Timmy the Tooth

Oh, girl. For those of you who somehow aren’t on Twitter almost always and, when you’re not, you go back and try to research the thing you missed that everyone seems to be talking about: Last night, Twitter went #nuts when Dr. Phil tweeted, and promptly deleted, a question about whether or not it is cool to rape somebody. Hahahah. DR. PHIL! Put that in a poll somewhere on you website where fewer people who know that shit like that is fucked up will find it, you dummy! While — and this is giving the show the benefit of the doubt, but I do think it is a pretty safe benefit of the doubt — it was probably going to be used as shocking evidence about how many people do think that it is okay to have sex with a girl while she is drunk (right?) (RIGHT, DR. PHIL?), uh, maybe don’t tweet it in a way that makes it seem like you think there could be an argument on either side? MAYBE DON’T TWEET IT EVER? Maybe don’t tweet. No one tweet. No one tweet unless you are Joyce Carol Oates or FeministTaylorSwift — then you are allowed to tweet. A spokesperson for Dr. Phil responded to a question from BuzzFeed about the tweet, saying:

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From Chicago

A classic Chicago dog at Hot Doug's, still my favorite on the menu. [Photographs: Nick Kindelsperger]

A number of years ago at a point I can't exactly recall, as the hot dog's tenure as New York's default street food unofficially ended, I had what would be my last hot dog for years.

It wasn't intentional, I swear. I don't remember when it happened, but I know there was a point after which I ate no hot dogs. They just never felt worth eating, not with a decent slice a block away or a freshly grilled burger at a neighbor's cookout. Hot dogs the way this New Yorker grew up eating them didn't taste bad; they just tasted irrelevant.

That is, they did until I moved to Chicago, where I spent four years relishing every one I could find. Now that I'm back in New York, the hot dogs are what I miss most.

Let's review your average New York and Chicago dogs. The former are fished out of a murky pool of tepid water from a cart and slapped into a stale bun, perhaps topped with tame sauerkraut or yellow mustard. (Or, god forbid, ketchup,.) This is the case nearly everywhere you look.

At Phil's Last Stand.

The latter are plump, all-beef, natural casing Vienna Beef sausages given a good crisping on the grill or griddle, and topped with as little as onions and mustard or as much as a small deli salad, pickles, relish, peppers, and tomatoes. Those add-ons may be plentiful and perhaps structurally unsound, but they're beautifully calibrated to layer sweet, tangy, and hot elements on a warmly spiced, plenty snappy link—the banh mi of hot dogs. When Ed asked aloud one day, "which is the better hot dog city," how else could I answer?

Now I've had days-long arguments with a proud, proud New York hot dog lover about the technicalities of what a good hot dog is—New York, Chicago, or otherwise, and I'll admit: a truly great New York-style hot dog, which you can basically only get these days at Gray's Papaya or Papaya King, is a beautiful thing. There's nothing else like a natural casing dog carefully griddled to a crackling snap, innards dosed with paprika and garlic, and the whole thing topped with some sauerkraut or brown deli mustard. When you get one made right, time stands still.

And if you feel that two sources for great hot dogs make a great hot dog town, then I'm happy you're happy. But that strikes me as a little light.

By comparison, let's look at this map, which shows just how plentiful good natural casing hot dogs are in Chicago.* If you want a well-made, natural casing hot dog in New York, you've committed yourself to cooking at home or visiting one of the last scions of the trade. In Chicago you have, at press time, over 70 places to satisfy your craving, all brick and mortar shops with a defined aesthetic and sense of permanence. In a city with one-third of the people.

* Of course a natural casing dog doesn't equate to a good hot dog, but it suggests an amount of care and attention lacking at most New York dirty water stands.

A great hot dog town is defined by more than just its great hot dogs. It's built on a foundation of discussion, debate, and fierce adoration. It relies on a sense of tradition that's protected in the face of change. Chicago has maintained its hot dog tradition. New York, by and large, has not. Why did it take living in Chicago to make me fall in love with hot dogs? Because so many of my neighbors were head over heels for them.

No one's waiting in a two hour line at Gray's the way they do at Hot Doug's. In all my time in New York, never have I seen a drunk guy on the subway trip down the aisle, losing his keys but fiercely clutching his hot dog. And I'm still waiting to watch a shouting match at a New York hot dog stand over whether ketchup is considered an acceptable topping. Had I as a kid, my hot dog world view might be different today.

I'm not saying that your average Chicago dog is great. For every Hot Doug's or Gene's & Jude's you have a dozen lesser contenders. But I will say that your average Chicago dog is a far better specimen than your typical New York version: Chicago's are sweet and tart and hot and thoroughly spiced, all on a reliably beefy, delicately flavored sausage. I've had many New York hot dogs that I'd call bad. But I've yet to taste a Chicago dog I wouldn't finish.

At Wolfy's.

New York has a way of building up great traditions and then forgetting about them. Finding a good bagel these days requires a treasure map. Public interest in pastrami, despite the city's new-found fascination with smoking and curing meats of all kinds, is at a dangerous low. Hell, even getting a good slice of pizza, perhaps our most vital contribution to American eating, is harder and harder by the day. The hot dog of today's New York is a dirty waterlogged walking corpse, and it's probably too late to save it.

That's not so in Chicago, where the people are wise enough to treat their hot dogs with respect. Great sausages demand great loyalty, and I'm thankful the city hasn't given up.

About the author: Max Falkowitz is the editor of Serious Eats: New York. You can follow him on Twitter at @maxfalkowitz.

Girl, I’m tired of playing around. I’m ready for that real deal romance. Flowers and butterflies and fireworks. Baby, I want to make love to you like in the movies.

That’s right, girl. I want to serve you that good-ass Billy Crystal dick. That sweet, tender lovin’ that’ll make you feel like Meg Ryan from 1989 or 1995, depending on which era of Meg Ryan you relate to more. I want to tear that up after a long and dramatic courtship where I slowly gain your trust, but lose it at the worst possible moment by revealing our relationship was part of a bet or that I have destroyed your small independent business. Then I’ll earn your confidence back with a grand, breathtaking gesture that was foreshadowed months earlier. I want to knock boots with you the way you do after holding a boom box outside someone’s window in the rain.

I want to take you home to my apartment. Though my living space is unfeasibly large and furnished well beyond my means with Crate & Barrel accouterments, you’ll find it unacceptably messy because men, right? Once we get inside, I’m going to tear your clothes off. But, I’ll leave the bra on. Women always talk about how they hate wearing bras. How they squeeze and shape and constrict them. But in the movies they always wear them during sex, which seems silly, because lots of great sex things can happen once you remove your bra. I’ll take my shirt off, revealing a body which is either way too good considering what I do for work or one that’s comically dumpy. I’ll leave my pants on. That’s how it works in the movies. Girls keep their bras on. Guys leave their pants on. My dick ain’t afraid of no zippers.

I want to go at it under the sheets no matter how hot it is. Our feet will extend past the end of the bed, even though you get no leverage that way. We will not notice any unexpected moles or embarrassing tattoos. Everything that happens will be sexy. There won’t be any gross sounds or sights. Just like in the movies, our sex will be tasteless and odorless. I will not kiss your neck and get a mouthful of perfume and then you’re like what’s wrong and I’ll be like nothing and you’ll get all distant and I’ll be like sorry it’s the taste of your perfume, and you’ll be sad because you only wore it because I said I liked it one time and then all of a sudden you’re not in the mood and I think about sneaking off to the bathroom to furtively masturbate but I don’t and I just hold you limply until you fall asleep then I check Twitter for like an hour. That doesn’t happen.

I’ll lay out rose petals across the bed, and they won’t get in our butts, though it seems some of them logically would. I’ll rub an ice cube all over you, and you won’t burst out giggling, causing me to grow self-conscious and lose my erection. I’ll drip wax on you, which will be erotic and not at all like the other times you’ve burnt yourself on something hot, which have not been erotic at all. We’ll eat dessert off of each other’s nude bodies like that’s not the grossest thing two people could do to their sheets and skin. “Can’t we just have those strawberries later? I’m going to get all sticky,” is something you won’t say, in this paradise of physical pleasure.


Then, when we can bear to wait no longer, I will fuck your brains out, which I can only say once because to utter that word again would jeopardize our PG-13 rating. We will make love in every way imaginable, assuming you only know two or three ways and don’t expect oral sex. One moment, you’re on top of me, gyrating, still wearing that bra. The next, I’m churning rhythmically from above you, my weight perfectly distributed. An instant later, still under a comforter for some reason, I have assumed the “big spoon” position, magically generating torque for each thrust.

We will reorient our bodies effortlessly through jump cuts and other filmic transitions. Your legs will not cramp. My chest hair will not become a sweaty carpet. After less than a minute of athletic, montage sex, you will have a loud, performative orgasm. Or I will have an orgasm before you and feel humiliated and promise to do better next time. Cut to that point, where I’m able to give it another go right away without sacrificing any amount of boner integrity. At the end of our lovemaking we will smoke in bed, like no one I know ever does in New York because of security deposits and lung cancer.

The sex will change the dynamic of our previous relationship drastically and irreversibly. It may bring us together forever. It may drive us tragically apart. That is what sex does. I have seen the movies.

If you suspect you’ve become pregnant, you will consider keeping the baby, even though you’re not religious and we live in a relatively pro-choice state and you had no intention of becoming a mother and I am for sure not ready to be a father. This anxiety will become the crux of our future dealings. You’ll decide to keep the baby. We’ll stay together, even though we’ve only been on three dates. One night, while I’m out with friends, contractions will begin, earlier than expected. An ambulance will rush you to the hospital. By the time I arrive, you will have miscarried, just like in the movie Up. Though we never discuss it, that night will permeate our relationship forever.

We remain married for sixty years. Childless. You’ll die in your sleep at age eighty-eight. I’ll pass away the following week, from grief.

That’s how I want to make love to you.

From Drinks

Jerry Thomas makes a Blue Blazer in his 'How to Mix Drinks, Or the Bon-Vivant's Companion', 1862 [Photo: Sushiesque on Flickr]

When the modern cocktail renaissance really started to blossom about a decade ago, many drinkers were first introduced to the word "mixologist," a somewhat confusing term that could have meant a lot of things. Hearing it for the first time, I assumed it meant a hip-hop DJ in a white lab coat wreckin' the wheels of steel. Most understand it to mean a bartender resembling Bill the Butcher. Or a 1970s-era Steve Prefontaine, who uses fresh ingredients and precise scientific technology to make drinks of a quality few living mortals have experienced.

Because of the term's current trendiness, many are surprised to learn that it dates back to the nineteenth century, though maybe that shouldn't be such a shock. Today's bartenders have revived forgotten recipes and standards of Gilded Age bar maestros like Jerry 'The Professor' Thomas. Cocktail guides printed in the 1890s regularly call bartenders mixologists, and the term surfaces often in the newspaper archives of that era. The earliest I discovered came from 1860, in the Raftsman's Journal from Clearfield, Pennsylvania. The paper featured an essay about a man in a hotel who mistakenly wandered into the room of another hotel guest late at night. Addressing the startled occupant, the first man explained that he had come from the bar downstairs, and that the "mixologist of tipulars" downstairs had directed him to the room.

I thought "mixologist of tipulars" was pretty good until I came across a copy of The Montana Post from 1866, which upped the ante by using the expression "mixologists of fluid excitements." After that, most papers simplified the term down to just "mixologist." The Daily Los Angeles Herald from 1879 went so far as to list it "among the different and odd occupations" that city residents were submitting to the government register. Alongside the man who listed himself as a 'mixologist,' other residents listed occupations that included 'smoker,' 'general buzzer,' and 'roustabout.'

Beginning in the 1880s, the term is most frequently refers to bartenders at high-end establishments. Some of the places had spectacular names like "The Blaine Invincible Club," and none seemed like dives. A copy of the Fort Worth Daily Gazette from 1883 announced the opening of a bar called Merchant's Exchange, which was "kept on the French style, and you can get there the very best the market affords." It was a place where patrons could "find the finest liquors, served over the bar in any style, by experient [sic] mixologist, to suit the taste of the most fastidious." Tombstone, Arizona also had quite a few mixologists, but the "boss mixologist in town" was apparently a man named Charlie Mauk, who served "the finest beef spiced tea, and the choicest wines, liquors, and cigars."

Despite its long lineage, the term today gets a lot of mixed reactions. Many think the term "mixologist" a little too dressed-up and pretentious, like calling a baker a "breadologist" or a butcher a "meatstronaut." Some believe that "bartender" emphasizes someone taking care of the guests at his or her bar, whereas "mixologist" is more sterile, emphasizing only the creation of the drink itself (and perhaps a show.) I'm not sure what Jerry Thomas thought of the term, but perhaps the fact that he called his book a "bartender's guide" is an indication, although the book was admittedly published on the early side of the term's common usage.

Not every bartender is against the term, though. Some feel like it sets them apart by designating them as a member of some kind of higher order. They're like drinking's Swiss Guard, sworn to high standards and a sacred dedication to their craft. If they're at the bar, you won't be getting anything mixed with an energy drink poured from a
can featuring a scary picture of a dragon.

If some bartenders today feel like it's important to band together in a boozified version of the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword and call themselves mixologists instead of bartenders, they're continuing a long legacy. One Washington, DC, newspaper from 1900 featured a story about the 'Mixologist Club', a group of barmen advocating a higher set of principles for the profession. The mixologists lambasted the idea of the "antiquated bartender...with his unkempt hair and dingy linen" and had organized their club "to protect the better grade of workmen from the shiftless and unreliable, and to stimulate a broader sense of fraternity." (A little bit of puffery then reared its mustachioed head when the piece went on to describe the bartenders of the Mixologist Club as "a handsome, industrious and painstaking set.")

Of course, many bartenders today couldn't care less about the term. These folks are too busy making drinks, and content to leave the terminology to buzzy lifestyle journalists trying to put creative bartending wizardry into context for readers. It was journalists, really, who brought about the term's revival, thanks to famed author/bartender Dale DeGroff, who serves as a kind of Pliny the Elder to the modern cocktail movement. Back in the 1980s, when DeGroff was running New York's Rainbow Room, he resurrected 'mixologist' because, he said in a recent interview, he "wanted notoriety from the press." He got the attention, and at the same time achieved a rather savvy marketing ploy for the modern cocktail revolution he would help launch. At the end of the day, DeGroff helped make trips to the bar a lot more enjoyable, no matter what you call the people making the drinks.

About the Author: Reid Mitenbuler is a Washington, DC-based writer. He is currently writing a book about bourbon for Viking/Penguin. Find him online at The Bourbon Empire and on Twitter @ReidMitenbuler.

[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

If you’ve always wanted to design modern buildings, but don’t have any plans to attend architecture school, LEGO has just the tool you’re looking for. The toy company has revealed a LEGO Architecture Studio kit aimed at adults with an interest in design, which includes over 1,200 white and transparent blocks in 73 shapes along with a 272-page guide book full of architecture designs and tips from leading contemporary architects.

Endorsed by REX Architecture, Sou Fujimoto Architects, MAD Architects, Tham & Videgård Arkitekter and Safdie Architects, the set features techniques, examples and hands-on exercises to strengthen your design sensibilities. It could also be used by working architects to build models.

While there are some sample designs in the book, the idea is for you to put your imagination to work and come up with your own masterpieces. Among the topics explored in the book are modules and repetition, creating surfaces, working in a context, mass and density, and symmetry.

The set retails at $149.95 and will be available for purchase on the LEGO website on August 1st.

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[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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This is one of the funniest things I've ever read.  Liverpool sent a letter out to their staff telling them what insulting and offensive terms they aren't allowed to use.  Jesus wept.


I would have paid so much money to sit and watch the meeting where they decide what is and isn't offensive.  Gathered around a table in an office:

"What about knob-jockey?" 

"Oh yes good question, is anyone offended by the word knob-jockey?" 

Voice in the back: "I am" 

"Write it down"

It's incredible.  I've been sitting here giggling to myself for about half an hour now, just waiting for something to pop up on a news feed that says

BREAKING NEWS: Steven Gerrard sent home for calling Stewart Downing a crippled she-man rent-boy 

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was once again the talk of the social networks on Saturday night, but it wasn’t for a wonder goal from the Swedish striker.

The PSG hitman appeared to be wearing a bra and bikini combination at the end of the Parisians 1-0 defeat to Real Madrid in a friendly.

Of course, we wouldn’t dare say to Zlatan’s face that he was wearing a bikini!

And, in case you were wondering, the “bra” is in fact a heart rate and GPS monitor to check how Zlatan is progressing in pre-season.

It may also bag the Swedish striker a nice bonus in advertising a product as well…

Pictures above, followed by video and some joke Memes that have already appeared.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic revealed his sex dungeon costume that he wears beneath his PSG shirt yesterday and it looks like this


Now don't go telling me you wouldn't let this guy do you.  He's pretty much like that warrior guy in Game of Thrones that rapes that other guys sister in the first or second episode - you don't want it to happen but once it does you're pretty pleased and then you want to think of ways to please Zlatan like bringing him orange juice in the morning or not moaning when I want to play football manager all day ffs

According to Wikipedia:

Twerking is a dance move that involves a person shaking their upper hips and lower hips in an up and down bouncing motion, causing them to shake, ‘wobble’ and ‘jiggle.” To “twerk” means to dance in a sexually suggestive fashion by twisting the hips.

Whilst Twerking has been perfected by popstars like Rhianna and Miley Cyrus, the dance move has now found it’s way into the Beautiful Game thanks to San Jose striker Steven Lenhart.

On Saturday in the MLS against Portland Timbers, Lenhart scored the crucial goal in the Earthquakes 2-1 home win, and the attacker celebrated in comical fashion.

Evacuate the dancefloor!

Watch Steven Lenhart’s goal and twerking celebration below.

We are now in the full throes of summer, and there is no better cocktail to conclude a summer’s day than a gin and tonic. It is simplicity itself. It can be made extra-special if you use an excellent gin and, more importantly, an excellent tonic. But an inexpensive gin and some diet Schweppes will do the trick if that and a lime is all you have or want.

This is a seasonal drink. The bitter and bubbles refresh, the gin eases, and the citrus brightens. I like to use both lime and lemon, because lemon makes just about anything better and the bright color makes the glass more inviting.

If you want to simply enjoy a cooling cocktail at the end of a hot day, then I encourage economy over quality. But if you want to serve a really good gin and tonic, I believe it’s the tonic that stands out, accented by the gin. A tweet that came too late recommended Fever-Tree tonic, which my local grocer carries, but I went with the Fentimans because I like their ginger beer (used in the Moscow Mule).

I tried Broker’s gin on the advice of many tweeters as being a good but economical choice. I may well be a cretin, but I didn’t taste a difference between it and the even less expensive Seagram’s. For a high-end G&T, I’d choose the very piney Tanqueray, which has an aromatic punch equal to the tonic. Plymouth or Hendrick’s, I fear, would be steamrolled by a good tonic. If you want to feature the gin, use a light tonic, and a 1:1 or 1:1.5 ratio rather than the standard to-taste ratio.

After shooting the photo, Donna said, “I feel like it’s just now summer, but it’s already almost August.” Busy schedules, work, travel—and suddenly, yes, it is gone. Pay attention to the air. It’s so good now where we are. Take some time to enjoy your summer. And stay cool with a gin and tonic that fits your style.

Gin and Tonic

• 2 ounces gin
• 4 ounces tonic (or to taste)
• squeeze of lime juice
• squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
• lime wedge

1. Pour the ingredients in a glass with ice cubes.
2. Stir well.
3. Garnish with the lime wedge.

If you liked this post, take a look at these links:

• My past posts that include gin are the Hasty Negroni, Boulevardier, and Tom Collins.
• Pete Drinks is a blog that reviews many different types of beers, whiskeys, spirits, and drinking adventures.
• A popular line of spirits is making its way out of Door County, Wisconsin—check out Death’s Door Spirits.
• The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto, by Bernard DeVoto, is a lovely meditation on that heavenly time of day.

© 2013 Michael Ruhlman. Photo © 2013 Donna Turner Ruhlman. All rights reserved.

 

Tata Martino arrives at Barcelona with a pretty well-oiled squad, and is more or less satisfied with what he’s got for the season ahead.

There is one position that he’d like to strengthen though: central defence.

With Puyol’s end nigh, Gerard Pique struggling to rediscover the spark of the Treble season, and Marc Bartra not quite ready, Tata has good reason for wanting to fortify the defence.

And as is the case with many incoming managers, Tata feels like fishing from the old pond, by bringing his former centre half from Newell’s Santiago Verginini with him to Barcelona.

In terms of defensive profile, Vergini is similar to Pique, comfortable carrying the ball out from defence as Pique is (at his best). At 1m 90 to Pique’s 1m 92, Vergini is more of an athlete that Pique, quicker and with a better physical conditioning.

What’s more, he ‘has goal’, as they say in Spain, having scored an impressive 8 from defence last season.

Below are Santiago Vergini’s 2013 highlights with Newell’s Old Boys.

From A Hamburger Today

VIEW SLIDESHOW: How To Make The Modernist Cuisine Cheeseburger, Fries, and Shake

[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

A couple years ago, I was lucky enough to be invited to the very first public dinner held at The Cooking Lab, the test kitchen/laboratory where the recipes and techniques for Modernist Cuisine, the official heaviest-cookbook-ever-written were all tested and developed. It was a stunner of a meal, 30 courses long, with textures, flavors, and techniques that boggled the mind in their creativity and focus.

Since then, the team has released a second volume—Modernist Cuisine At Home, which while not as ground-breaking, was a fine follow-up to their epic first album. They'll be coming out with a third book all about the photographic techniques developed for the books later this year.

Their second book, though still intimidating in stature and layout, was aimed at the ambitious home-cook audience, and tackled recipes like basic sandwiches, fried chicken, and the like.

I revisited the Cooking Lab on a recent trip out to Seattle and got a quick step-by-step walkthrough of their patty melt, cavitated french fries, and liquid nitrogen banana shake recipes. The processes are interesting, to say the least.

The burger is easily the most complex I've ever seen, even more time consuming to make than the Heston Blumenthal recipe I tackled a few years ago. The process involves grinding meat into vertically aligned strands, shaping those strands into a log before slicing out patties (the goal being to increase tenderness in the direction in which you bite), followed by cooking the patties sous-vide.

The burgers are then frozen briefly in liquid nitrogen (to keep them from overcooking during their subsequent browning phase), before being dunked into hot oil for a moment to create a browned crust. The intended goal is a patty that is both tender and lean (they use a very lean blend of meat), with a medium rare core that extends all the way to the edges, and a crust that is brown but doesn't penetrate more than the very outer layers.

The whole thing gets topped with a slice of constructed melting cheese made by emulsifying a flavorful Alpine-style cheese with sodium citrate to give it the melting qualities of an American cheese slice. It's served with a spread flavored with capers and shallots on griddled slices of white bread.

The burger succeeds at its stated goals for the most part—the patty was indeed lean and medium rare with a thin, thin crust. The cheese could have melted better and was slightly grainy, but the flavor was there. As a sandwich, it was great. As a burger, it misses the mark slightly—I longed for a more substantial, more deeply flavored crust than what you can get at deep-frying temperatures, and the meat itself was crying out for more fat. It's a burger—it should be dripping, not dainty!

Just give it another name, and I'll take two, please.

Check out the step-by-step slideshow here! »

Similarly, the french fries are an excellent, interesting, and tasty dish. As with the burger, they don't really evoke actual french fries, but they taste good, and that's what matters right?

The fries undergo a similarly lengthy cooking process, starting with a stay in a sous-vide cooker in a brine made with salt and baking soda. Though I was told by a cook that the baking soda is meant to act as an abrasive, this didn't particularly make sense to me, as it dissolves in water rather than staying particulate. Rather, I believe the actual purpose is to raise the pH of the water, encouraging the breakdown of pectin, which is important to the next step: cavitation.

The par-cooked potatoes are dropped into an ultrasonic water bath—the kind used to clean jewelry or lab equipment—which causes their outer surfaces to form micro-faults. It essentially roughs them up a bit to increase their surface area, which in turn leads to more crunch.

From there, the fries are cooked in the traditional manner—once in oil at a relatively low temperature, followed by a quick dip into hotter oil to crisp them. They take on a lacy, almost tempura-like appearance, though there is no batter or coating whatsoever. They come served with a cup of bone marrow mousse—very similar to an airy mayonnaise.

The fries are very crunchy, if slightly greasy, and have a creamy, soft interior.

The shake was both delicious and evocative of the dish its based on. You take a sip of it and there's no doubt that what you're drinking is a milkshake, albeit one flavored with rotovap-reduced bourbon, clarified banana juice, and goat's milk. The liquid-nitrogen freezing process is showy and not strictly necessary (you could just chill and blend the base like normal shake), but it's fun and gets the job done in record time.

Check out the step-by-step slideshow here! »

About the author: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the Chief Creative Officer of Serious Eats where he likes to explore the science of home cooking in his weekly column The Food Lab. You can follow him at @thefoodlab on Twitter, or at The Food Lab on Facebook.

We’re proud to feature this article written by Picked Last reader John de Leon about the Stand Your Ground laws in Florida and elsewhere. Given that the laws are deservedly getting  attention in their role in the Zimmerman acquittal and activists are mobilizing to repeal said laws, we thought it timely to bring you own analysis. -Timmy

George Zimmerman’s recent acquittal represents is just another decision in a series of bizarre outcomes since Florida’s legislature passed its “stand your ground” statute seven years ago. The Tampa Bay Times recently did a comprehensive study of nearly 200 “stand your ground” cases and found:

• 70% of “stand your ground” defendants were either acquitted or were not charged.
• 73% defendants prevailed when the victim was black compared to a 59% rate when the victim was white.
• The website lists several questionable cases where defendants successfully raised “stand your ground” as a defense and were either acquitted, granted immunity, or were not prosecuted.

These results show that the “stand your ground” laws are doing precisely what their authors believed the laws would do: increase gun violence. These laws were pushed by gun companies and their lobbying arms (ALEC and the NRA) because, in all honesty, what good is having a gun if you don’t get to use it. The traditional definition of self-defense was necessarily restrictive and both limited potential consumers along with exposing their consumers to the ultimate gamble should they use their weapons on others: the possibility of life imprisonment.

The “stand your ground” laws changed that and provided civil and criminal immunity along with creating presumptions which are extremely difficult to overcome in our legal system because of (a) the prosecution’s “beyond reasonable doubt” burden of proof and (b) evidentiary problems which are detailed below.

Traditional Self-Defense

California’s self-defense law, largely modeled on traditional common law self-defense, consists of three elements:

1. Defendant reasonably believed that he or someone else was in imminent danger of suffering bodily injury,
2. Defendant reasonably believed that the immediate use of force was necessary to defend against that danger, AND
3. Defendant used no more force than was reasonably necessary to defend against that danger.

These elements evolved in a way to restrict self-defense to circumstances where the law sees the use of force as absolutely necessary and, even then, provided immunity only when the force used is reasonable. The law’s restrictive evolution came about because, often times, self-defense cases involved death and a jury hearing the case would necessarily be deprived of the testimony of the victim. Cases would essentially be he-said, she-said featuring the self-serving testimony of the killer and the dead body of the victim. The problems with evidence necessitated a restrictive as an expansive self-defense definition would encourage vigilantism (i.e., citizens taking the law into their own hands).

“Stand Your Ground” Changes

The influential conservative policy group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (“ALEC”) Civil Justice Task adopted Castle Doctrine Act model legislation in August 2005. The legislation, virtually identical to Florida’s statute, has since been passed by 16 other states.

The Act, relevantly, states:

“A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force… if he reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm…”

The Act awards civil and criminal immunity from prosecution along with attorney’s fees, court costs, and compensation for loss of income in civil cases.

Consequences

The “stand your ground” laws’ recent passage make it so that judges and juries do not have the benefit of hundreds of years of judicial evolution to draw upon when encountering new fact patterns. This means that modern interpretation can vary widely between two prosecutors, two judges, and two sets of juries ensuring widely varying applications of the law. Consequently, personal biases have been shown to play a statistically significant role.

The “stand your ground” laws’ focus on the immediate moment seem to ignore the entire set of circumstances which produce seemingly paradoxical results.

The common laws’ tendency to expand exceptions to cover more circumstances combine with the “stand your ground” laws’ purpose to expand traditional self-defense and the variance in application produce a jurisdiction with a wider berth for the justifiable taking of human life.

Finally, the “stand your ground” laws remove the “reasonable use of force” requirement. This means that the law in these states do not require the use of a lesser amount of force, if available, to stop a threat.

TL;DR: The laws were pushed and passed to make the taking of human life more common in order to sell more guns.

John de Leon is a lawyer based in the LA area. He volunteers with the Filipino Migrant Center and works on housing issues for low-income residents.

Chicken Vindaloo is an Indian curry with vinegar and spices. Easy and authentic chicken vindaloo recipe that originated from Portugal.

The post Chicken Vindaloo appeared first on Rasa Malaysia: Easy Delicious Recipes.

Do you know what a Sharknado is? It’s a movie that debuted on SyFy network in the States a few days ago and was the talk of the literati on twitter. It’s a film which is ostensibly about sharks in a tornado. That’s it, that’s the whole film. Sharks, tornadoes, and Tara Reid.

This is no great work of art, this is a film from the same company which made Sharktopus, Two-headed shark attack, and several films with the words “Megashark” and “versus.” All of which is simply to say that this company weren’t investing many brain cells in the development of the plot, the characters, or really anything. The tag line for the film is “Sharknado: enough said” and truly it is enough said about the film.

However, it wasn’t enough said. In fact there was quite a lot said by various and sundry celebrities about how awful the film was and what a shame it was that SyFy put this film on their network. Despite the tweets of Patton Oswalt and that guy who wrote Lost (another show that I didn’t watch), few people tuned in to watch Sharknado. However, a lot of people did tweet about the film. Which has led SyFy to announce production of a second Sharknado film and to ask people to tweet them a subtitle for that film. In the end, Sharknado wasn’t a ratings go-getter but SyFy’s twitter profile was raised and SyFy had plenty of buzz generated around the network. In that sense Sharknado was a success.

And much like Sharknado, I see that twitter is aflutter with rumors that Cesc Fabregas might be heading to Manchester United. Let me just say this as unequivocally as I possibly can: I cannot see Cesc Fabregas leaving the club of his boyhood dreams, at a time when they just sold his main competition for the starting midfield spot behind the other starting midfielders who are ageing, to go play for David Moyes.

First, I don’t doubt that Man U want Cesc. He is one of the best midfielders in the world. In the last 5 years he has won, La Liga: 2012–13, Copa del Rey: 2012, Supercopa de España: 2011, UEFA Super Cup: 2011, FIFA Club World Cup: 2011, FIFA World Cup: 2010, and the UEFA European Championship: 2008, 2012. But the problem is that David Moyes, despite being manager of the mighty Man U has won… uhh… the Second Division. Moyes is finding it impossible to sign anyone and he’s got Wayne Rooney demanding to be traded to Chelsea. And let’s not forget that Moyes criticized Cesc Fabregas publicly a few years back. In terms of this transfer, David Moyes has the pulling power of a 50cc moped, with a broken chain, and one wheel.

Second, Barcelona just had Alcantara stolen from them because they played Cesc too much and activated a clause in Alcantara’s contract which allowed Pep Guardiola to take him to Bayern on the cheap. Barcelona is very unlikely to let another starting midfielder go at this moment. Regardless of whether or not Cesc is seen as something of a let-down from some quarters.

Third, Alcantara was Cesc’s main competition for a starting midfield spot at Barcelona behind the aging duo of Xavi and Iniesta. With Alcantara gone, Cesc is almost guaranteed more playing time. Cesc has no desire to leave that situation. None. This is the club he has worked his entire life to play for. Leaving Barcelona now would be a massive failure for him. And even if Barcelona were to accept a bid, Cesc still has to agree to terms – and that doesn’t matter if its Arsenal or Man U. So I think it’s entirely possible for Cesc to stick two fingers up and refuse to be transferred.

But I get why this Cesc to Man U story has so many of my friends wringing their hands on twitter. I really do get it. This story perfectly encapsulates all of the crap that we’ve been struggling with as a club for the last five years. We want him back to erase the pain of him leaving us, to complete the “unfinished business” leftover because Arsenal didn’t spend to build around him and, as I wrote when he left, he saw multiple trophies with Arsenal slip through the club’s penny-pinching fingers. Now we have the money, we can do it right! We want him back because he’s a hugely talented player, one of the most talented players any of us have ever seen play football for Arsenal. And worse, the idea that Cesc might go to Man U opens the wounds of the Robin van Persie transfer; the way we couldn’t keep Robin, the way he gloats about winning the Premier League, the way he got that damn “guard of honor” thing, and how he swapped shirts with that mentalist Santos. We worry that our club might be too cheap to activate his buyback clause, which is wrapped up in the myths that Kroenke is going to take money out of the club, that he’s “strip mining” Arsenal, and all these falsehoods that so many people cling tenaciously to.

So, I get it. But you have to understand, this is a Cescnado. There’s no substance to this worry. Barcelona is saying that they don’t want to sell. Cesc is saying he doesn’t want to leave. And even if the unthinkable would happen and Barcelona were to accept a bid from Man U, Arsenal would have to activate the buyback clause. There would be panic on the streets of London if Cesc went to Man U.

No, Cesc to Man U is about as likely as a tornado full of sharks or a tornado full of Cescs. It’s a Cescnado, folks. Feel free to prepare for a Cescnado, but me? I’m going to worry about more realistic things that might happen, like Higuain to Napoli.

Qq

UPDATE: Arsene Wenger was just quoted saying, “Fabregas has decided to stay one more year at Barcelona. We have the clause in the contract so we would be on alert but at the moment that’s not something we’re after.” Combined with Cesc’s quotes from a few weeks back (dug up by our Bunburyist) “I’ve always said that I’m happy at Barca, whoever says that I’m leaving doesn’t know me and has never spoken with me. Nor with my agent, because he knows that I don’t want him to talk with other people about me. I’m very private and I don’t even talk about these things with my family. If someone says anything that isn’t that I want to play at Barca, it’s completely absurd.” Should just about take the wind out of this Sharknado.

Raheem Sterling. What have you done?!

A brand new picture of Liverpool’s young forward has gone viral on Tuesday after it revealed Sterling’s brand new haircut.

The Liverpool attacker’s new hairdo has instantly become a source of fun, with users on Twitter all-too-happy to dissect the appalling-ness of Sterling’s fresh look.

A series of the best tweets on Raheem Sterling’s new haircut can be seen below.

Check out Raheem Sterling's hairstyle … haven't seen something so hideous since Louis Farrakhan was known as Louis Eugene Wolcott

— Anto (@rossoAnto) July 16, 2013

I swear raheem sterling has the same trim as aunt viv from fresh prince of bel air

— K.Dot (@ish145) July 16, 2013

Is Raheem Sterling going for the look known as the "Retarded Sammy Davis Jnr"?

— Jack Smith (@Jackinho92) July 16, 2013

Raheem Sterling's new haircut has more than just a look of Grace Jones about it #LFC

— Danny Jamieson (@djamieson91) July 16, 2013

Has Raheem Sterling forgotten to take his curls out of his hair?

— SeanGonzalez-Lambert (@SeanGL_SFC_5) July 16, 2013

Raheem Sterling. No. Just no #PurpleRain

— dip (@grumpydip) July 16, 2013

Brilliant joke: Raheem Sterling goes into the barbers. The end.

— Michael Lavelle (@RubixSAFC) July 16, 2013

From Chicago

Editor's Note: Whether you're a tourist or an office worker in downtown Chicago, you can get sick of eating at chain restaurants all day. So we've started a series to get you the lowdown on where to find a great and affordable lunch.

[Photographs: Dennis Lee]

Nick covered U.B. Dogs for a Standing Room Only post about a year and a half ago, and I figure that's long enough in Internet time so that you guys have forgotten about it. You know, so this post seems as fresh and as beautiful as a daisy. A daisy like me. Daisy Dennis. Wow. It's only the first paragraph and I'm already calling myself Daisy Dennis. Looks like I've been roasting in the sun a little too long.

In any case, as Nick pointed out in his post, there's an odd dearth of hot dog joints in the Loop. You'd think a city that has its own hot dog style would have more banged up stands downtown, but you'd be wrong. Dead wrong. He's already explored the classic dog, the Italian beef, and the burger, so I've decided to take an off-the-beaten-path approach for this post and try some of the other items.

I'm just going to go straight for the weird stuff and start with the Joey Dog ($2.99), which is a Vienna hot dog covered in fries, garlic wasabi aioli, and Tabasco. Yes, you read that right. I almost couldn't believe it either, but I've seen crazier. One time when I was a kid, I made a sandwich with Wonder bread, American cheese, pickle relish, and grape jelly, and I ate the whole thing. I can still taste the memory (please make it stop), and all I can say is that I was a really strange kid, and it's made me into the lonely adult I am today.

I suppose the Joey Dog is sort of like a Depression Dog with the fries on top, but that's pretty much where the similarity ends. I just don't know about you, Joey. The Tabasco is the strongest flavor, the garlic wasabi aioli doesn't come through much except for moisture, and the fries add crisp fried starch. The Vienna hot dog is snappy, salty, and satisfying, but the toppings don't play well together whatsoever.

Chili cheese dogs are a guilty pleasure of mine. They're hugely messy, you end up wearing some sort of stain on your shirt for the rest of your day, and your hands smell like onions for pretty much forever. U.B. Dog's chili cheddar dog ($3.59) is topped with a giant ladleful of chili, and layered with Merkt's cheddar, all on a wonderful Vienna hot dog, which is cooked perfectly (you'd be surprised how many places seem to screw them up).

The problem here is that the chili just doesn't have any character. It looks like chili and tastes like chili, but no particular seasoning stands out; it's not entirely flavorless, but nothing comes forward. If you're going to invest your shirt in a risky high-stakes endeavor, the chili better be worth it, you know?

When Nick reviewed U.B. Dogs earlier, he punted on the review for the burger to a more seasoned burger aficionado (who happens to be me, now). The char burger ($4.29) at U.B. Dogs is surprisingly lean, at a 90/10 lean to fat ratio. We burger nerds tend to agree that 80/20 is where you strike a perfect balance between meat and moisture, and you can tell that it makes a difference in this char burger. It is dry, but the good news is that it's got a rounded and deeper beef flavor than other places I've been, and the good char accents it even further.

The toppings, including the Merkt's cheddar (other cheeses are available) add some moisture back into the dry coarse grind, but in the end, can't change the nature of the beef. And the bun is interesting: in person it's actually closer to a mahogany color, and it adds an almost bitter, toasted flavor to each bite. It's very sturdy, and doesn't fall apart. I can't say I've had a bun quite like it.

The fries ($1.75 for regular, $2.75 for large) are good, and are the type with the crisp, slightly oily, brown exterior with a mashed-potato center.

One of the things at U.B. Dogs that you might not ordinarily expect is the five different dipping aiolis for your spuds. My favorite is easily the mango-habanero ($0.50), which is distinctly sweetened by mango, and it has a fruity pepper kick from the habanero without too much scary burning sensation. The chipotle aioli is smoky and slightly bitter, with a touch of tomato. And the garlic-wasabi, the same aioli that comes on the Joey Dog, is easier to taste on its own—it has a distinct wasabi flavor but without that sinus-clearing bite you get from that green horseradish, accented with a touch of garlic.

So I'm going to let you guys in on a semi-secret thing here in Chicago called gravy bread ($1.75). It always comes as a side, and you don't see it at many places, though I'm sure most of them would let you order it off-menu. It's one of my favorite things ever. Are you ready?

Gravy bread is a whole Italian roll, the same roll you get Italian beef on, just absolutely drenched in the au jus from the Italian beef. To be honest, the soaked bread is my favorite part of every Italian beef sandwich; it's soft, mushy (yes, mushy), savory, and beefy, and it's basically a vehicle for the jus so you're not caught drinking the stuff on its own. If you like your beef sandwiches dipped, you know exactly what I'm talking about—that soft, juice filled bun. U.B. Dog's version lets you taste that distinct oregano-punched spice blend they use to cook their beef that you might not detect as much in a bite of the regular sandwich.

If you guys are looking for a place to mow down old favorites, U.B. Dogs is a great place for the usual suspects, like the decked out Chicago dog or the Italian beef, along with some well executed fries. But when you head towards uncharted territory, like with the Joey Dog, all bets are off. And if you didn't know about gravy bread, now you know, and you look like a pro. If you already knew about gravy bread, then, well, high five! Now down low. Too slow!

U.B. Dogs

185 N. Franklin Street, Chicago, IL 60606(map)
312-251-7009
ubdogs.com

About the author: After a failed attempt at starting a chain of theme restaurants called "Smellen Keller," Dennis Lee traveled the world to discover his true passion. Sadly, midwifery didn't pan out. Now he works in a cubicle, and screws around as much as possible. Follow his shenanigans on Twitter.

It was one of the iconic moments of the 2012-13 Premier League season.

On April 14, 2013, Sunderland fans experienced one of their greatest Premier League experiences as the Black Cats won 3-0 at bitter rivals Newcastle in one of the surprise results of last season.

The match was tattooed into people’s consciousness through a series of dramatic goal celebrations from Sunderland’s manager Paolo Di Canio, with the most memorable celebration being the Italian’s knee power-slide which saw the Sunderland boss scuff up his expensive suit.

Now one Sunderland fan has recorded that moment for eternity on his body by getting a massive tattoo of Di Canio’s slide on his shoulder.

Unfortunately for the fan, it appears his tattooist got the scoreline slightly muddled as it should have read “NUFC 0 – SAFC 3.”

A picture of the tattoo can be seen below.

From Drinks

VIEW SLIDESHOW: Ask a Sommelier: What's the Best Wine for Seafood?

In the hot summer months, even if we can't be relaxing by the beach, we find ourselves planning meals that revolve around seafood: briny raw oysters, buttery lobster rolls, wild salmon charred on the grill.

But what should we drink? Sauvignon Blanc? Muscadet? What about red wines? How do you go about choosing a wine for seafood dishes? We asked our sommelier crew for a few wine-and-fish tips. Here's what they had to say.

Chat with SE: Drinks on Twitter. Keep in the loop with our weekly newsletter.

[Photograph: courtesy Nicholas Coleman]

I first met Nicholas Coleman at the first ever New York International Olive Oil Competition in April at the International Culinary Center. It was an exciting event, with the who's who of olive oil (and there is a who's who of olive oil!) there in spades. Hundreds of hopeful olive oil producers had entered their products—their babies—with hopes that the panel of judges would bestow distinction upon the fruits of their blood, sweat, and tears—their beloved oil.

Coleman was the youngest judge on the panel. He also is Eataly's resident oleologist, and half the team behind Grove and Vine, where he creates custom olive oil and wine tasting seminars with sommelier Dan Amatuzzi, Eataly's Wine Director. He's given olive oil seminars at Eataly, NYU, and Columbia University, and worked with big-name chefs to dream up olive oil tasting menus. Last year, Coleman graduated Summa Cum Laude as a certified technical olive oil taster from ONAOO (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Olio di Oliva, or the The National Organization of Olive Oil Tasters), Italy's premier olive oil tasting school. In other words, when it comes to olive oil, Coleman is the man.

We spoke to Coleman about his passion for the lordly lipid (his term) and how to choose and taste the best olive oil at home.

[Photograph: Brent Herrig]

What made you pursue a life in olive oil? After graduating college, I took a trip from the Arctic Circle in Finland down to the Sahara Desert in Africa with nothing more than a backpack. I wound up in Italy in late October during the olive harvest, and an old friend put me in contact with Nadia Gasperini Rossi, who is a master oil producer just outside the town of Arezzo Mulinmaria. Together we harvested and cleaned olives by hand. When I asked her why she didn't sell her oil, she said with great satisfaction, "My olives are like my children...and you can't expect me to sell my children."

Harvesting and pressing oil with Nadia was amazing. I began to returned annually to Tuscany for the harvest, and over the years Nadia has become my mentor.

So how did you go from a kid with olive oil wanderlust to being an olive oil big wig? I brought Nadia's olive oil to O&CO., the oil specialty store in Grand Central Terminal, and convinced the manager to taste it. She offered me a position. When I went to check out Eataly's grand opening, I noticed they had an incredible selection of single estate Italian oils. People seemed overwhelmed by the sheer number. I showed up the next day introduced myself to Mario Batali, who was hanging out in the olive oil section. He hired me on the spot and I started a few weeks later as Eataly's resident oleologist.

What about olive oil lights you up? It's king of the Italian pantry and the backbone of the Mediterranean cuisine. If you have a quality bottle of extra virgin olive oil, you only need a few simple ingredients to make a truly delicious meal. It's the ultimate sauce. For the most part America is an olive oil desert, and it's exciting to be part of changing that. Olive oil is going to be the next big thing for the American people. It's where cheese was 20 years, and wine was 40 years ago.

Almost all supermarket olive oil is adulterated—it's simply not what it says it is. The more Americans choose fresh, quality oil, the more we are sending a message to the industry that we will no longer tolerate defective oil being labeled as extra virgin and sold in our supermarkets. The American people deserve the real thing.

Coleman tasting oils. [Photograph: courtesy Nicholas Coleman]

What's one question everyone asks about olive oil? People tend to ask: 'What's the best olive oil?' There is no single best olive oil. That's why tasting is so important. What speaks to you? The proof is in the taste. I try to get people to think about olive oil like they do about wine—consider the harvest date and when it was bottled, the olive cultivars its composed of, and the region from which it came. It matters what you will serve it with, and of course your palate matters, what you love.

How does one taste olive oil? Olive oil should be tasted alone, like any ingredient. At official tastings, we use opaque, blue stemless glasses. The color of the glass keeps tasters from being influenced by the color of the oil. The glass's shape is meant to fit perfectly in the palm of a hand, so we can warm the oil and release its aromas. Once you warm the oil, stick your nose in the glass and take a big whiff. So much of what we taste comes from its smell. Then slurp a bit of olive oil as you would wine, coating the whole mouth—aerate it to allow the full flavor to emulsify and develop. Swallowing is important, too. A peppery burn in the back of the throat is caused by oleocanthal, which is a powerful antioxidant. The more of that tingle you experience, the higher the presence of antioxidants in the oil. We refer to that sensation as pungency.

What else do you taste for? First, we're looking for the absence of defects. A common defect is riscaldo. The best translation is "fusty," and this happens when olives have been piled up and sit around for too long after harvest, before they are pressed. Without oxygen flow, the olives start to undergo anaerobic fermentation.

When oil sits in vats for too long, particles of the olive can degrade the oil, causing the defect known as muddy sediment. Grubby oils occur when the olive fly infests the fruit while its still on the tree. Rancidity happens as olive oil ages and becomes oxidized.

Then we taste for attributes, the smells and flavors that make oil great. Oils can taste of green apple skin, fresh cut grass, banana, pine nuts, almonds, green tomato. They can be wonderfully bitter and pungent. These are the things that make olive oil interesting and unique.

[Photograph: Brent Herrig]

Do you have to have an expert palate to taste for these things? You don't have to be an expert to taste olive oil. Good olive will taste good! If you can taste the difference between clean water and dirty water, you can taste olive oil. We taste olive oil independent of food to get insight into how it will function in a dish. Olive oil goes well with all food, but tasting the oil on its own can trigger ideas about how to cook it, serve it, and pair it.

What does "extra virgin" actually mean? To be classified as extra virgin, an olive oil must have less than 0.8% acidity and no sensory defects as judged by a panel of certified, technical olive oil tasters. So it doesn't mean that it necessarily tastes exceptional, just that it's not riddled with defects.

Are early harvest oils better? They're different. They're more expensive to produce. Young olives are more flavorful, but yield less oil. All olives begin their life green, and turn a dark purple over time. The color of the olive directly reflects its stage of maturation. The earlier the olive is harvested, the more robust its oil will be. Later harvest oils are mellower.

Someone hands me a bottle of olive oil. What do I look for? Three things: the harvest date, where it comes from (this means the specific region, not just the country), and the cultivars, or what olives the oil is composed of. If these essential elements are missing, it doesn't speak well to the quality of the oil or the producer.

You want to choose olive oil from the most recent harvest. In the northern hemisphere, olives are harvested in the fall. In Tuscany, harvest begins somewhere at the end of October and continues into November. So right now, the freshest oils are from the 2012 harvest.

Like with wine, different seasons and different years make for unique oils. But unlike wine, fresher is better. Like fresh fruit juice, oil does not improve with age. Once you open a bottle, try to go through it in 60 days. Keep it somewhere cool—not near your stove. The best conditions are those of a wine cellar, with protection from heat and light.

Coleman teaching a group of chefs at Del Posto in NYC. [Photograph: courtesy Nicholas Coleman]

Oils of dubious origin will sometimes say "Product of Italy" on their labels. They might be a blend of oils from all over the world, simply bottled and shipped out of Italy. Good olive oils nearly always state the specific region they were produced in.

No one country has a monopoly on quality olive oil. There are world-caliber oils being made in Australia, North and South America, North and South Africa, and of course the Mediterranean. The true beauty of olive oil is in its regional diversity. Different microclimates and growing conditions get expressed through the oil.

Do oils from a specific region share a motif? Like wine, the terroir matters a lot and influences everything about the oil. Oils from the Liguria and northern Italy tend to be light, buttery, and sweet. They work well for delicate dishes, and won't overpower vegetables, fish, eggs, or potatoes. They are perfect for pesto. These oils tend to support other flavors without overcrowding flavor real estate.

Oils from Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio in central Italy are more assertive and bitter, with a peppery finish. They often taste like freshly-cut grass. They are great for steak and soup.
Southern oils from Sicily and Puglia are vibrant, crisp, and assertive. They pair with grilled fish, tomatoes, beans, rosemary, and eggplant...but there are always exceptions and it's very personal. It's about what speaks to you.

Is cooking with olive oil okay? Olive oil has a smoking point of about 400 degrees, which is quite high for cooking at home. My advice is to put oil in a cold pan and warm it slowly, simmering it gently, so that you don't destroy the oil's flavor. Cook with a mid-priced oil, and save your expensive oil for drizzling and finishing. Have a few oils in your arsenal, for different purposes and recipes.

But wait, there's more! Follow Serious Eats on Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest!

About the author: Hannah Howard is a food writer who spent her formative years eating, drinking, serving, bartending, hostessing, cooking, and managing restaurants. She now writes about delicious things for a living, for great places like Fairway Market.

From Drinks

[Photo: Foggy Ridge Cider]

You might associate apples with autumn and harvest, but this summer, we think you should be drinking cider cocktails. These drinks are light, tart, and refreshing, slightly fizzy and not too alcoholic—just right for cooling off on a muggy day. Even better: they're super-simple to make, without too much fuss or too many ingredients. Because we're all kinda lazy in the summer, and drinking shouldn't be the thing that takes up all of our available effort.

These cocktails can incorporate any of your favorite local hard ciders; if you're looking for recommendations, check out our cider column from Chris Lehault.

Snakebite

[Photo: Christopher Lehault]

A San Francisco startup recently released a bottled version of this cocktail (they call it T.W. Pitchers' Snake Bite), but we think you can handle making a homemade version, tailored to your personal preferences. Choose your favorite lager (or try other beer!) and your favorite cider, then mix them half-and-half in a pint glass (or by the pitcher.) The mix is refreshing and not too sweet.

Get the Recipe »

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Stone Fence

[Photo: Christopher Lehault]

If you can pour and you can stir, you are set to make this simple cocktail, which dates all the way back to the colonial era. The easiest version is just hard cider and good rum, though you can also get fancy, doctoring up the cider with a mix of rum, apple brandy, and applejack.

Get the Recipe »

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Orchard Mimosa

[Photo: Christopher Lehault]

It's easy to get tired of the brunch classic, but that doesn't mean you should throw out the basic Mimosa formula. In this cider-based variation, fresh orange juice bolsters the fruity flavor of good cider, and a touch of ginger liqueur adds spice. Serve it with a cinnamon-spiced quick bread or an easy crumb cake.

Get the Recipe »

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Cider Sangria

[Photo: Christopher Lehault]

Take this recipe for a cider-based spin on white sangria as a basic template: it's based on semi-dry cider, sweetened with a little Grand Marnier and ice cider, which cider makers produce by slowly freezing out a portion of the water in fermented cider. (What remains is rich, sweet, and flavorful.) A little fresh ginger perks up the mixture, and you can add whatever fruit you find at the farmers' market (try apricots and peaches!)

Get the Recipe »

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Young Buck

[Photo: Christopher Lehault]

Once you've mastered the easy drinks above, it's time to get just a touch fancier. Making a flavored simple syrup is about as simple as making tea, and it's fine to whip up this hibiscus-flavored version in advance so you have it ready in your fridge. The cocktail gets a rosy color from the hibiscus and a little spice from ginger beer.

Get the Recipe »

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Have you been making cocktails with cider this summer? What's your favorite combination?

Looking for more summer drinks inspiration? Follow us on Pinterest.

From Drinks

VIEW SLIDESHOW: Ask a Cicerone: What's the Next Big Thing in Beer?

Editor's Note: Ask a what? A Certified Cicerone^® is a beer expert who has passed a particular certification exam administered by the Craft Beer Institute. You can think of them as beer sommeliers: these folks have demonstrated significant beer knowledge and tasting skill, plus professional skills in beer sales and service.

There was a time when drinking beer from microbreweries at all was pretty groundbreaking, but these days, the American beer scene is constantly growing and changing, and it can be hard to keep up.

Have you tried the latest saison from the newest gypsy nanobrewery? What about beers fermented in a coolship? Beers aged in a wine barrel? Beers brewed with salt? If super-hoppy beers are so last year, what can we expect to see in terms of popular beer styles in the future? What trends will we see in craft brewing in the months and years to come?

We asked 10 beer experts for their predictions. Here's what they had to say.

So many drinks, so little time. Keep in the loop with our weekly newsletter.

From Drinks

[Photographs: Wes Rowe]

We've talked a little about dive bars and neighborhood bars here at Serious Eats, but it's a topic that many folks feel mighty passionate about. Some people feel that a true dive bar must be of a certain age, must serve beer or whiskey at a certain price, and must have a certain dingy je-ne-sais-quoi.

As SENY editor Max Falkowitz puts it, a dive bar is "a place where I'm really happy to spend not too much money to make bad decisions."

Do you know a dive bar when you see one? If a corner bar opens in the morning, with the same old men in the same old stools every day, but now they charge $7 for a pint of Guinness, is it still a dive bar? What does it take to qualify? Dark corners with benches and creepy velvet paintings? An ancient jar of pickled eggs? Punk music on the jukebox? Scrappy, smoky carpet on the floor? Is a dive bar defined by smell alone?

And while we're at it, what dive bar has a special place in your heart?

In his new album, rapper Jay-Z expresses skepticism about some of his colleagues’ claims of extraordinary wealth, saying, “The truth in my verses, versus, your metaphors about what your net worth is.”  So are your favorite rappers lying about how rich they are?  Bloomberg Businessweek straightens out the confusion with a great graphic comparing alleged vs. actual wealth.  Here’s a preview: Nicki Minaj is not “mak[ing] a billi like a big goat.” (HT: The Big Picture)

cartoonhangover:

"Bee and PuppyCat Part 1"
Bee, a reluctant hero, becomes entangled in the adventures of a puppy (…or is he a cat?) as they travel between reality and the void of Fishbowl Space. Created by Natasha Allegri, character designer and storyboard artist for Adventure Time. We can neither confirm nor deny the autobiographical nature of Bee and Puppycat

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King's Cross stories: Platform 9¾

In amongst the commuters and long distance travellers at King's Cross station, one group of visitors is going nowhere. They've come to see a platform that isn't here, and even if it was here they wouldn't be able to see it. Platform 9¾ played a big part in the Harry Potter novels, even though JK Rowling later admitted she'd got the terminus wrong and meant Euston instead. In the early days of Pottermania station staff kept visiting muggles occupied by sticking up a sign saying 'Platform 9¾' near Platform 9, and stuck half a trolley in the wall. Plenty of people came along to take photos, but you didn't usually have to wait too long because it was stuck out by the Cambridge platforms, not the mainline. In the restructure of King's Cross station it's been moved to the new whoop-de-doo entrance area, on a wall between the bookshop and the currency exchange. It's not an exciting wall, and it's not inbetween platforms 9 and 10 either. One day it will be, when King's Cross's Platform 0 is renumbered 1, and all the other platforms hike up one. But for now the tourists don't care, they just want their photo taken by the sign. The queues were short to start off with, then a rope appeared, and so did an 'official photographer'. It's a very different experience at Platform 9¾ today. And very popular.

The queue slinks back, and round, and pokes out into the concourse. I'd say there are three dozen waiting, almost all of them between the ages of 16 and 25. They've willingly submitted to queueing for an organised attraction, because they're tourists and they have no idea this used to be free and easy. At the front is a small group of folk wearing wine-red waistcoats. One is the photographer, and he stands a little off to the side to get an unobtrusive shot. Another (on this occasion) is the scarf holder, who has the none too taxing job of holding a long strip of knitwear back horizontally and then letting go, to make a good photo. And another is the whipper-upper, who chivvies the crowd, and moves them forward, and explains to each in turn how the process works. "Is anyone here from Finland?" he asks, and two hands go up. It's that sort of queue.

When it's your turn a scarf is wrapped around your neck, then you're ushered forward and invited to grab hold of the bar on the half-a-trolley. And raise one foot into the air. And look to your left. And smile. All trace of originality has been snuffed out because everyone gets shaped into this single pose, but the uniformity helps move the conveyor belt forward. If you have a significant other there's nothing to stop them standing beside the official photographer and taking a photo of your own. It's even encouraged, because this isn't some evil cartel operation. But on a given signal the scarf holder lets go, and the scarf flutters momentarily in the air, and that's the moment when the official photographer clicks to take the money shot. And if you want to see that, you need to go visit the shop. Oh yes, there's a shop, the Platform 9¾ Shop, just to the left below the stairs to The Parcel Yard.

It's not a big shop, indeed it's rather narrow. It's been set out to look a bit like Ollivanders in Diagon Alley. And it opened last December, so it's pretty well established now. £8 gets you a copy of your photo, which is less than I think I was expecting, if you queue again at the counter in the centre. Ooh look, they also have scarves just like the one some waistcoated bloke just tied round your neck, but they cost over £30. The walls of the shops are completely packed with official Harry Potter merchandise, from Marauders Maps and Chocolate Frogs to more expensive cashmere 'house' sweaters. Head down the back and you'll find a display of wands, quite evocatively laid out, but essentially little more than carved bits of something woodlike stashed in a nice box, for £30. It's clear that the photo is merely a hook to get visitors inside where there's then every chance they'll spend a fair bit more. The shop's run by the same bloke who runs the London Film Museum, and he's clearly tapped his market well, but those commuters aren't missing much by walking past.

Read Drew's blog: The Worst Things For Sale.

He’s highly rated,
the bid’s audacious,
it’s a surprise,
but Arsenal’s voracious.
The move’s a shock
but the Gunners are a lock.

So we are eyeing him
and preparing a bid.
We are one step closer,
and on the verge.
Ready to submit
a formal offer.
We are going to dip
into our coffers.
(our warchest!)

Don’t let our delays
give you pause…
We are making our move,
to prepare to activate,
an unknown clause.

This is no kid,
no like a new signing
we are preparing a bid,
there will be no whining.
We’ll hijack the player,
you’ve been eyeing to swoop
We’ll trigger his clause
and keep the press in the loop.
He’ll snub all others
and join the cause.
As Arsene remakes Arsenal
into the Arsenal that was.

Our target is simple;
the new Vieira,
the new Henry,
or the old-new Cesc.

And we are poised,
on the verge,
it’s understood,
that it is our plot
to snap him up.

Don’t let hope fade,
he’s a marquee name!
A bid’s being readied!
We are going to table!
We will sign him soon!
(as soon as we’re able)

I know you’re skittish
but don’t be wary!
Because no other team will hijack
our audacious bid,
for the highly rated,
Gareth Barry.

All phrases used above stolen directly from NewsNow’s ‘Arsenal Transfers’ section between 6:30am and 7:30am PST on 11 July 2013. Any likeness between that site’s headlines and Arsenal’s actual transfer dealings are purely coincidental and any inference that Arsenal are after Gareth Barry, Cesc Fabregas, Wayne Rooney, or Luis Suarez is for entertainment purposes only. Hang in there Gooners, the transfer window doesn’t close until September 2nd. That’s right, the 2nd: Arsene gets one more day to drag his feet!

Qq

[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

An eight-wheel mechanism allows the unusual Stair-Rover skateboard to descend flights of steps the way conventional skateboards never could. Designed by Po-Chih Lai, the wheel system mounts to a longboard and flexes to follow the contours of stairs and ride up curbs.

In addition to the original design, which fits wood boards, Lai offers an upgraded Pro version with a fiberglass deck and black components. The chassis goes to work on rough surfaces like cobblestones or uneven paving to reduce impact and prevent falls.

“Reach the top of a flight of stairs and simply keep going – let gravity and the patent-pending V-frame design do the rest. The wheels bounce up and down independently and conform to the shape of each step. It’s a balancing act that gives the board its crab-like scuttle and gives you a butter-smooth ride to the bottom.”

A new video of the board in action shows it navigating London landmarks like the Royal Albert Hall, Emirates Stadium and the Millennium Bridge. Currently up on Kickstarter, the project is seeking £50,000 in funding to bring the board into production. Backers donating at a certain level are pre-ordering a board before it’s available to the general public.

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[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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From Drinks

[Photo: Rejigger]

It was Cinco De Mayo, and my friends and I wanted to celebrate. Fajita making was underway, and the guacamole was coming together. Margaritas (obviously) came to mind next. After looking up a recipe and seeing "ounces" and "splashes" involved, we got discouraged. We ended up settling on a neon-colored bottle of Margarita mix and added tequila until it tasted "right." It never tasted all that right.

Now, this is no way to celebrate, but frankly, precisely measuring cocktail ingredients can get in the way of a good time. To solve this common frustration, inventor Marcus Wang has created a new cocktail-measuring tool called the ReJigger, and he's looking to Kickstarter for some help getting it off the ground.

What the ReJigger does is simple: it has a compartment for the right quantity of each ingredient for a mixed drink. (Wang claims it makes an 'endless number' of different cocktails, but he starts with 9 basic recipes.) The tool is made out of BPA free, dishwasher safe plastic that is sectioned into three compartments.

So, if you're aiming for those Margaritas, you pour Cointreau, tequila, and lime juice in each of the compartments, following the color-coded recipe guide. It's sort of like Painting by Numbers, but instead of paint, there's booze, and instead of a pretty picture at the end, you've got a pretty cocktail. The Rejigger then caps onto a standard pint glass so you can shake the drink, and then works as a strainer to get the chilled cocktail into your serving glass.

If all goes as planned, the ReJigger is set to pack and ship in mid October. The project will be funded if at least $75,000 is pledged by this Friday, July 12.

About the Author: Amalia Safran is an intern at Serious Eats. You can follow her on Twitter @amaliasafran.