We arrived at 130 in the afternoon and were driven directly to a factory where we took a tour. 

Here are stuffed animals being made in various stages:

Here a lady is using this pushing device to attached the  tigers nose and eyes

A basket of arms:

This is a large box of rotating stuffing.. You stick the fabric into one of the long feeders and out shoots the stuffing

they were making sharks today:

Sharks and turtles

and snakes

Silk screeners:

Each item is run through a metal detector to check for needle heads:

Embroidery machines.. each machine is about 100 k 

This is just a huge room where these 5 large machines with about  15 sewing units are constantly making patterns.. the noise is deafening.  I couldn't imagine these people spend 10 hours a day in this room.. Here you can see a sharks mouth pattern being produced.

You have to walk up a lot of stairs to get to the bathroom

Care to do that Fernand Point pop-up on Georgian Bay in a yurt for all those glampers?

Our grilled prime, dry-aged rib-eye arrived topped with deliciously bacony sautéed onions. Sure, it was steeply priced at $37.95 (and you need to order vegetables and potatoes separately, to boot) — but it was a well-cooked, well-seasoned and juicy slab of beef. The char-grilled bone-in filet mignon with beer-battered onion rings ($45.95) told a different story. Not only did the two giant onion rings consist of more doughy batter than tasty onion, but the filet was less than skillfully cooked. Only about a quarter-sized core at the center of the mignon was cooked medium-rare as promised, and, sadly, our side of fries ($5.95) was overfried.

http://www.northjersey.com/food_dining/206882281_Restaurant_review__River_Palm_Terrace_in_Edgewater.html

The chef and owner of Thirty Acres, Kevin Pemoulie, is an alumnus of both Craft and Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York, and his cooking history shows in a menu with an emphasis on fresh, local ingredients and unexpected combinations—like my cappelletti pasta with eggplant ricotta, tomato sauce, stravecchio and shishito peppers, a smart combination of savory and sweet. The same was true of the perfectly cooked pork chop paired with apples, seckel pear, escarole and onions that paired nicely with the Loire Valley red chosen by Mr. Hughes. (My German Pinot Noir from Villa Wolf was just as good.)

Wine drinkers who like to bring their own bottles might want to visit Thirty Acres sooner rather than later, as the proprietors are looking to get a liquor license sometime soon—maybe before the end of the year. I guess that's the next step in its own renaissance.

As Mr. Hughes and I browsed among the Loire Valley offerings (the store has a particularly strong selection of French and Italian wines), a well-dressed man approached Mr. Hughes. "Don't worry, he's a regular," said Mr. Hughes, who chose the 2010 Clos du Tue-Bouef Cheverny ($24) for me to take to Thirty Acres. The well-dressed man had liked it as well, said Mr. Hughes. The well-dressed man confirmed that this was so. The store has a strong following among local residents as well as Thirty Acres diners, said Mr. Hughes. As he put it: "We're kind of the bar, wine cellar and a waiting room for everyone."

1. MEMO
Be amazed, be very amazed by the bulging sandwich called "mixed lamb and chicken gyro on home bread," boasting a bulwark of fresh Uzbek bread, a fortuitous mingling of twirling herbed meats, and finishing dribbles of gritty hot sauce and garlic-laced yogurt. And the baba, tripe soup, and brown-top pudding only increase your delight at this humble Turkish lunch counter.

In the "News For You" section:

Soccer...

Cycling...

Cycling...

Soccer...

Tennis...

I'm not into sports. Sports to me is not "News." I don't click on sports news so why feed it to me?

There's a banner along the bottom that suggests I should make Yahoo my home page.

It already is.

My local news is a news feed from Fulton, as in Fulton, Maryland, which is some 694 miles away from Chicago. Every other site and advertisement knows where I am. Why doesn't Yahoo?

I suppose in some ways it's comforting to know they aren't using their technology to track me and my turnons or turnoffs, or maybe they're better at keeping me in the dark about it.

The menu tends toward middle-eastern and has received excellent reviews over the years and we have frequented on several occasions and always enjoyed their cooking.

So last night we sat down, ordered a bottle of South African Cab and began perusing the menu (they always have a "today's specials" insert). Then it happened. There it was. In bold type. Staring at me defiantly. Leering at me. Tempting me. Soliciting me.

What was it, you might ask? The special of the day - KALE SALAD!!!!

Kale salad. In Tanoreen, which has no room for another green item in its kitchen because of the invasive parsley. How did it get there? Where did it come from? Why now? Why ever? Kale in Tanoreen? Say it ain't say, Joe. Please tell me this is time warp stuff.

Kale Salad in Tanoreen, no it's not possible I thought. So summoning the waitress, I was nervous. Were my eyes finally failing after all these decades? Was my gray matter turning green because of the all-consuming parsley? These were the thoughts dancing in my head.

My voice slightly cracking, my lips pursed, I asked the question. Dear waitress, is this really kale salad on the menu at Tanoreen? She looked me directly in my swollen eyes and said, "Yes, of course, we put in on the menu weeks ago because one of our chefs discovered it in a Manhattan restaurant. It's been one of our biggest sellers and it's always a special."

Thanking her, the sweatiness began to subside, my heart rate was returning to normal and my eyes regained their natural luster. 

Scrambling to regain my composure and re-organizing my thoughts, it struck me - Kale Salad in Tanoreen (I know, sounds like a title to a Sondheim musical)? Yes, the reality was humbling. There are no more safe havens. Kale is now king. The king is dead, long live the king. Goodbye Butternut Squash Soup, you're reign was noble and just.

Now don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy Kale. But Kale is something you bring home, you cook, you imbibe raw, you coddle it, nurture it. It never belonged on a restaurant menu - never. But alas sweet Esmeralda, now it does. It belongs on every restaurant's menu. Never mind, you came from humble origins and married well. Never mind you were once used to fertilize the earth where cabbage grew. Never mind you were once forced to submit documention that you were indeed a native vegetable. Those days are over. Royalty is yours.

But before you sit on your laurels, remember uneasy lies the crown.... I will challenge your reign. This is your fair warning. From this moment on until midnight, December 31, 2013, I will not patronize any restaurant that has the word "Kale" on the menu. And don't think this is a fight of one person. I have friends. I have relatives. I have an Italian background with associates of an Italian background.

You have now been publicly served. The challenge is yours to take. But I must remind you, I successfully boycotted any restaurant without a female chef for a year. And what happened? Every restaurant now has a female chef (except Carbone).

I will not fail, Kale. Your fate is sealed. Enjoy your fame and reign. It will be over soon. That I promise.

And for those who are not convinced of how dangerous Kale is, I leave you with this - Kale spelled backwards is Elak. Just look it up. 

That said, your bill can add up quickly here (especially if you and your friend drink like fish - cocktails are $15 or more). But what we ate was mostly very good, if not terribly exciting.  I also think you can have a quite nice meal without spending a ton if you stick to the tacos area of the menu; both our fish tacos and mushroom tacos were fine.  I also liked the rendition of crab fritters, housemade chorizo was excellent, and the classic shrimp in oil and garlic was tasty.

More with pix soon.

• At a health & safety meeting this morning the security manager reported that a chef had head-butted a first aid box in the kitchen
  
• Earlier in the week a committee gave permission for dodgems on the cricket field for a bar mitzvah in October

a polished counter lined with the kind of padded chairs with which your father may have outfitted his retro suburban wet bar

The delicately funky, spoon-tender Wagyu beef at this Brooklyn restaurant is aged for up to 85 days...

Does anyone have experience with HD performances at that location? Any idea how early we might/may arrive to get decent seats, as it's general admission? The only other time we went to an HD performance, we got to the theater maybe a half-hour before the supposed start and all that was left were seats way down front. Not terrible then (orchestra concert), but not what we want now.

All advice is welcome. Including places to get a bite after (it will be done around 11), as we will have to eat late lunch/super early dinner before we go.

TIA

The area—spectacularly beautiful, its ancient landscape peppered with cypress trees, olive groves and vines—also boasts a variety of microclimates, soils and terroirs. It is this varied landscape that wine importer David Berry Green says makes the case for further delineation. He argues that the nine villages of Chianti Classico—Greve, Panzano, Radda, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Poggibonsi, Gaiole, Barberino, San Casciano and Castellina—each impart their own specific characteristics on the wine. "Sangiovese is like Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir," he says. "It needs good soil and good drainage, and if you give it the right material, it performs brilliantly."

Under this new geographical delineation, the term Chianti would be all-encompassing and refer to the entire region in the middle of Tuscany, rather like the umbrella term Bordeaux. Chianti Classico and its villages, like the Médoc, would have their own stylistic characteristics. So Greve, for example, would be a little like Margaux, as it has a softer, rounder character.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324474004578443203331889308.html

The space is pleasantly downtown--high ceilings, moderate lighting, moderate noise.

The wine list is unusually excellent and fairly priced.  It has great deals on current release stuff, but also remarkable depth in older classic Burgundy and Bordeaux.

The crowd last night included at least 4 people who have done Levi Dalton's podcast. All the wine luminaries were there.

Disclaimer--I am known to the house, and they took good care of us. But try it anyway.

The idea is simple; food tasting, four restaurants, $45. Earlier this week, Jersey City's Dishcrawl ambassador, Alessia Arons, assembled a walking tour of Newport's waterfront section eateries: VB3, Michael Anthony's, Skylark on the Hudson, and All Kinds of Whoopie. - See more at: http://hotfromthekettle.com/blog/dishcrawl-jersey-city#sthash.Fc7HGBCY.dpuf

http://hotfromthekettle.com/blog/dishcrawl-jersey-city

It rates, I think, as pretty good.  It's certainly in the right place to do a good trade: heaps of meat at fair prices.  It also bucks the trend by offering swift, smooth, friendly service.

More at the Pig.

Just finished messing with this spyware protector virus. It locked up my whole system, would not allow me to run any programs including task manager. I found the way to rid it was, shut computer off restart in safemode (on startup continually hit F8 key) then go to Start, all programs,accesories, system tools and system restore. Pick a earlier restart point (before you acquire this virus 1-2 todays. Restored me back to normal. Now I will get a good virus protector. Thanks everyone for the answers.

Umami’s prices start at $10 for the most basic offerings, including the Hatch Burger, with four types of green chilies. The most expensive is the Ahi Tuna Burger, at $15.

Founder Adam Fleischman said Umami offers “fine-dining fast-food,” albeit with valet parking and full bars at some locations. In Manhattan, he said, it will succeed by catering to high expectations of diners with many choices.
‘Chain Mentality’

Fleischman said he also expects a shakeout. “I think it will affect the franchise players specifically,” he said.

Interest in fancy burgers has been fueled in part by cooking shows, such as cable network Bravo’s “Top Chef,” Nazarian said. “The names and descriptions of ingredients in food are becoming part of our daily vocabulary,” he said. “This awareness is breaking that chain mentality.”

Back in the 1990s, “you never had a chef with a credible resume doing anything like the burger,” said Sang Yoon, the former executive chef at Michael’s who bought a Santa Monica pub called Father’s Office in 2000 and made it into one of the region’s first burger-focused restaurants. He opened a second store in L.A. in 2008 and said demand has been so strong he’s considering expanding.
Dry-Aged

Chef Wolfgang Puck has been serving a variation of his $23 grilled prime burger with smoked onion marmalade, garlic aioli and Vermont farmhouse white cheddar at Spago in Beverly Hills for at least 10 years, according to the restaurant.

I put Andrew Carmellini in quotes in the thread title because no one can believe he did anything more than design the menu and hire the staff here.  I doubt he's seriously in the kitchen.  Which isn't to say that this is typically bland Performance Facility food.  No, it's atypically bland:  a cut -- maybe several cuts -- above what you'd usually expect, but basically characterless.

The menu (and for that matter the cocktail list) are kind of all-over-the-place.  Different stuff, so that just about anybody will find something they can convince themselves they want.  I had the goulash.  (NOTE:  It's weird to eat goulash while watching Flamenco.)  It would have been more heavily spiced in Hungary -- but the meat would have been much worse.  Unlike with the previous food at Joe's Pub, I didn't feel like I was being imposed upon in eating it.  But I didn't remember it when I was finished.

Now you might say, what do you expect in a Performance Facility?  And if the food were just served in Joe's Pub, I'd say it was a nice change for the better (it's certainly better than the food at LPR).   But, of course, this same food is also being served in a fairly heavily promoted stand-alone restaurant within the Public complex.  What purpose will THAT serve?  The Public Theater stands at the cusp of two of the most interesting dining neighborhoods in the entire United States.  Why does anybody need a characterless better-than-average place when excellent, characterful options are mere blocks away?  The big new place Carmellini is opening down the street, with Damon Wise in the kitchen, will be enough by itself to obviate The Library.  Without even mentioning that Acme is right across the street from it.

If The Library keeps Uptown or suburban Public Theater patrons out of Acme, increasing my chances of successful post-performance walk-ins, more power to it.  Beyond that, I don't really get it.

No mention whatever of Chengdu 1, which does have some authentic dishes.  (Intestines w/ green onions, pork blood cake, etc.)  Even Hunan Cottage used to be a bit "authentic", but no longer since the place changed hands.

Someone should shuttle this guy over to Flushing, he would probably retract the entire article.  What a joke. 

http://www.northjersey.com/food_dining/206715301_Finding_authentic_Chinese_food_is_getting_easier.html

Edison's G will feature house-roasted turkey, roast beef and pastrami and traditional Italian sandwiches, but also a couple of twists on the classics, including the "Jersey Mac," a duck egg over easy, Taylor ham and muenster cheese on a duck fat English muffin.

Isabella says one of his D.C. chefs is a fifth-generation butcher and makes the pork roll in-house. Actually, he says, "We made it better."

"In essence, it's a cured ham, almost like a cold cut ham, but a little more salty, and meant to be cooked," he says. The chef breaks down the shoulder and purees it like a mortadella to get that perfect round shape, then cures it, rolls it and ties it up. "It's a little more marbled and perfect-looking."

more:

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/dining/index.ssf/2013/04/mike_isabella_pork_roll.html#incart_river

Another similar film entitled "White House Down" is set to appear soon.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2302755/?ref_=sr_1

Certainly not baby bistro prices.  Opening menu (so I expect prices will rise another 10 - 20% in the coming months):

Tuesday night Plat is cassoulet for 2 at $54

Saturday's plat is whole turbot for 2 at $68

And on Sunday you get the fish leftovers soup for 2 at $48

From the carte:

The bread and butter is only $4.

Sunchokes are $19, but I'm sure Stone'll be happy - they're probably cooked.

Skate - $26; veal breast also $26.

Menu looks fantastic...

http://ny.eater.com/archives/2013/02/montmartre_1.php

THE COURSES

Their two-act 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical inspired by Georges Seurat’s pointillist masterpiece, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” is being performed in a short run; 10 shows, the last on April 25.

The production, thanks in part to the arts budget of the city of Paris, is a more-is-more extravaganza, with elaborate sets, a light show, special effects and, most remarkably, a 46-member orchestra — and a new orchestration by Michael Starobin, who had done the original orchestration nearly 30 years ago, for a pit that had a mere 11 players.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/arts/supersizing-a-sunday-in-the-park.html

So it turned into a full review.