Florida has a food identity problem – not because the food is bad, but because Florida’s reputation doesn’t do it any favors. When you ask most people to think of ‘Florida cuisine’ and they’re going to think about chain restaurants in theme parks, or bland retirement-complex menus. This is a shame, because the real Florida – the one that produces more citrus, tomatoes, and sugarcane than anywhere else in the country – has a fantastic food culture. The problem is that it can be difficult to get an accurate idea of the state’s true culinary scope if you stay in one place. To really get a taste of Florida (excuse the pun), you need to move around a bit. Here’s how:
First, pick the right vehicle
You’ll need to get off the beaten track a bit to find the best Floridian food. You need to seek out places like little-known Cuban sandwich shops in Ybor City that have been using the same bread recipe for decades, and website-free smoked fish shacks on the Gulf, or even farm stands along US-41 that sell tomatoes fresh from the field. Unfortunately, none of this is accessible without your own transport. So, if you’re flying in and plan to do a foodie tour of the Sunshine State, it’s probably a good idea to rent a car from Orlando airport.
Why Orlando airport? Well, you don’t have to start in Orlando, but it’s a handy beginning point because it’s slap-bang in the geographical center of Florida. It’s equidistant from Miami to the south, Tampa to the west, and the less-travelled north of the state, where the food culture starts to blend with that of the wider (and deeper) South.
Pick a side in the Great Cuban Sandwich Debate
Tampa and Miami have been arguing for decades about Cuban sandwiches. Tampa’s version, developed in the cigar factory workers’ communities of Ybor City, includes salami – a Sicilian immigrant addition. Miami considers salami a gauche corruption, and insists that the only true Cuban sandwich is salami-free. To decide where you land on this debate, you’ll just have to eat both. Poor you!
If you can, find sandwich spots in both cities that have been making their version for long enough to have formed strong opinions. In fact, this is a pretty good maxim for eating in Florida generally – find places with strong convictions about their culinary traditions, and eat there. The stronger the opinion on food, the better the food (often) is.
Slow down on the Gulf Coast
The seafood on Florida’s Gulf Coast is genuinely good, but the best of it is not in the resort towns. It is in the smaller fishing communities – places like Cortez, just outside Bradenton, where a working waterfront and a handful of no-frills restaurants serve fish that arrived this morning. Or Apalachicola, much further north on the Panhandle, where the oysters have a specific salinity and sweetness that comes from the mix of fresh and salt water in the bay. It’s worth taking things a bit slower as you savor the seafood of the Gulf. Explore some smaller towns and investigate lesser-known Floridian seafood traditions.
Understand that South Florida is basically a different country
As soon as you get into Miami-Dade County, you’ll see a sharp difference in the culinary culture. The Cuban, Haitian, Colombian, Nicaraguan, Venezuelan, and Brazilian communities that have shaped Miami’s eating over the past sixty years have produced a world-class amount of dish diversity. You can find a lot of vibrant Latin American food here, mixed in with local seafood and fusion dishes.
Little Havana is a great starting point for exploring the food of South Florida, but bear in mind that the coladores – the counter windows serving Cuban coffee and croquetas – on Calle Ocho can be very touristy, and aren’t always representative of Little Havana cuisine as a whole. Head further in, past the tourist-facing layer, and search out the kinds of restaurants that the locals eat at. This will give you a much more authentic eating experience.
Don’t leave out the North
North Florida gets neglected in a lot of tourist itineraries, but dedicated foodies really should make the effort and head up the peninsula for some Deep South dishes with a distinctly Floridian flavor. Pensacola, Tallahassee, and the towns along the Forgotten Coast are great places to find peanuts, boiled seafood, smoked meats, and hearty dishes made with local produce.
This is also where Florida’s oyster and scallop culture is at its best. The cold, clear springs-fed waters that feed into the Gulf along the Panhandle are fantastic breeding grounds for shellfish, so this is very much the place to come if you’re looking for fresh seafood cooked with care.
True Florida food is worth traveling for
Getting the best out of Florida’s culinary culture isn’t always easy. It requires a car, a loose plan, enough curiosity and willingness to pull over at likely-looking food spots, and enough time to seek out places that do not have signs pointing tourists toward them. You may well find that the state is large enough that a single trip will not cover everything – which is, in fact, a great argument for coming back!