The Woolbright Farmers Market sits on Woolbright Road just east of I-95. (Photo by Lona O'Connor)

THE INFO: Open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday to 4 p.m. at 141 W. Woolbright Road, just east of Interstate 95 in Boynton Beach. Phone: (561) 732-2454.

WHAT’S TO LIKE: The fruits and vegetables here are local and/or organic whenever possible. It’s no coincidence that some nearby restaurateurs buy their produce at this market, which offers a number of gluten-free products, plus fresh artisanal breads and, in the cooler, the delightful Upper Crust pies.

Even the “day-old” veggies and fruits ($1 a bag) are tasty and fine to eat if you don’t tarry. We found tomatoes still tasty just past their prime, limes and artichokes.

Now let’s talk about the potted herbs, which are robust and include all the standards, like basil, but also real finds like lemongrass and stevia, all at $3.99 for a 4-inch pot.
Read the full story

MENU

A variety of chicken, veal, fish and seafood entrees done in the Mediterranean Provençal style, with regular fixed-price specials.

ATMOSPHERE

Big and open, quite busy. You are greeted and treated like old friends by the staff.

OUR FAVORITE FOOD/PRICE

The crusted salmon with crab stuffing was rich and adorned with green beans, red cabbage and mashed potatoes. The mussels scampi were garlicky and buttery, served with a nice pile of properly cooked pasta. The snapper Francese was a generous portion, lightly breaded with a hint of lemon, with an accompaniment of potatoes, green beans, carrots and red cabbage. Between 4 and 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, the price for most entrees is $13.99, including salad or soup and coffee and dessert. They do add a couple of dollars for house specialties like the crusted salmon. On weekend nights, they add a dollar or two to the base price. All told, it’s a terrific bargain.

REASON TO GO

The food, the friendly bustle of the place, the reasonable prices.

Read the full story

Fruit and vegetables at the Holland Produce stand at the Wellington Green Market. (Brandon Kruse / Palm Beach Post)

THE MARKET: Wellington Green Market

THE INFO: The market is open Saturdays, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at 12165 Forest Hill Blvd., Wellington.

THE FIND: Everything we tasted was delightful, usually organic and aimed at devout foodies.

There were Plant City strawberries (say goodbye to those until next year), local bananas and locally baked banana and strawberry breads. There were also booths with crafts, jewelry, local quilts and even local author Ron Wiggins selling books and T-shirts.

But our favorite “find” was the Quiet Creek herb goat cheese ($8), very mild and smooth-flavored, and produced from the milk of local goats.

We also loved the Flat Creek Lodge Stilton ($9.25), remarkably restrained for Wallace and Gromit’s favorite full-bodied English classic cheese.

Chef Juan Montalvo, 'The Hungry Cuban', stirs a dish of paella at Ellenville's Moonlit Farmer's Market in Boca Raton. (Photo by Lona O'Connor)

THE MARKET: Ellenville’s Moonlit Farmer’s Market

THE INFO: Located at the Ellenville Garden Center, 220 N.E. 11th St. in Boca Raton, just east of Federal Highway and south of Glades Road. The market is open Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. Call (561) 245-7347 for more details. | Directions, invite a friend

THE FIND: This is a real novelty, an evening market where you can pick up your variegated Swiss chard, listen to folk singers, have your choice of delicious dinners cooked on the spot, buy a glass of wine and hang out with friends. All the food is tasty, but the most spectacular and unusual in such a setting is chef Juan Montalvo’s big paella pot, a treat for the eyes as well as the tummy.

A small container of paella is $7. Like others whose food is for sale at the market, Chef Juan, aka “The Hungry Cuban,” is a personal chef. He makes paella for private parties and for as few as two (romantic!).
Read the full story

A Bedner's Farm Fresh Market worker looks for green peppers to show a group of children on a tour. (Greg Lovett / Post file photo)

THE MARKET: Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market, Boynton Beach

THE INFO: Bedner’s is open year-round, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The market is at 12033 U.S. 441, 2 miles south of Boynton Beach Boulevard at Lee Road, which also is the entrance to the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. Phone: (561) 733-5490. Website: Bedners.com

WHAT’S TO LOVE: It’s not just the market, it’s the whole experience.

Though it has been around for only two years, Bedner’s feels like it has been there forever. That’s because the Bedner family, which runs it, has been farming land out west for generations.

During the local growing season, you can buy spinach, corn and red-leaf lettuce that is so fresh that you get healthier just being near it.

Then there are country oddities like boiled peanuts, insiders’ favorites like Upper Crust pies and locally packaged teas, honeys and pastas.
Read the full story

Early on, crowds gathered around Tango Grill on Wednesday, September 14, 2011. Photo by Libby Volgyes/Palm Beach Post.

Browse more food truck photos

WEST PALM BEACH — If you are attending something called a “Food Truck Frenzy,” you have to plan your evening as carefully as Joey and Rochelle Alonzi did.

First they made a circuit of the 25 or so gourmet food trucks parked at the Village Commons this evening. The West Palm Beach couple began with small portions of sushi.

“This is just an appetizer,” said Joey Alonzi. Then they split up. Rochelle Alonzi stood in line at Curbside Gourmet’s aqua truck for crab cake sliders and contemplated whether to get hand-cut truffle fries.

“Those fries look so good, but I’m trying to be good,” she said.

At the truck next door her husband bought a Philly cheese steak the size of a residential mailbox. He could also have eaten Romanian food, which resembles Greek food. Or gourmet vegan macaroni, or Caribbean and Argentinian dishes, as well as a variety of pizzas and Mexican dishes.

Hands-down winner in both the best presentation and no-truck category was Saffron, a Indian restaurant of Jupiter. While other vendors sweated inside their cramped truck kitchens, the crew from Saffron set out silver- and gold-plated chafing dishes fit for a rajah and towering piles of samosas, fat triangular pastries stuffed with fragrant spiced meat and vegetables, all on a long table with a crisp write tablecloth.

The Alonzis met several friends at the Frenzy, the first of its kind in West Palm Beach.

“Look at these lines,” said the Alonzis’ friend Terry Jahrsdoerfer . “I wish I had a truck. I could sell anything.”

Alonzi, a slight woman, was pacing herself like a culinary athlete.

“I might have a cupcake later. I saw two cupcake trucks,” she said.

“Actually, there are three now,” offered the man behind her in line.

Read related story: 25 high-cuisine trucks to converge at Village Commons in West Palm Beach this Wednesday

Kristina Stringfield of Palm Beach Gardens takes her friend's photo at Irish Fest Sunday at Meyer Amphitheatre. (Taylor Jones/The Palm Beach Post)

“Going green” returned to its ancient Celtic roots today as hundreds of Irish, near-Irish and faux Irish collected on the grounds of the Meyer Amphitheatre for Irish Fest on Flagler 2011.

The event was sponsored by the Irish Cultural Institute, a 25-year-old organization based in of Deerfield Beach, whose founding spirit is the sentimental song of the Irish diaspora, “If We Had Old Ireland Over Here.”

It was Old Ireland, and then some. In true ethnic festival style, this one was universal in spirit.

You could eat Dublin cod and chips, bangers and corned beef and cabbage, of course. But you also could eat curry chicken and shish kebabs.

You could buy a green, orange and white jester’s cap and a Celtic cross pendant, but you also could buy Egyptian cotton sheets and belly dancer costumes, in green and other colors.

You could buy a drawing of an Irish pub with your name over the door. And you could trace your name and buy a family crest, even if your name is Martinez.

The Crossroads Dancers of Lake Worth accepted any brave soul, with or without two left feet, in their tent for folk dancing.

In the shade to the west of the big stage, Ireland showed its serious side, including a group seeking recognition for the 1.6 million who died in the Irish Famine of the 19th Century. Since most of those who died were Gaelic speakers, the famine is also considered a great blow to Irish culture.

Across the grassy walkway from that booth, Doug Bowe explained the Ancient Order of Hibernians to visitors. The roots of the Hibernians go back 300 years when the group was a secret fraternity that protected the lives of priests from the English, who occupied Ireland after the reign of King Henry V and forbade the practice of Catholicism.

Later, the Hibernians became a humanitarian organization promoting Irish culture and well-being.

Bowe, whose children are named Brendan, Brianne and Brigid, is unfazed by the commercialization of St. Patrick’s Day.

And what would an Irish fest be without a bit of the blarney. People entering the fest were encouraged to fill out raffle tickets.

“Free trip to Ireland!” cried the hawker. “But I don’t know if you get a trip back.”

See more photos of the burlesque dancers

DELRAY BEACH — It took the imagination of an artist to see the Art Deco bones of the little white building on Southeast Second Street.

Two years ago, artists Kevin Rouse and Deb Sullivan bought the broken-down 1967 building. They pressure-cleaned, painted, replaced the roof, hauled garbage and transformed it into the Kevro Art Bar, an edgy, neon-lit oasis in an otherwise lonely block south of the martini bars and restaurants of Atlantic Avenue.

Read the full story