u/Carlos_Frias

Everything you need to know about a city is in its sandwiches.

You don’t have to mortgage your house to eat at white-tablecloth restaurants to get a sense of a city’s food culture. A sandwich puts it all literally at your fingertips.

My colleague Greg Castillo and I partnered to tell a story about the city where we were born, Miami, through its most iconic sandwiches. We’ve made videos of each spot, available on Instagram at carlos_frias_official and gregmakesvideos.

First in this series: the Cuban frita. Future videos are set to drop later this month.

I went deeper and wrote about our four iconic picks at my website.

Hope you enjoy.

Restaurants close — even our favorites.

That's why The New York Times asks me to keep a close eye on its list of Miami's Best Restaurants Right Now.

(I know it says "Best" in the title, but really it's a selection of restaurants that best represent Miami's food culture. Who wants a list of 25 $500/person tasting menus? Not me.)

I've been cultivating this list for the Times for the last two years. And we just put two new spots on it.

Enter: Drinking Pig and Ricky Thai Bistro.

🍖 I have been chasing around Drinking Pig since it opened as a pop-up during the pandemic, with Mark Wint, Raheem Sealey, and his spouse Yohanir Sandoval, smoking brisket, ribs and chicken out in front of their house on a hidden, dead-end street in North Miami.

At their first permanent location, Sealey and Wint embraced the flavors they grew up with in the Caribbean and applied it to low-and-slow techniques to create unmistakable Miami barbecue. Jamaican allspice, cloves and coriander perfume dishes here, from prime-grade brisket, smoked 14 to 16 hours, to jerk-seasoned spare ribs and smoked chicken brined overnight.

🍲 Ricky Thai has been a local’s secret for more than 15 years. Anyone writing about food long enough in Miami eventually discovers this mom-and-pop spot by Giuliano Carrafelli (the king of the front of the house) and Majcha Manomai (its empress in the kitchen). It closed for renovations and when it reopened at twice the size, Miami Heat legend Udonis Haslem was among the other real Miami OGs dining here. It has been packed ever since.

Curries, especially the crispy duck, are layered with flavor and brightened by fresh, crunchy veggies that shine throughout Ricky Thai’s dishes like Christmas ornaments. Fat, succulent noodles in pad see ew are fresh pulled, and the whole fried snapper with house chile sauce is a dish worth ordering on every visit.

We’ll keep updating the list and plan to introduce some fresh new faces later in the year. For now, I hope you'll enjoy some of these favorites we’ve loved.