We went out on our first overnighter / shakedown cruise last weekend. I'm happy to report that all went well! No serious loss of life and nothing broke. We made ice and Bacchus was warm! Our good friends and boating partners Logan and Meira were kind enough to come along and prevent me from crashing into any docks. We headed out on Saturday morning with enough wine aboard to cause a serious list. After clearing Fairfax Point on Morseby Is., we had a very civilized sail to Poet's Cove Resort. I crossed off an item from the 'bucket list' when I went ashore for a massage. Never done that before! The steam grotto was great too! Other friends Angus and Sandy joined the four of us for dinner in the resort and had us over to their new summer cabin for a great breakfast on Sunday morning. No wind showed up on Sunday afternoon so we motored over to Sidney Spit to meet up with Invitation II and Eagle III for an afternoon cocktail! I was in shorts and a tee shirt all afternoon, which is good for May 1! I'll take a lot more of the same! Please!!

This year's Picnic des Chefs - the much anticipated annual al fresco French food extravagaza lands at Vasa Park in Agoura Hills on Sunday, May 22 at 11:30am. The celebration of French regional cooking by celebrity chefs starts off with an array of appetizers that include assorted pates, quiche lorraine, pissaladiere, smoked salmon, mozzarella and tapenade tare, artisan breads & baguette. Main dishes from Provence include leg of lamb (Marius Blin, Hotel Sofitel), tri tip (Francis Bey, Lilly's), ratatouille (Le Cordon Bleu), and golden beet salad with goat cheese (Joe Miller, Joe's Restaurant).Dishes from Brittany include Contessa seafood salad with artichoke hearts (Neal Fraser, BLVD), rice pilaf (Fred Castan, St. Regis Hotel ), and poached salmon (Jeremy Berlin, Church&State).Paris will be represented by rotisserie chicken (Gilles Arzur, Regent Beverly Wilshire), oven roasted potatoes with herbes de Provence (Jean-Francois Meteigner, La Cachette Bistro), and mesclun salad with vinaigrette (Juan Alonso, Le Chene).The feast will be rounded off with plenty of cheeses on the gigantic French cheese platter and desserts aplenty: eclairs, mini pastries, clafoutis, waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, and Dandy Don's Ice Cream Bar and sugar cones.Wash it all down with wines from over 30 French and American wines including Croft Pink, Alizé, St. Germain, Pernod-Ricard, Champagne, Hollywood Blonde Beer, Lemonade, Perrier, Evian, Hansen Natural Beverages, Monin Syrups & Iced Tea, Caffe Nico coffee.Nestled among the Malibu mountains, the new location at Vasa Park in Agoura Hills offers many attractions for family fun: a heated pool with a gigantic water slide; a rock climbing wall, petting zoo and an Atlantis inflatable play land, all monitored by licensed life guards. Additionally, adults can join a game of soccer, badminton or volleyball, and kids can get engaged in a drawing competition. Guests can also bring their "boules" and enter in the Petanque competition to win their weight in wine! A $2 raffle lets you try your luck with fine dining certificates, kitchen utensils, gourmet products, with the first prize winner receiving two tickets on Air Tahiti Nui.

We live in a gladiator society and majority of NHL fans love watching a fight between two willing combatants; fighting in hockey is also an aspect of the NHL that I like. Two people square off and fight it "usually" solves the problem and it "usually" ends right there.

As far as an out right ban on fighting in the NHL, I also don’t think the NHL GM’s, coaches and players would probably ever go for it. Here is the way I see it, it you take fighting out of hockey, how in the heck are you going to police the game? You can’t count on the Colin Campbells of the NHL to protect the players on the ice, nor can the referees do so as well. Also, if there is no threat of player ever having to fight on the ice in the NHL you will see more acts of violence from the Matt Cooke type players around the NHL…

TORONTO — If it was Chicago, it might be two bottles of wine. They always seemed to have tough guys in Chicago, scary guys who would keep Jim Thomson awake the night before a game, and the extra wine at dinner helped to fortify him for what lay ahead.

Sometimes the anxiety led to more self-medication, pills that helped him get over the fear of being knocked unconscious in front of 20,000 fans. He was a fighter.

“As a fighter in hockey, you live in fear,” Thomson said.

He lived on the margins of the roster, protecting Wayne Gretzky one year, playing for the Phoenix Roadrunners the next. Thomson logged dozens of fights over a 115-game career, and when it ended, he suffered.

“I went through periods of depression,” he said. “I’m a recovering alcoholic. I believe a lot of my demons, if you will, came from hockey ending and the head blows and certain things that I wasn’t aware of.”

Now 45, Thomson said he “easily” suffered five or six concussions. During one stretch in the American Hockey League, he was punched so hard in a fight on Friday that he cannot remember what he did on the ice during Saturday or Sunday’s games.

On Wednesday, Thomson was among a collection of current and former athletes gathered at the Hockey Hall of Fame to promote a website (stopconcussions.com) designed to help educate athletes on the cause, effects and consequences of concussion. Retired NHL star Keith Primeau was the keynote speaker, but Thomson delivered perhaps the most radical solution to reducing the risk on the ice.

The former fighter would like a blanket ban on fighting in hockey.

“Get it out,” he said. “I mean, come on, why do we need it?”

He referred to it, more than once, as “bare-knuckle fighting.”

Read the full original article...

1) Savings and spending

Never mind this conjecture about $4 a litre petrol. Try sipping on a $8 latte instead and see what kind of bitter aftertaste that leaves. How well prepared are you for that heart stopping shocker?

Okay, it's a crude calculation but here's the underlining equation inputs. Benchmark ICE arabica futures have more than doubled in the past nine months to 34-year highs. How long before that filters through to the price board?

Call it the triple C factor: Climate Change and China. Poor harvests are affecting high-grade arabic beans and China's growing middle class has acquired a taste for and is getting hooked on the bean. Brazilians, Indians and Indonesians are also embracing the coffee culture in growing numbers. Coffee handlers also have been hit hard with margins up 150 % in the six months to October 2010, increasing the cost of hedging coffee purchases in the futures market.

Time to give up the bean? Perish the thought. I'd sooner give up my car, wine and my left kidney before I forfeit my favourite addiction.

At the risk of depressing yourself, you can read more on the brewing storm in this Reuter's article.

2) Credit and Debt

I had two separate cases of consumer rage this week. One, when I found out the CEO of the financial institution where I bank earns an eye popping NZ$6 million a year.

It was a few days after I got stung NZ$25 by Westpac on an international draft for C$135 so the news didn't sit so well with me -- even if George Frazis comes from humble roots. It's a bit steep for a fancy paper cheque that requires a simple currency exchange calculation also bent in favour of the bank.

My second WTF moment was when a telephone operator at Telecom threatened to send the credit sharks after me for being a few weeks late on my phone bill. Now I could understand if I was regularly late but in more than four and a years with Telecom, I have not once defaulted or been late on a payment. Just so happened I got busy this month. I spat the dummy and let her have it.

How about instead Telecom offer me a nice juicy rebate for all the faithful years of paying on time and also a big fat apology to the public for gouging them on mobile phone prices? In the name of consumer justice when is this country going to introduce a positive credit rating system that rewards faithful and prompt payers with meaningful merits or cash rebates that give us a reason to stay loyal when the 12 month contractual handcuffs come off?

When I have a free moment, I'll be hanging up on Telecom -- and cutting the cord.

3) Real Estate

Landlords avert your eyes, this one's for renters of which I am one. A rare bit of happy news for us saps this week. Apart from two bedrooms flats in Auckland. April rents softened across the board in all main centers.

To read more on real estate market shifts see Bernard Hickey's article here.

Time for a rent renegotiation perchance? 

4) Death and taxes

A lot of speculation lately about whether Government will take the axe to KiwiSaver during next month's budget announcement.

What's going to go? The $1,000 kick-starts, $20 a week member tax credits or options on first-time home withdrawals?

Another possibility, and one you're not likely to have heard about is the removal of the current tax exemption on employer's contributions.

At present, KiwiSavers enjoy the full benefit of the 2% top up to their retirement fund from the boss. Not something you probably spent much time thinking about but it's a bonus.

So how bad is the tax bite if Government helps itself to that as well? Take an average salary of NZ$50,000. Government taxing the employer contribution would effectively mean you'll end up paying an additional NZ$320 a year in taxes, reducing your take home pay. Whereas if Government revoked member tax credits you'll end with NZ$1,043 less in a year in investable retirement savings money -- a blatant broken promise.

Hard to say which way they'll go, but if Government wants the continued buy-in of Kiwis, they're best taking their axe to another tree to give this one a proper chance to grow. Mind you, one way or another we'll still pay. Government's cumulative contributions to KiwiSaver are more than NZ$3.3 billion to date.

KiwiSaver at a glance (March 2011):

Payments to providers (gross)	March 2011 ($) million	Financial year 2010-2011 ($) million
Employee deductions	110.0	854.6
Employer contributions	70.9	543.6
Voluntary contributions	0.9	9.9
Total member contributions	181.8	1408.1
Member tax credit (MTC)	0.2	662.8
Kick-start	23.6	256.8
Fee subsidy	0.0	0.0
Interest>>">	0.5	2.8
Total crown contributions	24.3	922.5
Total payments to providers	206.1	2330.6

5) Books and Film

Sticking with the coffee theme, beanaholics and readers will undoubtedly relish the latest from the Philosophy For Everyone Series "Coffee: Grounds for Debate."

This series of essays looks at the long standing love affair between coffee and philosophy. Editors Scott F Parker and Michael W Austin say the pair share an undeniably close and highly evocative relationship.

"The appropriate analogy is that coffee and philosophy go together like foreplay and sex. You can have one without the other, but the latter is better with the former and the former often leads to the latter.''

I was sold immediately on the book on the strength of this brilliant review by Guardian Weekly's Stuart Jeffries who questions whether one of coffee's downsides is impotence. Coffee a marriage wrecker? And to think I thought it was a salve.

Apparently one of the pernicious side-effects of the bean is that is steal's a man's libido and worse yet turns the otherwise sharp witted philosophy's sperm into over-caffeinated, turbo-boosted projectiles that fail to hit the target despite enhanced.

Whaddya reckon gentlemen? Any truth to this deflating aspect of coffee? Or maybe that's question better directed at  the opposite sex. Gals, your thoughts? Is coffee a relationship killer?

Non-caffeinated, non-financial, just a totally irrelevant but visually stunning tour of our planet captured by BBC.

Full screen viewing recommended.

Guardian travel writer Rachel Dixon on the best places to sample everything from kayaking and bird-watching to parkour

Outdoor films at Somerset House

You can enjoy London's magnificent buildings without necessarily going indoors. One of the most magnificent is Somerset House, a neoclassical edifice on the Strand. Its lovely courtyard is a London hotspot in summer for open-air gigs and films, and in winter for ice-skating. The ice rink is hugely atmospheric, with carols, an enormous Christmas tree and a cafe serving mulled wine and cider. The eclectic programme of summer films is even better. Turn up early to make the most of the sunshine and DJs; take a lavish picnic – part of the fun is trying to outdo everyone else. You'll need something warm for later – a sleeping bag is perfect – and be prepared for a numb backside: there are no chairs.
• Strand WC2, +44 (0)20-77845 4600, somersethouse.org.uk

Bandstand busking in Northampton Square

Lots of London's open spaces still sport charming bandstands, but they are sadly under-used. Or they were until 2008, when Thomas Muirhead and Ian Sutherland had the bright idea of hosting acoustic gigs in them. Now regular gigs are held from May to October in around 20 bandstands across the city, but most frequently in scruffy Northampton Square, Islington, the home of City University. Past buskers include Mercury-nominated Ed Harcourt and Wild Beasts, and the fantastic Frightened Rabbit. Subscribe to the mailing list to find out where, when and who will be performing.
• Northampton Square EC1, bandstandbusking.com

Opera in Holland Park

If the thought of opera conjures up intimidating people, places and prices, you obviously haven't heard of Opera Holland Park. OHP is an opera company staging performances in the west London park every summer, under a spectacular canopy with seating for 1,000 people. (OK, it's not strictly outdoors as it has a roof, but it's open at the sides and has picnic decks and terraces.) The opera itself isn't dumbed down in the slightest, with tickets from £46.50-£63.50, plus 1,200 free tickets for under-18s and subsidised tickets for over-60s. The atmosphere is informal and there are subtitles and online synopses. Holland Park itself has large areas of woodland and a beautiful Japanese garden.
• Holland Park Theatre W8, 0300 999 1000, operahollandpark.com

Bird-watching in Barnes

The London Wetland Centre is the best place to go bird-watching in the capital, from wetland birds and wildfowl to migrating species such as ospreys. Every day there is a free guided tour at 11am and 2pm, and you can join the wardens for feeding time at 3pm. A real highlight is the imaginative programme of events: early opening to hear the dawn chorus, late opening for guided bat walks, wildlife photography courses, encounters with the small mammals and amphibians that also live at the centre … Combine your visit with a trip to another west London attraction, Kew Gardens, for a full day immersed in nature.
• Queen Elizabeth's Walk SW13, +44 (0)20-8409 4400, wwt.org.uk/visit-us/london

Pitch and putt in Alexandra Palace

Alexandra Palace might not have the biggest golf course in London, but the 10-hole pitch and putt certainly has the best views of the London skyline. After a round, picnic on produce from the Sunday farmers' market while looking for St Pauls, the BT Tower, the London Eye, the Gherkin and Canary Wharf. The grounds of the "People's Palace" also contain a boating lake, rose garden and deer enclosure, and there are regular alfresco events, including a spectacular fireworks display on Bonfire Night.
• Alexandra Palace Way N22, +44 (0)1245 257682, pitchnputt.co.uk, open daily mid-May to mid-October, £1-£5, season tickets available

Swimming at Brockwell Lido

London's surviving lidos all have their charms, but this grade II art deco gem in south London takes some beating. Built in 1937, Brockwell Lido was restored to its former glory in 2007 and now has a great poolside cafe, which opens for breakfast and turns into a bar and restaurant in the evening. The Olympic-sized pool is open from April to October, with swimming starting at £2.70. Adjacent Brockwell Park is Brixton's biggest green space. If you prefer "wild swimming", Hampstead Ponds in north London is your best bet.
• Dulwich Road SE24, +44 (0)20-7274 3088, fusion-lifestyle.com, open Mon-Fri 6.30am-10pm, Sat 7.30am-9.30pm, Sun 7.30am-9pm

Rollerblading in Battersea Park

Battersea Park is a fascinating place, with views of the Thames, an art gallery by the lake, and a children's zoo. Instead of exploring on foot or by bike, try eight wheels instead: there is a free group skate every dry Saturday at 10.30am, starting at the Japanese Peace Pagoda. There are no hills or traffic so it's suitable for children and beginners. The Easy Peasy Skate, as it's known, is a good way to practise for more challenging city skating, such as the Sunday stroll and Friday night skate, weekly marshalled events through central London.
• Starts from Japanese Peace Pagoda SW11

Kayaking at West Reservoir Centre

Green Lanes is an unlovely stretch of traffic-choked road in north-east London leading up to Enfield. But it does have some great Turkish restaurants. And, more surprisingly, it has a little patch of watery heaven. West Reservoir is a relatively unknown watersports centre. Visitors can sign up for a sailing or kayaking course, or try a free kayak session with the Castle Canoe Club on Tuesday evenings (excluding winter) and Sunday mornings. If you're prepared to get wet, you can join in with a rollicking game of canoe polo. Lovely Clissold Park is a five-minute walk away, and Abney Park, London's enchanting nonconformist cemetery, is a little farther on.
• Green Lanes N4, +44 (0)20-8442 8116, gll.org, open daily 9am-5pm.

Power kiting in Richmond Park

London's largest royal park is the place to go for some serious sporting activity, from horse-riding to fishing. One of the most interesting offerings is power-kiting, where you sit in a buggy, stand on a landboard or wear a pair of inline skates and are pulled along by a kite. Kitevibe offers all kinds of lessons, including taster sessions for beginners, and even snow kiting when the weather allows – think sledging for grownups. If extreme sports aren't your thing, stroll among the 650 red and fallow deer that still graze the park, much as they did centuries ago (careful not to get too close).
• Opposite Robin Hood Gate, Kingstone Vale SW15, Mar-Aug; rugby fields by Roehampton Gate, Priory Lane TW10, Sep-Feb, +44 (0)20-7870 7700 or +44 (0)7866 430979

Parkour in Westminster

The world's largest parkour park, Leap (London Experience of Art du depacement and Parkour), is opening in London this summer. Parkour, the art of negotiating urban obstacles using only your body, is practised informally around the South Bank in London, but the new park will be the UK's first managed venue. The 700 sq m site will be packed with walls, railing, platforms … everything you need to hone your skills. Beginners can join coached sessions, while members will have free rein. Leap will also host top-class events, where you can watch the experts.
• Academy Sports Centre, 255 Harrow Road W2, +44 (0)20-7121 0600, parkourgenerations.com

• Rachel Dixon is a travel writer for the Guardian

Post by Adriana Velez

Those of you who love and defend Gwyneth, who don't understand why people keep picking on Gwyneth like ALL THE TIME, why, why, why? you may want to skip this post. Move along now, fans! Nothing to see here! This one's for the rest of us.

Okay, are they gone? Good. This one's for those of us with jobs and children but no hired help and no money for a fishmonger who delivers. This is for those of us who don't have time/money/paid staff to whip up roasted red peppers with anchovies, escarole salad, and pasta with duck ragout for an intimate dinner with your celebrity friends.

I'd like to introduce you to the Anti-Gwyneth: Ines de la Fressange, French lady, former model, and the daughter of a Marquess. You hate her already, right? But don't! Sure, she's another hopelessly wealthy, effortlessly stylish woman, but I think you're going to like her idea of a fun, low-maintenance dinner party.

Ines has a new book out called Parisian Chic. It's mostly about clothes and shopping but there is a little chapter on throwing a dinner party. Hers is a bit fancier than hot dogs and potato chips -- I mean, she is French and all. But it still sounds do-able for working moms. I love her philosophy.

People come to your home to spend time with you, not to savor a gourmet meal -- leave that to the professionals.

2 hours before the party starts: Buy a chicken on your way home from work. Shuffle through the living room filled with "newspapers and children's stuff."

90 minutes: Put the chicken in a pot with whatever you can find. Ines suggests "curry, coriander, thyme," and a "generous slosh of olive oil." Stir it, put it in the oven, pick up the living room a little, and take a bath.

1 hour: Cover the table with a dark-colored tablecloth and black plastic plates. Have your children decorate the table with whatever their creative little minds come up with.

30 minutes: No fancy cocktails. Just set out some wine bottles, plus water and juice for the non-drinkers.

They're here: Serve your friends sesame bread sticks, cherry tomatoes, and baby veggies piled into glasses. And now my favorite part: "Keep your guests hungry! The longer they wait, the more they'll tell you how delicious everything is."

1 1/2 hours later: Start cooking some basmati rice.

After 2 hours: Now serve the chicken with rice.

After 3 hours: Serve some ice cream.

Et voila! I guess Ines doesn't have small children over very often, because this isn't going to work for kids. But still, her dinner party game plan is such a reality check: just do the bare minimum you have to without stressing yourself out.

As with fashion and decor, when it comes to entertaining, less is more. Don't overdo it and the atmosphere will be more relaxed. That gives you time to come out of the kitchen and enjoy entertaining.

I think I've just found my new favorite domestic goddess.

 

Image via Amazon

They're better when they don't come from repurposed fro-yo machines.

Like a lot of people, I'm not quite sure what Cinco de Mayo commemorates, but I'll celebrate it today nonetheless. And I'll do so happily because I love guacamole and margaritas. But the poor margarita. Besides maybe the daiquiri, no other cocktail has been transformed into such a déclassé imitation of what it originally was. (You don't see frozen-Manhattan machines, after all.) Ordering a margarita is often less about getting a drink and more about signaling to your companions that you intend for shit to get crazy. But it's a drink with history — respectable history. (It was invented, probably around 1940, in either Dallas or Tijuana — the exact origins are fuzzy, probably because the inventors were drinking margaritas.) That's the rub: Can a drink that is usually made in large batches and dispensed out of a soft-serve ice-cream machine still also maintain its place in the classic-cocktail canon?

To answer that question, I went to some of New York's most lauded cocktail bars: Clover Club, Pegu Club, Little Branch, and Death & Co. For comparison's sake, I also visited one outlier: El Sombrero on the Lower East Side, the sort of place where the margaritas are ordered according to which size cup you'd like.

When I told my companions about my plan to order margaritas at some of New York’s most revered and non-raucous cocktail bars, they considered it briefly, and then all basically said, "How sad for you."

“Why sad?” I asked.

“I hate margaritas,” one of them replied. “There’s no subtlety. It’s all blehhhhhh," she said, making a noise like a college kid throwing up. (I doubt similar complaints have been lobbed against, say, negronis.) Everyone had a margarita story, and indeed, in every one of them, shit had gotten crazy. “I just remember losing my pants,” someone said.

The other thing about ordering a margarita in a bar like Little Branch is that the bar is cool. But a margarita? "It calls your coolness into question," said the friend who had made the throw-up sounds.

Our waiter at Little Branch wore a fedora and suspenders; he looked ready to both shoot dice in the corner as well as sing about it. Without prompting, he pointed at the menu and said, “I’d recommend the Bar-Tender’s Choice. Just tell me what spirit you're interested in, and maybe what direction you’d like to take it, and our bartender will make something just for you.”

“Sounds great, but I think I’ll have a margarita,” I said. I might have been projecting, but I felt his disappointment. He just offered me a fine custom-made drink, and I threw tequila back in his face. This man was a pro, however, and he didn’t flinch.

“Salt?”

“Please.”

Essentially, all four bars reacted the same way. I projected my shame onto them; they asked me whether I wanted salt.

All of the margaritas were prepared almost exactly the same: nice blanco tequila, lime, and Cointreau. Beyond the similar recipes, the drinks even all looked the same: a rocks glass, cocktail straw, wedge of lime, salt on the rim. Pegu Club's version varied slightly; there was a lime disk floating in the glass rather than a wedge straddling the rim.

True, there was little that was unexpected in this presentation, which took away some of the fun. When I ordered a martini at Clover Club later, they served it with that nice beaker of extra martini on the side, kept cold in a tiny bowl of crushed ice. (Delightful.) Even at Chili’s, I remember being brought out a blue cocktail shaker with a little extra margarita inside. (Also delightful.)

“Do many people order margaritas here?” I asked the bartender at the Pegu Club after taking my first few sips of the margarita he made me.

“Yes, definitely,” he said without a trace of pity or suspicion. “It’s very popular.”

“It’s a totally respectable drink,” the waitress at Death & Co. told me. In fact, in talking with the bartenders, it’s clear that the margarita itself is not the problem. (Also clear: It's not at all embarrassing to order one in a serious cocktail bar.) Like most things in good-old late capitalism, it’s crappy ingredients and mass production that have ruined the idea of it: “I see nothing wrong with even the frozen margarita," Little Branch's Matt Clark said. "Where it’s gone wrong is that they make them in huge batches and let them sit all day in a spinning machine.”

And yet, it does feel a little weird to order a margarita at Little Branch, mostly because it’s hard to imagine a character from Guys and Dolls drinking one. Similarly with the Pegu Club and the Clover Club. These bars have styles — old Shanghai and old New York, respectively — into which their drinks fit, and fair or not, the margarita doesn’t really fit.

Maybe it's for that reason that the margaritas I had at El Sombrero were so wonderful. They did not taste as good as the drinks at the four other bars, but a short glass of slushy limey alcohol just felt right in the Mexican restaurant. The owner and his family were watching the Mets game when my friend and I sat down. Without really asking, we were dispensed two margaritas. They cost $5 each, and, while we drank them, we turned on our stools and watched the end of the Mets game, too.

Matthew Latkiewicz works for the Internet; he writes and podcasts about drinking and other subjects at You Will Not Believe. His work has appeared in McSweeney's, Wired, time.com, boing boing and Gastronomica. Tragically, his wife-like girlfriend is allergic to wine.

Read more posts by Matthew Latkiewicz

Filed Under: booze you can use, cinco de mayo, clover club, death & co., el sombrero, little branch, margaritas, nightlife, pegu club

Something exciting happened in lower Manhattan today. No, not the president’s visit. Rather, Nixtamal, the Corona restaurant and tortilleria that supplies tortillas made from freshly ground corn to the likes of Fonda Nolita and La Esquina, has opened its first Manhattan outpost. Remember the four vacant food kiosks at Municipal Plaza, near 1 Centre Street? Their landlord, Aegina Angeliades, tells us she’s filled one of them (the former home of Choza) with Nixtamal, and it’s now serving tacos, tamales, tortas, and more from 11 a.m. onward (they’ll soon be delivering, and they’re also going after a beer and wine license for outdoor drinking). The menu is below. And Nixtamalito (as the stand calls itself) isn’t the only newcomer to Municipal Plaza.

Angeliades (whose family has overseen the kiosks for over a decade) says she got interest from everyone from Red Hook Lobster Pound to La Crepe Parisienne to Slice The Perfect Food, but ultimately she decided to go with an operator who was involved with the stands back when they were called the Plaza Food Court. That operator has brought back the name Plaza Food Court and is serving an extensive diner-style menu of breakfast items (omelettes, pancakes, French toast, even hot grits with butter), baked goods, grilled cheeses, burgers, hot sandwiches, deli sandwiches, wraps, panini, soups, salads, burritos, and quesadillas.

Next to the Plaza Food Court kiosk, a few new vendors will open in the next week: Center Melts, operated by one Derek Markovic, will be a grilled-cheese stand that allows you to pick from Balthazar breads and local cheeses (there’s no stopping the grilled-cheese trend!). One variety will consist of sweet cinnamon or chocolate bread with cream-cheese filling. That’ll share a kiosk with Mud Coffee as well as with Light Bites, a gluten-free concept selling muffins, brownies, quiches, pita pizzas, cupcakes, waffles, and create-your-own parfaits made from Greek yogurt. And next to that kiosk, first-timer Danny Che will operate a custom-built cart selling a version of Hawaiian shaved ice. Oh, yes.

The kiosk next to Nixtamalito is still looking for a tenant, by the way. “We’re currently talking to Sullivan Street Bakery to fill the last available spot,” says Angeliades. “We’re looking for a perfect match and union that will add to the overall harmony and success of the food court — ideally it's a vendor interested in selling breakfast and lunch items, and perhaps someone looking for an express/satellite store to expand into, distribute out of, or make their first appearance in Manhattan.”

Nixtamalito menu
Guacamole with chips and salas $6
Nachos (with beans, Oaxaca cheese, tomato, avocado, cream) $7
Elote (grilled corn dipped in cream, cheese and chili) $3.50

Ensaladas (avocado, cactus) - $5
Sopas (pozole, tortilla) - $5
Vuelva la Vida (seafood cocktail) $12

Tamales - $3.50 each
Verdes with pork
Chipotle with pork and chicken (spicy)
Pollo with red salsa
Mole with chicken
Rajas (tomatoes, chiles, cheese)

Tacos (per taco)
Chicken - $2.50
Pork - $2.50
Steak - $2.50
Fish - $2.75
Barbacoa (Lamb) - $2.75
Carnitas or al Pastor (Pork) - $2.50
Nopale with Oaxaca cheese - $2.50
Bean & avocado - $2

Platos Especiales
Tostada with chicken, steak, or veggie - $4
Chicken enchiladas in mole - $8
Enchiladas verdes with chicken or pork - $8

Tortas - $7
Chicken
Steak
Pork
Bean/cheese

Quesadilla with cheese and/or beans - $2.50
Quesadilla with shrimp - $3

Also available fresh corn tortillas at $3/lb

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: openings, center melts, municipal plaza, nixtamal, nixtamalito, sullivan street bakery, tortilleria nixtamal

Date: May 5th 2011 7:10p.m.
Contributed by: zammo

Midi is here and if the weather is fine then we're all in for a cruisey weekend hanging out in Century Park. The line-up of international acts is nothing special but they have booked almost all the local bands that this magazine loves and writes about regularly. Antidote are running the DJ stage and, again, it's a who's who of Shanghai talent, from DnB to hip-hop and out the other side in a sort of techno mess.

But best of all, assuming another dust bomb hell fug does not hit the city, will be lying around on the ground, drinking beers out of bloated cups and throwing handfuls of grass at one-another.

Before all that, tonight there's a clutch of Cinco de Mayo parties on around town. Cantina offers RMB200 for all your can drink plus some snacks. Pistolera has an all-you-can-eat Mexican buffet for RMB100. Mi Tiera has all-you-can-eat tacos for RMB99, then a drink marathon after that. There's even a Cinco de Mayo pubcrawl.

There are various after-parties on Saturday night for when Midi kicks you out. This one at Panic Room has three freshly imported German DJs and a cool name. Dada has a load of the Ice Cream Truck DJs, from from Midi. But it's this electro kid down from Beijing who really twiddles our knobs. He's called Noise Noise and he makes music like no one else in China. It's dirty, sarcastic electro the likes of is rarely seen this side of Berlin. That's at VOID's saturday night party at the Shelter.

Sunday, if Midi feels too far away, cool down with an all-day block party at Brownstone. It's 50 percent off beer, wine and select cocktails and they’re opening the doors of ...

It never makes Minnesota Monthly's getaways list, but when the sun is high and the budget's low, a person could pass a lovely summer weekend right down on Nicollet Avenue in south Minneapolis. Check it out:

Grab a frosty coffee from Anodyne to enjoy while shopping the Kingfield Farmers Market. Don't forget to peek into Corner Table to see what Scott's cooking. Seek sage advice on DIY projects and a new propane tank from the weirdly worldly workers at Diamond Lake Hardware -- somehow even the high school kids there can tell you step-by-step how to dig fencepost footings or rebuild your flux capacitor. Try out ice cream cone cookies at the new Sunstreet Breads. Wander through Tangletown Gardens and imagine you are in the secret garden grotto at the Prince of Wale's summer castle. While there you can buy some crystallized wolf urine to scare the rabbits out of your pepper plants or just to mess with your neighbor's beagle. And then head next door, hand the children a role of nickels for vintage pinball and sit outside enjoying a custard with sprinkles at Liberty Custard. If you are lucky, the firefighters across the street will be washing their truck and will let you -- your kids, I mean -- climb on it.

But wait! This was my most-Saturdays plan for summer. Until Liberty announced it was closing and I became convinced it was the final nail in an apocalyptic winter that would never end. Liberty closed! Spring is a lie! It will be winter in Minnesota FOREVER!

Then, light. Hope. Deliverance. A note arrived from Dean Engelmann and Scott Endres, those clever gardeners at Tangletown. Perhaps we would be interested to know that they were preparing to open a restaurant. Right there in the old Liberty Custard space. A casual joint, serving food they grow themselves out in Plato, Minnesota. Masters at branding, they'll call it Wise Acre Eatery. Why yes, Dean and Scott, we at SGT would be interested in your delicious new idea.

Wise Acre Eatery teams the former University of Minnesota horticulture grads and gardening entrepreneurs (heretofore known as gardentrepreneurs) with chef Beth Fisher and wine and beer expert Caroline Glawe, Lucia's alumnae, to create a neighborhood gathering spot serving locally sourced food on the spot or to take home. It will be casual, and it has promised to like my children. It will still serve custard, but custard made with cream from a local dairy and sweetened with honey; in other words, I will be able to down all the custard I want and still feel like I am eating something good for me.

I talked to Dean about the new venture. I had seen cukes and eggplants in the Tangletown Gardens store when I was buying my wolf pee powder, and had heard that they'd started a CSA. I did not realize that it had grown to more than 300 members in just a couple of years. The 40 acres they grow on (they are adding another 17 acres this summer) accommodates both nursery plants and produce, with the height of the season in the greenhouses wrapping up just as the fieldwork hits its stride. It is an effective marriage of uses that allows Tangletown to keep the farm and its staff working productively for an extra long season. What I was most curious to hear about, though, was TG's plan to supply not only the produce, but beef, pork, and poultry to Wise Acre. The evolution of producing tulip bulbs to producing radishes was logical, but the leap from growing a head of lettuce to a herd of cattle? Were they sure about this?

For Dean and Scott, supporting both produce and pasture-raised animals is both the most economically and ecologically sound way to farm. The land is managed with animals and crops on a cyclical rotation, rebuilding the soil constantly. (Dean will loan you his research library on this issue; I would just point you to one of the ubiquitous Joel Salatin videos, because Salatin is so darn entertaining.) Dean says on a farm practicing multicropping, the return per acre "blows conventional farming out of the water." (Hear that, other hort grads? Tangletown Gardens is challenging you to an agricultural smackdown!) TG has been working with animals on the farm for several years. They started with two chickens, in part because Dean had such happy memories of picking eggs with his grandmother, and grew to selling eggs out of the store. Similarly, a few cattle made way for 40, and those 40 are making their way to Nicollet Avenue.

When Dean gets to talking about the animals, which include grass-fed Scottish Highland Beef, pasture-raised Large Black and Berkshire pork, and free range chicken, turkey, and duck, he gets giddy. What makes me giddy is that they have found a processor in Watertown who is working with them on seasonal recipes for brats, sausages, and hot dogs ... hot dogs that they hope will find their way inside a corn dog! Reader, if you are not the parent of a young child, you may not understand why this is the most important news you will hear this year. A corn dog made with 100 percent grass-fed beef is the Holy Grail of local food children's meals. The dream is alive my friends. And it lives in south Minneapolis.

Wise Acre is set to open in mid-May. The renovation of the building, once a filling station, is proceeding apace. In keeping with their devotion to responsible land stewardship, the owners have managed to salvage, recycle and repurpose just about everything they need, from the tabletops to kitchen equipment. Food scraps will make their way back to the farm for compost or to some very happy pigs.

Wise Acre Eatery (opening soon)5401 Nicollet Avenue South, Minneapolis612.822.4769wiseacreeatery.com

Laura Zimmermann has the best intentions and worst results growing food, but is a smashing success at eating. She lives with her family in south Minneapolis, within biking distance of Wise Acre Eatery. Laura is an editor at SGT.

I hope everyone enjoyed the week of banana recipes. Hubby and I are still on vacation for a few days, but luckily Michelle from Fun and Fearless in Beantown was able to send me her Friday Favs post before I left so it could go up on time (Thanks again Michelle!) We first met at a blogger event, although I can't remember which one. It might have even been the King Arthur Flour trip. It was a funny meeting though because we had been following each other's blogs for a while so I definitely felt like I knew Michelle even before meeting her. Michelle claims she's not a baker, but I've watched her challenge herself in the kitchen and sometimes I swear she bakes more than I do! Her blog is about food, Boston restaurants and events, and she's even doing a 30-by-30 list, just like me!

Hi everyone! I’m Michelle from Fun and Fearless in Beantown. Although I write about different topics on my blog, a majority of my blog posts relate to food – whether it is exploring the local restaurant scene, trying out new recipes, participating in cooking classes or just playing around in the kitchen. I think we all need a “fun and fearless” attitude in life and my blog makes it easy to find one when it comes to food.

To be honest, baking doesn’t come easy to me and I’ve really been trying to explore more in the kitchen when it comes to baking. Thankfully I have bloggers like Jen who provide me with lots of inspiration, motivation and guidance!

Recently, I decided to try my hand at a Drunken Pound Cake. I found a recipe for Perfect Pound Cake on Everyday Food and followed it loosely. First, I gathered my ingredients:



1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan (the original recipe tells you to sift the flour but I skipped this)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 large eggs, room temperature (the original recipe tells you to lightly beat the eggs first but I skipped this)
1/2 teaspoon salt (the original recipe calls for coarse salt but I used fine salt)

I preheated the oven at 350 degrees. I lightly greased and floured a loaf pan. In a large bowl, I beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high until very light and fluffy. I added the vanilla, then the eggs and beat them mixture some more.



With the mixer on low, I added the salt and then gradually added the flour. I beat this well to combine the batter as needed.



I poured the batter to the loaf pan and baked it for forty-five minutes until it was toothpick clean.



The original recipe says to bake it for sixty-five minutes but my oven tends to run high and have a faster baking time for most recipes. I suggest that you modify the baking time based on your own oven.



I cooled the pound cake in the pan for an hour before removing from the pan to cool completely before slicing.



When the pound cake was ready to serve, I sliced it up and lightly drizzled it with G.E. Mazzenez Crème de Fraise des Bois. This is a sweet strawberry dessert wine that is great to pour on ice cream or with bubbly. My boss gave me a bottle and I knew this pound cake would be perfect for the wine.



I served the pound cake with some blackberries but any fresh berries will do.



This Drunken Pound Cake was definitely a success and I’m looking forward to continue experimenting with baking in the kitchen. Thanks to Jen for motivating me to bake more and thanks for the opportunity to guest blog today!


Be sure to check out all of my favorite bloggers as they are featured on Friday Favs!

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The 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival  runs from June 16 - 26 .

Today the Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times, announced the first round of official US and international selections. The 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival is produced by Film Independent — the non-profit arts organization that also produces the Spirit Awards — and will screen over 200 feature films, shorts, and music videos, representing more than 30 countries. Opening and Closing Night films, Galas, Conversations, Artists in Residence, LAFCA’s Films That Got Away, along with additional special guests and programming for the Festival Talks will be announced at later dates.

Returning to downtown Los Angeles, with its central hub at L.A. LIVE, the Festival will run from Thursday, June 16 to Sunday, June 26. Now in its seventeenth year, the Festival is recognized as a world-class event, showcasing the best in new American and international cinema and providing the movie-loving public with access to critically acclaimed filmmakers, film industry professionals, and emerging talent from around the world.

This year, the Festival received more than 5,025 submissions from filmmakers around the world, compared to over 4,700 from last year. The final selections represent 27 World, North American, and US premieres. The number of films competing in the narrative and documentary competition categories increased this year from 18 to 19, of which 11 are World premieres and 8 are North American or US premieres. The number of female feature filmmakers also increased this year from 21 to 23.

For the sixth year, the Los Angeles Times will serve as the Festival’s presenting partner and will once again produce the Official Film Guide, the comprehensive source for all movie info, screenings, locations, and related special events. The Film Guide will top the paper on Sunday, June 12 in Los Angeles and Orange County, and will be made available throughout downtown Los Angeles during the ten-day event.

“We experienced our most successful year ever when we were downtown last year for the first time, and we can’t wait to return with this diverse, rich and exciting program of film,” said Los Angeles Film Festival Director Rebecca Yeldham. “We’re looking forward to reuniting our community of filmmakers and film lovers with this year’s program of memorable cinematic events and experiences.”

“I’m very excited about the broad range of movies we’ve assembled for our second year downtown. Many of them are made in Los Angeles and reflect the city’s tremendous diversity,” said Festival Artistic Director David Ansen. “There are delights for every kind of movie lover — an original musical, a 4½ hour epic from a master director, a comedy from Iran, cutting-edge horror films, the best of new Cuban cinema and a wide variety of Spanish-language movies, entries from some great new French Canadian directors, a very strong line-up of gay and lesbian films, and documentaries that will change the way you look at the world.”

“Film Independent has been producing the Los Angeles Film Festival for ten years now, and we’re incredibly proud of its growth, the diverse artists we’ve supported, and the breadth of films we’ve shared with both a local and international audience,” said Film Independent Executive Director Dawn Hudson. “This year’s Festival also has many returning filmmakers, as well as Fellows who have gone through Film Independent’s year-round programs, and we’re excited to screen their latest work.”

To celebrate the line-up announcement, the Los Angeles Film Festival will also be presenting a free outdoor, screening tonight at 7:00 p.m. of Pretty in Pink at Nokia Plaza L.A. LIVE (777 Chick Hearn Court, Los Angeles, CA 90015). The screening marks the 25th anniversary of the film and director Howard Deutch, actor Jon Cryer, and Festival filmmakers will be in attendance. Guests who arrive in ‘80s attire will receive two vouchers to the Festival, and special discounted passes and packages will be available for purchase. A “Pink” Beer and Wine Garden will be open in Nokia Plaza L.A. LIVE at 5:00 p.m. and parking is $8 cash at Gate G in the West Garage.

Passes to attend the Festival are currently available to the general public, with special rates for Film Independent members. In addition to screenings and events, Festival passes provide access to a series of networking receptions and entry to the Filmmaker Lounge, where Festival pass holders can interact with Festival filmmakers and professionals in the film community. General admission tickets to individual films go on sale beginning May 31. Contact the Ticket Office for passes, tickets and event information by calling 866.FILM.FEST (866.345-6337) or visit LAFilmFest.com. Festival passes and tickets can also be purchased in person beginning on Monday, June 13 at the Coca-Cola Ticket Center, located in the Festival Village on the rooftop of the West Parking Garage at L.A. LIVE.

 

Narrative Competition (10): The Narrative Competition is comprised of films made by talented emerging filmmakers that compete for the Filmmaker Award. The winner is determined by a panel of jurors, and films in this section are also eligible for the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.

• The Bad Intentions, Rosario Garcia-Montero – Argentina/Germany/Peru – US PREMIERE
• The Dynamiter, Matthew Gordon – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• Familiar Grounds,Stephane Lefleur – Canada – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• The Fatherless, Marie Kreutzer – Austria – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• How to Cheat, Amber Sealey – WORLD PREMIERE
• Mamitas,Nicholas Ozeki – WORLD PREMIERE
• An Ordinary Family, Mike Akel – WORLD PREMIERE
• Please Do Not Disturb, Mohsen Abdolvahab – Iran – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• Sawdust City,David Nordstrom – WORLD PREMIERE
• You Hurt My Feelings, Steve Collins – WORLD PREMIERE

Documentary Competition (9): The Documentary Competition is comprised of films made by talented emerging filmmakers that compete for the Documentary Award. The winner is determined by a panel of jurors, and films in this section are also eligible for the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.

• Cheonggyecheon Medley: A Dream of Iron, Kelvin Kyung Kun Park – South Korea – US PREMIERE
• Family Instinct, Andris Gauja – Latvia – US PREMIERE
• Once I Was a Champion,Gerard Roxburgh – WORLD PREMIERE
• Paraiso For Sale, Anayansi Prado – WORLD PREMIERE
• Salaam Dunk, David Fine – Iraq/USA – WORLD PREMIERE
• Somewhere Between, Linda Goldstein Knowlton – US PREMIERE
• Unfinished Spaces,Alysa Nahimas, Ben Murray - WORLD PREMIERE
• Unraveled, Marc H. Simon – US PREMIERE
• Wish Me Away, Bobbie Birleffi, Beverly Kopf – WORLD PREMIERE

International Showcase (18): The International Showcase highlights innovative independent narrative and documentary features from outside of the United States. Films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best International Feature, Best Narrative Feature, or Best Documentary Feature.

• 108, Renate Costa – Spain/Paraguay
• Christopher and His Kind, Geoffrey Sax – United Kingdom – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• Come Rain, Come Shine, Lee Yoon-ki – South Korea – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• Curling, Denis Côté – Canada
• The Destiny of Lesser Animals, Deron Albright – Ghana/USA
• Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within, Jose Padilha – Brazil (New Video)
• Eternity, Sivaroj Kongsakul – Thailand
• Family Portrait in Black and White, Julia Ivanova – Canada
• Kawasaki’s Rose, Jan Hrebejk – Czech Republic (Menemsha Films)
• Love Crime, Alain Corneau – France (IFC Films)
• Medianeras, Gustavo Taretto – Argentina/Germany/Spain (IFC Films) – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• Mysteries of Lisbon, Raúl Ruiz – Portugal (Music Box Films)
• Ocaso, Theo Court – Chile – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• Position Among the Stars, Leonard Retel Helmrich – Netherlands
• The Salesman, Sébastien Pilote – Canada
• Self Made, Gillian Wearing – England
• Senna, Asif Kapadia – England (PDA)
• Tomboy, Céline Sciamma – France (Rocket Releasing) – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

 

Summer Showcase (18): The Summer Showcase section offers an advance look at this summer’s most talked about independent film releases from the festival circuit. Films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best International Feature, Best Narrative Feature, or Best Documentary Feature.

• Another Earth, Mike Cahill (Fox Searchlight)
• Elevate, Anne Buford
• The Future, Miranda July (Roadside Attractions)
• The Guard,John Michael McDonagh – Ireland (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Higher Ground, Vera Farmiga (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Leave It on the Floor, Sheldon Larry – WORLD PREMIERE
• Letters From the Big Man, Christopher Munch
• L!fe Happens, Kat Coiro – WORLD PREMIERE
• Natural Selection, Robbie Pickering
• Page One: Inside the New York Times, Andrew Rossi (Magnolia Pictures/Participant Media)
• The Pruitt-lgoe Myth, Chad Freidrichs
• Renée, Eric Drath (ESPN Films)
• Sex Crimes Unit, Lisa F. Jackson (HBO Films)
• Skateistan: Four Wheels and a Board in Kabul, Kai Sehr
• Terri, Azazel Jacobs (ATO)
• Tyrannosaur, Paddy Considine – England (Strand Releasing)
• Where Soldiers Come From, Heather Courtney
• Winnie the Pooh, Stephen J. Anderson, Don Hall (Disney)

 

Outdoor Screenings at the Ford Amphitheatre (3): These official Los Angeles Film Festival selections, sponsored by Brand X, are included as part of the 2011 Ford Amphitheatre Summer Season; a multi-disciplinary arts series produced by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission in cooperation with Los Angeles County-based arts organizations. Films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best International Feature, Best Narrative Feature, or Best Documentary Feature.

• Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, Michael Rapaport
• Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Tsui Hark – Hong Kong
• The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, Ron & Russell Mael aka Sparks and Guy Maddin – WORLD MUSICAL PREMIERE

International Spotlight – Cuba (4): This year, our International Spotlight focuses on Cuba, whose films rarely find distribution in the U.S. We’re proud to showcase the best of the new and recent Cuban cinema. Sponsored by the Department of Cultural Affairs and UCLA Latin American Institute.

• · Habana Eva, Fina Torres – Cuba/France/Venezuela
• · Operation Peter Pan: Flying Back to Cuba, Estela Bravo – Cuba
• · Suite Habana (2003), Fernando Pérez – Cuba
• · Ticket to Paradise, Gerardo Chijona Valdes – Cuba

Documenting Mexico (2): Inspired by the efforts of the Ambulante Film Festival, a traveling film event designed to promote a documentary culture across Mexico, we are pleased to highlight two outstanding documentaries from Mexico’s vibrant documentary filmmaking culture. Sponsored by HOY.

• · The Night Watchman, Natalia Almada – Mexico
• · The Tiniest Place, Tatiana Huezo – Mexico

Community Screenings (7): These films will be presented free to the public. Films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best Narrative Feature or Best Documentary Feature.

• The Bully Project, Lee Hirsch (The Weinstein Company)
• Choose Your Own Movie – vote at LAFilmFest.com for this free outdoor screening
• Crime After Crime, Yoav Potash – Grand Performances Screening
  • Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), John Hughes – 25th Anniversary Screening
  • Hot Coffee, Susan Saladoff (HBO Films)
  • On the Ice, Andrew Okpeaha MacLean – Project:Involve Screening
  • Project Nim, James Marsh – United Kingdom (Roadside Attractions)
    • Stand By Me (1986), Rob Reiner – 25th Anniversary Screening

The Beyond (5): The Beyond offers films that dare to be different. Films in this section are eligible for Audience Awards for Best International Feature, Best Narrative Feature, or Best Documentary Feature.

• Entrance, Dallas Hallam, Patrick Horvath
• Haunters, Kim Min-suk – South Korea – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
• The Innkeepers, Ti West
• Karate-Robo Zaborgar, Iguchi Noboru – Japan
• The Yellow Sea, Na Hong-jin – South Korea

Retro (2):

• Boyz n the Hood (1991), John Singleton – 20th Anniversary Digitally Re-Mastered Screening with a Cast & Crew Reunion
• Das Boot (1981), Wolfgang Peterson – Germany – 30th Anniversary Digitally Re-Mastered Screening

 

The Film Foundation Screening Program (1):

• Wild River (1960), Elia Kazan

Short Films (41): Shorts are shown before features and as part of five short film programs. With their diverse and complex content, these films shine brilliantly. Most short films, domestic and international, will compete for prizes in Narrative, Documentary, and Animation/Experimental categories. The winner is determined by a panel of jurors. An Audience Award for Best Short Film is also presented.

• Shorts Program 1-5

 

Future Filmmakers Showcase: High School Shorts (33): These two programs of shorts are made by high school students from around the country, featuring work by the next generation of filmmakers.

• Programs 1-2

Music Videos (48): The Music Video Showcase consists of three programs. Our two Eclectic Mix programs are a visual mix tape of this year’s best independent music videos, with a few innovative major label artists thrown in for good measure. Music videos will compete for an Audience Award.

• Eclectic Mix 1-2
• Kewl Vids by Eric Wareheim

2011 Los Angeles Film Festival Addendum.doc

ABOUT THE LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL

Now in its seventeenth year, the Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times, is widely recognized as a world-class event, showcasing the best in new American and international cinema and providing the movie-loving public with access to some of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers, film industry professionals, and emerging talent from around the world.

The Festival features unique signature programs including the Filmmaker Retreat, Ford Amphitheater Outdoor Screenings, Poolside Chats, Coffee Talks and more. Additionally, the Festival screens short films created by high school students and has a special section devoted to music videos.

Over 200 features, shorts, and music videos, representing more than 30 countries, make up the main body of the Festival.

The Los Angeles Film Festival is presented by the Los Angeles Times and is supported by L.A. LIVE and Premier Sponsor Pechanga Resort & Casino and Principal Sponsor Virgin America. Special support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Department of Cultural Affairs, and UCLA Latin American Institute. The Los Angeles Athletic Club is the Official Host Hotel, Virgin America is the Official Airline Partner, WireImage is the Official Photography Agency, and PR Newswire is the Official Breaking News Service of Film Independent.

More information can be found at LAFilmFest.com

ABOUT FILM INDEPENDENT

Film Independent is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit arts organization that champions independent film and supports a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation, and uniqueness of vision. Film Independent helps filmmakers make their movies, builds an audience for their projects, and works to diversify the film industry. Film Independent’s Board of Directors, filmmakers, staff, and constituents are comprised of an inclusive community of individuals across ability, age, ethnicity, gender, race, and sexual orientation. Anyone passionate about film can become a member, whether you are a filmmaker, industry leader, or film lover.

With over 250 annual screenings and events, Film Independent provides access to a network of like-minded artists who are driving creativity in the film industry. Film Independent offers free Filmmaker Labs for selected writers, directors, and producers; provides cut-rate services for filmmakers; and presents year-round networking opportunities. Film Independent’s mentorship and job placement program, Project:Involve, pairs emerging culturally diverse filmmakers with film industry professionals.

Film Independent produces the Los Angeles Film Festival, celebrating the best of American and international cinema, and the Spirit Awards, a celebration honoring films and filmmakers that embody independence and dare to challenge the status quo.

For more information or to become a member, visit FilmIndependent.org.

 

CHEAP EATS I left my uke in New York City — technically in Boston, in the back of a station wagon headed for New York City. I left my baby, my toothbrush, my second-favorite pillow, and my other baby in New Orleans. My rabbit-fur jacket that I only ever wear to Rainbow Grocery ... I left that in New Orleans too. I left my stomach in Dallas. I left my left knee in San Francisco, on the 50-yard line of a football field at Crocker Amazon. I don't know where I left my pink cowboy hat. I can't find it, and it's pink cowboy hat season.

I got the ain't-got-no-cowboy-hat-or-left-knee-neither blues.

One thing: I do have a new baby. He's four months old and lives upstairs in my apartment building, so the commute's real easy compared to Louisiana or even Berkeley. And he likes to suck on my left bicep sometimes while I'm rocking him to sleep, which gives me cute little hickies there.

In Dolores Park, a live dog's got a stuffed bunny by the throat. He's thrashing it this way and that, hammering it into the ground, growling, and beating the living fuzz out of it.

In various states of revelry and/or reverie, my friends and I are occupied in just generally occupying a couple of blankets, watching this big dog do its thing.

"My money is on the rabbit," I say, because it is. I love an underdog.

In fact, we all are one — back in last place, our one-game winning streak having come to an inglorious end earlier that morning. Dig, who had an important sack on a third-and-short, our play-of-the-game, goes, "Look! It's playing possum."

Sure enough, the rabbit is lying very still in the grass, the dog standing over it, watching warily. I'm not a dog person, but I almost feel bad for this un. Its prey, this shattered, chewed-up Easter bunny, is limper than limp, is missing an ear, and arguably never had much fight in it; Nevertheless, I more than half expect it to at least jump up and run away, if not kick the dumb dog's ass first.

Next week is the Kentucky Derby, and now that I officially "play the ponies," I will have to find me a long shot to get behind. And get shat upon.

I got the ain't-got-no-cowboy-hat-or-even-no-left-knee-neither blues.

My own Hedgehog says I ain't no spring chicken farmer. I'm afraid someone's going to buy me golf clubs for my birthday. Please don't buy me golf clubs please. I got some team sports left in me, and contact ones at that. I know I do. Get me a knee brace, an ice pack, and a Costco-size bottle of ibuprofen, I got the ain't-got-no-left-knee blues is all.

When that happens — that is, this happens — there is only one thing for me, and that is some quality Chunks de la Cooter time. It puts everything else in perspective. So I went and made a chicken pot with them, and bathed them and sang them to sleep and woke up with them in the middle of the night, and in the morning I took them to their Chunk Fu class, and then to Arizmendi and then what they call "the new park" because it's probably the oldest park in all of Berkeley and therefore not on their beaten path. And I took pictures of them on the big-girl swings.

It was hard to say goodbye, so I didn't. I went to dinner with the whole de la Cooter fambly down to Solano, to the new-to-me Korean bowls-of-things place, called Bowl'd.

The idea here — at least the main one — is bibimbap in stone bowls with your choice of meat or tofu. They also give you a choice of white rice or mixed grain. Either way it's going to get all crusty and delicious at the bottom of your hot hot hot stone bowl.

At the top: cabbage, carrots, sprouts, greens, bulgogi if you're me, and one nice sunny-side-up fried egg.

 

 

I wish there was a little more meat in it. But the meat there was good, and so was everything else. They don't give you so many little bowls of things for the table, but they'll refill what you love. In my case: kimchi. Super spicy. New favorite restaurant. 

BOWL'D

Sun.–Thurs.: 11 a.m.–10 p.m.;

Fri.–Sat.: 11 a.m.–11 p.m.

1479 Solano, Albany

(510) 526-6223

Beer and wine

AE/D/MC/V

 

You are visiting Commissioner Scott at his Malibu headquarters to discuss the Pac-12's new television deal. He lets you in with a beatific smile wearing an untucked shirt and linen pants.

Please, take your shoes off. The floors are real Indonesian teak. No, I didn't have it logged! That would be barbaric given the conditions of Indonesia's threatened old-growth forests. These are repurposed board taken from years of collecting driftwood along the Pacific coast. I purchased it myself from my friend rObdeer, a San Francisco sculptor, artist, and homeopath. The big O in his name symbolizes oneness, and the deer is for his animal spirit guide. 

No, I'm not sure if he ever played baseball. He might have, though.

Please admire the vistas. I had these bay windows installed to remind me of the limitless power of the Western landscape. In the morning I meditate nude here, and have had no complaints from the neighbors. We don't judge nudity the same way out here. John Wooden coached the entire 1972 season au naturel. Did you know that? You may not have, but Bill Walton swears Wooden had the most inspirational sixth chakra he'd ever seen. I don't doubt his claims.

Do you mind if I put on some music? I feel the need for some relaxing music to accompany this conversation.

 

 

Some people on the East Coast don't even know what California is, or that the United States shares a border with The Cetacean Republic. It's what we call the body of water you know as the Pacific Ocean. When the whales rise up and claim what is theirs in the future, we will all have to call it that, especially the Japanese, who may be in some trouble at that point.

But I can see I'm boring you. So East Coast of you! Always in a hurry, trying to hustle from one little box to another. We're just a little more relaxed out here about everything: time, labels, all that. Life's so short---this one, at least--that we just don't see the point of---

ARMONDO! ARMONDO! TEND TO THOSE FUCKING FLOWERS AT ONCE! RAPIDO! I TOLD YOU IF I DON'T SEE A HUMMINGBIRD IN THE NEXT FOUR DAYS YOU ARE SO TERMINADO IT IS NOT EVEN FUNNY---

I'm sorry, it's just that I'm passionate about our native hummingbirds, and what's happening to the bees, and well there's really such a long list.  I can't do it all myself, which leads me to our television contract. Rhetoric has its own serendipity, doesn't it?

Since you're impatient, I'll summarize for you. Pardon me while I channel my East Coastese.

 

/pretends to slick hair back

/puts on imaginary tie

/hunches shoulders up

/speaks quickly

 

Remember the guy who used to run this conference? Me neither, and I can't see him over these huge brass balls, that's why, pal. 

I more than quadrupled our current revenue in a single move and kept full rights to our own network unlike those lumpen schleps in the Midwest drinking their way through winters and listing their favorite place to meet new people as "the crawlspace."

I got us more money than those stumpfucking hilljacks in the SEC have for each school without resorting to the kind of nickel-and-dime UHF-grade production you see on their school's licensed programming. Have you ever seen what those look like? Burkina Faso called: they want their channels and their goat back, and the goat better not cry after you when I take it, if you know what I mean. Oh, and we graduate our players and honor their scholarships. Madness, but we're different out here.

I got us guaranteed prime time games on ESPN and Fox. I got our championship game on both networks. I extended the career of Thom Brennaman as a college football announcer, but no great dictator moves without committing a few war crimes, am I right? I might have even done that on purpose to troll the rest of the nation because in the future we are all trolls, and you just don't know it yet. U MAD, FLYOVER COUNTRY? I hope you are. I'll prop his head in a jar and have him call the games for the rest of eternity if I want to.

I'm Larry Fucking Scott, and this is the Pac-12. Notice we're the only conference with Tupac's name and the gauge of a shotgun in the name? BLAMMO. You've been Smug Life'd by the future, and it's so much better than you imagined, isn't it? You wanna know how successful we're going to be? I'll call it now: Colorado fans will actually care about football. People in LA will start stabbing each other in the stands over sports that really matter like college football. Washington State is going to have a winning record.

Don't look at me like that. It's the future, and I'm already balls-deep in it.

I know that because I'm sitting here in 2019, just watching Kat Dennings' first explicit all-nude love scene in the movie Portal 8, based on the video game made by--yup--smart people in Washington. She's making love to two robot doubles of herself and using the portal gun to concoct sexual positions not thought possible on the East Coast.

I wish you could see it, but you're on the East Coast. That's too bad, because it is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

 

/turns off East Coast Larry Scott

 

Well, that got out of hand! I was right about being from the future. For instance--Oh, thank you Armondo, and next time BRING SOME ICE AND DON'T JUST HAND ME A DAMN SWEATY CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE--I knew you'd want a glass of California sparkling wine right about now. And--oh! Look. I just happened to arrange a Stand-Up Paddleboarding expedition for the afternoon. It's like surfing for those without athletic ability or self-respect. I think you especially would like it.

i know, you have to get back to the office! We just do that sometimes out here. Oh, we like to work. But being in the future means you know what's coming, which is why--hello, ladies!---I'm not surprised by seeing those three ladies in the hot tub out here on the balcony, either. I told you we had different opinions about nudity. Surely your story requires more research? No, don't get up Lori! Lori there was a former volleyball player at UCLA, and as you can tell--Lori, you, you, Lori--was quite the jumper. 

ARMANDO! MORE CHAMPAGNE AND HUMMINGBIRDS! NOW!

Tamera Mowry--who turns 33 this July--celebrated her upcoming nuptials with a party fit for an ice cream princess!  She and her girls all headed to Santa Barbara this weekend for some luxe girly time before Tamera becomes a married woman.

 

Deets when you read on....

 

Tamera and 10 of her friends stayed at the Canary Hotel in beautiful Santa Barbara this weekend for an all girl getaway. The wedding is in 2 short weeks. So Friday night, they enjoyed a Cookies and Creamery and Cookie Dough Cold Stone ice cream cake and sipped Century Oak Wine from Tamera’s fiancée, Adam Housley’s family winery. Yum!

A video crew was on hand to tape the festivities for Tamera and her twin sister Tia’s upcoming reality show, "Tia & Tamera Take 2," which will air on the Style Network this summer.  Tia recently dished about the show saying, "I am having a baby and the sister is getting married. Both are remarkable events in our lives. With both events, comes preparation. So the show will follow me preparing for my birth and the sister preparing for her wedding."

Wondering what Tamera's bridesmaids dresses look like?  Well Tia--whose first baby is due this summer--is a bit nervous about them too.  She said recently, "Yes I am in the wedding. I am really excited. I love weddings! They are always so beautiful. I am a bridesmaid and I am very nervous about this. I hope I don't go into labor at her wedding!! I am also hesitant about the dress. I am constantly growing and I am worried if I will be able to fit it. The company that my sister is using is called Bella Bridesmaids. The dresses are gorgeous and all the girls have different makes which is divine."

Sounds lovely.  The wedding will be a huge affair with hundreds of guests and seven bridesmaids and groomsmen.
Can't wait for the pics!

BONUS: Tamera also recently shot the July 2011 cover of Get Married magazine.  And here's some behind the scenes pics of the sisters shooting their show's promo shoot today:

Check out Tamera and Adam's gorgeous engagement photos HERE in case you missed them.

The lawn guy came to spray the weeds, and he attacked the tall, spindly weeds in the back with particularly lethal vigor.So much for my efforts to grow asparagus.Surely, the asparagus is the happiest harbinger of spring. The stately vegetable makes its first appearance with the newly warming sun, and it stays fresh and in season for at least two or three months.And what is as versatile as the asparagus? Slender or thick, green, white, or purple, it it can stand on its own, it plays well with others, and it can be used to bring a subtle added crunch or burst of flavor to salads, eggs, meat, and more.Asparagus is transformative; it changes whatever dish it is put in. Chopped asparagus gives new vitality to risotto and a fresh taste of spring to an omelette. It turns a stuffed veal roast into a thing of beauty and takes a ravioli filling to a new height. Nothing goes better with lobster, greens, and a grapefruit vinaigrette. Some people even use asparagus to make ice cream.And it also transforms and changes to fit the skill of the person cooking it, from the starry-eyed novice to the old wizened pro. Wherever you stand on the ladder of cooking ability, asparagus is there to brighten and enliven your meal.This article will run the gamut of recipes from easy to hard, from beginner to master.But don’t worry. There will be no asparagus ice cream.BoiledThe easiest way to prepare asparagus is to boil it -- and it is just as satisfyingly flavorful as any other method.Trim the asparagus by cutting off the bottom few inches, or bend each stalk in your hands until the bottom part snaps off. Fill a skillet a half-inch deep with water, salt the water generously, and put over medium-high heat. When it is boiling, add the asparagus spears, cover, and heat until the asparagus is easily pierced with a knife, about 4 minutes (though the time varies greatly depending on the width of the stalks).Drain and serve warm with a pat or two of butter, a spray or two of lemon juice, or both.SteamedTrim the asparagus as described above. Add an inch or two of water to a tall pot fitted with a vegetable basket and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the asparagus and steam, covered, for about 3-4 minutes, until the spears can be easily pierced with a knife point. Remove from the pot and serve warm with butter and lemon juice or a drizzle of good balsamic vinegar.For a bit of a fancier presentation, immediately plunge the steamed (or boiled) asparagus into ice water for a few minutes to stop the cooking. Dry on paper or cloth towels and serve chilled as a crudité with a mayonnaise-based sauce. Plain mayonnaise works fine, or stir in a sprinkling of curry powder. For a truly elegant and flavor-rich sauce, take a cup of mayonnaise and add a tablespoon of lemon juice, a dash of Tabasco sauce, half a teaspoon of minced garlic, half a can of anchovies, drained and minced, two tablespoons of capers, and several good-quality olives, finely chopped.WrappedOne of the all-time great treatments for asparagus has a classic elegance that belies its simplicity. After the spears have been trimmed, boiled, or steamed, and plunged into cold water, wrap each one with a paper-thin slice of salty prosciutto. It’s about as sophisticated as you can get and still eat with your fingers.A delicious variation on the theme is to wrap each stalk with smoked or cured salmon instead of prosciutto. Belly lox -- that’s the salty kind -- would be best if you can find it and you like your fish salty. Whichever kind of salmon you use, be sure to slice it thin; otherwise the flavor could easily overwhelm the asparagus.RoastedRoasting asparagus helps to draw out its inherent woodsy flavor, adding a simple layer of slightly dark complexity to the springtime brightness of the spears.The easiest way to roast asparagus is to trim the spears, toss them with some extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and roast them in a single layer in a 400 degree oven for 15-25 minutes, depending on their thickness.Of course, you could gussy them up in any number of ways. Try substituting red pepper flakes for the black pepper, or use a combination of the two. Fancy salts such as fleur de sal, gray sea salt, or pink salt from the Himalayan Mountains will add subtle but noticeable differences to the flavor. Part of a minced garlic clove mixed with the olive oil before tossing will give the asparagus a warm, garlicky glow, or a whole garlic clove or two tucked in between some of the spears before roasting will moderate the garlic taste (don’t forget to remove the whole garlic cloves before eating). Try mashing an anchovy fillet or a bit of anchovy paste into the oil before tossing it with the asparagus, especially with garlic and red pepper flakes.Nothing tops roasted asparagus, after it has come out of the oven, like thin shavings of Parmesan cheese. Or chill it and serve it as part of a salad with a fresh vinaigrette.SoupSome people have cream of asparagus soup before they ever have asparagus. Some people don’t even realize the silky and elegant cream of asparagus soup comes from asparagus, which is admittedly one of the stranger looking vegetables.Asparagus soup can be as simple as sautéing half of a chopped onion in a couple of teaspoons of olive oil or butter, then adding a quart of chicken or vegetable stock and a pound of asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1½-inch pieces. Bring that to a boil for 4 or 5 minutes or until the asparagus pieces are done. Puree in a blender or food processor, strain through a sieve to remove any fibers, season with salt and pepper, and stir in a half-cup of heavy whipping cream. A squeeze of lemon at the end is always welcome.Or you can make a sophisticated soup with greater nuance (but also more effort) by first making a cream base. In just enough oil to cover the bottom of a saucepan, cook one-half of a diced onion and two diced shallots over medium heat until translucent. Raise the heat and add one-half cup of dry white wine; cook until it is almost dry. Add a cup of chicken stock or vegetable stock and cook until it is almost dry. Add a cup and a half of heavy cream and cook for several minutes until it is reduced by about one quarter. Remove from the heat.In a separate pan, heat two cups of chicken stock or vegetable stock on high. Add one pound of trimmed asparagus that has been cut into 1½-inch pieces. Boil for 4 or 5 minutes or until the asparagus pieces are done. Add a tablespoon of lemon zest and a cup and a half of the reserved cream base, and puree in a blender or food processor. Strain through a sieve to remove any fibers and season with salt and white pepper. The leftover cream base can be refrigerated or frozen for later use.DucasseAlain Ducasse is one of the greatest chefs of our time, the youngest chef ever to be awarded three Michelin stars (he was 33) and the first to receive three Michelin stars at three different restaurants. When he talks, serious cooks listen — and so do those who hope to become serious cooks.Which is why we were drawn to his recipe for Asperges Rôties Poudrées de Parmesan, which translates rather unsatisfactorily to Glazed Cooked and Raw Asparagus with Butter and Parmesan. This dish is actually quite easy (“rich yet exquisitely simple,” he says in Ducasse Flavors of France) but it depends on using the very finest ingredients you can find.Peel 40 medium asparagus spears (about two pounds) to five inches in length and tie them with kitchen string into bunches of five. Boil in a large pot of salted water for about four minutes, until a knife can easily pierce a spear without resistance. Remove from the water, pat dry, and untie the strings.Melt three tablespoons of butter in each of two large skillets over medium heat (if you only have one large skillet, cook in two batches). When the butter is white and bubbly, lay the asparagus in the pans in a single layer. Roll the stalks around so each gets well covered with butter and cook for two minutes or so, until they look gilded. Sprinkle with a total of a half-cup of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (one-quarter cup per skillet), and remove from the heat.Coarsely chop the tips only of four uncooked medium asparagus spears and scatter them over the cooked asparagus. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper, and drizzle one teaspoon of chilled, fruity, extra-virgin olive oil in a thin filament around the edge of each plate.Hollandaise When asparagus meets hollandaise sauce, it creates a state of culinary perfection. There is no greater achievement for a vegetable, no higher pinnacle one can attain. The bold taste of asparagus tempered by the gossamer lemony richness of the hollandaise is akin to nirvana on a plate.In his encyclopedic and award-winning cookbook Sauces, James Peterson calls hollandaise “one of the simplest … of the emulsified sauces.”Well sure, everyone is entitled to his own opinion. And hollandaise is certainly simple in the sense that it is not complex. But it takes an awful lot of whisking to make it right. It’s quite a bit of effort, but it’s worth it, well worth it.One constant worry when making hollandaise is that the sauce will break — that is, it will separate kind of disgustingly into its component parts. That is why we like the Joy of Cooking’s version, which is called Never-Fail Hollandaise Sauce. The trick is to keep a pot of boiling water handy, one into which you can easily dip a tablespoon.Melt a stick of butter (a half-cup) over medium-low heat, and keep warm — or if you have ghee, melt a half-cup of ghee. Barely heat 1½ tablespoons of lemon juice (or dry sherry or tarragon vinegar).Set up a double boiler with hot water, but do not let that water boil. With a separate pot of boiling water nearby, whisk three egg yolks in the double boiler with a wire whisk until they start to thicken. Add one tablespoon of boiling water and whisk until the yolks thicken again. Then repeat with three more tablespoons of boiling water, one at a time, whisking until the yolks thicken after each one.Remove the top of the double boiler from the heat and, whisking constantly, slowly add the melted butter. Add one-quarter teaspoon of salt and a dash of cayenne pepper, and whisk until thick. Serve immediately over cooked asparagus or eggs benedict.Contact Daniel Neman at dneman@theblade.com or 419-724-6155.

The late multimillionaire owner of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, Irvin Feld, left a renowned business stunningly at odds with a bitter family legacy. He built an empire of wholesome entertainment meant to bring families together, yet his own two children are so estranged they couldn't even mourn with one another in peace.

The often sad family history behind "the greatest show on Earth" is poised to go on trial May 9 before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle in a Washington courtroom. Karen Feld filed a $110 million suit against her younger brother, Kenneth, for assault when they came together in the Jewish rite of sitting shiva for their dead aunt.

The suit filed by 63-year-old Karen Feld says her 62-year-old brother long wanted to harm her and control her life because he feared she would reveal facts about their father and family that could tarnish the image of the family business. Irvin Feld created Feld Entertainment, which Kenneth Feld now runs and bills as the world's largest source of live family entertainment, including the circus, Disney on Ice, drag racing and monster truck shows.

Kenneth Feld has gone to great lengths to protect the family's privacy; he even hired a prominent former top CIA covert operative to run a secret 8-year operation to spy on and divert an author who wanted to write a family history. The author's revelations included Irvin Feld's homosexuality, his wife's suicide and his children's long-running feud.

"What is more wholesome than Disney and the circus, on the surface?

But I think what people have to realize is sometimes there's a big difference between appearances and reality," Karen Feld said in an interview with The Associated Press, the first either sibling has given on the case.

Karen Feld says her brother's vendetta against her led to his ordering guards to throw her and the toy poodle that is her constant companion out of their aunt Shirley's shiva in the Washington penthouse where they grew up. She said the guards beat her, inflicting severe injuries that required surgeries on her brain and knee.

Kenneth Feld, who lives in Tampa, Fla., declined through his attorney to be interviewed, who said his client would prefer to make his case to the jury. But in court filings he denies Karen Feld's allegations and has filed a counterclaim against his sister for trespassing, accusing her of desecrating their aunt's memorial with a blasphemous outburst. "She acted in an absolutely outrageous manner, completely disregarding the feelings of myself and everyone else that was in attendance at the shiva service," Kenneth Feld said in a deposition, excerpted in court filings.

Karen Feld also sued to have her brother removed as the trustee of a $5 million fund of which they were the sole living beneficiaries because she says he is too hostile to her. They settled a month ago on splitting the fund, set up by their uncle Israel Feld in his will, into separate trusts for each.

The cases have been full of drama, including a delay for several months while Karen Feld said she was recovering from an altercation with Transportation Security Administration agents during a trip to her Bridgeton, Maine, lake house last year. She says besides the physical injuries from the shiva assault, she has been suffering from post-traumatic stress that has ended her career as a local political and gossip columnist and made her "hyper vigilant" around security officials.

Kenneth Feld says the TSA incident and another one, weeks after the shiva, at an Arlo Guthrie concert in which she was restrained after an explosive confrontation are examples of his sister's pattern of "temper tantrums" in which she behaves unreasonably, yells obscenities and becomes extremely aggressive. Feld's attorneys point out that Karen Feld tried to argue the same injuries and medical treatment arose after the concert as she did after the shiva.

Neither sibling is a stranger to civil litigation. Karen Feld has also sued a man she was in an auto accident with and her former private nurse, who countersued alleging Karen Feld was abusive. Karen Feld tried but failed to persuade Judge Huvelle to bar evidence of her nurse's suit and the airport and concert incidents from being introduced in this case.

Kenneth Feld has been a defendant before too. His former right-hand man, Charles Smith, sued after he was fired as a Feld Entertainment executive and eventually reached a settlement. The case revealed Feld's management of a multiyear, multimillion dollar plot against writer Jan Pottker, who had written a local Washington magazine article on the Felds in 1990.

Pottker's article described the entrepreneurial background of their father, Irvin Feld, a rock-and-roll promoter who bought the Ringling Bros. circus in 1967, and his homosexual affairs. She wrote that their mother, Adele, blamed herself for her marital problems before she committed suicide in 1958 by shutting herself in the garage with a running car. Young Ken and Karen were then raised in the penthouse with sweeping views of Washington by their uncle Israel and aunt Shirley and got little attention from their surviving parent, according to Pottker.

Feld responded to the article by hiring former top CIA operative Clair George to investigate Pottker. George was fired as the head of CIA covert operations after being convicted of lying to a congressional committee investigating the Iran-Contra affair. George was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush on Christmas Eve 1992 and became a consultant.

As part of George's spying mission for Kenneth Feld, he obtained an outline of a biography of the Feld family that Pottker was writing, according to court documents. George oversaw a scheme to spy on Pottker and arrange to secretly fund other writing projects to divert her from the Feld book. George dispatched an associate to one of her appearances who offered assistance on her projects and successfully inserted himself into Pottker's life for eight years as an editor and confidant, while secretly sending Feld written reports on her activities.

George's associate even helped Pottker get a contract for a book about another wealthy family, which controls the Mars chocolate candy business, to keep her too busy to pursue her book on the Felds. When Pottker learned of the spy plot from the Smith suit, she sued Feld as well and the litigation lasted nine years before ending in a confidential settlement.

George also revealed that Feld authorized spying on critics of the circus, in particular animal rights groups that alleged the animals were abused.

The Performing Animal Welfare Society and People for the Ethical Treatment sued Feld, too. His company also went on trial on allegations from animal activists that it abuses its elephants, but the case was dismissed without a ruling on the merits.

"Just as he's treated animals cruelly, he treated people cruelly in some cases," Karen Feld said in the interview at her Georgetown home, with her dog Campari on her lap. "And I think I'm one of them."

Judge Huvelle rejected Karen Feld's request to introduce evidence of the covert operations in her suit to demonstrate what her brother is capable of. The judge also agreed with Kenneth Feld that there should be no testimony about anyone's sexual orientation or about his sister's allegations that he may be a member of a "Jewish mafia" involved in money laundering and murder.

Kenneth and Karen Feld have been in legal disputes since their father's unexpected death during his sleep in 1984. Irvin Feld gave his company to his son and left very little to his daughter. Kenneth Feld also took ownership of their father's properties, including the Georgetown house where his sister lived. Karen Feld filed a lawsuit saying he was trying to have her thrown out of her home. The eventual settlement allowed her to continue living there, surrounded by her photos with celebrities, including The Beatles on their first trip to the U.S., which her father promoted, and the sculptures of dogs and nudes she now creates for therapy and for hire.

The Feld siblings' relationship further deteriorated after the Pottker article. Karen Feld says her brother thought the personal details could only have been revealed by his sister, who has written for the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, the Washington Times and the Washington Examiner.

Both siblings have said Kenneth was groomed from an early age to take over the company. Karen Feld said her father didn't believe women should go into business, and in her deposition she said he physically abused her to the point of giving her multiple concussions.

"I respect him for what he did in terms of his brains and creativity and what he built and his work ethic," she said. "That doesn't make him a good father. And I think that a lot of what he created after the time my mother died particularly was to divide Kenny and I, not to bring us together."

Kenneth and Karen Feld had not communicated for years when Kenneth called his sister in September 2007 to let her know their 92-year-old aunt was dying and that she was welcome to attend services. They even hugged upon Karen's arrival at the shiva.

That's where their shared version of events ends. Karen Feld's lawsuit explains that she had long suffered stress-induced seizure-like symptoms from previous brain injuries. The suit says her dog Campari was trained to detect an attack coming on and signal that she should retreat to a dark, quiet place.

Karen Feld says as the rabbi began the service, she detected signs of a seizure coming on and tried to retreat to a back bathroom. Her complaint says "large, aggressive men" hauled her out of the apartment, threw her and her dog out the service entrance onto the marble floor in the hallway and beat her with fists. She says she erupted into a seizure-like episode and began swearing in "Tourette's-like speech."

She says her brother then came into the hall, threw her purse at her and told the three men, "Get rid of her. She is not family."

"He was directing that as if he was directing one of his shows - very calmly, just stood there and said that," she said in the AP interview.

She says two of the men dragged her onto the elevator, beat her and sexually groped her on the ride down, repeatedly banged her on the elevator railing and ripped her right ear lobe until it bled. She said they dragged her across the lobby and threw her and her dog on the asphalt driveway. She says no one responded to her 911 call, so she eventually pulled herself to her Lexus and drove to an emergency room to be treated for the injured earlobe, fractured ribs and elbow, damage to her vision, a concussion, neck and back strains and other injuries.

Kenneth Feld responds that during the shiva only the den, dining room, living room and adjacent front bathroom were open to guests, and his sister tried to sneak toward a bedroom where family heirlooms and financial documents had been stored. One guard said in court filings that Kenneth Feld's wife, Bonnie, instructed them not to allow Karen into the back rooms for fear she'd take something.

Kenneth Feld's counterclaim says when a guard confronted his sister, she "exploded in a rage," began yelling profanities and threw a glass of wine at him. He says her outburst prompted a pregnant catering chef to hide behind a table and forced the rabbi to stop the service.

He says his sister continued to yell as she was escorted into the hall and that he tried to step out and calm her, but she swung at him and missed.

Kenneth Feld says he re-entered the apartment because he was upsetting her more and then she was escorted from the building, but he denies she was beaten by guards. One guard made an assault claim against Karen Feld for kicking him but declined to pursue it and a warrant for her arrest was dropped. Kenneth Feld says his sister was quickly discharged from the hospital and instructed to take over-the-counter pain killers.

Karen Feld says it's in nobody's interest to air their family's laundry and she would prefer to have settled without a public trial. But she said she will do whatever it takes to get her life back and feel safe.

"It is hard to believe that we could come from the same parents genetically and be so different and that a brother could do this to his only sister," Karen Feld said. "We don't have to be the best of friends, but a normal relationship. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that he would have me assaulted after inviting me to a house of mourning."

Saigon - noisy, hot and steamy, untidy and more crowded than ever, streets overflowing on to the sidewalks with motorbikes but like a giant jigsaw puzzle it all fits together in a cornucopia of craziness, embraced by most Saigonese and myself.


However, change is afoot, many of the old school family run shops have closed and the buildings torn down. The party line (no pun intended) is that Saigon property is so much in demand that the rents forced the occupants out. Which I’m sure is true to a point but … Anyway, for myself I can’t figure out who will come to visit the multitude of new designer shops and chic western style restaurants and wonder if uniqueness of old Saigon will be lost and many will never know about it.

So I’ve taken it on myself to share some of my favorite, unique, still standing, old school spots but hurry who knows how long they will be available.

The following are a few of those -

Rooms for Rent - 3621 -36/23 Le Thi Rieng, Ben Thanh Ward, dist 1 thanhthao775@yahoo.com

Thao rents rooms in two houses down an alley – many expats take rooms here along with a smattering of Vietnamese and tourists. No frills kind of place but clean, safe and Thao will quickly become your new best friend. Rooms start at about $15.00 a night and I’m thinking long stay rates can be negotiated.  I rent a room here and have done so for about 5 years now.

Traditional Vietnamese breakfast – beef noodle soup – pho they serve pho and will get you a coffee (from the upholstery shop next door) just walk in a point to a bowl as not much English here. Make sure you get here before 9:30 am because as soon as the tub of Pho is finished their finished. About 27,000 dong for a bowl of pho and a café sua da (iced coffee with milk).  When in Saigon I make a point to eat here every morning no matter what.

Bristo 48 48 Le Thi Rieng, Ben Thanh Ward, dist 1 (around the corner to the right from Thao)

Vietnamese French fusion – interesting place, menu in English with photos, casual dress but with table cloths, silverware and great food, speedy service and all at a reasonable price..  When in Saigon I eat here at least once a week.

Quoc Bao 1 Le Thi Rieng, Ben Thanh Ward, dist 1 (at the roundabout, about a block from Pho 32) Not much English spoken here but the menu listing drinks is in English and the staff are pretty laid back and very friendly. 
Downstairs is an open air coffee shop, loud music served with coffee, fruit drinks, beer or ruhm. You can find me sitting at the bar a few nights a week, drinking Saigon beer or ruhm and messing around with the owner and wait staff.

Upstairs is a beauty salon, great guy haircuts, be sure to get the shampoo, face wash and head message. Costing around 100,000 dong for the whole deal.

Moc Lan Restaurant 20 Bui Thi Xuan street, Ben Thanh Ward, dist 1 phone: 0982-135-270

Vietnamese BBQ and hot pot – fun and interesting!

Mogambo 50 Pasteur Street, dist 1

Best hamburgers in Vietnam or maybe anywhere, Australian beef steaks and a mix of other food stuffs, along with a bar serving ice cold beers cute and friendly bar staff and a good selection of wine. American and Vietnamese owners along with the cute bar staff will be you new best friends. Its draws an International mix of expats living in Saigon so the bar is a great place to eves drop on the latest business goings on in Asia. Kind of like Ricks in “Casablanca” but this is the real deal and for the price of a drink you can be part of it.

Number 5 bar 44 Pasteur Street, Ben Thanh Ward dist 1

Next door stuffed with beautiful and friendly bar staff clad in miniskirts and tank tops working a large horse shoe shaped bar. Cold beer, hot Vietnamese ladies, oh ya and super hot ladies. Food maybe, music I don’t remember but the bar staff, ok, you got my point..

17 Saloon 193 A Pham Ngu Lao dist 1 (on the edge of the backpackers area across from 9/23 park)

The building was created to look like an old time American West Saloon and inside the staff dresses in cowboy and cowgirl outfits. It’s not American country western being played inside but loud American rock performed by a very solid Pilipino band. Drinks are a little pricey but considering the music, the nightly show of the juggling of flaming booze bottles and the gorgeous wait staff and bat tenders it’s money well spent.

Xuan Hong (Western Medicines) 154 Bui Vien Street Pham Ngu Lao Ward, dist1

While not really off the tourist trail, it’s in the Pham Ngu Lao backpacker’s area, but a good place to seek medical advice or get a foreign prescription refilled. A formal doctor signed prescription signed by a doctor is not need in Vietnam, so tell them what you need and they can probably fix you up. No idea what meds you need or if you need any, tell either one of the ladies about your condition and she will fix you up.

Giay Thanh Dung 150 Ly Chinh Thang (YEN DO CU) Phone: 08438586

Handmade shoes or sandals, he is the guy but located along way of the tourist tract and speaks little English. I’ve used him for custom sandals, inexpensive and good quality if your patient. Because of the language issues you really need the help of a Vietnamese who understands English and what you want to help you here.

Lovely lady - serving soft drinks, beer and coconut juice on the street from a display cabinet, with a folding table and a few plastic chairs and stools for her customers.   Great place to kick back, take a break while watching the  going on of the market and chat about life. 

 Located across the street from Ben Thanh market, on the side towards downtown.   You may have to look around a little to find her, though if you get close she may find you .


That's all I got for now but always thinking of you...      Doug    

Sure, everyone knows the Sunday carnival that's the Hollywood Farmers' Market, or Wednesday morning's chef-shopping extravaganza in Santa Monica. But sometimes it's not just about buying those organic free-range, grain-fed brown eggs, it's about what you're looking at when you buy them. What about shopping for carrots on the lawn of City Hall? How about securing your strawberries on top of a mountain—with a glass of wine? Here are five local farmers' markets where the views are as juicy as the citrus.

Yamashiro Farmers' Market: Only in its second year, this seasonal Thursday night market is held at Yamashiro, a palatial Japanese-inspired estate high above Hollywood that's now a restaurant. A free shuttle whisks guests into the hills where cocktails, Asian-fusion tacos, and killer sunsets are served in the outdoor bar, accompanied by produce vendors and trucks like Coolhaus and Heirloom LA, the super-local food truck we wrote about last week. Thursdays (summer only), 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.; Yamashiro, 1999 N. Sycamore Avenue, Hollywood (shuttle at Sunset and La Brea)

Arts District/Little Tokyo Farmers' Market: The name's a bit of a misnomer since this farmers market has one of L.A.'s best addresses: The south lawn of City Hall. Rub elbows with politicos in suits as well as the police force from the headquarters across the street as they scoop up produce and an exceptional lineup of prepared foods like tamales and Hawaiian barbecue. With live music and plenty of shading seating, it's a perfect lunch stop. Thursdays, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.; City Hall, First Street between Main and Spring

Los Angeles Medical Center Certified Farmers’ Market at Barnsdall Art Park: Another mouthful of a name on this market as well, but here's all you need to know: After you gather up your goods, including wild honey, sprouted beans, and ready-to-eat Salvadorian pupusas, head up the hill to one of L.A.'s most stunning vistas for a picnic. Enjoy your farmers market bounty in the lawn of the temple-like Hollyhock House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for philanthropist Aline Barnsdall in 1919. Wednesdays, 12:00 to 6:00 p.m., Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

South Pasadena Farmers' Market: While South Pasadena's always a gem of a town, when overtaken with local farmers it becomes one of the most charming places to pick your produce. Take the Gold Line and be prepared to be transported back in time as you cruise into this historic Main Street-like block. Then gobble up artisanal ice cream, legendary barbecue, and kettle corn in the shadows of Craftsman landmarks. Thursdays, 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.; El Centro and Meridian Avenues, South Pasadena

Altadena Urban Farmers' Market: This market nestled in the picturesque Zane Grey Estate in the foothills above Pasadena was on temporary hiatus due to permitting issues but hopes to be up and running again in May. Stay tuned to their Facebook page for announcements about this truly local effort run by the Arroyo Time Bank, where many of the vendors are neighbors raising chickens and goats in their backyards—and the chickens and goats come along to the market, too. Third Sunday of the month (no date for May announced yet), 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.; Zane Grey Estate, 396 E. Mariposa Street, Altadena

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The latest cupcake media craze is the news that the cupcake vodka we told you was in the works a while ago has now officially started courting the press. Cupcake Vodka is by the same people behind wine company Cupcake Vineyards. The product itself is not yet for sale, but will be soon, and in four flavors: Original, Chiffon, Devil's Food and Frosting. We'll keep you posted when we know where you can get it and can offer you our opinion on whether it's worth trying. You can sign up for their newsletter on their website to get the latest scoop.





According to the Facebook page for Cupcake Vodka:

"To all our anxious fans: We are working night and day to get our product shipped out. Once we have more information on our product availability, we will absolutely share that with you."

You can also follow them @CupcakeVodka on Twitter.









They also have a few drink recipes on their site which look interesting. Cupcake Cabana sounds perfect for summer:

Cupcake Cabana
Cupcake Chiffon Vodka with passion fruit nectar and freshly muddled pineapple and banana.

Ingredients

2 oz Cupcake Chiffon Vodka
1 Med Sized Chunk of Pineapple
1.5 oz Passion Fruit Nectar
1 Small Chunk of Banana
Perrier® or Soda Water

Preparation

Muddle the banana and the pineapple in a mixing glass with the Cupcake Chiffon vodka. Add ice and the passion fruit nectar and shake vigorously. Strain into a Collins glass filled with ice. Top with Perrier® or soda water.

The regal activity in HBO's new historical smash is far removed from that of our own royals. They should take some pointers …

At some juncture last week, I watched Daybreak's Adrian Chiles standing grimly beside a Lego Westminster Abbey, pointing at Lego Prince William, Lego Kate and 16,000 beige bricks. "Ooh, now, this really is spectacular," Chiles remarked to the chump who'd built it, hopefully as his wife packed a case and ran off with the milkman. "It's so lifelike!" said Chiles. "No, it's not spectacular, Adrian," I said. "The whole congregation is just Lego firemen and folk who work on the Lego Space Station. It is shit. Make this madness stop." Thus, in the midst of Royal Wedding idiocy, HBO's regally brilliant Game Of Thrones (Mon, 9pm, Sky Atlantic) has been a real tonic. Game Of Thrones is Narnia populated by super-hard bastards. It's The Sopranos with more sword disembowellings and sibling incest. While we Brits are represented by affable oaf HRH Prince Andrew farting about in business class on Trade Ambassador jaunts, House of Stark has Sean Bean (Lord Eddard Stark) festooned in 10 raggedy layers of leather and fox fur thundering about on a black charger, growling, "Winter is coming," then lopping off some poor serf's head with a big sword. Our own Royals, for their part, are very slim on both nifty catchphrases and unashamed acts of killing and are all the blander for it.

I'm certain, were we ever to witness Prince Edward and Countess Sophie of Wessex chucking people to a splattery death from a high tower in a bid to take kingship off Charles, we'd be less inclined to snigger at Eddy's 1987 It's A Royal Knockout shambles. If the Windsors cracked less champagne off the sides of ships and rode around less often in Range Rovers clutching corgi dogs and instead stayed in a castle surrounded by a pack of snarling killer direwolves saying, "Come and have a go, France, if you reckon yourselves," I'd be the fullest throated monarchist of all. Plus, in the words of another spectacular TV clan leader (Frank Gallagher from Shameless), those Game Of Thrones medieval dudes, "they know how to throw a party." House of Stark banquets are riotous affairs staffed by enormo-breasted wenches heaving jugs of wine and trays of chargrilled meats. Knights, kingsmen and tipsy princesses howl, flirt and begin food fights. I'm certain our very own Prince Philip would very much enjoy tedious state visits being livened up by waitresses who look like Jodie Prenger spilling haphazardly out of corsets, motorboating him by the salmon terrine – although I'm sure royal protocol frowns upon this.

Episode three looks at the King's son, Jon Snow, in his new role patrolling The Wall, a vast, 300 mile, 700 feet tall ancient barrier of ice that fortifies the northern border of the seven kingdoms. Snow is Lord Stark's illegitimate son, which everyone gets around tactfully by calling him "The Bastard". "We're having a party and you're not invited, Bastard," they shout, which goes some way to explain why he took a job patrolling miles of what looks like the Great Barrier Reef crossed with a malfunctioning freezer cabinet and surrounded by killer zombies. We see Lord Stark begin to accept how youngest daughter "tomboy" Arya will never be the "lady" he dreams of. We see Daenerys, sold to barbarian husband Khal Drogo, starting to enjoy being sexually pummelled by her angry grunting giant husband more, now she's had sex lessons off that girl who used to be in Hollyoaks. Kill, kill, sex, kill, large plate of pig, more sex. HBO got medieval on all our asses.

Chelsea: The CityKids Foundation's Spring Soiree and Art Auction is April 28 at the ICO Gallery (606 West 26th Street) from 6 to 10 p.m., with notable food provided by La Sonrisa empanadas and Shi Resatuarant. [Grub Street]

East Village: Jon Lundbom and whiskey expert Ethan Kelley will host a bourbon-and-cheese-pairing tasting on April 29 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Astor Center. Tickets are $95. [Grub Street]

Hell's Kitchen: An artisanal Italian salumi shop, Sergimmo Salumeria, is opening at 456 Ninth Avenue. [Fork in the Road/VV]

Lower East Side: The Grand Street Settlement's 11th annual Taste of the Lower East Side event is April 28 from 7 to 10:30 p.m. at 82 Mercer. Tickets are on sale for $150. [Grub Street]

Midtown: The Sweetery NYC food truck is selling Melt Bakery's $5 ice-cream sandwiches, like Cinnamax: snickerdoodle cookies with cinnamon ice cream. [Midtown Lunch]

Cer Te is selling ten-inch matzo pizzas for Passover for $10.95. [Midtown Lunch]

Prospect Heights: Cornelius is our latest wine tap convert, pouring crisp Paumanok Riesling and 2010 Pedro Ximenez red from Chile. [Fork in the Road/VV]

Soho: Vai Spuntino at 105 Thompson Street is offering a five-course prix-fixe tasting menu for $39 ($59 with wine flights). [Tasting Table]

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, astor center, cer te, daniel boulud, hell's kitchen, ico gallery, lower east side, passover, sweetery nyc, wine news, wine tap

Ladies and gentlemen, we have completed our survey of the Best Deals at Trader Joe's! Thanks to everyone who wrote in. There were 58 total commenters participating – 54 from the blog, 2 from Facebook, and 2 via email. And? Looking at the top ten vote-getters, this is going to be one hell of a party.

To review the process from last week: Every product mention got one vote. (So, if three different commenters wrote "butter," it got three votes.) Some things, like honey, elicited one clear vote and were easy to tally. Others, like cheese, were much more varied, producing several similar-but-not-exactly-alike answers. In those cases, I tallied the category as a whole, and then elaborated on individual responses within parentheses. (Um … if that makes sense, which it only kind of does. But you'll see.)

Some overall observations:

• On the whole, frozen, organic, and restricted-diet (gluten-free, etc.) goods did very, very well, as did TJ's house brand products, especially: Roasted red pepper boxed soup, Joe-Joes, Three-Buck Chuck, and Greek yogurt. 
• Overall, it appeared as if you don't necessarily shop at TJ's for the basic necessities, but rather, for beloved extras - chocolate, wine, edamame, etc. 
• Almost half of you voted for some kind of cheese. Yowza.
• Votes for bread were split. A few liked TJ breads a LOT, while others mentioned it wasn't quite up to snuff.
• I loved how many people wrote WINE in all caps. Vino lovers, unite!

Without further ado, here are your answers. Print this thing out and take it with you on your next trip to TJ's.

Wiki Commons Sprew

25 VOTES
Cheese (2 votes brie and goat, 1 vote each for cheddar/stilton, smoked gouda, shredded mexican, fontina)

21 VOTES
Nuts (3 votes almonds, 1 vote pistachios)

16 VOTES
Yogurt (12 votes Greek yogurt)

13 VOTES
Wine (1 vote organic, 2 votes Three-Buck Chuck)

12 VOTES
Dried fruit (3 votes mango, 2 vote bananas, 1 vote strawberries and cherries)
Olive oil

10 VOTES
Frozen veggies (2 votes green beans and corn, 1 vote each bell peppers and asparagus)

9 VOTES
Frozen edamame

8 VOTES
Cereal (1 vote Barbara's Bakery, 1 vote Honey-Os)
Chocolate (4 votes 1-lb. bars, 1 vote white chocolate)
Hummus
Marinara/Pasta sauces (1 vote organic)

7 VOTES
Bananas (1 vote organic)
Cookies (1 vote Maple Leaf, 1 vote Oatmeal Cranberry Dunkers, 4 votes Joe-Joes)
Eggs (1 vote organic)
Pasta (3 votes whole-wheat)
Peanut butter

6 VOTES
Boxed soups (3 votes roasted red pepper, 2 votes tomato, 1 vote black bean)
Bread ( 1 vote Cinnamon Swirl Bread, 1 vote pain au chocolat)
Canned beans (3 votes black)
Coffee
Jams (1 vote blueberry, 1 vote raspberry)

5 VOTES
Frozen Fruit (2 votes berries)
Ice cream (2 votes coffee-flavored, 1 vote Coconut milk)
Pizza Dough (generally frozen)

4 VOTES
Almond, rice, and soy milks
Apples (2 votes organic)
Bars (1 vote cereal, 1 vote Luna/Clif, 1 vote Fiberful, 1 vote Walks Into Bars)
Frozen pizza
Frozen prepared meals (1 vote veggie lasagna)
Milk
Salsa (1 vote Serrano)
Stock/Broth
Tortillas (1 vote organic, 1 vote whole wheat)

3 VOTES
Butter
Canned artichokes
Dairy (1 vote RBST-free)
Flat breads (1 vote Feta & Jalapeno, 1 vote Mediterranean)
Flour
Olives (1 vote canned)
Potstickers
Spinach
Tortilla chips
Trail Mix
Vitamins

2 VOTES
Almond butter
Beer
Frozen pre-cooked brown rice
Frozen veggie burgers (1 vote Morningstar Farms)
Gluten-free rice pasta
Ground beef
Organic whole chicken
Quinoa
Seltzer
Tofu

1 VOTE
Avocados, Bacon, Baby arugula, Balsamic vinegar, Balsamic vinegar dressing, Basmati and jasmine rice, Boxed Indian meals, Broth concentrate, Buttermilk, Canned crab, Capers, Cat food, Cilantro and yogurt dip, Clementine oranges, Coffee filters, Cottage cheese, Cranberry juice, Cream, Dog treats, Doggy glucosamine condroitin, English muffins, Facial cleansing pads w/tea tree oil, Flowers, Fresh produce, Frozen basil cubes, Frozen chile relleno, Frozen croissants, Frozen fish, Frozen hash browns, Frozen pie crust, Frozen shrimp, Gorgonzola gnocchi, Gorgozola crackers, Granola, Ground flaxseed meal, Gyoza, Hatch Green Chiles, Honey, Hot dogs, Individual Mac and cheese, International foods, Jarred hearts of palm, Kashi's TLC crackers, Kefir, Kosher chicken/turkey, Laundry detergent, Lemons, Limes, Marinated mushrooms, Mayo (sorry Kris), Meat, Multi-grain pancake mix, Nitrate free meats, Olive tapenade, Organic carrots, Organic sugar, Pesto, Pineapples, Roasted red peppers, Romaine hearts, Pre-cooked lentils, Sausages, Shiitake mushrooms, Smoked salmon, Soy (fake) chorizo, Soy creamer (TJs brand), Special-diet foods, Steel-cut oats (McCann's) , Sun-dried tomatoes, Sushi platters, Sweet potato chips, Tabouli, Tamales, Taquitos, Tempeh, TJ's chicken nuggets, TJ's spaghetti-os, TJ's peanut butter cups, Tomatoes, Tuna, Tuna meals, Veggie sticks

Sweet readers, is there anything you'd like to add to this? Maybe something we missed, or another suggestion for a specific store survey? Thanks again for all your replies - this was really fun. (*runs off to buy cheese*)

~~~

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Whether you're the pious type or just glad it's finally spring, Easter Sunday is a sure bet for some good eats. A number of restaurants around the city are offering special dishes and menus, including family-style portions, tasting lineups, all-you-can-eat extravaganzas, and the occasional Easter-egg hunt ... for adults. Check out our picks, then chart your plan of attack with the map below.

Andaz 5th Avenue
485 Fifth Ave., nr. 41st St.; 212-601-1234
When: 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
What: The Shop at Andaz 5th Avenue will offer Easter brunch featuring organic muesli, freshly house-baked pastries, Hungarian cucumber salad, poached shrimp, bone-in ham carved to order, seasonal apple pie, warm peach cobbler, and more. Call for reservations.
Price: $49 per person, $25 per child

Aquavit
65 E. 55th St., nr. Madison Ave.; 212-307-7311
When: Brunch: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Dinner: 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
What: Aquavit will host a smörgåsbord brunch and dinner featuring chilled nettle soup, ramp herring, poached salmon, leg of lamb, and more. Desserts include tosca tart, a traditional Easter cake, and semlas.
Price: Brunch: $60; Dinner: $60

Bell Book & Candle
141 W. 10th St., nr. Waverly Pl.; 212-414-2355
When: Noon to 8 p.m.
What: The rooftop-to-table restaurant will offer a tasting menu of family-style appetizers and desserts. Appetizers include crispy fried oysters, lobster tacos, corned-beef hash with poached egg, and burrata with wilted grape tomatoes. The dessert menu includes sweet treats like strawberry shortcake and mini ice-cream sandwiches.
Price: $45 per person

Brasserie
100 E. 53rd St., nr. Park Ave.; 212-751-4840
When: À la carte brunch: 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Three-course prix fixe menu: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
What: Brasserie will offer an à la carte brunch and an all-day three-course prix-fixe menu to celebrate Easter. The menus will feature items like goat-cheese terrine, halibut à la nage, rack of lamb persillé, and a chocolate trio.
Price: À la carte brunch; Three-course prix fixe menu: $49

Brasserie 8 1/2
9 W. 57th St., nr. Fifth Ave.; 212-829-0812
When: 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
What: Enjoy a brunch buffet featuring crab salad, a charcuterie platter, spring lamb, griller skirt steak, and chicken ballantine. Aside from serving seasonal tarts êpe station with assorted fillings.
Price: $55 per person; $25 per child

Fatty Crab
643 Hudson St., nr. Horatio St.; 212-352-3590
When: Noon
What: Join Fatty Crab's adult Easter-egg hunt. Participants will search in nearby stores for eggs containing free drink tickets, gift cards, a free dinner for two, and more.
Price: Free

Fishtail
135 E. 62nd St., nr. Lexington Ave.; 212-754-1300
When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
What: For Easter brunch, David Burke will offer five special lamb and lobster entrees in addition to the à la carte menu. The menu includes braised lamb and eggs with potato hash, herb-crusted baby rack of lamb, lobster "steak" and sunny-side up quail eggs, and lobster macaroni and cheese with poached eggs.
Price: À la carte

Hearth
403 E. 12th St., nr. First Ave.; 646-602-1300
When: 4 to 9 p.m.
What: Chef Marco Canora will create a four-course Easter menu including straciatella soup with spring peas and ramps, spinach and ricotta gnudi, a family-style roasted leg of lamb, and braised osso bucco of lamb.
Price: $78 per person

Hill Country
30 W. 26th St., nr. Broadway; 212-255-4544
When: Noon to 10 p.m.; Easter-egg hunt: 2 p.m.
What: Hill Country will celebrate Easter with a "Feed Yer Family" special and an Easter-egg hunt inside the restaurant. The specials include a pitmaster combo featuring a quarter-pound lean brisket, one pork spare rib, one beef rib, a quarter chicken, two sides, and dessert. The kids' combo includes a smoked burger slider, macaroni and cheese, and a chocolate-chip cookie.
Price: $20 per person; $7 per child

Lincoln
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 142 W. 65th St., nr. Broadway; 212-359-6500
When: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
What: Chef Jonathan Benno will prepare traditional Easter pastries and bread for Easter brunch. The menu will also include a braised lamb agnolotti and roasted leg of lamb.
Price: À la carte

Po
31 Cornelia St., nr. 4th St.; 212-645-2189
When: 3 to 4:30 p.m.
What: Enjoy Po's intermezzo menu featuring items like roasted porchetta and bruschetta with stracchino, figs, honey, and walnut pesto.
Price: À la carte

Pure Food and Wine
54 Irving Pl., nr. 17th St.; 212-477-1010
When: Noon to 4 p.m.
What: Pure Food and Wine will offer a raw, vegan Easter brunch menu featuring spinach Florentine, crêpes with hazelnut-chocolate sauce, and more. Call for reservations.
Price: À la carte

Quattro Gastronomia Italiana
246 Spring St., at Varick St.; 212-842-4500
When: Brunch: 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Dinner: 5:45 p.m. to 10 p.m.
What: Chef Fabrizio Carro will offer an Easter tasting menu inspired by northern Italy. The four-course menu includes torta pasqualina filled with baby spinach buffalo ricotta and herbs, artichoke ravioli with saffron parmesan sauce, and a traditional almond Easter cake with honey gelato.
Price: $65 per person

Rock Center Café
Rockefeller Center, 20 W. 50th St., nr. Fifth Ave.; 212-332-7620
When: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
What: Easter Sunday marks the last hurrah of the rink at Rockefeller Center. Enjoy the last day of the ice skating rink and the Rock Center Café brunch menu, featuring items like steak and eggs, lobster and smoked bacon hash, roasted prime rib, and slow-roasted salmon.
Price: À la carte brunch and dinner; Three-course prix fixe brunch: $40; Three-course dinner: $59

SD26
19 E. 26th St., nr. Madison Ave.; 212-265-5959
When: 5 to 10 p.m.
What: SD26 will offer a four-course traditional Italian feast for Easter. The menu features asparagus with poached egg and mustard zabaoine, tonnarelli with red mullet, roast baby lamb with rosemary, and an Easter grain pie.
Price: $75 per person

The Sea Grill
Rockefeller Center, 19 W. 49th St., nr. Rockefeller Plz.; 212-332-7610
When: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
What: The Sea Grill offers a three-course prix-fixe brunch with smoked êpes, griddled Scottish salmon hash, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce, and jumbo lump-crab cakes. Special wine pairings will accompany the menu.
Price: $55 per person

Veritas
43 E. 20th St., nr. Park Ave. S.; 212-353-3700
When: 5 p.m. to midnight
What: Enjoy chef Sam Hazen's newly added spring specials and complimentary housemade Peeps and chocolate eggs.
Price: À la carte

Wall & Water
75 Wall St., nr. Water St.; 212-590-1234
When: 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
What: In addition to the farm-to-table menu, Wall & Water will be converting their private dining room into an Easter Room for children, featuring Easter-egg painting, coloring, and holiday cartoons. Call to make reservations.
Price: $55 per person; $35 per child

Read more posts by Emily Watkins

Filed Under: grub guide, easter, user's guides

Date: Apr 20th 2011 6:15p.m.
Contributed by: siennapc

Now in its ninth year, the Carrefour wine fair is Beijing’s “best free public wine tasting,” according to blogger Jim Boyce, one of the city’s biggest oenophiles and independent restaurant and bar critics. The fair is held twice a year, and the next one is April 22-24 on the fourth floor of the Shuangjing Carrefour. Stop by and you’ll get free access to over 800 kinds of wine from all over the world with retail prices anywhere from ¥39-14,000. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about wine, since you can sample from such a large selection, and there will also be international wine professionals on hand to answer questions and give wine advice. Moreover, all bottles are 20 percent off, which makes it all the easier to bring home some of your favorites from the tasting. A few of the event’s highlights include French DBR Lafite Saga (¥198), Sutter Home Zinfandel (¥108) from California, and Canadian Inniskillin ice wine (¥888). The wine extravaganza kicks off at 6pm on Friday, April 22, with live music and a lucky draw.

Smoke on the water Times of India Also, available in a wide variety of flavours, smokers experiment by adding ice, fruit juice, milk, red bull or even wine to water in the glass vase in order to change the taste, texture, or effect of the smoke. "All flavours are inspired by different ... and more »

We don't participate in winter sports, hate driving on ice and snow and scraping ice from the windshield and shoveling snow is out of the question. Below freezing temperatures for days on end are torture. We love our city, Toronto, but our bodies are a... Related posts:

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Through April 17th, Compact Appliance is offering up to 20% off products sitewide, including beverage refrigerators, ice makers, wine coolers, dishwashers and more. Plus, free ship and free exchanges.

Vote for your favourite restaurant, finest bar, best-value eats and most-loved cookbook in our annual awards. But first, feast your eyes on the amazing prizes you could win…

HOW TO ENTER

Go to observer.co.uk/foodawards, where you will find the full terms and conditions for each prize and any restrictions which apply. All voters will be automatically entered in the draw for the chance to win one of these brilliant prizes

TOP PRIZE - WINE TRIP TO BORDEAUX

Le Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux (CIVB) is offering a fantastic opportunity to win a trip for two to Bordeaux. Its soils make up a good percentage of the best-quality French wines, and you can experience first hand how these famous vintages are crafted at a selection of the region's 8,000 châteaux. The prize includes return flights to Bordeaux, three nights' accommodation plus breakfast, a L'Ecole du Vin course, plenty of vineyard visits, plus £250 towards lunch and evening meals in many of the city's stylish brasseries or one of its many Michelin-star restaurants. bordeaux.com

2 DINNER FOR FOUR AT DINNER BY HESTON BLUMENTHAL

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at London's Mandarin Oriental Hotel is the restaurant opening of the year so far, adored by both diners and critics. So securing a table is nigh on impossible. Fear not – we're offering the chance to win a meal for four, plus wine chosen by the sommelier and an opportunity to meet head chef Ashley Palmer-Watts. Focusing on the modernisation of traditional British recipes, the menu at Blumenthal's first London restaurant features recipes that date as far back as the 16th century, such as scallops with cucumber ketchup and bergamot-cured mackerel salad, as well as the celebrated meat fruit. dinnerbyheston.com

3 LUXURY BREAK AT THE WILTSHIRE MANOR HOUSE

Win an overnight stay for two (worth £110 per person) plus breakfast at the luxurious 48-bedroomed Manor House in Wiltshire. Lunch at the hotel's Michelin-starred restaurant The Bybrook, run by head chef Richard Davies (previously at the 3-star Restaurant Gordon Ramsay), is also included. The Manor House is situated in the beautiful village of Castle Combe and surrounded by 365 acres of grounds complete with a kitchen garden, orchards, saddleback pigs, chickens and beehives. manorhouse.co.uk

4 RIVERFORD ORGANIC VEGBOX EVERY FORTNIGHT FOR A YEAR

Win a small Riverford vegbox (containing eight varieties of fresh seasonal organic veg as well as recipe ideas from Riverford Field Kitchen head chef Jane Baxter), worth £12.45 a box. It will be delivered to your door from Wash Farm in Devon every fortnight for a year. Riverford, which has won many awards, including Best Ethical Business 2009 in the Observer Ethical Awards, began in 1987 and now delivers to 47,000 households each week. riverford.co.uk

5 GOURMET PICNIC

Win one of two lavish gourmet picnics, worth £199.99 each. Since 2007, Gourmet Picnics has been delivering chef-made picnics made from the finest seasonal Cornish ingredients. Each picnic, handmade to order, contains a whole dressed Cornish lobster – landed on the morning your order is prepared – prosciutto di Parma, salads, West Country cheeses, freshly baked rustic breads rolls, a punnet of strawberries with Cornish clotted dream, a bottle of Louis Perdrier Brut Rosé, a bottle of Flying Kiwi Sauvignon and two bottles of mineral water. Oh, and all the cutlery, crockery and glassware you'll need. gourmetpicnics.co.uk

6 WEBER BBQ

Renowned for their superior quality and durability, as well as for the delicious food you can cook on them, Weber barbecues are loved by barbecue fans all over the world. Win a stunning One Touch Premium charcoal barbecue in beautiful Blue Wave, with a handy matching tool set, worth £230. The One Touch Premium is versatile and stylish – it is available in three sizes (47cm, 57cm and a massive 67cm model) and now in five stunning colours, all with matching accessories. Its "lid-on" cooking allows you to roast, grill or bake delicious food all year round. weberbbq.co.uk

7 PERSONAL WINE TUTORIAL FROM SHANA DILWORTH PLUS DINNER AT ORRERY

Win a personal tutorial for two with expert sommelier Shana Dilworth at London's Orrery restaurant, plus dinner. Situated on Marylebone High Street, Orrery is a critically acclaimed French restaurant serving the elegant food of head chef Igor Tymchyshyn. The cheese trolley is reason alone to visit.
orrery-restaurant.co.uk

8 AFTERNOON TEA FOR FOUR AT BAR BOULUD

Win afternoon tea for four worth £33 each, including a glass of champagne each, at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park's acclaimed Bar Boulud, New York chef Daniel Boulud's first restaurant this side of the Atlantic. Choose from 21 varieties of tea and a wide selection of pastries, scones and finger sandwiches as well as cheeses and ice creams. mandarinoriental.com

9 TICKETS TO THE ROYAL ACADEMY'S SUMMER EXHIBITION PLUS DINNER

Win a pair of tickets for the largest open contemporary art exhibition in the world. After viewing the Summer Exhibition, you and your guest can enjoy a three-course dinner plus wine at The Restaurant at the Royal Academy.
The stunning space was recently taken over by Peyton and Byrne, and restaurateur Oliver Peyton has worked closely with head chef Andrea Zuccolo to design a menu that makes full use of prime British ingredients. royalacademy.org.uk

10 YEAR'S SUPPLY OF CAFEDIRECT COFFEE AND PRESSO ESPRESSO-MAKER

Win a year's supply of Cafédirect's dark, intense espresso blend plus a stylish new coffee-maker to deliver the smoothest, finest-quality espresso shot, worth £260 in total. The machine features a new environmentally friendly process using only manual pressure – ensuring that flavour is not disturbed by the incorrect pressure and heat that a stovetop device delivers.
cafedirect.co.uk; presso.co.uk

11 HARVEY JONES CHOPPING BOARD

Win one of 10 chopping boards (worth £50) from Harvey Jones. Harvey Jones has been established for over 30 years, and in that time has handcrafted more than 15,000 kitchens to order in its Cambridgeshire workshop. Harvey Jones prides itself on producing the highest-quality kitchens while remaining excellent value for money. harveyjones.com

12 SIPSMITH

Sipsmith, which won the Best Newcomer award at last year's Observer Food Monthly Awards, is offering a private tasting and tour of its London distillery for one reader and 10 friends. Everyone will leave with a bottle of their highly acclaimed London Dry Gin or Barley Vodka. Sipsmith is the independent spirits company co-founded by Sam Galsworthy and Fairfax Hall, and its copper still, which goes by the name "Prudence", is the first to produce gin and vodka in the capital for more than 200 years. sipsmith.com

After the financial chaos – and the sacking of his father-in-law – Gordon Ramsay returns with a grand reopening at the Savoy. But not everything is as easily restored as the dining room…

The Savoy Grill, The Savoy Hotel, Strand, London WC2 (020 7592 1600). Meal for two, including wine and service £150

The Gordon Ramsay organisation just can't help themselves. Give them a laser-guided rifle fixed on a neon-lit bullseye just 10ft away and they'd still shoot themselves in the foot. The truth is I wanted very much to write a positive review of Ramsay's reopened Savoy Grill. I may be as hungry for a sweaty, sweary tabloid narrative, full of big-name celebrity chefs declaring war on their own families, as the next unprincipled, scrofulous hack. And yet, for all the grotesque comedy of the Ramsay story – the way he sacked his own father-in-law, the open letter to his mother-in-law begging her not to abandon her own daughter, the loss of key lieutenants and the money problems at the restaurants – he knows what he is doing. A landmark like the Savoy Grill should be exactly the sort of restaurant his team can do well.

And then this happens. I book a table for two at 8.15pm. The gal on the phone says "…and you will have your table until a quarter past ten." Eh? This meal is going to cost what's technically known as a whore's ransom and you're putting a stop watch on my dinner? "What happens if I'm not finished?" She pauses. "I'm not entirely sure, sir, but we do advise our guests that it's a two-hour turnaround." Is it? Is it really. When I get there I ask our waiter why they do this. "We need to turn the tables." Full marks for telling it like it is.

Here's the thing. The only reason you'd tell customers that they must give the table back after two hours is if you don't think, in the run of things, that you can serve a meal in that time. If you can, then you don't need to mention it, do you. Generally a restaurant should make you feel they are grateful for the custom; this is designed to make you feel grateful for being allowed in. It makes the whole business of feeding people look shabby, grubby and obsessed only with the bottom line. Arguably, in terms of his current media profile, Gordon Ramsay has got this element of the venture spot on.

It's so unnecessary because there is so much to like about the new Savoy Grill, not least the fact it's not very new at all. As with the rest of the glorious hotel on London's Strand, the renovation has been faithful. It has shine and it has polish and it has glamour. There are gorgeous lacquered panels in shades of conker, and distressed mirrors and bulging, pendulous chandeliers like giant crystal breasts and sexy Mad Men style booths. All it lacks is a light fug of cigarette smoke, pirouetting from a length of Rothmans Royal, clasped between dangerously scarlet-nailed fingers.

The long menu reads well, too, better than almost any other Ramsay menu in years. It is classy comfort food, a list of old fashioned things which you just know that, like the room, have only been given a lick of modern polish. There is lobster bisque and Waldorf salad made with Barkham blue cheese and salted walnuts. There is smoked salmon and baked-egg cocotte and Dover sole. A selection of grills promises big lumps of serious meat and at lunchtime, a roast roams the room on a trolley. Nothing here looks over elaborate.

This, of course, is a curse and a blessing. It's a blessing because this is the stuff we really want to eat. A pork, veal and pistachio pie with pickles is cut table-side, and it is a glorious, bronzed and burnished block of a thing. It's the sort of item you want to install in your living room as a piece of furniture in which to store keepsakes. Not only does it look good. It's also a great pie: fine meat, soft, rich jelly, proper pastry and a jolly selection of pickles, when you can harry the waiter into putting enough of them on to your plate.

The curse of comfort food is that there is nowhere to hide. Omelette Arnold Bennett – a confection of eggs and smoked haddock and hard cheese (cheddar or the like) and cream, burnished under the grill – was invented here for the writer and is less a recipe than an outrageous idea. It should arrive at the table on the dish upon which it was grilled, so that you can scrape at the crispiest bits. Here they have somehow managed to replate so it arrives as a desperately clean and tidy disc. It is too well-mannered, an outrageous concoction that is trying to hide its roots. It reminds me of Woody Allen's gag about sex only being dirty when it's done properly. Omelette Arnold Bennett is only dirty when it's done properly. We are at its birthplace, and it isn't.

The same game of two halves occurs at the mains. A "Dingly Dell" pork chop, cut thick, grilled expertly, is a truly wonderful thing. My companion cuts off the ribbon of fat. I steal it. A Cornish fish stew is far less so. The main ingredients – clams, mussels, a bit of mullet and so on – are of good quality and cooked well. The sauce is a thick, creamy affair and just completely wrong. It needs bite and kick, a rough edge or two. Instead, like the omelette, it is trying to be on best behaviour. A side of broccoli with toasted garlic is overcooked. Another of cauliflower cheese is completely forgotten, and only just worth waiting for when it arrives. If the Savoy Grill does not give me the best cauliflower cheese I've ever eaten I'm not entirely sure what it's for.

Desserts disappoint. A flambéed baked Alaska is a terrific bit of theatre, the boozy flame licking at the singed meringue peaks. But it has sat too long in the freezer before reaching the table and the blood orange ice cream inside is therefore rock solid and tasteless. A rum baba is dry. And those are five words I hope never to have to type again.

Service is merely OK. They don't always recall who ordered what. That side dish was forgotten. And at these latitudes – a euphemism for prices; starters are mostly a tenner or more, mains nearer £30 – OK is nowhere near good enough.

For what it's worth, we finish in an hour and 50 minutes and we do not feel rushed. That two-hour speech wasn't only insulting, it was unnecessary.

The curiosity is that all of these criticisms amount to fine tuning. They could dump the overt table-turning policy, train their waiters properly, tinker with the plating of the Omelette Arnold Bennett, get the baked Alaskas out of the freezer a little ahead of time.

The executive chef here, Stuart Gillies – who has just been appointed managing director of Gordon Ramsay Holdings – is one of the most experienced and skilled people still remaining within the Gordon Ramsay organisation and he has the ability to do this. That said, things have been chaotic of late. The boss has been a little distracted. Indeed, given the maelstrom around Ramsay these days, the most surprising thing about the Savoy Grill is that it isn't atrocious. And that, my friends, is the very definition of damning with faint praise.

In Japanese Hime (him-may) means princess, but isn't generally used to refer to the daughter of the king. That term is Ojo, which means exactly that — daughter of the king. Hime is used much the same way princess is used hereto refer to someone young and precious and beautiful. It's a compliment.

It's also the name of one of Hideki Saito's — owner and operator of Black Dice on Dundas West — twin baby girls born just 14 days ago (the other is Sakura, which means cherry blossom). She's named after Saito's grandmother, a woman who also inspired the name of one of his signature Sake based cocktails, naturally the Hime.

This Hime uses Sake as its base, along with plum wine and peach schnapps. The result is something sweet, but not sugary — and dangerously easy to drink.

Hime - 2.5oz, $7.50

Ingredients:
Sake
Plum wine
Peach Schnapps
Lime juice
Simple syrup

Top notes - 7/10
For those who've never paid Black Dice a visit, it's a 1950s inspired rockabilly bar by way of Tokyo; a refreshingly low-key place that does the enviable job of perfectly executing a theme without being hokey. It's dead on golden age, rock n' roll Americana with a Japanese twist. There's an excellent selection of sake, Japanese whiskey, Shochu (like a Japanese vodka, but not really) as well as a great selection of bottled beer. But the real treat are his Hideki's sake cocktails, and the one to rule them all is the Hime.

It's a pale green drink served straight up in a martini cocktail glass and garnished with a coil of lime rind. It's smart, stylish and totally different from any other cocktail in town, just like the bar.

The Back End - 8/10
The flavour isn't entirely foreign, but it still comes off as unique (if that makes sense). Unlike many other fine cocktail on this list and beyond, it's a drink that's transformed by the sum of its parts. The taste doesn't necessarily give you sake, plum, peach and lime flavours. What you get is the Hime, this new delicious thing that goes down like grape juice. I want to call it adult Kool-Aid, but just in the sense that if you are an adult you will love it. But Kool-Aid is too cheap a name for the Hime, despite its marvelous drinkability, there is still depth to its flavour.

The drink is a testament to the bar and vice versa, they work together in a common theme and I wouldn't want either without the other.

Finish - 8/10
What more can be said, great bar, great drink, great times--just go. The only thing I might consider changing is that since none of the ingredients are super-duper boozy, there's no reason this needs to be served short as a martini. I'd throw it in a Collins glass with some ice and maybe a touch of seltzer, garnish it with a cherry blossom and rename it the Sakura Hime — wouldn't mamma be proud?

Total Score: 23/30 (76%)

Previously in the series

• The Bullshot
• The Derby
• Balsamic Lavender
• Chemical Peel
• Petey's Mescal Muddle
• The Bramblish
• Sazerac
• The Sidecar
• Bloody Hound

A special treat for you this weekend - I'm starting the kick-off of the April Wedding Vendor Challenge on a Saturday and each day from now thru Friday you will see some wonderful inspiration for spring bridal showers {+ the ideas can easily be implemented for weddings or parties of any kind too}. This months color palette was bubblegum pink, mint green and robin's egg blue. I asked vendors to create a bridal shower tablescape with a dessert display and just like the other challenges, there will be at least one DIY provided.

Today I begin with a vintage circus themed bridal shower - which I just think this is the cutest idea. This shoot features the talent of Maria from StudioSister Photography, Samantha of Papermints, Krissy from Make Believe'N, Stephanie of La Coco Rouge and Amanda of Artisan Maskers.

Maria created the theme based on the color palette and those colors were the inspiration for this carnival of candy and circus of sweets, with a soft feminine touch. The fun and flirty bouquet from Krissy of Make Believe'N resembles a big round stick of cotton candy - perfectly fitting the carnival/circus theme. The incredible handcrafted flowers made an ideal centerpiece for such a playful table. PS: This Japan Cherry Blossom bouquet is part of the Etsy Wedding Team charity drive where etsy shop artists are dedicating sales for relief efforts in Japan. Each flower is made of silky satin and complimenting patterned paper to represent the petals of a cherry blossom. You can purchase the bouquet here.

Maria writes . . . the table displayed an array of desserts and candies, including jelly beans, salt water taffy, rock candy, cotton candy and cupcakes, all in coordinating colors to follow the established palette. The cupcakes were made with a strawberry cake recipe and buttercream frosting, then topped with either blue sugar crystals or pink glitter gel. Cupcake toppers (and all paper goods) were created by Papermints.

EASY DIY: The pink and white cupcake stand above was created out of a candlestick and a plate, some epoxy glue and pink paint.

EASY DIY: the cupcake carousel was created out of an easter egg holder (from Target) accented by candy sticks with attached carousel animals.

Mint green material was used for the tablecloth, as well as the chair cover. The chair was also accented with a plaid-patterned bow, which complemented the plaid/gingham print plates, cupcake wrappers and masquerade mask. All of the fabric was purchased from Jo-Ann Fabric in the clearance section.

Maria says no bridal shower is complete without delicious drinks. A pink lemonade cocktail was also displayed on the table, in a large glass pitcher, as well as a wine glass at the Bride-to-be's table setting. Fresh-cut lemons really make this drink look delectable. Set to the side is a bin full of ice cold glass bottle sodas {shown above}. Now doesn't that bring back great childhood memories?

DIY DOWNLOADABLE GOODIE: Samantha of Papermints has offered the Vintage Circus printable cucpake toppers as a download which can then be used as either toppers or tags. Simply print out the Vintage Circus Toppers and/or Tags from Scribd, trim and you're good to go. {the download link at Scribd is directly underneath the item's title in the right column}

Wedding Vendors:
Photographer and Designer: Maria Healey of StudioSister Photography
Invitation and Paper Goods Designer: Samantha of Papermints
Floral Artist: Krissy of Make Believe'N
Cream Mini Top Hat: Stephanie of La Coco Rouge
Papier-mache Masquerade Mask: Amanda of Artisan Maskers

Chelsea: Highpoint Bistro & Bar has added a "snack bar" to their menu, which will be available between 11:30 a.m. and 7 p.m., and again from 10 p.m. until close. The menu will include snacks like buffalo chicken lollipops and potato chip nachos. [Grub Street]

Corona: The Lemon Ice King of Corona has added a "spumoni" to its myriad of ice flavors. [Edible Communities]

East Village: After test runs at their Greenwich Village and Upper West Side locations, the Mermaid Inn announced that they'll be serving brunch at their East Village locale on April 30 and May 1. [Grub Street]

Flatiron: We mentioned the Laurent Gras pop-up at Laurent Tourondel's BLT Fish, and now we have the details! On May 2, Gras will serve a four-course menu paired with wine that includes black bass salad, shellfish fricassee, arctic char schnitzel, and a dark-chocolate dessert. The menu is $85 and will run until May 7. [Grub Street]

Financial District: New York Vinters presents Jason & Ryan's Excellent Vegan Adventure, a six-course vegan tasting menu paired with wine. Chef Ryan Smith and artist-in-residence Jason Oliva have dreamed up dishes like golden-beet carpaccio, compressed-watermelon sashimi, and gnocchi and smoked butternut squash that could make even the most avid meatlovers' mouths water. Tickets are $95 and can be purchased here. [Grub Street]

Lower East Side: Lucky's Famous Burgers has opened its outpost at 147 Houston Street. Open until 5 a.m., it looks like bar-goers have a new late-night nosh spot. [Fork in the Road/VV]

Meatpacking District: Starting April 18, Brasserie Beaumarchais will have L'Apero (French happy hour) every Monday, which will feature small dishes like croque monsieur and paté de campagne. Paired with a French beer or one of Beaumarchais's cocktails, it sounds like the tastiest of happy hours. [Grub Street]

Park Slope: This Saturday, celebrate the opening of Bierkraft's new outdoor space with cask ales, oysters, and ice-cream sandwiches. [Tasting Table]

West Village: Po has brought back its wildly popular spring dish, spring pea pappardelle with red onion and mint. Order it in house or to go! [Grub Street]

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, bierkraft, blt fish, brasserie beaumarchais, chelsea, corona, east village, financial district, flatiron, highpoint bistro & bar, laurent gras, laurent tourondel, lemon ice king of corona, lower east side, lucky's famous burgers, meatpacking district, mermaid inn, new york vinters, park slope, west village

Getting tipsy might not be the first idea that comes to mind when figuring how to help out poor farmers in Bolivia. But it is a pretty good one, say the fair-trade wine and spirits folks I met over the weekend. At the San Francisco Green Festival last Saturday, Fair Trade Spirits's Danny Ronen and wine importer Michael Hutchinson unveiled a few brands of alcohol that prove a fine Merlot can also be socially conscious. Since we've already told you how to minimize your carbon footprint at the wet bar, why not improve your social impact too? Try out a few of these recipes at your next party* and tell us what you think.

Photo courtesy Fair Trade USA.A Caïpirowska that creates jobs: Consider it a lazy mojito, made from fair-trade quinoa vodka (yes, quinoa) that is cultivated by more than 1,200 small-scale producers in the Bolivian Altiplano and gathered in the Anapqui cooperative, the country's main association of farming producers. Thanks in part to the new craze for quinoa in the US, fair-trade quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) production has generated an additional 2,675 jobs in the Bolivian highlands, and increased profits have gone to support the coop's new vehicles purchases and agricultural training programs. It tastes better than potato-based vodka, too.

• 5 centilitres fair-trade quinoa vodka
• 1/2 lime
• 2 spoons of fair-trade sugar

Cut the 1/2 lime in 4 pieces and crush in a mortar with the sugar. Top with crushed ice and add the vodka. Shake well and serve with two short straws. (Recipe from Fair Trade Spirits.)

Ivo Posthumus/Flickr.A White Russian that puts kids through school and combats cancer: The liqueur in this drink, otherwise known as the "Jackie Caucasian," is made from coffee grown by small-scale farmers in Huatusco, Mexico, and sugar harvested by independent cane growers in Malawi. Profits from the coffee have funded some $21,000 in scholarships and helped build a cancer screening clinic in Huatusco, and sugar sales have helped install 10 safe drinking water wells in Malawan villages. The Dude would be proud.

• 2 ounces fair-trade quinoa vodka
• 1 ounce fair-trade cafe liqueur

Pour over rocks in a rocks glass. Top with organic half-and-half. (Recipe from Fair Trade Spirits.)

Continue Reading »

For the last week or so i have been experimenting with vinegar in the mornings on an empty stomach.

The theory being it may boost the the acid in my stomach.

If it clears my skin for other reaons then so be it.


I don't really care about any side effects for the time being just want to see what happens.


I have been having 2 lid fills, say 2 large spoonfulls, of cheapo, economy, barley malt vinegar. For no other reason than it's cheap and i don't want to use apple cider vinegar or wine vinegar because of the possible fructose present. Ideally i would like to use rice vinegar.

On awaking each morning i am having a glass of water followed by:

2 large spoonfulls of vinegar.
Juice of half a lemon
Half teenspoon of vitamin c powder.
Filled up with water.

Then small amount of water to wash mouth out.

Small amount of olive to swill in mouth for a minute or so.



Results so far are promising but this could be just coincendental, as usual, as i have also stopped my chocolate and ice cream binge at the same time.

7 days in and my skin has improved nicely so far, very few new spots.


I will give it as long as i can.

I love to drink wine and try to drink only good wines – Life is too short to drink bad wines, right? Over the past decade I tried many different Chinese wines, but most of the time I was not very impressed with what I tasted. Sure, there were a few decent ones among the tens of locally produced varieties that I drank, but generally they were at least twice as expensive as a similar non-Chinese wines. I’d love to find a good Chinese red wine below RMB 100 that I could drink at night on weeknights, but so far I have not been able to find one.

A couple of weeks ago I was doing a late night ice wine tasting at home. My friend Alexandre Imperatori (a race car driver who among others races in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, you can watch him this weekend at the Shanghai Circuit before the Formula One race) had given me a couple of excellent Canadian ice wines, and it was time to try them.

I posted the results of the tasting on Facebook and then one of my FB friends told me that a friend of his was related to the owner of a Chinese vineyard that produces ice wines. I was intrigued, because I had never heard about Chinese ice wines before. He asked me if I would be interested to try the Chinese ice wine, and if so he would arrange for some bottles to be delivered to my home.

And indeed about 2 weeks ago 2 beautifully packaged bottles of Vidal Eastars Ice Wine were delivered to my place. Because I was about to go on a business trip I decided to save them for a better moment, which turned out to be last Sunday. My parents were visiting and they also like good wines, so we opened one of the bottles.

To be honest, my expectations were not very high. I had been disappointed so often by Chinese wines that I expected an okay wine, but nothing special. But I was wrong: the wine was excellent! It was a typical dessert wine, deep yellow with a thick almost oily structure. Of course the wine was intensely sweet and it had a very nice after taste. If someone had told me that this was a Canadian ice wine I would have believed it, this wine was at least on par with some of the bottles I had before.

This means I can’t keep up my saying that China doesn’t produce any good wines. This bottle proved me wrong and I am happy to admit it. And the good news is that I still have a second bottle waiting to be opened!

Eastar ice wine’s website is here (Chinese only). The webshop is empty however, so you can’t buy any wines there. I found another shop online where you can buy the wine, 6 small bottles (375 ml) for RMB 1488 (USD 227).

A little while ago I was over at my cousin's house, enjoying a dinner of homemade chili fries and wine, and discussing various important subjects when the topic of ice cream came up.

Bedford-Stuyvesant: BK Farmyards' Chicken Workshop series starts tomorrow with free workshops on keeping chickens in the city, at Fort Hen in Imani Garden on Dean Street and Schenectady. [Grub Street]

East Village: Sean Scotese and Mike Hill are throwing three more Hot Pot Parties at Je'Bon to promote their new restaurant, Ghost Street. Tomorrow night, April 28, and May 12, a $15 cover buys passed hot-pot skewers, desserts, and sake from 8 p.m. to midnight. [Grub Street]

Astor president Andrew Fisher will teach an advanced wine and food pairing class on April 27 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Astor Center. Tickets are $75. [Grub Street]

Gramercy: Riverpark begins weekend brunch service (11 a.m. to 3 p.m.) on April 24. [Grub Street]

Hell's Kitchen: Bai Cha at 710 Ninth Avenue closed after only nine months. [Midtown Lunch]

Meatpacking District: Beaumarchais will host a $100 four-course whiskey-pairing dinner party with whiskey master Spike McClure on April 25 at 7p.m. [Grub Street]

Midtown West: The Best Sommelier in America competition is this weekend at the Jumeirah Essex House. Tickets are on sale: $50 to attend the final round on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; $500 for the gala dinner and awards ceremony. Le Bernardin won the American Sommelier Association's first ever "Art of Service Award," which will be presented at the gala dinner. [Grub Street]

Laurent Tourondel plans to open an American brasserie this summer in the new Cassa Hotel and Residences at 70 West 45th Street. [Diner's Journal/NYT]

Park Slope Ice-cream shop Sky Ice and Culture: An American Yogurt Company are now both open on Fifth Avenue. [Fork in the Road/VV]

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, astor center, best sommerlier in america, chelsea market, east village, laurent tourondel, midtown w, park slope, riverpark

The Red Lion Hotel on Fifth Avenue is located in the heard of Seattle’s most vibrant downtown neighborhood and surrounded by upscale shopping, restaurants, entertainment and business headquarters. We have built our reputation on the comfort and quality of our accommodations.

All interested and qualified applicants need to apply on-line at www.redlion.com
or in person Monday-Friday from 8am-4pm at 1415 5th Ave, Seattle, 98101.

JOB DESCRIPTION:
• Serves beverages and food to guests in a friendly, courteous and timely manner, resulting in guest satisfaction.
• Prepares beverages for other servers to supply to guests, and act as cashier for the lounge.
• Maintains proper and adequate set-up of the bar on a daily basis (this includes requisitioning and stocking of all beer, wine, spirits, paper products, straws and stirrers, and condiments).
• Cleans and organizes bar area.
• Responsible for maintaining stock, cutting and storing of all fresh fruit and vegetable garnishes, juices and other perishables daily to insure product quality.
• Mixes, garnishes, and presents drinks using standard ingredient recipes and practicing portion control.
• Receives cash from guests, makes change as needed, verifies validity of charges, records charges, and insure vouchers are properly executed, in order to balance the bank. Deposits cash drops and secures bank.
• Replenishes supplies in a timely and efficient manner, and minimizes waste and misuse of liquor.
• Locks up and stores all beverages, food, and other equipment items.
• Must adhere to all State and Federal liquor regulations pertaining to serving alcoholic beverages to minors and intoxicated guests to insure all laws are being followed.
• Maintains an up to date working knowledge of all hotel amenities as well as any special events.
• Addresses all guest feedback with the utmost confidence, grace and concern for their satisfaction.
• Communicates all pertinent information to the department manager or in his/her absence Department Supervisor.
• Upholds all safety standards of Red lion Hotels.
• Communicates effectively with kitchen staff when food ordering and expressing any special needs.
• Ensures prompt delivery of food to the guest's table.
• Has an extensive knowledge of the restaurant menu and maintains the ability to describe both the ingredients and preparation of each dish.
• Handles cash/checks/tickets and credit cards according to Red Lion Hotel policy.
• Ensures cleanliness of restaurant including polished flatware, clean glassware and plates.
• Creates cost saving controls, ensures safe use of supplies and equipment.
• Suggest promotions, changes, procedures of things that may help the restaurant.
• Complete closing checklist nightly.
• Able to perform service standards at the level expected by the RLH.
• Observe guest reactions and confer frequently with manager and/or supervisor to ensure guest satisfaction.
• Assist with monthly inventory.
• Understand, maintain and demonstrate the 5 fundamental principles of the Little Red Book: Sound Judgment, Integrity, Dependability, Connect, and Initiative.
• Perform other duties as required or requested by Restaurant Supervisor and/or Restaurant Manager.

JOB REQUIREMENTS:
• At least 2 year of Bartending experience preferred.
• Good food service knowledge.
• Basic mathematical skills necessary to operate a cash register make change, total guest checks, count total bank, prepare cash drops, total all other charges, and understand portion sizes.
• Extensive food and wine knowledge are required.
• Must be 21 years of age to serve alcoholic beverages.
• Knowledge of food and beverage preparation, service standards, guest relations and etiquette.
• Knowledge of the appropriate table settings, service ware and menu items.
• Ability to deal courteously and tactfully with the public.
• Ability to develop an effective working relationship with fellow employees and supervisors.
• Adhere to uniform standards.
• Must have good understanding of the English language and able have good communication skills both written and verbal.
• Must follow cash/checks/tickets and credit cards according policy.
• Exceptional attention to detail and customer services skills.
• A clear thinker, remaining calm and resolving problems using good judgment.
• Ability to work cohesively with co-workers as part of a team with minimal supervision.
• Able to maintain confidentiality of guest information and pertinent hotel data, ascertain departmental training needs and provide such training.
• Flexible work schedule and able to work days, nights, weekends, and holidays.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:
• Sitting: Occasionally. Backed chair, complete paperwork.
• Standing/walking. Constantly. Various surfaces including carpet, tile, and rubber mats.
• Crouching: Occasionally. Lift trays, clean, stock shelves.
• Kneeling/crawling. Occasionally. Clean or pick up debris.
• Stooping: Frequently. Load carts and trays while serving food and beverages; expediting.
• Twisting: Constantly. Serve guest, monitor banquet room activity, maneuver through crowds and staff.
• Climbing: Occasionally. Stairs and stepladders.
• Balancing: Constantly. Carry trays, glassware, and beverage container.
• Reaching (overhead/extension): Frequently. Stock supplies, carry trays. Serve at arm’s length extension, set up banquet tables.
• Handling / Grasping: Frequently. Serve food, set up banquet tables.
• Fingering / Feeling: Frequently. Fold napkins.
• Pushing/pulling: Push carts, tables, glass and china carts. Average weight 25 lbs. force frequently, Maximum weight 50 lbs force frequently.
• Lifting / carrying: Tables, food trays, ice buckets. Average weight 25 lbs. frequently,
Maximum weight 50 lbs. frequently.

ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING:
• Safety requirements: Adhere to company, property, and department safety standards and procedures
• Exposures: Cleaning chemicals.
• Operation of equipment / tools: glass rack, dishwasher

We offer paid vacation/sick/holiday, medical/dental/vision, 401k, discount on transit/parking and Red Lion Hotel discounts for employees/friends/family.

Red Lion Hotel has a non-discrimination policy and is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

• Location: Downtown Seattle
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

In honor of Free Scoop Day, Ben & Jerry's has announced a limited-time flavor honoring Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, co-hosts of the unintentionally hilarious (and often boozy) fourth hour of the Today show. Vermont Apple Ice Wine sorbet is inspired by "a crisp autumn day," according to a Ben & Jerry's spokesperson. And what can you expect in such a flavor? "This flavor is a tribute to the morning duo that does it all -- as delicate as Kathie Lee, as sweet and fruity as Hoda. With a tart nature like the pair, themselves, it's sure to become one of their Favorite Things!" ... More »

Post from: Crushable

'Today' Show Duo Kathie Lee and Hoda Get a Special Ben & Jerry's Sorbet Flavor

$10.00
What says Snoop more than munchies and Lakers colors?

- on 19" x 25" wine colored 80lb.french paper
- three colors, hand-pulled screen print
- limited edition of 105, signed and numbered
- shipped to you in a sturdy tube

thanks for looking!

- ben

TMT Cerberus 21

by TMT Cerberus on 04-12-2011

LE GRAND is a casual French restaurant located at Carillon Point in Kirkland, with a full service bar and 140 seats. We’re adding another 80 seats on our patio, overlooking the Marina, and are getting ready for our busy, busy, warm weather season.

Our menu includes classic French Bistro favorites, as well as modern takes on the classics . We are cooking at a very high level, but the place is casual, approachable, and easy on the wallet . We make our own bread for the table, our own sausages and charcuterie, traditional French ice cream, a full raw bar, and everything, of course, from scratch. The bar and wine list reflect the same devotion to the hand-crafted and to quality products served in a casual environment at reasonable prices.

We are looking for people with a passion for service and food and wine knowledge, who intuitively understand that the real product of any successful restaurant is an outstanding customer experience. We welcome people who desire to learn and grow with a young, forward-looking company. We also welcome seasoned professionals with outstanding customer service skills. We will provide you with a restaurant you can be proud of, and with income opportunity to match.

We are interviewing for the following positions, and would prefer the experience level noted after each position:

• Floor Supervisor—extensive serving experience, desire to move into management role, but with tipped shifts mixed with supervisory shifts
• Hostess—natural smile and innate hospitality
• Front Waiter—at least two years’ serving experience and good wine knowledge
• Back Waiter—prior full-service waiter experience
• Bartender—outstanding presence and customer service orientation, plus strong wine knowledge, prefer some experience with craft cocktails

Please email your resume and references, and we will call to set up an interview.

The location is Carillon Point, in Kirkland. We are opposite the Beach Café, in the old Bluwater space.
Our website is www.bistrolegrand.com


We look forward to meeting you !

• Location: Kirkland
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

By Bill Daley | Chicago Tribune

Tea is for drinking to be sure, but what about tea for eating? Many of us know the marbleized tea eggs and tea-smoked duck of Chinese kitchens or the green tea ice cream found in many Asian restaurants, but how often have we encountered oolong-brined turkey, salmon lacquered in green tea or "smoky" black lentils cooked in lapsang souchong tea?

These are just some of the 150 recipes "steeped in tradition from around the world" to be found in a new book, "Culinary Tea," (Running Press, $22.95). The authors are Cynthia Gold, tea sommelier at The Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers, one of the first chefs to explore the uses of "culinary" tea, and Lise Stern, a writer and author based in Cambridge, Mass.

"My goal is ... to open people's eyes to the exploration of an ingredient that belongs in all our kitchens," Gold said.

Gold's mission of "showing what tea can do" began about 14 years ago when she opened a new restaurant. She insisted on developing a strong tea program and went out of her way to find and purchase the best teas.

"Once I had the teas in-house, I started to be tempted to play with them, simply because they were there," she recalled. As she experimented, Gold learned tea was more than a beautiful beverage to be savored but a "flexible botanical" worthy of respect.

"The more I played, the more I realized how underutilized and underappreciated tea was, and what an asset it could be in the kitchen," she said.

Tea styles range from the elegant freshness of barely processed white tea to the complex layering of flavor found in partially oxidized oolong tea to the full-throttle taste of black teas like that lapsang souchong. There's the earthy, aged pu-erh tea, (POOH-air) blended teas, scented and flavored teas. All can find a spot in the kitchen and on the table.

"Tea can do many things for you," Gold added. "The tannins in tea can be used to balance sweetness or richness in other ingredients. Tea can add depth of flavor to a dish, complexity or brightness. It can be used to tease flavors out, to bridge between different disparate ingredients or highlight certain aspects of a dish."

Cooking with tea goes beyond using the hot water-infused beverage. As Gold points out, tea can be steeped in cold water, oils, dairy products, vinegars, juices and even alcohol. She's working on a book of tea-based cocktails.

"You can even liquefy a solid ingredient, for instance butter. Infuse the tea leaves, then strain and solidify it again and continue with your recipe," she said.

Powdered teas, of which the green matcha (MAH-tchah) is most famous for its role in the Japanese tea ceremony, can be stirred into recipes. Dried tea leaves can be used in rubs or marinades or burned to season a food in savory smoke.

If the dried leaves are to be eaten, it's often best to grind or chop them to create the desired mouth feel, Gold added. What matters most is using quality tea, she said, purchased in small quantities so it won't go stale. Keep it away from light, heat, air or any moisture.

"My hope is there will eventually be no such thing as 'tea cuisine.' It will be such a natural part of our repertoire, no one will think of it as anything odd," Gold said.

Green tea-lacquered salmon with sweet potatoes and spinach

Prep: 30 minutes

Marinate: 2 hours

Cook: 25 minutes

Makes: 4 Servings

Note: This recipe in "Culinary Tea" was created by Christoph Leu, the corporate chef of Starwood Hotels, and Julia Tolstunova, also with Starwood.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup steaming water (about 175 degrees)

4 teaspoons loose-leaf green tea leaves, such as Dragonwell or sencha

4 teaspoons honey

4 fillets salmon, 6 ounces each, skin on

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

4 sweet potatoes, peeled, diced

8 cups baby spinach

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 shallot, minced

4 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, halved

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1. Pour the steaming water over the tea leaves in a small bowl; add honey. Steep, covered, for 21/2 minutes, strain, discard the leaves. Place salmon in a nonreactive pan. Brush with honey tea; pour any remaining tea around the fish. Marinate in the refrigerator, covered, 1 hour or up to 2 days.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sweet potatoes; cook, stirring, until golden, 6-10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl; cover to keep warm. Add the spinach and garlic to the skillet. Cook, stirring, until the spinach is just wilted, less than 1 minute. Transfer to a shallow serving bowl; cover to keep warm.

3. Meanwhile, heat broiler. Line a broiler pan with foil; spray with vegetable oil cooking spray. Place the salmon in the pan skin side-down; season with 1/4 teaspoon of the salt. Broil just until golden, about 2 minutes. Lower the heat to 350 degrees; bake salmon until just cooked through, 5-10 minutes.

4. Pour remaining 1 tablespoon of the oil into the skillet. Heat over medium heat; add shallots and shiitakes. Cook, stirring, until the shallots are translucent and the mushrooms have begun to release some of their juices, 3-4 minutes. Add wine and lemon juice, stirring to scrape up browned bits. Heat over medium-high heat until reduced by half, about 3 minutes; add the chicken stock. Reduce by half, 3 minutes. Add thyme, remaining 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and pepper to taste. Pour mushroom and shallot mixture over spinach; top with salmon. Serve with sweet potatoes.

Nutrition information

Per serving: 562 calories, 42 percent of calories from fat, 26 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 107 mg cholesterol, 38 g carbohydrates, 44 g protein, 563 mg sodium, 6 g fiber.

Giving up the bag

Henrietta Lovell ends her email messages with this stirring phrase: "De-bagging England."

The founder and managing director of the Rare Tea Co. in London is known to her friends simply as the "tea lady." Lovell does not like commercial tea bags at all.

"My mission is to de-bag tea drinkers," she said. "For one thing, the chemicals used to make the bags white is the same used to dry-clean clothes. Low-grade leaves and dust are jammed in bags. The good stuff comes loose because it needs room to unfurl and expand as it infuses."

Now, the Rare Tea Co. does sell tea "bags" for those times when loose tea isn't convenient. But the tea bags are large so the tea leaves can unfurl and are made from chlorine-free, unbleached biodegradable paper. The bags arrive empty; you fill them with your favorite loose-leaf tea.

Lovell gets her teas from small, independent tea farmers who make "orthodox" teas, meaning teas produced by a traditional small-batch process rather than "large-scale industrial processing that fills tea bags."

She advises newcomers to tea to buy the best teas they can afford because quality matters.

"High leaf-to-water ratio and short infusion times -- lots of leaf for little time -- is far better than a little tea for a long time," Lovell said. "In a long infusion, the bitter tannins will leach out and mask the softer, subtler flavors. This might sound expensive, but a good leaf tea can make many infusions if you keep them short. For the same amount of tea, you can make three delicious short infusions or one long bitter one."

"We're moving away from the bland, flat tea bag and rediscovering the myriad complexities of the tea we know and love," she added. "It doesn't need fruit flavors. It doesn't need sugar or milk. It's calorie free, packed with antioxidants and utterly delicious."

While the tea plant has many varieties, the dramatic differences in tea come mainly from its processing, according to Tobin Ropes, co-owner of the Tacoma, Wash., Mad Hat Tea Co.

It can be as simple and light as white, which is processed in a manner of hours by simple dehydration. Or it can be as complex as Pu-erh, an oddity of a tea that is sold in compressed forms with only a few Chinese practitioners knowing the secret process that involves composting and yeast.

There's one thing that all tea purveyors seem to agree on: The best tea is whole leaf.

Types of teas

Green

Characteristics: Grassy, assertive

Steeping temperature: 170-175 for Japanese, 180-195 for Chinese

Variety to try: Dragonwell (Chinese) and sencha (Japanese)

Black

Characteristics: Strong, but less nuanced in flavor

Steeping temperature: 195-210

Varieties to try: Darjeeling -- the Champagne of tea; Asam -- strong; Ceylon -- vibrant; Chinese -- softer, forgiving, not brisk; and Kenyan -- the newcomer on the tea scene

White

Characteristics: Soft, gentle, light, earthy

Steeping temperature: 180-185

Variety to try: Pai Mu Dan

Pu-erh

Characteristics: Extremely strong

Steeping temperature: Boil

Oolong

Characteristics: Floral to dried grain

Steeping temperature: 190

Variety to try: Ti Kwan Yin (green) and Formosa (amber)

Sources: Tobin Ropes, Felix D'Allesandro

Tea-marbled eggs

Prep: 5 minutes

Cook: 10 minutes

Makes: 12 eggs

Cracking the shells of hard-cooked eggs and steeping them in tea makes for a lovely marbleized look. Adapted from Cynthia Gold and Lise Stern's "Culinary Tea."

12 eggs

5 cups water

3/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons loose-leaf lapsang souchong tea leaves

4 whole star anise

1 cinnamon stick

1. Put the eggs in a saucepan large enough to hold them in a single layer. Cover with cold water; heat to a rolling boil over high heat, partially covered. As soon as the water boils, remove from heat. Let stand, covered, 10 minutes. Transfer the eggs with a slotted spoon to a bowl of ice water. Cool until you can handle the eggs. Gently crack the shells all over with the back of a spoon. Do not peel. Do not tap too hard or tea liquid will seep into the shell instead of staining the crack.

2. Empty hot water from saucepan. Refill with the 5 cups water, soy sauce and brown sugar. Heat to a boil over high heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved; add the tea, anise and cinnamon. Reduce the heat, add the eggs. If the eggs are not covered by liquid, add additional water until they are just covered. Simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat; let eggs stand in the liquid, uncovered, until cool. Chill in the liquid, 2 hours to 2 days. When ready to serve, remove the eggs from the liquid; peel. Serve eggs as they are, halved, or devil them.

Nutrition information: Per serving: 77 calories, 64 percent of calories from fat, 5 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 212 mg cholesterol, 0 g carbohydrates, 6 g protein, 62 mg sodium, 0 g fiber

Smoky black lentils

Prep: 10 minutes

Cook: 35 minutes

Rest: 10 minutes

Makes: 8 servings

This recipe from Cynthia Gold's and Lise Stern's "Culinary Tea" calls for smoky lapsang souchong tea.

4 cups boiling water

41/2 teaspoons loose-leaf lapsang souchong tea leaves

2 cups black lentils, picked over, rinsed

1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, preferably fire roasted

2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro or parsley, plus sprigs for garnish

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

Pour boiling water over tea leaves in a medium bowl. Steep, covered, 4 minutes; strain into a large saucepan, discarding tea leaves. Add the lentils and tomatoes; heat to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat; simmer, uncovered, until most of the liquid is absorbed and the lentils are firm but tender, 30-40 minutes. Let rest, covered, until liquid is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Stir in the cilantro, pepper and salt. Garnish with cilantro sprigs. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition information: Per serving: 184 calories, 3 percent of calories from fat, 0.5 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 33 g carbohydrates, 13 g protein, 297 mg sodium, 12 g fiber

Matcha tea leaf cookies

Prep: 30 minutes

Chill: 20 minutes

Cook: 15 minutes per batch

Makes: About 3 dozen cookies

Matcha, or finely powdered green tea leaves, imparts its flavor to these leaf-shaped cookies from "Culinary Tea," by Cynthia Gold and Lise Stern.

2 sticks (8 ounces each) unsalted butter, chilled

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon orange brandy, such as Grand Marnier

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons matcha green tea powder

1/2 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Cream together butter and sugar until smooth using a mixer on medium speed. Blend in the liqueur; add the flour, matcha, 5-spice powder and salt. Mix until the dough just comes together.

2. Flatten dough into a disk; place between two sheets of parchment or waxed paper. Roll out to 1/8-inch thick; chill in the refrigerator on a baking sheet until firm enough to lift it cleanly without stretching, at least 20 minutes.

3. Heat oven to 300 degrees. With a knife, cut dough into leaf shapes about 1 by 2 inches, or use a leaf-shaped cookie cutter. Transfer to baking sheets lined with parchment paper, or sprayed with cooking spray, leaving 1/2 inch between them. Very lightly score a center vein into each tea leaf, if desired. Work quickly; if the dough becomes too soft, return to the refrigerator to chill.

4. Bake until the cookies take on a dry powdery look and are firm, about 15 minutes per batch. Cool on the baking sheets, 2 minutes; transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week or freeze.

Nutrition information: Per serving: 81 calories, 57 percent of calories from fat, 5 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 13 mg cholesterol, 8 g carbohydrates, 1 g protein, 17 mg sodium, 0 g fiber

Genny Wright-Hailey | Food Column

Writing about food has its own particular dangers. If the writer is passionate about the topic, it becomes difficult to finish the writing, as the virtual sight, smell and taste of the food come into mind. There is a strong urge to drop everything and go cook a batch of the subject food. Why am I telling you this? Since Passover starts later this week, I was planning to share some traditional Passover recipes with you today. However, while searching for a good Passover macaroon recipe, I found several that made my mouth water and just couldn't focus on anything else. You don't have to be Jewish to love macaroons. This wonderful cookie, usually but not always prepared with almond paste or ground almonds, is a chewy/crispy delight. The coconut versions, especially dipped in chocolate, taste like a cookie version of a Mounds candy bar. Certainly you can find good macaroons in the markets, but making your own is not only easy (probably easier than finding a decent parking place at the market these days) but affords an opportunity to try some wonderful variations. In fact, as soon as I finish writing this, I must go make a batch.

Flourless coconut macaroons

This version works well for Passover, since it does not contain flour. Recipe from "Fabulous Foods;" makes about 3 dozen cookies.

3 cups sweetened coconut

4 egg whites

3/4 cup sugar

11/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Filling:

3/4 cup whole berry cranberry sauce

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup orange marmalade

2 tablespoons orange juice or orange liqueur (such as Grand Marnier, Cointreau or Triple Sec)

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, mix well. Drop mixture by rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake until cookies are firm and light brown, about 25 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Pine nut-almond macaroons

Here's a variation on the traditional almond macaroon. It has only one tablespoon of flour. Try these with espresso or ice cream. Recipe from Bon Appetit magazine; makes about 22 cookies.

1/4 cup Marsala wine

3 tablespoons dried currants

3/4 cup toasted slivered almonds

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

2/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon all purpose flour

1 large egg white

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup pine nuts (about 41/2 oz.)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a large cookie sheet with foil. Combine Marsala and currants in a small heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat until liquid evaporates, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. In a food processor, finely grind almonds, the 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts, sugar and flour. Mix egg white with almond extract; add to processor and blend until dough forms ball. Place dough in a bowl; mix in the currants. Shape dough between your palms into 3/4-inch-diameter balls. Roll in the 1 cup pine nuts to cover, pressing to adhere. Flatten each cookie to 11/2-inch round. Space evenly on cookie sheet and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Cool slightly, then remove cookies using a metal spatula. Cool on rack. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Island macaroons

The use of macadamia nuts instead of almonds or pine nuts, plus coconut, warrants the name. The wonderful chewy-crunchy texture, along with the delicious chocolate coating, makes these just like a candy bar. Recipe from Bon Appetit magazine; makes about 2 dozen.

3 cups sweetened flaked coconut

1 cup unsalted macadamia nuts, chopped

2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 egg whites

Pinch of salt

6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place coconut and mac nuts on a large cookie sheet. Bake until lightly toasted, stirring frequently, about 12 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. Maintain oven temperature. Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper. Grease the parchment. In a large bowl, combine condensed milk and vanilla. Mix in coconut and mac nuts thoroughly. Using electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt until stiff but not dry. Fold whites into coconut mixture. Drop batter by rounded tablespoons onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake until macaroons just turn golden brown around edges, about 14 minutes. Cool completely on cookie sheets. Line another cookie sheet with waxed paper. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Dip cookie bottoms into melted chocolate. Place cookies, chocolate side down, on waxed paper cookie sheet. Refrigerate until chocolate is set, about 15 minutes. Store cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

On her hit show "The Girls Next Door", Bridget Marquardt debuted her party-planning skills by throwing the best parties at the Playboy Mansion and did so by paying close attention to the details. One of these details, and definitely one of the most important, is what is served to drink? A bad tasting cocktail, wrong combination of alcohol, or lack of creativity can truly make or break a party. For a special occasion, put energy into what is served. Your guests will love it and your party will rock!

Named by Bridget herself as the "Strawberry Blonde", Organic Fit Bar has created an organic cocktail designed after her favorite combination of lemons, strawberries and vodka (and of course...pink).

The Bridget Marquardt “Strawberry Blonde” organic cocktail recipe

• - 1 Organic Lemon
• - 6 Organic Strawberries
• - 1 Ounce Organic Simple Syrup (see recipe below)
• - 1 1/2 ounces Organic Vodka
• - 1 ounce organic Champagne or Sparkling Wine (Domaine Carneros is a delicious organic sparkling wine produced in Napa, California)

 

Tools Needed: Juicer, Cocktail Shaker, Cocktail Strainer
 

To prepare the Organic Simple Syrup: Pour 1 cup of water and 1 cup of Organic Sugar into a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stirring continuously. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove from heat and let cool. To store, cover and refrigerate.
 

To Make the “Strawberry Blonde” Organic Cocktail: Juice the strawberries and lemon together (remember to remove the rind of the lemon first). Pour the juice into a cocktail shaker. Add about 1 cup of ice. Pour in 1 ounce of organic simple syrup and 1 1/2 ounces of organic vodka. Cover and shake for 30 seconds. Strain the cocktail into a pink sugar-rimmed and chilled martini glass (see below). Top off with 1 ounce of organic champagne.
 

Garnish with an organic lemon wheel.
 

Enjoy!
 

To create a Pink Sugar-Rimmed Martini Glass: Juice just 1 or 2 strawberries and pour the juice onto a shallow dish. Add enough organic sugar to absorb the juice and still stay “clumpy”. Run the rim of the martini glass in circles around the dish until well coated. Let sit for a few minutes to dry.
 

Health Benefits: Organic Lemons are natural fat-burners, low calorie, and are wonderful sources of Vitamin C and Limonene (studies of which have shown to have wonderful anti-cancer effects). In addition, Organic Strawberries are amazing antioxidants and loaded with essential vitamins and nutrients.
 

Organic Choice: Both Strawberries and Lemons are covered with harmful pesticide sprays, chemical fertilizers and fungicides, most of which remain on the fruit even after being washed well. Buying organic is really the only way around the nasty chemicals that harm both you and the earth.
 

Serving Suggestions: The “Strawberry Blonde” organic cocktail has extra special touches that will definitely impress your guests. Between the pink sugar rimmed glass, the splash of champagne, and delicious flavors, this cocktail is the perfect touch that ensures a delightful celebration.
 

To see all of the fun that Bridget is up to, check out her website or follow her on twitter @bunnybridget

For more cocktails by Organic Fit Bar Click here

*The Strawberry Blonde" is an Organic Fit Bar original recipe -- Written by: Julie Skon

If you haven't checked out the windows of Bond St (they went up this weekend), then you're missing out as there is an amazing installation of handbag designer and artist Andrea Tobin who has created the phenomenal line, Marla Cielo. In essence she paints amazing pieces on her canvas of fabrics and then cuts them into bags! This way you have something from a very specific collection while also having a one of a kind piece at the same time! We had to sit down and talk with this phenom designer and artist and find out the usual questions that have our interest!

Of course you can't have a conversation without asking someone about their favorite meal and based on her description alone, I'm super excited to try out what Andrea loves, "My mind keeps going straight to dessert so I’m going to run with it – the carrot cake at 10 Downing. The frosting is the best I’ve ever tasted, not too sweet but perfect consistency, and last time it came with caramel ice cream which was to die for. I also love the vibe of the restaurant and appreciate the owner’s efforts to showcase original works of local and established artists on the walls. In my world, carrot cake and artwork go hand in hand." I have a few guilty pleasures but I love that her #1 pleasure especially in the winter is her ‘movie in a bath’ routine. She props a screen on her sink at the perfect vantage point from the tub, turning off the lights, sipping red wine, and watching a movie, or lately multiple episodes of Mad Men, for probably too many hours at a time. What a great way to enjoy fashion and style all in the same place! Just like most of us, where would we be without phones, her iPhone allows her to take tons of photos and videos and post them simultaneously to Facebook and Twitter (thank you Hootsuite). Travel is a big part of the Marla brand and nothing makes her happier than bringing her to new places and filming or photographing her with the locals. She captured some great iPhone content in India over the holidays and the photos have been priceless. Along with loving the phone for her connections, she loves Cheers to Swipe. This app keeps her very happy and relatively organized, at least with the financials. Swipe is directly linked to her merchant account and then a little console for her phone so she can accept credit cards and process transactions on the fly. Each purchase takes under 3 seconds and the app logs all the payment history so she can easily add everything up when it’s time to report income to the authorities. Love this and super essential to know!

She has such a passion and love for Marla. "I love what she stands for and I love that the fashion and consumer market is in line with her goals. My biggest devotion is original art as fashion and I truly believe in the energy that is created when products are made from scratch. There is an overwhelming sense of purpose that comes from creating and building things hands on and I’m thrilled that this concept is making a comeback." Although she is adding her mark to the fashion and art industries, we all need a break so I had to know, where is she going on her next vacation - "Funny I was just thinking about that. I’m dying to go back to Mumbai, I only got a night there when I was in India this winter. Other than that, Namibia is probably next on the list. I got a chance to see wild elephants and a tiger in Mysore and I’m dying for another opportunity to watch big game animals in their natural environment and to study their social habits and patterns."

With some one doing so much we have to know what to excpect. Look out for more gadget related bags and computer / Ipad sleeves from Marla and hold your breath for ‘Marla for Man’, she's so excited to launch a line of accessories that bring original art and Marla’s inspiration to men’s pockets and murses... If she had the opportunity to have anyone as the face of her brand, "same answer every time, Helena Bonham Carter. I love the spirit she reflects in her movies and I know she would connect with the deeper social and artistic goals of Marla Cielo. Maybe you can give her a ring for me ☺."

If you love finding out about Andrea, make sure that you check out Colin, mixologist for U'Luvka and star of Cocktail Kings on the Discovery Channel from last week.