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Peter Lauria is leaving Thomson Reuters to become editor of BuzzFeed’s new business section.

“The opportunity to build a team and vertical around business news is a challenge I’ve wanted to take on for a while,” he says in a release. “The ability to do it at a place that is growing and whose sensibilities so align with mine makes me energized and anxious to get started.”

BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith says: “There is increasingly this big, social conversation around business content that people are sharing and reading, and we want to be in it.”

He wants Lauria to “bring some of the DNA of a great tabloid business section” to BuzzFeed.

“We’re not going to do everything, but we’re going to focus in and do a few things very, very well: obviously, media, entertainment, tech and Wall Street.”

* BuzzFeed to launch business section (marketwatch.com)

BuzzFeed’s release about Lauria’s hiring is after the jump.

Peter Lauria Joins BuzzFeed As Business Editor

Veteran Reporter To Launch Business Coverage For The Social Web

New York, March 15, 2013 – Social news site BuzzFeed announced today it has hired Peter Lauria to create a new kind of business vertical for the social web. Lauria, a veteran reporter who has covered the intersection of media, technology, and finance for more than a decade, will build a team to meld serious and smart scoops and analysis with the social web as the starting point.

BuzzFeed takes the social web — from Twitter to Facebook to Pinterest to YouTube — as its starting point, and Lauria and his team will be reporting and writing the kind of compelling business content people will want to share on Twitter, Facebook and, particularly, in the massive social business conversation on LinkedIn.

“Peter Lauria is a reporter’s reporter and has distinguished his coverage by framing hard-hitting business news around the moguls and the large trends that move companies and deals. I’m thrilled that we’re bringing him in to do the kind of smart and original reporting that people want to read and share,” said BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith.

“I am beyond excited to be joining BuzzFeed. Social media is increasingly becoming the way people discover news, and BuzzFeed does social better than anyone. The opportunity to build a team and vertical around business news is a challenge I’ve wanted to take on for a while, and the ability to do it at a place that is growing and whose sensibilities so align with mine makes me energized and anxious to get started,” said Lauria.

Lauria will also lead the charge in expanding the site’s Washington, D.C. BuzzFeed Brews newsmaker series to New York where he will interview CEOs, Wall Street executives and bankers.

Peter Lauria was most recently the Editor-in-charge of U.S. technology, media, and telecom coverage for Reuters and has written for The New York Post, The Daily Beast, The Deal and Mogulite. Lauria has spent more than a decade covering some of the world’s biggest and most recognizable companies, from NBC to News Corp. and Yahoo to Google and Facebook. Lauria broke the news of the SiriusXM merger, IAC gaining control of Newsweek Daily Beast and made headlines with his series of scoops about billionaire chairman Sumner Redstone. Lauria will join BuzzFeed in April and launch the business section later this Spring.

To be the first to know when BuzzFeed Business launches, sign up for the newsletter at buzzfeed.com/business.

How to Remember Names : The proven, easy, immediate method for remembering names, numbers, lists… and where you put your glasses
Crook
1992

Submitter: I found this book while weeding in my public library’s psychology section. It seemed so innocuous at first. I pulled it off my cart and thought the cover was a bit dated (for good reason, it had apparently been hanging out at our branch for over 20 years!), but that it had a topic that would appeal to lots of patrons. Then, I opened it up… and couldn’t decide whether it was laughable or horrific. The unfortunately-named Dr. Crook’s main memory device is to pair a person’s face and name together with a concrete image. So, for example, if you meet someone new named Tony, you immediately picture his face on a Tony Award. This is such an odd image that you’re supposed to have no trouble picturing it and remembering Tony’s name the next time you bump into him. That all sounds reasonable enough… until the author illustrates just what he means on the next pages. For once, big hair isn’t the scariest thing going on in these photos. (Let me just say, I’m glad my name isn’t Helen.) This is probably a useful technique, but there are lots of books on improving memory out there. It didn’t make it back onto our shelves.

Holly: Dr. Crook!  Ha ha ha!!  Of course, my 12-year-old boy brain went straight to “what if their name is Dick?” I’m not drawing THAT on the poor kid’s face in the yearbook!  Hey, people, I know LOTS of people legitimately named Dick!

Shame on me.

 

 

 

Pigs don't technically sweat, but whatever.

Toronto restaurant Rashers, which calls itself "North America's First Dedicated Bacon Sandwich Shop" and specializes in about ten kinds of porky sandwiches and a just couple of sides (including the ominous-sounding "Bacon & Sauce"), has unveiled a revolutionary, fitness-minded incentive program: Any customer who presents evidence of having completed a pig-shaped route on a biking or running smartphone app is entitled to 30 percent off any sandwich. That's nice and all, but it turns out that the chain also posts flyers on lamp posts around town with tear-off bacon "strips," each of which can be redeemed for a 100 percent free sandwich. [Rashers/Facebook]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: fitness!, bacon, rashers, rashers canada

Heads up: Badland is coming, for sure, to iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch this coming April 4, creator Frogmind has said. A new trailer has been released alongside this intel, too, and you don't want to miss it because, man, this game is looking good in just every way possible.

If you're out of the loop, Badland is a super atmospheric side-scrolling adventure game that tasks you with figuring out what's going on in a gloomy, fantasy-ish forest filled with strange-looking machine parts and traps. The game will also ship with a multiplayer race-to-the-finish mode, if you're into that.

We're stoked to get this one in our hands, and chances are we'll be doing just that in a matter of days. Stay tuned!

VIEW SLIDESHOW: First Look: Nightingale 9, New Vietnamese Restaurant from Seersucker Chef

Berkshire pork pho. [Photographs: Paul Yee]

Note: First Looks give previews of new dishes, drinks, and menus we're curious about. Since they are arranged photo shoots and interviews with restaurants, we do not make critical evaluations or recommendations.

Just down the street from his southern restaurant Seersucker and laidback coffee shop Smith Canteen, you'll find chef Rob Newton topping a bowl of pho with cilantro sprigs or making Vietnamese coffee popsicles at his new spot, Nightingale 9. For years Newton has been obsessed with southeast Asian flavors, but it was last year that he spent a month traveling through Vietnam, meeting with chefs and farmers from Hanoi all the way down south to Phu Quoc Island, a.k.a. the island where "the world's best fish sauce" is made.

Bottles of imported Red Boat fish sauce can be found on each of Nightingale 9's communal tables with bench seating, alongside other necessary condiments for this type of food: chili oil, nuoc cham (the sweet and fishy dipping sauce that's pervasive in Vietnam), and bourbon barrel-aged soy sauce from Kentucky. Ah, yes—Newton did grow up in Arkansas, so expect to find some southern flavors creeping into these otherwise Vietnamese-minded dishes—like the cracklins on the pork shoulder pho or the country ham with mustard greens fried rice.

The menu is divided into salads, many of which involve mint and other fresh herbs; pho-style rice noodle soups, aromatic with lemongrass and ginger; vermicelli bowls, including Cha Ca Catfish, a special catfish dish from Hanoi with heaps of dill; and jasmine rice plates, including that Southern-twisted fried rice cooked in lard. The restaurant faces the Carroll Gardens Greenmarket on Sundays, where Newton can be found shopping for produce and talking to farmers about growing special ingredients for his Vietnamese cooking.

Vietnamese coffee popsicle.

"I'll never forget the best banh mi of my life in Hoi An," Newton recounts. But there's no banh mi on the Nightingale 9 menu, at least not yet. Newton wanted to introduce people to some less obvious Vietnamese dishes, like the Cha Ca Catfish or Bun Bo Hue, a noodle soup from the imperial city of Hue with thin slices of beef. Once Nightingale 9 opens for lunch though (still TBD), banh mi will join the roster.

For drinks, there's wine and beer on tap and some fresh juices including sugarcane-lime and tamarind. Counter Culture coffee is made in the Vietnamese style with sweetened condensed milk, which you can also order in popsicle form for dessert. Since dessert is rarely the focus of a Vietnamese meal, he's sticking to popsicles. "Who doesn't love ending a meal with a popsicle?"

Take a peek at some of the dishes in the slideshow »

Nightingale 9

345 Smith Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 (map)
nightingale9.com

Danielle Sanzone

Beer geekdom went to a whole new level with the recent release of Brewery Ommegang's Iron Throne Blonde Ale, which is inspired by the HBO show Game of Thrones.

And how does a brewery celebrate the release of such a beer? With a dinner this past Friday at its Cooperstown cafe pairing wild game dishes with beer, fur-clad diners, and toasts to the King of the North.

there's more

Pope Francis paid his hotel bill and thanked the staff this morning, just one of many signs that he wants a simpler lifestyle than his predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

Which country on earth parties harder than any other country? YOU WILL NEVER GUESS WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE ABOVE HEADLINE. More »

While retired Premier Zhu Rongji gained general support for his display of naturally aged grey hair at last November's 18th Party Congress, his example has not seemed to set a precedent. [ more › ]

“I hope you don’t feel bullied into traveling to Bolivia,” my editor at Bloomberg Pursuits jokingly asked me. “Not at all,” I replied. “I’m honored that you’re sending me to the poorest country in South America.“ 

Make no mistake. I did not want to go to Bolivia to write about a restaurant. I wanted to go to Meadowood in Napa Valley to write about a restaurant. But my editor chose Bolivia. And I was quickly schooled in the intricacies of finding a way to (legally) enter the country, a process that can make getting into China feel like a walk in the park.  

I’m certain there is no other country in the Western Hemisphere that is harder for New Yorkers to enter. Cuba included. 

All things considered, it served me right. Bolivia could use more press than Bill Harlan’s wine country (nothing against you Bill, I once sold one of your Bordeaux blends for $500 back in my waiter days, and my table left me half the bottle). And it was high time for me to get pushed out of my comfort zone — my last trip overseas was a cushy vacation to Brighton, where I drank ginger beer and ate fresh mackerel on the British seaside. 

Sometimes it takes a good editor to straighten you out. So it goes that I was sent to Bolivia to preview Gustu, which will probably be the country’s only high-end restaurant when it opens in April. It’s all brought to us by Claus Meyer, who, along with Rene Redzepi, co-owns Noma in Copenhagen, the so-called best restaurant in the world. You can read about Gustu’s food and philanthropy in this month’s issue of Pursuits. 

But here I thought I’d devote a bit of attention to a more practical question: Is traveling to Bolivia worth the money, time or altitude sickness? It’s an important story to tell because Meyer will count on gastro-tourists to populate Gustu. And to say that getting there (and breathing there) is half the battle would be an understatement of epic proportions. As such: 

Cost: From New York, a round trip economy class ticket to La Paz will set you back about $1,200 via LAN airlines. The flights, which are are routed through Lima, are redeyes in both directions, which means you never lose a day. Then add on visa costs ($135 base fee + $60 expeditor fee), yellow fever shot ($14), plus two nights at, say, Hotel Europa ($220 total), along with dinner for one at Gustu ($130), and we’re talking $1,885. By comparison, flying to Copenhagen, nonstop from Newark via SAS ($883), plus two nights in a good hotel (71 Nyhvan, $380) , plus a wine paired tasting menu at Noma, will cost $1,699. No visa necessary.

Cost Conclusion: The total cost of a trip to Gustu in Bolivia, for Americans, is about the same price as a trip to Noma in Copenhagen. Just sayin. 

Time:.Flights to Bolivia range from 13-19 hours, each way, including layovers. That ain’t pretty. But there’s a larger penal-based issue to deal with. New York-based applicants must obtain a certificate of criminal clearance, which can only be obtained by the NYPD, and which requires about 10 business days to process by the police department. This is Bolivia’s way of saying that the burden of proof is on your to verify that you’re not a narcotics trafficker. I have not been able to find a single other country in the world that requires such a document, Turkmenistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia included. Luckily, this is a jurisdictional requirement, so you can use a Visa expeditor route your application through Washington DC to avoid this lengthy process. 

The Catch: The Bolivian consulate in Washington, which doesn’t require a certificate of criminal clearance, is much slower than the New York branch. My expeditor even warned me that the Bolivians were running out of visas — and I’m not talking about any quotas I’m talking about the actual physical vista sticker that gets attached to your passport. If you had any illusions of how poor a country Bolivia is, things should be quite clear now. So because of this delay (or who knows why), I had to travel on Acela to pick up my visa in DC, fly back to New York, them begin a 16 hour journey to La Paz. It was a 30 hour journey, including a stopover in Santa Cruz, where flight attendants spray down the plane with insecticide. Alternatively, you could just hop on a direct flight to Copenhagen, no questions asked, no visas necessary, no insecticide inhaled.  

Time Conclusion: Bolivia is as hard as hell to get to. Copenhagen isn’t. 

The Altitude: Still want to go to La Paz? Better check your altitude tolerance. Football player, who are usually in pretty good shape, often complain about competing in Denver, which is 1,6000 meters (one mile) above sea level. Then there’s Machu Pichu in Peru, where fainting from altitude sickness is not uncommon amid the 2,430 meter elevation. Then finally we have La Paz, Bolivia, which hovers around 3,600 meters, and hits 4,000 at the airport. It is the highest capital city in the world. 

How does La Paz feel? Like someone crushed up a xanax and put it in your vodka martini. Everything is in slow motion for the first few hours. Took me 30 seconds to put an iPad into a shopping bag due to loss of dexterity. It’s so high that Major League Soccer briefly banned play here in 2007. After about eight hours, I didn’t seem to mind the elevation, though I should disclose that I accidentally banged my head into various objects about 4-5 times that first day and a half. So yeah.

Altitude Conclusion: If those Andean women and men, who’ve lived in Bolivia all their lives, are still chewing coca leaves to combat altitude sickness, you know it’s not something you’ll entirely adjust to in a few days. That’s another way of saying: Go easy on the alcohol. 

There you have it. Still want to go to Bolivia? Well, you’re in for a treat, because it happens to be one of the most beautiful countries in the world. And now that I’ve got my visa (valid for five years), I’d happily go there again in an instant, if an instant can be expanded to include 16-19 hours of travel time.

*Editor’s Note: You can also apply for a visa at the Bolivia border, as I watched one gentleman do, but do you really want to leave that up-or-down decision to a border guard?

There are two kinds of phone users in the world: people who leave voicemails for other people and people who ignore voicemails from other people. More »

The next thing flight attendants will be pushing to sell in the skies isn't a new style of jewelry or brand of alcohol - it's automobiles.

According to Bloomberg, China's Spring Airlines Co., the nation's biggest privately-owned carrier, plans to start selling Chinese-branded automobiles on flights as early as next month. Zhang Wu'An, a spokesman at the Shanghai-based company, said the cars will be priced from about 100,000 yuan ($16,000), but details on makes and models have not yet been publicized.

"We wanted to start in-flight sales a few years ago, and decided cars are suitable for our passengers," Zhang told the news outlet. "Car sales are very popular in Shanghai and our passengers can have time during their flight to study details of the models available."

Zhang also noted flight attendants will be trained on car details, while passengers may be eligible for in-air discounts. Initially, car sales will be available on flights from Shanghai, but there's a possibility the service will be introduced to other flights.

Founded in 2005, Spring Airlines is China's only no-frills, budget carrier. The airline made headlines a few years ago when they considered standing-only flights. The carrier flies to more than 20 cities throughout China, plus to international destinations in Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Thailand and Cambodia.

[via Skift.com]

[Photo credit: AFP/AFP/Getty Images]

Chinese Airline Says It Will Sell Cars On Board originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When executives from Chinese megadeveloper Exhibition and Travel Group landed on the remote Pacific island of Yap in 2011, they arrived to find a population already deeply skeptical.

ETG is striving to fit in as it moves forward on plans to build a massive resort on the sleepy island, as documented in a recent Wall Street Journal story. It has promised to make Yapese culture a selling point to Chinese tourists, and has said that in addition to paying for infrastructure such as a hospital and roads, it will fund a foundation run by locals to promote Yapese traditions. “We didn’t think it would be complicated because we thought we were going to bring all these good things,” said ETG’s representative on Yap, Yang Gang. But ETG is finding it hard to undo the effects of a previous Chinese-Yapese encounter.

Go ahead, it's socially accepted pretty much everywhere else.

The twin tracks of Europe's recent tainted meat problems and the possible revival of domestic horse slaughter have led to renewed interest in horses as food. But until last fall, New Yorkers in search of horsemeat would invariably be channeled through the back chatter of message boards and arrive at Aladdin, a small Uzbeki restaurant in Sheepshead Bay that served naryn, a heaping salad of shredded dough and cumin-dressed mystery meat the waiter would say was salted horse jerky, until you asked for clarification and were told it was actually beef. No matter — Aladdin closed after last year's hurricane and was replaced by a Tajikistani place. As horsemeat advocates and opponents prepare for a food fight, here are twenty ways to eat horse around the world. For your convenience, distance has been calculated from the dingiest central station of them all, the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.

1. 1001 Nights, Brooklyn (15.3 miles)
Both naryn ("a special festive‎ dish revered by oriental merchants the thinly hand-sliced boiled jerked meat and dough") and kazy ("the dish for rulers — a traditional Uzbek jerked meat with spices"), two dishes made traditionally with horsemeat, are served here. The staff say the kitchen prepares them with lamb, but the restaurant's website photos don't look like any lamb we've ever seen — in any event, as mock horse, this is as close as you'll get to the real thing in New York City.

2. Monsu, Philadelphia (97.7 miles)
Despite bomb threats, Peter McAndrews has promised to serve horsemeat at his Sicilian-style Italian eatery. For the time being, he's got lamb loin with peperoncino standing in for filley filet. In Philly.

3. Joe Beef, Montreal (366 miles)
Generous chefs Frédéric Morin and David McMillan serve big steaks and bacon-wrap the filet de cheval a cheval (horse on horseback), which comes doused in red-wine sauce.

4. The Black Hoof, Toronto (491 miles)
Horse Tartare on housemade hickory sticks here, as well as horse-heart salami.

5. La Palette, Toronto (492 miles)
This French bistro in Toronto's hip Queen West neighborhood proffers rare horse tenderloin served with a foraged mushroom oat risotto. There's also the Quack n' Track, a bizarro world surf and turf made with a small steak and duck leg confit.

6. Shady as hell back alleys, Miami-Dade County (1,270 miles)
Risk going to jail and paying anywhere between $7 and $40 per pound of black market horsemeat in the Miami-Dade area, where dozens of horse carcasses butchered for human consumption have led to several arrests in the past five years.

7. La Tinajita, Camagüey (1,307 miles)
Travel guides list this colonial-style restaurant — which specializes in tasajo, salted, dried horse put in stew — as located "near the cemetery." The restaurant in this 500-year-old city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, just reopened after a long closure.

8. Street Food Vendors, Nuevo Laredo (1,950 miles)
The most powerful drug cartel in Mexico launders money with race horses. It also makes sloppy taco filling out of the retired ones.

9. Wiley B. Equine Dairy Products, Ltd., San Benito (1,963 miles)
Wiley B. does not sell meat, but you can mail order a nutritional supplement made of pasteurized, spray-dried "100% Pregnant Mare's Milk (PMM) in capsule form." Why would you want that? Milk collected from horses hanging out in "the nation's largest Amish community" in Jamesport, Missouri, is apparently good for whatever ails you. Plus, it's good creamer for coffee in a pinch.

10. Stravaigin, Glasgow (3,221 miles)
Bucking the trend of British stores purging tainted horsemeat from their shelves, the Scottish restaurant is now selling locavore horsemeat lasagna.

11. Kezie Foods, Berwickshire (3,310 miles)
While in Scotland, visit this purveyor of exotic meats, who offer a full line of mince, sausage, and even horse rump roasts. Have your Scottish friend ship you some meatballs.

12. Le Taxi Jaune, Paris (3,624 miles)
Fried horse heart and braised brain make the menu at this bistro. Of course it's in the Marais.

13.Les Tontons, Paris (3,626 miles)
Up to fifteen "flavors" of tartare, scenically pitched in old bistro clothes opposite the old municipal abattoir. Sadly, no actual tauntauns.

14. Horse House, Vilvoorde (3,661 miles)
This small Belgian town contains a small restaurant that only sells one kind of meat. Don't want horse? You're in the wrong house.

15. Trattoria All’ Isola, Verona (4,096 miles)
Verona is known in regional Italian cooking circles for its love of Italian stallions. Get your daily dose of iron at this upscale restaurant.

16. Hot Horse, Ljubljana (4,218 miles)
Slovenian fast food that once galloped: The mini-chain offers “juicy colt strips” in a “real mexican tortilla,” as well as the dubious claim of “the first and only horseburger.” That's only sort of true.

17. Tagyn Darkhan Restaurant , Yakutsk (5,230 miles)
The wine list may be extensive and there are actually white tablecloths on the tables, but you're still in Siberia, and you have to stay warm, so you eat horse.

18. Kokavi,Temuco (5,490 miles)
The Mapuche people of Chile have a long and storied history of eating horses. Traditionally, they fry foods in horse fat and drink horse blood. This restaurant serves cazuela de caballo, a hearty stew, on occasion.

19. Jeju Mawon, Jeju (7,143 miles)
Situated on the Korean island of Jeju in a massive resort complex, this expansive 168-seat restaurant specializes in grilled horse and banchan. Badminton and bulgogi.

20. Kenzo, Kumamoto (10,319 miles)
The Japanese prefecture is known for "basashi," or horse sashimi. It's sliced and served sparsely, often rolled up with miso and sliced green onions, and sometimes even made into ice cream.

Earlier: Whoa: Horse Slaughter Starting Up Again in Two States
Earlier: More Bad News: Horsemeat Found in Ikea’s Swedish Meatballs and Birds Eye Products

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin and Nick Robins-Early

Filed Under: mane course, horse meat

If you thought 8-bit video games were only fodder for nostalgic Gen X'ers -- think again. A new jihadi game that pits Islamic militants against the French Air Force in Mali is taking Islamic Internet forums by storm.

The primitive game, titled "Muslim Mali," simulates aerial combat against French fighter jets, which have been waging a real-life offensive in Mali since January, and is designed to inspire fellow extremists to take up arms against the French. Once a user clicks "play," an Arabic message appears with the words, "Muslim Brother, go ahead and repel the French invasion against Muslim Mali."

If you're curious, or have a latent desire to destroy French airplanes in 2-D, you can play it yourself here. But first, let's explore some of the features. The home screen displaying the words "Muslim Mali" features a poem encouraging jihad against infidels.

After you click "play," the setting changes to an expansive Malian desert. The first-person player appears in a stealth fighter jet draped in a black al Qaeda flag, while oncoming French forces appear in standard fighter jets that our defense procurement expert John Reed identifies as Su-47 Berkuts.

During my "research," I found the game incredibly easy. The French jets are pathetically slow. What's more, the al Qaeda craft can withstand 10 (!) direct missile hits before exploding. But if you're really bad at the game, no worries: Upon dying, a message appears with the words, "Congratulations, you have been martyred."

Perhaps the best feature is a special black button in the bottom-left corner that reads, "There is no God but God. And Mohammad is his messenger."  If you click it, it sends a pulverizing black laser of death at the enemy. Spooky, huh? 

For a little background, the game first appeared on the Ansar Al-Mujahideen Arabic Forum, according to the jihadi monitoring service the Middle East Media Research Institute, which is currently hosting the game on its servers. The users who created the game, Ta'ir Al-Nawras 07 and Ghareeb Fi Al-Hayat, have been offering to teach others how to create such games. Impressively, the game uses HTML5 and can be played on a laptop or tablet device. It's a brave new world, isn't it?

Beijing Snacks became infamous last week after the owner, a man called Wang, took an unprovoked, public swing at various nationalities embroiled in regional disputes with China. He posted a sign - 'This shop does not receive the Japanese, the Philippines, the Vietnamese and dog [sic]' - displaying the same earthy creativity evident in the restaurant's name, Beijing Snacks. And he duly provoked a massive diplomatic sandstorm. [ more › ]

VIEW SLIDESHOW: Where to Eat Sri Lankan Food on Staten Island

[Photographs: Max Falkowitz]

In the wake of a violent civil war, thousands of Sri Lankans uprooted themselves and settled anew in American cities. In New York, about a third of the city's population lives on Staten Island, largely in the Tompkinsville neighborhood near the St. George ferry terminal.

That makes Staten Island New York's destination for Sri Lankan cuisine. Manhattan may have a couple representatives of its own, but if you want to eat where the Sri Lankans do, you need to head over to the island. Do so and you'll be rewarded with some of the best cheap eats the city has to offer.

Over the years, writers have roved around the island seeking out the best Sri Lankan bites: from intrepid Chowhounds to Robert Sietsema for the Village Voice to Peter Meehan, Betsy Andrews, and more recently Pete Wells for the New York Times.

And those are great starts. But if you're checking out Staten Island's Sri Lankan options for the first time, you're probably asking: where should I go first? What are the best things to eat?

For the most part, the restaurants are sit-downs, not the most conducive to taking a few bites here and there. But each has its specialties and something unique to offer. Here's your guide to the best of the best, and to getting the most out of your trip.

What Is Sri Lankan Food Anyway?

Hoppers at San Rasa.

Sri Lanka is a small island off the Indian subcontinent, and its cuisine bears similarities to those of both northern and southern India. Describing Sri Lankan food in full demands an article of its own, but here's a brief take on what you can expect to find on Staten Island.

Saucy curries are staples, often enriched with coconut milk and a spice mixture that might veer towards spicy, pungent, or sweet. The curries (meat, fish, and vegetarian) come with rice and vegetable sides like bitter melon and string beans.

Some dishes are composed of starchy mains with strong sauces and relishes on the side. The most famous of these are hoppers, fermented rice flour batter cooked in dome-shaped molds, then stacked up with an egg set in one. String hoppers are nests of rice flour noodles that are steamed and often sold in large quantities; pithu is a log of rice steamed with shredded coconut—the good ones are nutty-sweet and a little bouncy. All of these items can be eaten by hand, with sauces used for dipping.

There are also snacks sometimes called "short eats": fried lentil cakes similar to spiced Indian vadai (savory doughnuts), several types of roti, and fried vegetable and fish cutlets. A more substantial item, and one of my favorites: kotthu, chopped up starch—string hoppers or roti typically—stir fried with aromatic vegetables, egg, spices, and sometimes meat. Stir fried meats are sometimes called devilled, meaning they come in a sweet and spicy sauce not unlike some Chinese dishes.

Lamprie at San Rasa.

And then there's lamprie, a historical must-eat with Dutch colonial influences. It arrives as a banana leaf bundle, which you unfold to reveal steamed rice and toppings that include tender meat, charred eggplants and plantains, soft cashews, and other curried vegetables. If there's any one dish to convince you that Sri Lankan food is worth your time, it's this.

Okay, hungry? Let's dig in.

Where to Eat

View Where to Eat Sri Lankan Food on Staten Island in a larger map.

Three of the restaurants listed below are clustered together on Victory Boulevard, 20 minutes' walk from the ferry or five to eight by bus. The other two are along Bay Street, also no farther than 20 minutes' walk from the ferry. Each are worth visiting, though for different reasons, so plan accordingly.

Best Overall Food: New Asha

Potato and leek curry at New Asha.

New Asha is more a takeout steam table operation than a sit-down, seating about 12 in bare bones accommodations. But it serves the best food I've had on the island: meat and vegetable curries with incredible depth (potato-leek and jackfruit are must-eats), a slow burning roti kotthu that gives slight resistance to the teeth, and cumin-laced dhal vada (called "lentil cookies" there) that, when fresh, are one of the best ways to spend a dollar on the island.

Prices match the setting: curries cost as a little as $3.50 for a half pint container, and few dishes cross the $10 mark. Another way to look at it: eight people can eat three courses here for $100.

You don't go to New Asha for the setting, but there's a lot to go for. Be sure to get an extra pint of curry as a souvenir.

New Asha: 322 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10301 (map); 718-420-0649

Best Sit-Down: San Rasa

Vegetarian curry at San Rasa.

If you're looking for a more restaurant-style atmosphere, head to San Rasa, where the hoppers are crisp but pliant, the curries are deeply flavored, and the lamprie's a joy to eat. San Rasa's dishes are reliably concise and assertive, edging out the competition in subtle but noticeable ways. The rice in their lamprie and pithu, for example, is fluffier; the curries taste distinct (vegetarian split pea and black goat especially); and meat is by and large cooked very well. San Rasa also serves an excellent watalappan, a coconut milk custard with near-smoky caramel flavors from the addition of raw palm sugar.

The only thing I haven't enjoyed at San Rasa is the all-day Sunday buffet, where the regular menu isn't available. The food isn't bad at all, but it's a pale, oversteamed imitation of what San Rasa offers the rest of the week.

San Rasa: 226 Bay Street, Staten Island, NY 10301 (map); 718-420-0027; sanrasa.com

Best Buffet (and Decor): Lakruwana

Buffet spread at Lakruwana.

Lakruwana, the subject of a recent Times review, has two charms. One is the decor, which was shipped over from Sri Lanka piece by piece (the walls, too). Buddhas are everywhere. There is a thatched ceiling over one counter. Your menu is a two foot-tall wooden mask. "Transporting" is an understatement of what it's like to eat here.

As for the food, I don't think it has quite the same intensity and focus you'll find at San Rasa, except for the $12 Sunday buffet. It smokes San Rasa's, with 20-odd dishes held warm in clay pots, enough variety to send you back for a third helping. Highlights include a sharp pineapple curry, wilted kale with coconut, and a piquant coconut sambal you'll wan to slather over everything. The desserts are also all winners, mango and tapioca puddings especially.

Lakruwana: 668 Bay Street, Staten Island, NY 10301 (map); 347-857-6619; lakruwana.com

Best Lamprie: Lak Bojun

Lamprie at Lak Bojun.

Lak Bojun opened in 2008 right next to New Asha. It's hard to justify going there when New Asha is so close, except for one item: the best lamprie I've had on Staten Island. It's the eggplant and plantains that do it: they're cooked and cooked and cooked into sweet, snappy wisps of themselves. They rest on rice perfumed with banana leaf but also chili heat; this dish more than any other shows how Sri Lankan cooking relishes the slow burn.

Though the rest of the menu is adequate, stick to the lamprie here. Then head next door to New Asha to finish your meal.

Lak Bojun: 324 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10301 (map); 347-466-5338

For a Dosa on the Side: Dosa Garden

String hoppers at Dosa Garden.

Dosa Garden is a south Indian restaurant that promotes its "chefs trained in Chettinad" as a point of pride, and rightly so: their rava dosa is up there with the city's best.

The restaurant also has some Sri Lankan classics on the menu, including a sweet and spicy roti kotthu and some nutty, delicate string hoppers well worth an order. The key for all these dishes is the accompanying sauces: one light with coconut, another warm with tomato, a third fiery with chili. They're nuanced and interesting, all the more so when you mix and match. Pick your starches here and dip, dip, dip.

Dosa Garden: 323 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10301 (map); 718-420-0919; dosagardenny.com

How About Some Shopping?

Once you've stuffed yourself silly, head to Lanka Grocery and stock up on some groceries, Sri Lankan and otherwise. Look for a full story on this gem of a market soon, but in the meantime, use it as your source for curry powder (roasted and unroasted, with several varieties specific to the multiple ethnic populations of Sri Lanka), fresh and frozen rare herbs, hopper flour, and a full aisle of sambals to bring a taste of Sri Lanka home with you.

Lanka Grocery: 353 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10301 (map); 718-390-0337; lankagrocery.com

Want more? Check out the slideshow for shots of all my favorite bites.

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

Columbia is reporting a rash of thefts on campus that have resulted in an estimated $5,000 worth of lost property each week. More »

Jeff Richmond has written infectious and surprising music for many of his wife Tina Fey’s projects, like Saturday Night Live and the film Baby Mama. But his most memorable and instantly hummable work comes from 30 Rock, for which he not only wrote the jaunty score but also produced the comedy’s many memorable stand-alone songs, from “Kidney Now” to the modern Hebraic classic “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah.” On the occasion of 30 Rock’s battle in today’s Sitcom Smackdown competition, we called Richmond to chat about his favorite musical moments from his seven seasons on the show.

"Werewolf Bar Mitzvah,” from “Jack Gets in the Game” (season two, episode two)

"As soon as it aired, there was a lot of chatter on the blogosphere, and morning D.J.'s were playing this little snippet. I remember running to the writers' room saying, 'We don’t have the whole song! We have to get this song out! People will play this at Halloween parties!' So we wrote the whole thing in reverse. We had that little hook phrase, which was in the actual episode, and then the day after it aired, we went back in and wrote a three- or four-minute version of the song and leaked it out. Also, in the episode, Tracy sang it sitting down because he was having somebody operating on his foot while he sang. It was when he was having some diabetic trouble, and somebody was, like, working on his foot while he sat in front of a microphone singing this song. That’s how good Tracy Morgan is."

“Kidney Now!,” from "Kidney Now" (season three, episode 22)

An all-star chorus of voices — including Mary J. Blige, Elvis Costello, Adam Levine, Sheryl Crow, and many more — gathered to perform a charity song to help get a kidney transplant for Jack’s recently discovered father, Milton (Alan Alda). “This was kind of a last-minute thing. A couple things about it that I remember was that, one, if we didn’t get anybody, we wouldn’t have an episode, because the whole episode was based on the pretense of getting enough people to make it look like a 'We Are the World' situation. So that put the fire under everybody. The next thing I remember about it was that it had to be done in one day: taping it, recording it, and shooting it. So not only did we write the song, we had to lay it out — who was singing first, and who would sing with [Jenna]. We’d bring people in, in groups of three or four. We’d rehearse the part, record the part, let them jump ahead to the end of the song to do the chorus, then let them go back to the green room. And then the next group of people [would come in]. This took about three hours. So just the military fashion of this plan that had to be implemented is one of things that I’ll remember about it the most. It was one of those things that could have just gone horribly. And thinking about it now — no one wants to show up with peers of their industry and be unprepared."

“Painting Brushes," from “It’s Never Too Late for Now” (season five, episode fifteen)

"In the script, it was a Joni Mitchell song playing in the background, and it was the end of the season and we didn’t have money to clear songs anymore. After the 'Night Cheese' incident — which is where Tina sang 'Night Cheese' — which was like a second and cost, like, $50,000, the network was like, 'You guys gotta chill it.' So it was the day of the mix — it was Monday and the show was on Thursday — and I said, 'Tina, you gotta do this Joni Mitchell thing,' before she had to go in to shoot. So we went into my little studio at the house, and she improvises this Joni Mitchell thing, and it was just killing me. It was reminding me of old Second City — making up songs — and she just made this thing up in one take. It made me laugh. I never laugh at my wife — that was really funny."

“O Holy Night,” from “Christmas Attack Zone” (season five, episode nine)

"We’d somehow gotten the information for what [Black Swan] looked like, because the movie wasn’t quite out yet. So shooting it, we were able to get what that look was, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful pieces of music sung in such an ironic context. I worked at Saturday Night Live so long with Will [Forte], I knew that he can sing as high as you want him to. He’s got a very amazing bizarre instrument, so he really is that above Jane [Krakowski], singing that high soprano part above Jane. And he did it in one or two takes. So all those high notes are just him, and then there’s Jane singing her part."

“Midnight Train to Georgia, from "Episode 210" (season two, episode ten)

"This was one of the first times we ran into this whole 'breaking the fourth wall' situation, where the show turned into a musical number. It was the last thing we shot at, like ... it was late Friday night. I think the strike had started when we were finishing up. I’m not WGA, but the other producers are, so I remember I was the only person on the set that whole week — and we felt like, if we didn’t come back this year, we felt like we had a finale. Because of that energy, it was a very special thing."

Read more posts by Steve Heisler

Filed Under: 30 rock ,jeff richmond ,sitcom smackdown

Popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, posted a press release on Sunday claiming that they had been invited by Kim-Jong Un and the DPRK to host and share content on their network. [ more › ]

Les Enfants Terribles has new investors who plan to close the charming Lower East Side corner café and reopen it under a new concept. The current concept will shutter on March 16, to undergo interior renovations and eventually reopen as an Icelandic bar/restaurant. [Bowery Boogie]

Yao Lu’s “New Landscapes” photos depict mountains, mist, rivers and trees, the cornerstones of classical Chinese painting, but take a closer look. What’s that trash? That construction netting?

Via Michael Zhang of Peta Pixel:

Yao arranges each scene shown in his large color photos, using the landfill materials to create various landscapes. He then photographs them, and adds in artificial elements (e.g. pagodas, waterfalls, trees, people) that make the scenes look more believable.

The seamless merging of ancient beauty with modern desecration is jarring, and makes us aware of our cognitive disconnect when looking at nature. In the museum gallery, we fawn over it; in our backyard, we see it as a belonging, to be corralled in order to serve us.

More pictures via the Bruce Silverstein gallery.

(H/T Ray Kwong)

Now you can pretend you're flying through these nebulae and star clusters.

Pelican Nebula

Finnish astrophotographer J-P Metsävainio uses data on deep space objects (and some artistic license) to make arresting GIFs and videos. Images reproduced by permission of the creator.

Source: J-P Metsävainio  /  via: astroanarchy.blogspot.fi

Veil Nebula

Source: J-P Metsävainio  /  via: astroanarchy.blogspot.com

Star Cluster Melotte 15

Source: J-P Metsävainio  /  via: astroanarchy.blogspot.fi

Another version of Melotte 15

Source: J-P Metsävainio  /  via: astroanarchy.blogspot.com

View Entire List ›

We're still mourning the end of 30 Rock (by re-watching the final two seasons, no less), but some fans got a chance for some in-person catharsis last night at a panel with a group of writers from the show at the Paley Center for Media. Tina Fey discussed the importance of wearing a bra onstage, dropped storylines (Pete and Jenna hooking up?), and revealed the one guest they could never snag: the one-and-only Dr. Zizmor. “Zizmor turned us down,” Fey said before giving her impression of Mrs. Zizmor's reaction to the suggestion. “[She] was like, ‘He’s a doctor.’” [ more › ]

Uzbeki biscuit.

Lepeshka is a Central Asian flatbread, often of frisbee-like breadth, with a lip that pushes the boundaries of what can be considered flat. At this "welcoming tea room" the lepeshka ($1.50) is much more modest in size; it's yeastier and, especially along the braided lip, firmer, too. A napkin-draped basket full of lepeshka would send everyone scrambling for the dinner table — though inevitably it would also frustrate the goal of exploring much more of the menu.

Also shown: a flaky, fresh-baked pumpkin samsa ($2) — it's not sweet — in cutaway view; chuchvara soup ($7.50), replete with vegetables, lamb, and namesake dumplings that resemble Russian pelmeni; mampar soup ($6.50), whose featured pasta knots might be compared to Slovak halusky or Chinese mian geda; a grainy chili paste and a dispenser of white vinegar flavored with dill and garlic, at the ready for seasoning the soups; the tea room (with the green awning), beside a wider storefront with a split personality.

Chayhana Salom
1652 Sheepshead Bay Rd. (Jerome-Voorhies Aves.), Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
718-332-2200

SMBC Theater fans! A word from James. We're looking for a few good geeks:

"AFTER EFFECTS COMPOSITORS! PROGRESS CONTINUES! We are sending the first two LOCKED episodes of our space opera STARPOCALYPSE to the composer! But we can't share them until we complete the final scenes in 3, 4, and 5! WE'RE SO CLOSE!

If you have experience with Space Ships, Magic Powers, Explosions, and AWESOMENESS send us a note @ smbctheater@gmail.com. Help us get this project across the finish line and share our first webseries with the world!

Love
Dictator James

The rumor began swirling on the streets of East Williamsburg—or is it still Bushwick?—late last summer, overheard on street corners and even announced at a cultural event: someone or someones were pushing to remove the "Avenue of Puerto Rico" text from the Graham Avenue street signs. [ more › ]