Ten Things I Miss About Miami

If you look at my Weather Pixie and see the temperature (currently -20 Celsius), you'll understand why I'm doing this post!

1. The hot and sour soup from Lotus Garden on LeJeune. There is other hot and sour soup that I like, but none compares to this. It's especially sad when I get sick and crave it - I used to eat it every time I was sick with tonsillitis, which was about every 6 weeks in my second year of my master's.

2. Crandon Park on Key Biscayne.

3. The Venetian Pool, which was just around the corner from my apartment. Especially during the "winter" months, when very few native Floridians would be there.

4. My Monday night routine, which included chillin' in front of the tv and take out dinner from Pollo Tropical. I would always get the 1/4 chicken with black beans and rice (with the lime), and an order of maduros - fried plaintains. Mmmmmm.

5. The Car Wash, on South Dixie Highway. Seriously, I have never experienced anything like this anywhere else (even in other warm climates). People would even go here for first dates. Read the review.

6. The Biltmore Hotel. I only stayed there once, when I was defending my thesis, but I loved seeing it every day. It was also in my neighbourhood. I love the tower and the red tiled roof. After Hurricane Andrew, it was kind of a beacon at night, as they had power and my street was in a block of homes that did not.

7. South Beach. The whole art deco steetscape, the nightlife, the News Cafe, the hustle and bustle right next to the beach. And this little flower wholesaler that my friend Golden Boy introduced me to. I used to get huge ginger blossoms and birds of paradise, or lilies, or roses . . . dirt cheap.

8. Cocowalk in Coconut Grove. This was a favourite place to go to a movie. The best idea was to go to a double feature - we'd buy tickets for two movies, with a good chunk of time in between. Then we would go sit at Fat Tuesdays and drink slushy alcoholic beverages while overlooking the courtyard of Cocowalk. And we would be the "fashion police". Really, Miami has a mishmash of people, and there is always some sort of fashion disaster happening on a Friday night!

9. Sushi. There were several places I liked to go, and all of them had amazingly fresh fish!!!

10. Friends. Most have left Miami now - one in Germany, one in NY, one in NC, one in Chicago, several I have lost touch with. And Golden Boy, who died on June 4, 1994. The fact that none of them are there anymore makes me think that Miami would just be less than I remember without them there.