A quest to finding the best ribs in Miami is no easy task. Many have their favorite restaurants and especially locals prefer some of the historically honored traditional establishments such as Shiver's or Shorty's.

A good rib is one that is tender, not dry and above all else, tasty. And with these come subjective interpretations, which is delicious to one person may simply be atrocious to another. Some are ok with parboiled ribs for tenderness while others demand that they be slow roasted or slowly smoked. There are varying styles of barbecue that differ from Texas to North Carolina as well as the regional accompanying sauces.

I went to four different barbecue places to try their selection, in search of the best ribs and I was surprised at the complexity of the task. Each place I went to held their own and have their own special merits and I could easily go to any of these places depending on what I am in the mood for on that particular day. I am in the fortunate, or if you look at my waistline, unfortunate position of liking everything, beef ribs, spare ribs, baby back ribs, so long as it tastes good and the meat is tender.

First on the list is Shiver's BBQ in Homestead. It is a landmark and has been around since the 1950s.

They have a large variety of offerings and when it comes to ribs they have the full gamut of pork spareribs, baby back ribs and beef ribs. You can get all three in the "rib trio" which is what I did:

I am a big fan of Bravo's Top Chef, so when there is a local restaurant by a top chef contestant in town, I try to go, whichever town I'm in. The Root and Bone in South Miami serves southern comfort food from a husband and wife team that were on in 2013. Known more for their evening meals, I wanted to sample the brunch menu and showed up shortly after opening at 10am on a Sunday. It was not busy for which I was thankful, only a few tables. I am a pretty standard breakfast eater, preferring the simple bacon, sunny side up eggs, sausage links and potatoes. Of course they did have the "American roots Breakfast" dish which would have all I wanted with the exception of scrambled eggs, but this was not a place to go for standard food and I wanted creativity.

I sat at the bar and had a course of the Drunken Deviled Eggs, and Smoky Bacon Board, which were both very tasty. Every morsel of these two dishes was delicious and they were well balanced with different flavors on the same plate.

The deviled eggs had surprising pink color to them due to the pickled beets giving it a slightly acidic flavor which brings out the dill that is important in the dressing. A not-too-crunchy chip was buried slightly below the top of the egg dressing giving it a nice texture. However, I truly enjoyed the smokey bacon board and felt by itself, it had a nice complemetnary set of flavors that lends itself to eating each piece of of food in succession to ready the palate for the next flavor, a very well thought out dish. The pieces of the bacon were very thick, probably double or triple the thickness of a thick center cut bacon from costco. The fresh/mixed pickles gave a nice sweet heat along with the marinated cheese to reset your palate for the next bite of the bacon. The fried pork skins was a nice touch as well giving a slightly crunchy, dry taste before the deep smoke of the bacon on the next bite. I thoroughly enjoyed this dish and felt it paired well with the drunken devilled eggs.

For the main course, I had the braised short rib meatloaf with eggs which was also absolutely delicious. I'm usually unimpressed with dishes that have short rib in them, generally because they tend to be underseasoned, but the veal demiglaze gave it a nice touch of flavor. The asparagus and eggs were a nice complementary flavor and nothing was overcooked.