7 Meals in 7 Nights: Friday - Zeke's & Casale (AGAIN!), Miami Beach

When I originally started these posts on 7 Meals in 7 Nights, I wanted to post every day for a week. Man, that was ambitious... For reasons that Ive noted before, plus some serious partying this weekend, I got a little behind. So, I'll pick up where I left off on Friday and report on my return to Casale after some Happy Happy time at Zeke's.

All day Friday I was hurtin. After consuming mass quantities of awesomeness at Naomi's, I just didnt want to eat. I woke up full again for the 2nd time this week. I could slowly feel the 11 pounds I'd lost recently coming back in one week-long eating binge. So, I skipped lunch and then decided to meet up with some friends at Zeke's to get happy after the work week ended. I effing love Zeke's. It's an oasis of $4 beer in the desert of getting raped by inflated prices that is Miami Beach. Every beer is $4. Guinness? $4. Bud Light? $4. Efes, my favorite Turkish beer? $4. They boast of having over 200 beers available by the bottle, all at $4 each. They also have some generic house wine for those that must bring their girlfriend/wife who wont drink beer. (Note: Im fully aware that my comment may come off as a tad sexist but in reality I just refuse to believe that a guy goes to a beer garden and orders wine without being severely beaten and covered in tampons.) Zeke's also serves up a few delicacies to snack on with your beer. They have bags of chips, microwave popcorn, and even one of those hot dog toaster machines for making hot dogs. They do not allow outside food to be consumed at their tables. In other words, youre here to drink beer and maybe have some popcorn with your beer.

While sippin suds with my friends, we got to talking about how I'd been eating out every night that week. I mentioned my visit to Casale for the Pizza Crawl and knew they would love the place. They got fired up to give it a shot and so we walked from Lincoln Road over to Casale for some Friday night pie and to sample the mozzarella bar. This time, we were seated in the main area by the windows, right in front of the pizza ovens. It wasnt hot but it was a tad uncomfortable. There was at least a 10 degree difference between this table and the one I'd sat at Tuesday night by the entrance. Much like my visit at Fratelli la Buffala though, it just helped the Morretti's go down easier. We started with the grand tasting from the mozzarella bar which came with 2 portions of bufala campana, burrata pugliese (the outer casing of burrata), stracciatella (the inside stuffing of burrata), treccione (a braided smoked mozzarella), and fior di latte (mozzarella made from fresh cow's milk). The dish also came with 2 sides so we chose bresaola and anchovies. The stracciatella was my favorite on its own but I kinda expected that since I love burrata so much. The best combo for me though was pairing the bufala campana and fior di latte with the anchovies. Those tiny fishies were loaded with flavor.

One of my friends is a vegetarian (or pescatarian as she does eat seafood), so I recommended that Funghetto pizza from the night before. This time they used regular white mushrooms and that robbed the dish of some flavor. The taleggio and sage didnt stand out as much as they had the first time Id had that pizza either. Not that it was a bad pizza but I doubt Id have been quick to order it again if this was the way the first one was made. The other pizza we ordered was the capriccioso which came topped with parma ham, artichokes, mushrooms, and arugula. It was a pretty good pie, no more, no less.

I left the Beach shortly after dinner and was in bed around midnight because I had planned to play golf early the next morning. It was a nice, light Friday night sippin suds, eatin pie, and catching up with good friends. I needed that because after golf I was planning to head up to West Palm Beach to visit some friends and family and things usually have a tendency to get outta control up in WPB...