Updates 1:00 p.m. THE KING IS DOWN. Eight-time hot dog eating champion Joey Chestnut has been dethroned by Matt "Megatoad" Stonie, 62 dogs to 60 dogs (Tim "Eater X" Janus came in third with 35). "I just didn't find my rhythm." Chestnut said. "I did bad. He deserved to win." [ more › ]

Can’t fault the logic of this bar. (photo by dasuberspud)

I’ve come a long way.

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A Kentucky woman, her daughter, and her daughter’s friend allegedly encountered an employee jerking himself off when they visited a Lexington, KY-area Pizza Hut several days ago. Sandy Brentlinger took to Facebook to post the picture. In the caption she…

The post Employee Allegedly Caught Masturbating at Kentucky Pizza Hut appeared first on First We Feast.

The twinkling lights dotting the ceiling of this dazzling cave system are the work of arachnocampa luminosa, a bioluminescent gnat larva (also called a glowworm) found throughout the island nation of New Zealand. It is believed that the light, emitted mostly from females, is how the insects find mates. These long-exposure photos by local photographer Joseph Michael capture small communities of worms amongst 30 million-year-old limestone formations on North Island. You can see more shots from the project titled Luminosity, here.

Sad news out of the West Village this morning.

A four-year legal struggle with the landlord over the use of "common space" has culminated in the closure of Harold Moore's Commerce Restaurant in the West Village. According to Moore, the restaurant had to endure major renovations in the building during the time frame, but due to a missed filing "we lost the restaurant over a technicality." Commerce opened in 2008 and soon became a neighborhood favorite. The chef tells Eater:

I am saddened, that something commercially and critically successful is no longer. Commerce was such a special place. I hope our neighbors and loyal customers, who have been our biggest supporters, will visit me at my newest ventures.

Moore is set to open Commerce Sweet Shop on Bedford Street this summer and Harold's Meat + Three in the Tommie Hudson Square hotel this fall. Both ventures will be decidedly more casual than Commerce so it will be interesting to see what Moore's next move will be beyond them. This past Monday was Commerce's last night of service after which Moore was forced break the news and thank his"loyal staff."

The two bald eagles who recently built a nest on Staten Island for breeding purposes seem to have given up their dream of raising smug Native New Yorker offspring, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation. [ more › ]

UPDATE (July 1, 7:20 a.m.): Tuesday night, the U.S. women’s national team beat Germany 2-0, making this article’s headline even more prescient than usual. Below, Benjamin Morris looks at how America’s unique youth soccer culture has helped ensure the dominance of the USWNT.

Even though the United States is a bit insecure about its place in the world’s most popular sport, the U.S. women’s national soccer team has been dominant on the world stage for nearly a quarter-century. Tonight it will face off in the semifinals of the Women’s World Cup against Germany, with nothing less than the title of “greatest of all time” at stake. Each team has two World Cup championships, and they’ve been the two top-ranked teams in the world since FIFA’s rankings began in 2003. The winner will take the lead in World Cup finals appearances and will have the inside track to finish atop 2015’s rankings.

So how did we get here? Basically, it boils down to two things: 1) Women’s soccer has been on a great run for the past 30-plus years in the U.S., to the point where it’s poised to become our most popular women’s sport, and 2) the rest of the world has been relatively apathetic and/or hostile to the women’s game.

U.S. women’s soccer truly seemed to arrive in the public’s attention after the 1999 World Cup. If you’re old enough to have experienced the excitement and drama of it, there’s no way you could ever forget:

This success didn’t come from nowhere. Since almost immediately after the implementation of Title IX (which became law in 1972, with compliance required by 1978) U.S. women’s soccer has grown like crazy. Probably the cleanest and easiest venue to see how this has played out is at the high school level; the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) has high school athletics participation data going back to the ’70s:

In the late ’70s, the number of high school women playing soccer was in the low five figures. By the time America won the World Cup in 1991, there were more than 120,000. By the time it won in 1999, there were more than 250,000. Now it is approaching 20 percent of all high school female athletes — about 375,000 — and has surpassed baseball/softball as the third-most-played team sport.

Soccer has grown both by taking women from other sports and by capturing a disproportionate share of “new” female athletes as more young women began to play sports. Note that the percentage decline for basketball — by far the most mature women’s sport in the country — looks steep, but the change in total number of players is fairly small (there were more women playing high school basketball in 2013-14 than in 1976-77.) Soccer, though, has still been adding numbers to its ranks rapidly, despite a bit of a slowdown in its growth shortly after 1999:

Soccer looks like it has a good chance of taking the top spot in the next 10-20 years. Yes, volleyball has been on a nice run of late, and looks likely to pass basketball as the most-played sport as early as this year. But volleyball is down from its peak (see chart above), and the upper limit for soccer is still unknown.

For as much as the rest of the world loves soccer, it has been much slower to embrace the women’s game than the U.S. In England, women playing soccer was effectively banned (at least at venues that hosted men’s teams) from 1921 to 1971, and in Germany it was banned from 1955 to 1970. At around the time Title IX was heating up in the United States, women’s international soccer basically didn’t exist. According to FIFA, there were only three national teams and two international matches played in 1971.

And while the women’s game is still growing worldwide, it has a long way to go. The latest comprehensive statistics from FIFA come from its “Big Count” in 2006. In it, women made up about 11 percent of registered soccer players worldwide, and just 13 percent of youths. While the Big Count hasn’t been updated, more recent studies haven’t suggested any major shifts, and FIFA still uses a figure of 12 percent in its literature.

What’s worse, even those numbers are being skewed — by the United States. In that same report, the U.S. had more than 1.5 million registered female youth players — more than half of the world’s total. Take all U.S. youth out of the equation, and just 8 percent of the young soccer players in the rest of the world were female in 2006.

Also, in the U.S., women’s soccer has more parity the higher up the ladder you go. Of all FIFA-registered youth in the U.S., 40 percent are female. In high schools, young women make up 47 percent of all soccer players. In the NCAA, 53 percent of soccer players are female, including 61 percent of those in Division I.

Given that we pretty much started out on a similar playing field and have devoted more interest to women playing soccer in this country, I’m actually led to wonder why it is that we’re not even more dominant.

For example, Germany has probably the most robust network of young women playing soccer outside of the U.S. Per capita its network is about the same as America’s: The U.S. has about five times as many registered youth women’s players as Germany (based on the data in the FIFA country-by-country factbook), fitting well with a population difference of about 5x for 15-24-year-old females (judging by here and here).

If all else were equal, the U.S. should be smoking Germany: Both countries have similar youth participation rates, and we have five times more youths to draw on.

This isn’t the type of sports mystery that can be easily solved, but the best answer is probably something along the lines of “they take soccer more seriously.” And there are some pretty good hints of that in FIFA’s data: For example, 94 percent of all the FIFA-registered players in the U.S. are youths, compared with only 31 percent in Germany. In raw numbers, that means we have a little more than 100,000 relatively serious adult female players compared with Germany’s 650,000 plus. While I generally think youth or high school participation is a great proxy for potential talent pools, in this case I think the adult participation disparity tells you quite a bit about each country’s soccer culture. We may have the numbers advantage, but we don’t treat soccer as a national passion project.

At least not yet. Give us a couple more wins in Canada and we’ll see.

CLARIFICATION (July 1, 10:30 a.m.): The “rise of soccer” chart has been labeled to reflect that hockey includes both ice and field variants.

Update below [ more › ]

According to the NYPD, the incident occurred on Thursday, June 25, 2015, just after 3 p.m. when the A train was near 207th Street: A woman got on the train with a screaming child, and as the child continued screaming, the victim, a 65-year-old man, "asked the suspect to have the child stop screaming. The suspect became irate and started cursing at the victim and then punched him in the head." [ more › ]

Put a Wing on It

Photograph by Mohd Khorshid, National Geographic Your Shot

In this picture by Mohd Khorshid, a willow warbler splashes in a pool of water in Al Ahmadi, Kuwait. Willow warblers pass through the country in large numbers during their long seasonal migrations.

This photo was submitted to the 2015 Traveler Photo Contest. Find your best travel photos and join the competition.

Today in good news for the First Amendment: New York's highest court has ruled that going on a profanity-laden rant during an encounter with police does not constitute disorderly conduct. The Court of Appeals ruled unanimously on Thursday that police did not have cause to arrest Richard Gonzalez, a maintenance worker who cursed at cops in a Manhattan subway station back in 2011, according to the Associated Press. [ more › ]

Yesterday we were alerted to an art exhibit which is comprised of live horses tethered to a wall in a Manhattan gallery. Is it art or animal cruelty? Below, critics and activists weigh in on the 3-day installation—called Untitled (12 Horses)—currently on display at Gavin Brown's Enterprise in Greenwich Village. [ more › ]

A seven-course tasting of gossip and restaurant news. No tweezers, but some of the courses are served on those obnoxious stone slates.

— Rumor has it that the Estela team is planning a pasta restaurant somewhere on Spring Street. Partner/sommelier Thomas Carter will neither confirm nor deny the rumor. But the move would make sense, considering that Estela is more popular than ever, almost two years into its run. It is the place that every out-of-town chef and restaurateur visits when they're in New York. And Eater's own Bill Addison believes that it's one of America's most essential restaurants.

[Thomas Carter and Ignacio Mattos by Daniel Krieger]

Years before he served fluffy ricotta dumplings with mushrooms at Estela, Ignacio Mattos worked at the original Il Buco in Noho and Chez Panisse in Berkeley. With that kind of experience under his belt, he must surely know a thing or two about seasonal pasta. He might even be some kind of Jedi noodle master. If you hear anything about the Estela follow-up — or any other big project coming soon to NYC — please let us know.

— Did Starbucks steal artwork from a Greenpoint muralist for use in its new mini-Frappuccino campaign? That's what the artist claims — she's suing the coffee company for $750,000.

— Here's a video of Danny Meyer, AKA the Sir Isaac Newton of Hospitality, discussing the notion of "being right" at the Welcome Conference.

— Luke Pettigout, a former Giants lineman, is being sued for allegedly punching a guy at Rockefeller Center bar 48 Lounge a few years back. Apparently the victim was chatting up the footballer's wife before the punch.

— Smith & Wollensky just opened a new location in London.

— Take Root's chef Elise Korcak explains why she is literally the only person in the kitchen of her Michelin-starred restaurant: "I realized that I didn’t really like the kitchen life...I’m not a team-oriented person; I am not terribly social. It wasn’t really my gig. But I really wanted to keep cooking, and I wanted to cook for people and create, and continue to do that."

— And finally, the Bowery Meat Co. just sprouted a patio, where you can eat a steak across the street from an alleyway where The Ramones smoked cigarettes with Blondie and the guys from Television, many moons ago:

Dining al fresco now available @bowerymeatcompany! Enjoy a Cote de Boeuf under the stars!

A photo posted by Josh Capon (@chefcapon) on Jun 24, 2015 at 2:49pm PDT

The US Supreme Court made a historic decision today in a 5-4 ruling establishing same-sex marriage across all 50 states, ending two decades of litigation. -- By Lloyd Young

Supporters of same-sex marriage Pooja Mandagere, left, and Natalie Thompson kiss outside the U.S. Supreme Court following the announcement of the ruling on the same-sex marriage case, in Washington, June 26. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

Authorities are investigating a bag of headless goats found on Long Island. [ more › ]

The NYPD dispatched Emergency Service Unit officers to Queens yesterday, to rescue a kitten trapped under the hood of a 107th Precinct police cruiser. These are the same officers who hunt for missing persons and negotiate hostages, but once in a while they get to protect and serve someone really important. Here's a picture for scale and adorability. [ more › ]

Five years ago today, the MTA forever terminated V train service. The last train left the 2nd Avenue station at 11:33pm. Budget pressures at the time forced the city agency to cut costs and merge a bunch of the routes. The V subway was one of the younger lines in the system at nine years, […]

I love oatmeal. I love a warm bowl of it in the morning topped with dried figs and honey. I love a cinnamon oatmeal applesauce muffin as a snack in the afternoon. And do I even have to talk about how much I love oatmeal cookies? We all love oatmeal cookies. So, when I saw Heather’s recipe for Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Pie, I was immediately intrigued. I had never heard of such a concoction. But I trusted Heather’s Texas roots, so I jumped right in.

 
 
 

Even after reading the ingredient list, I still couldn’t wrap my mind around what type of pie this would be. It was big mystery to me, one I tried to unravel as I whisked the ingredients together, anxiously anticipating my first bite of pie.

Oatmeal pie doesn’t have many ingredients. It’s simply made of pie crust, rolled oats, sugar, eggs, vanilla, butter, chocolate chips and corn syrup. So simple. I had everything in my pantry to make this pie.

 
 
 

First, I unrolled the pie crust. I used a store-bought pie crust, like Heather’s recipe calls for. Then, I spent a good 15 minutes wondering why I have been forcing myself to make pie crust all these years. Store-bought crusts are great! Plus, all I had to do was unwrap, unroll and bake. I was even closer to pie time than I thought!

 
 
 

I sprinkled 1/3 cup of chocolate chips on top of the pie crust. I used milk chocolate chips, because they’re sweeter than semisweet or dark chocolate chips. I’m just waiting for milk chocolate to make its big comeback.

 
 
 

Then, I got to work on the pie filling. I whisked the butter and sugar together. I actually had a hard time with this step, so I melted it in the microwave. The recipe calls for softened butter, not melted, but it worked better for me to melt it.

 
 
 

Next, all other ingredients are stirred in: corn syrup, eggs, vanilla.

 
 
 

And finally, the oatmeal! The star ingredient!

Pour all ingredients over the chocolate chips in the crust and bake for 30–40 minutes, keeping an eye on the middle of the pie for jiggliness. That’s a technical term when it comes to custard-pie-making, by the way. A little jiggle in the center is good; it will set when it cools.

 
 
 

Isn’t she beautiful? Heather said to wait until it cools to cut. Even though it was hard to do, I dutifully obeyed.

After one bite, I figured out what this pie is—it’s like pecan pie, but with oatmeal! And it’s so dang good! The corn syrup should have tipped me off that it would be like pecan pie, but I didn’t realize it until that first bite. Which led to many more bites. I’m hooked on this pie!

 
 
 

Next time you’re craving pecan pie and spy a container of rolled oats in your pantry, make this pie. It should go right into your recipe box!

Thanks for a new classic pie recipe, Heather! Check out her blog, Heather’s Dish, for more of her creations.

 
 

Printable Recipe

 
 
_______________________________________

Growing up in a food-obsessed family and spending a lot of time in her Aunt Rose’s restaurant as a child, Christina was destined to be a fantastic cook. She’s a private chef during the day, but cooks for two at home. Like all of us, she has a sweet tooth that needs indulging after dinner. After becoming frustrated with the lack of recipes made for two, especially in the dessert category, she took matters into her own hands and started her blog, Dessert for Two, to share how she takes Southern classics (and a few surprises) and turns them into recipes that are perfect for just a few people. Her first cookbook, Dessert for Two, is now available at your favorite bookstore.

 

If you aren't using your passport to escape the city this summer, considering stocking up on a different kind of passport that'll transport you on a more figurative level. The fine folks at Booze Menus who brought us an excuse to drink more whiskey are back with two different booze-centric "passports" for summertime imbibing. Whether you dig a cold brewski or a perfectly muddled cocktail—or both, we're not here to judge—there are options aplenty for exploring a new bar or just getting your booze on. Again, not here to judge. [ more › ]

Psst. I know what everyone is really hoping you’ll cook this weekend, and I’m sorry, it is not that kale salad. Okay, maybe not if these people are gluten-free, or opposed to butter, burnt sugar and stretchy yeasted breakfast treats. You probably shouldn’t make this for anyone on a juice cleanse or auditioning a paleo lifestyle. And now that I’ve ruled most of the people on this earth out, maybe I should stop talking about “everyone” when what I really mean is me.

... Read the rest of liège waffles on smittenkitchen.com

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© smitten kitchen 2006-2012. | permalink to liège waffles | 202 comments to date | see more: Breakfast, Photo, Waffles

Expect fried Twinkie burgers and the like to land later this summer.

Philadelphia's stunt-burger specialist PYT has been mum about its NYC expansion plans since it announced it was bringing its deep fried Twinkie burgers to Gotham way back in February. Yesterday, the team finally announced its arrival along the Bowery with some silver paper and signage. Owner and burger master Tommy Up tells Eater: "We are taking over the old Forcella & Espolita space across from the  Bowery Hotel. We are actually working with them and their speakeasy pizza SRO will be in the back, we are in the front." So, that explains the brown paper that went up at the old Forcella space last week. Still, the Bowery Pizza sign that went up along with it doesn't make much sense. Perhaps it's part of one of Up's stunts? Or maybe it's just SRO's way of trying to draw in pizza-hungry diners wandering the Bowery.

Originally PYT promised to unleash its crazy burgers creations — think spaghetti buns, deep fried pizza burgers, doughnut cheesesteak burgers — on New York on July 7, but that seems like it might be a bit optimistic, given the date of the silver paper going up. Still, Up promises to land "later this summer."

A 32-year-old homeless man reportedly grabbed a 26-year-old woman around midnight Sunday outside 24 E. Seventh St. between Cooper Square and Second Avenue. According to the Post:

At that point the good-Samaritan vagrant, who is believed to sleep in nearby Cooper Square, came by and scared off the ­attacker, sources said. He then ran after the man, pursuing him for several blocks down Second Avenue to East Third Street, where police made the ­arrest.

The Post reports that the suspect, Casey Holloway, who is also homeless, was charged with sexual abuse and forcible touching. He has nearly two dozen prior ­arrests.

The identity of the man who broke up the attack was unknown.

Image via Streeteasy

More details have emerged about the man who apparently attacked four Asian women and whose body was discovered in an Upper East Side basement on Monday. Investigators now say a hammer, suicide note and a cellphone were found with Tyrelle Shaw's body. [ more › ]

The HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival kicked off its ten-week run last night, with a festive, picnicking crowd filling the lawn behind the Library for the opening-night screening of Ghostbusters. As hoped, a costumed crew showed up to watch the movie and, though they were somewhat vague about their accomplishments re: capturing real-life evil spirits, they brought enough gear to (spoiler!) defeat Stay Puft once again should he come crashing over the Bank of America building. Click through for some photos from the scene last night, and below you'll find some tips on how to do the Bryant Park Movie Night right. [ more › ]

On Monday, the MTA commemorated a century of Brooklyn-based transport in style, resurrecting a vintage train that was used from 1927 to 1965 and gifting the press with a ride. Reporters, however, are not the only ones who will get a chance to experience the nostalgia trains (complete with wicker seats, vintage ads, and incandescent light bulbs): they will be put into regular service this weekend from noon to 4 p.m., beginning at the Brighton Beach Q station. [ more › ]

“Gravity” Hyalophora cecropia on buttonbush

Samuel Jaffe is getting close and personal with subject matter found right in our backyards— the furry, florescent, grubby little creatures we often find inching along our trees and sidewalks. Jaffe is fascinated by local environments, and aims to share the information he has collected about these backyard ecosystems so we can become more in tune with what’s right below our feet or hiding in the grass.

Jaffe has cataloged dozens of caterpillars in different settings, each with a blackened background to highlight their unique textures, colors, and patterns. Caterpillars dangle off branches, clutch onto leaves, and even play on grapevines within his photographs. Catching his subjects at specific moments, Jaffe gives each a little pop of personality, showcasing their playfulness when left alone in nature.

Jaffe grew up in Eastern Massachusetts, inserting himself within his surroundings, wading through ponds, and exploring the wildlife around him. Over the last five years he began to raise and photograph many of the more interesting native caterpillars. The project has grown to include exhibits, shows, talks, and finally in 2013 the Caterpillar Lab, a passionate program showcasing the diversity of northeastern caterpillars through educational programs, the arts, and sciences. Jaffe’s work is currently on display at the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, Ohio in the exhibit “Life on the Leaf Edge.” Prints are available in his online shop. (via The Life Neurotic with Steve’s Issues)

“Red Boots” Apatelodes torrifacta on cherry / “Three Swallowtails” Papilio glaucus, polyxenes, and troilus

“Turbulent Abstract” – Phosphila turbulenta on smilax

“Anatomy of a Caterpillar” – Nadata gibbosa on oak

“Orange Red Green” Eumorpha achemon on grapevine / “Wild Lettuce” Autographa precationis on wild lettuce

“Life on the Leaf Edge” – Nerice bidentata on elm leaf

“Life on the Leaf Edge” Cerura scitiscripta on willow leaf

“The Fawn” Sphinx kalmiae on ash

“Early Kingdom” Lytrosis unitaria

“Emerald Deception” Chlorochlamys chloroleucaria on goldenrod / “Cut Flowers” Eupithecia Pug on blue vervain

“Father of Monsters” Eumorpha typhon on arizona grape