Chef’s Salad combines ham, turkey. tongue. roast beef or other cold meats and sliced tomatoes on a bed of iceberg lettuce.
Raw spinach salad is topped with sliced onion, mushrooms and hard-boiled egg. Popular with garlic lovers, Caesar salad blends crisp romaine lettuce and hard-boiled egg with croutons in a garlic-flavoured parmesan dressing.
Florida fruit salads are frequently -but not always- composed of fresh fruit.
Depending on the season, you may be served a medley of mango, papaya, starfruit, grapefruit, orange, water-melon and canteloupe with your choice of frozen yogurt, sherbet (sorbet) or cottage cheese.
Southerners are fond of ambrosia, sugared orange slices and grated fresh coconut.
Meat.
Miami’s steak houses and American-style establishments cater to the national passion for thick sirloin steaks and prime ribs. Open-hearth restaurants specialise in tangy barbecued ribs-usually baby beef-grilled over hot coals.
Old-world chicken in the pot (boiled chicken) and beef flanken (stew) are great kosher favourites. Creamed chicken and biscuits (soft rolls leavened with baking powder) and baked Virginia ham come straight from the old plantation.
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