In the spirit of Tony Bourdain, food as adventure. Try everything twice in case it was made wrong the first time. Eat without fear or prejudice.
Since we didn't want to steal from his sweet bread and morcilla (blood sausage), Redneckhunter and I ordered them as appetizers to share along with ceviche. 
We got there a little before noon, and I'm glad we did because by 12:15 every seat in the place was taken, and we never would have made our flight in time! Another good sign considering the restaurants on 7th Avenue had people out on the street trying to drum up lunch business.
I had a beet salad with herbed goat cheese, mixed greens, and walnuts, and for my entree, I had the Sizzling Thai Whole Fish which consisted of a locally caught yellow tail snapper, deep fried, with a Thai chili ginger garlic sauce and basmati rice. It was really good. Kathy ordered the Veggie thin crust pizza from the lounge menu. It consisted of portabella mushrooms, caramelize onion, roasted red pepper, and thyme.
After Tampa, I head down to Miami for a few days to visit friends. Upon picking me up at the airport around 9 pm, my friend decided the first thing I needed to see was South Beach. It was all I was hoping for from South Beach - the Art Deco architecture, the booty clubs, the hoochie mami outfits, the devotees outside the Versace mansion. After our walk up and down the beach and the strip, she took me Puerto Sagua - an old Cuban diner just blocks away from the neon scene. 
Apparently she had once had a Justin Timberlake sighting here! But it's not at all glitzy or glamorous. This place is old school -- formica tabletops, wood panelling, murals painted on the wall. I got a medianoche sandwich, and we shared 2 desserts. Flan, and a quatro leches cake. The fourth milk in the quatro leches was dulce de leche on top. I think we should have stuck with tres leches - it was just way too sweet for me!
Next on my list of things I had to eat while in Florida was Key Lime Pie. I got that fix in at Books and Books in Coral Gables. It's a wonderful independent bookstore in a great historic Spanish villa with a central atrium and a nice cafe. My friend's dessert was a fresh cranberry tart with ice cream. I got to meet owner Mitchell Kaplan -- he is truly living the dream, running bookstores in Coral Gables, Bal Harbour, Westhampton, Grand Cayman, and Fort Lauderdale and basically being the center of the literary world in South Florida. 
The next day my friend had a meeting in Fort Lauderdale, so I tagged along. It was nice to see it when it wasn't spring break season. Determined to have a meal on the beach, we found a spot literally on the sand -- Anglin's Beach Cafe on Anglin's Fishing Pier in the quieter town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. My friend got a fresh blackened fish sandwich, and I got the captain's salad with grilled shrimp. I probably could have gone for another slice of Key Lime Pie, but we were in a hurry to get back to Miami to pick up my friend's kids from school. I did however, get another thing off my Florida list there - fresh squeezed orange juice. 
Bern's Steakhouse apparently is THE place to go in Tampa. Founded in 1956 by Bern Laxer, it has become world renowned for its extensive wine cellar. They're also known for their aged steaks and dessert room - basically it's a
dining experience, and it did not disappoint. Starting with the wine, Bern was an avid world traveler and amassed quite a collection -- if I'm remembering correctly, Bern's cellar is the largest in the Americas and 2nd largest in the world. According to their website, " more than 6,800
unique wine labels, 5,500 red wines, 1,000 white wines and more than 200
sparkling wines. In addition, we feature about 300 Madeiras, Ports and
Sherries by the glass, as well as 200 table wines served by the glass
with vintages to 1973." 
Redneckhunter was a like a kid in a candy shop looking through the wine list, aka Bible, which was about as thick as a telephone book. He was even texting his wine stores friends who were green with envy. We started out with a 1979 Chateau Tour Saint Jean Bordeaux, bottle covered in dust, and sediment decanted out. Redneckhunter thought it was a bit past its prime, and the waiter was very accommodating offering to get us something else, but we let it breathe a bit and drank it anyway. I think he was much happier with our second bottle - sticking with 1979, this was a Chateau Neuf de Pape. Both bottles were unbelievably reasonable price-wise.
At Bern's (unlike the venerable Northeast steakhouses we're used to where everything is a la carte), steaks come with soup (French onion), salad (I tried the house dressing vanilla macadamia), baked potato with all the fixings, onion rings, and vegetables. So with all that food in our future, we opted to just share 2 foie gras appetizers among our party of 6 people.
Finally we were escorted on to the Harry Waugh dessert room, named so after a friend of the Laxers. Harry was a British gourmand and wine connoisseur, director of Chateau LaTour. After a memorable evening where the Laxers were invited to enjoy aperitifs and desserts in Waughs drawing room, Bern Laxer, thought, why don't we do that in the US? And thus was born the Bern's dessert room. Each table is seated in a private booth made from old wine casks, with its own music selection, in which to intimately enjoy dessert, coffee, and drinks.
I ordered Bern's version of "Cafe Con Leche" (you know, when in Florida...). I'd say it wasn't authentically Cuban, but that was probably good thing as it was not too sweet for me.
