The mystery of the unevenly tart tart

 I was hanging out behind a motel on Sunday afternoon -  as one does - with a group of new best friends. The virtuous reason for being there was an event called Remember Haiti.  While this is certainly a fine cause, pig requires some sort of food reward for going anywhere. 


What a wonderful event this was!  We enjoyed the company of South Florida Foodies, great food, and a table overlooking a river.  The venue was The Red Light, a restaurant in my favorite style: a tiny treasure hidden away in some unlikely place, with great food and few pretensions.  Favorite husband and I enjoy discovering these little places.  Perhaps part of the game is this feeling of superiority their discovery imparts - the illusion of being part of The People In The Know.  


When we were freshly arrived in Miami, we did our share of going to absurdly overpriced restaurant with little to recommend them but waiters pretending to be Italian (cue in Fergie singing "Be Italian", the best number of the movie Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5bbuXndMW4).  The 2-salad, 2-pasta, 2-coffee meals for $80 were shocking to one coming from Northern California where great meals could be had for $15 per person.  Some of our new acquaintances left us with the impression that no great meal could be had in South Florida for less than $150 per person, and even then it was an iffy proposition.  The Miami area was a culinary wasteland for me. 


Things have changed.  Perhaps we acquired a better knowledge of where to go.  I think that the rebirth of the design district and the Winwood area, the improving traffic situation around Brickell, and public support of great restaurants like Michael's Genuine Food and Drink (http://www.opentable.com/michaels-genuine-food-and-drink - this link offers the same blurb, and less flash nonsense than the "official" website), have made South Florida an exciting food place.


Back to our unevenly tart tart, which sort of started these musings.  Part of our feast yesterday included a Florida Lemon pie.  It was served with a dollop of whipped cream enhanced with a light sprinkling of basil chiffonade.  In my plate, the lemony cream center was perfect;  sweet, but not too sweet and with just the right degree of acidity to make taste buds ecstatic.  The basil added just the right note, incidentally.  Next to me, another serving of the same pie - where the tip of the wedge serving provided the right degree of tartness, but where towards the outer edge the lemony flavor whimped out.  How is this possible?  As a cook, I'm trying to understand how something like this can happen.  The blend of eggs, lemon juice, sugar and cream poured into a pie crust and baked, could not allow for an unevenly tart tart.  Was there a pot-scraping incident at work here?

I'm reasonably certain the ongoing mystery will still allow me to get on with my life.  Happy Passover to my Jewish friends.  What are you cooking?  This looks yummy: http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/holidays/passover/israelipassover/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Poussins-with-Pomegranate-Sauce-and-Potato-Rosti-238000  but is all that sugar really necessary??