"Dark Knight" debut seen topping $100 million

Above: Heath Ledger is shown in a scene in his role as The Joker in "The Dark Knight" in this undated publicity photo released to Reuters July 16, 2008.

REUTERS/Warner Bros Studio/Handout
------------------------------------------------------------
Batman movie "The Dark Knight" should soar into the box office stratosphere with its U.S. debut in a record number of theaters on Friday that could propel it past the $100 million mark on its opening weekend, industry watchers said.

Topping that blockbuster figure would push "Dark Knight" into rare air seen by only 10 other wide-release movies including "Spider-Man 3" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

Already, advance ticket sales have resulted in the sell-out of nearly 1,000 showtimes, online ticket seller Fandango said.

"It's been a true phenomenon for us, we started to see interest as early as last year for this film," said Rick Butler, chief operating officer for Fandango.

Warner Bros., the unit of Time Warner Inc that is releasing "Dark Knight," said it will debut in 4,366 theaters, edging out the record of 4,362 theaters set by "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" with its 2007 opening. That movie raked in about $115 million on its debut weekend.

"Dark Knight" will hope to beat the record debut of Sony Pictures Entertainment's "Spider-Man 3" in 2007, which reached $151 million. Sony Pictures is part of Japanese electronics company Sony Corp.

In the No. 2 spot is the $135.6 million debut for 2006's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," released by the film division of The Walt Disney Co.

"Certainly a $100-plus million opening weekend is in the cards," said Paul Dergarabedian, who heads box office tracker Media by Numbers. "I cannot imagine a movie that has been more highly anticipated than this one, at least in recent memory."

Generally speaking, fans and critics who have seen the film in advance are giving it rave reviews especially for the performance of Heath Ledger as the deranged villain, The Joker.

On rottentomatoes.com, which aggregates reviews, "Dark Knight" has received a 91 percent positive rating.

Critics say the latest movie in the Batman series is a thrilling depiction of good versus evil, picking up where 2005's "Batman Begins" left off.

That film was a smash hit with a worldwide gross of just about $372 million, after opening to roughly $49 million in the United States and Canada.

"Batman Begins" reshaped the series of films by going back to the character's origins, after the critical failure of 1997's "Batman & Robin," the fourth installment in a series that began with director Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman."

"The Dark Knight" stars Christian Bale as Batman, and was directed by Christopher Nolan who made "Batman Begins."

Source: Reuters

Regulators lift tomato Salmonella warning

Above: A tomato sliced in half is seen in Medford, Massachusetts July 17, 2008. U.S. regulators on Thursday lifted a warning on tomatoes and repeated a warning on peppers as the possible cause of an outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul in which more than 1,200 people have reported getting sick.

REUTERS/Brian Snyder
------------------------------------------
U.S. regulators on Thursday lifted a warning on tomatoes and repeated a warning on peppers as the possible cause of an outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul in which more than 1,200 people have reported getting sick.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration repeated its warning that young children, the elderly or people with compromised immune systems should avoid fresh jalapeno and Serrano peppers.

Regulators have struggled to pinpoint the source of the outbreak, which has raised questions about U.S. food safety and prompted lawmakers to demand new systems to trace fresh produce from farm to table.

FDA said it removed the tomato warning because there are no longer any tomatoes coming into the market from producers that were being looked at as possible sources of contamination.

"Tomatoes that are currently on the market in the U.S. are safe to consume," David Acheson, assistant commissioner for food protection at the FDA, said in a conference call.

The warning had been in place since June 7 and regulators subsequently traced the outbreak back to April.

"This is not saying that anybody was absolved," Acheson said.

Regulators never found Salmonella Saintpaul at any tomato farms or packing plants, even though early indicators pointed to tomatoes as the source of illness.

In addition to the hot peppers, food safety officials are investigating whether cilantro played a role in the outbreak.

"We still do not know where the original contamination point was," Acheson said.

Source: Reuters

Pope calls on religions to unite against terrorism

Above: Pope Benedict XVI talks to an Australian Aboriginal man during a boat tour of Sydney Harbour July 17, 2008.

REUTERS/Philip Pullella
------------------------------------------
Pope Benedict called for all religions to unite against terrorism and resolve conflicts peacefully on Friday and heard an Islamic leader urge Christians to overcome "misconceptions and prejudices" about Muslims.

"In a world threatened by sinister and indiscriminate forms of violence, the unified voice of religious people urges nations and communities to resolve conflict through peaceful means and with full regard for human dignity," Benedict told an meeting with Muslims, Jews and members of other non-Christian faiths.

The pope, in Australia for the Church's World Youth Day, also said the Catholic Church was open to learn from other religions, a comment seen in the context of moves to improve relations with other religions, particularly Islam.

"The Church eagerly seeks opportunities to listen to the spiritual experience of other religions," he said.

Catholic-Muslim relations nosedived in 2006 after Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, that was taken by Muslims to imply that Islam was violent and irrational.

Muslims around the world protested and the pope sought to make amends when he visited Turkey's Blue Mosque and prayed towards Mecca with its Imam.

Sheikh Mohamadu Saleem, executive member of the Australian National Imams Council, told the pope: "Muslims should become more inclusive and universal in their understanding of their religions.

"At the same time, significant segments of the Christian and other religious communities should overcome their misconceptions and prejudices of Islam and Muslims," Saleem said.

"If Muslims, Christians and other faith communities reach out to one another and build bridges rather than erect barriers, the whole of humanity will rejoice forever."

THE STING OF REGENSBURG

After the fallout from the Regensburg speech, 138 Muslim scholars and leaders wrote to the German-born pontiff and other Christian leaders last year and in March, the Vatican and Muslim leaders agreed to establish a permanent official dialogue, "The Catholic-Muslim Forum" to improve often difficult relations.

Saleem said he agreed with youths at the meeting in Sydney who have been saying "Let us promote fundamentalism of love, instead of fundamentalism of hatred".

Asked by a reporter after the meeting if the sting of the pope's Regensburg speech was still there, Saleem said: "It is unfair to call Islam a violent religion."

Relations between Australia's small Muslim community and the largely Christian population have been strained since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and the Iraq War, with Australia only recently withdrawing its troops from Iraq.

Race riots erupted at Sydney's Cronulla Beach in December 2005 as locals attacked anyone of Middle East appearance, believing they were Muslims intent on "taking over" their beach.

In late 2007 two pigs' heads were rammed on to metal stakes and an Australian flag draped between them on the site of a planned Muslim school on Sydney's outskirts. The plan was abandoned after protests by thousands of residents.

Late on Friday, the pope watched as several hundred young actors performed a live version of the "Stations of the Cross," which re-enacted the final hours in Christ's life, including his crucifixion.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters the pope was very happy with the reception he has received in Australia.



Source: Reuters

South Africa lauds Mandela on 90th birthday

South Africa celebrated the 90th birthday on Friday of Nelson Mandela, a symbol of reconciliation in a nation now torn by doubts and nostalgia for his leadership.

Newspapers published special supplements and filled their pages with tributes that poured in for a man seen as the father of modern South Africa. Radio stations played tributes throughout the day.

"He gave us freedom. If it wasn't for him we would have not been where we are. Because of you, now I can walk freely. I can go to any school that I want and find a job of my own," student Barbara Phofo, 20, told Reuters in Johannesburg.

In a symbol of how deeply he is respected across the races, Beeld newspaper, published in the Afrikaans language of the whites whose rule he devoted his life to overthrowing, ran 12 pages of tributes and stories about the former president.

After six months of international celebrations, the frail Mandela spent his birthday quietly with family and friends at his childhood home at Qunu in the Eastern Cape.

He called for the rich in Africa's biggest economy to share their wealth with the legions of poor who still struggle 14 years after the end of white rule.

"There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty," Mandela said, wearing one of his trademark patterned shirts.

"Poverty has gripped our people. If you are poor, you are not likely to live long," he said, sitting with his third wife, Graca, widow of former Mozambican president Samora Machel, whom he married on his birthday 10 years ago.

A group of grandchildren crowded round his chair to wish him happy birthday and kiss him. Mandela said he wished he could have spent more time with his family in a life of fighting apartheid, including 27 years in jail. "But I don't regret it," he said.

DASHED HOPES

After the euphoria when Mandela became president in 1994 and used his inspirational example to unite the nation and avert a potential civil war, many feel the promise he symbolized has been dashed.

Love and respect for Mandela have if anything increased in the decade since he left office in 1999 after one term.

Outspoken and uncompromising, he then campaigned for human rights against challenges ranging from political repression to

AIDS.

Many tributes expressed nostalgia for his rule and hopes that he would remain a guiding spirit for much longer.

"My wish is that you will enjoy many more years of good health and that we will continue to benefit from your wisdom and example," said Ahmed Kathrada, a fellow ANC prisoner with Mandela in the Robben Island jail.

"My wish would be that you could live forever, that future leaders could be just like you," Delaine Kirsten said on a Johannesburg street.

Mandela's successor, Thabo Mbeki, has been widely criticized for failing to address the huge gulf between rich and poor which is stoking labor unrest, a power crisis which threatens to damage economic growth, one of the world's worst crime rates and the fallout from the collapse of neighboring Zimbabwe.
Above: Former South African President Nelson Mandela laughs during an interview with the media in his house in Qunu, Eastern Cape, July 18, 2008.

REUTERS/Themba Hadebe/Pool
------------------------------------------------
In a tribute to Mandela, Financial Mail editor Barney Mthombothi wrote: "We're approaching a future without his commanding presence with some trepidation ... We won't see the likes of him again."

Desmond Tutu, another campaigner against apartheid and a fellow Nobel peace laureate said: "How blessed we have been. He has become the most admired statesman in the world, an icon of forgiveness and reconciliation, a moral colossus."

And Francois Pienaar, white captain when the Springbok national rugby team won the world cup in 1995, wrote: "Thank you for the inspiration you gave a nation."

Mandela appeared on the pitch at the end of the final wearing a Springbok rugby shirt and cap, in a powerful gesture of reconciliation with white South Africans.

Source: Reuters

Buddhist Thought for the Day

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.

- The Beatles...

Happy Bastille Day !!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some photos from the Bastille Day Parade in Paris earlier today. Source: BBc News




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vive la France! Instead of storming a Parisian prison, storm into that kitchen and get cooking.

To set zee mood you will need :
Musique

You can’t have a French-theme event without Edith Piaf singing La Vie en Rose. Here are other selections to add to your playlist.

J’ai Deux Amours, Josephine Baker
La Belle Vie, Dee Dee Bridgewater
Les Portes du Souvenir, Les Nubians
L-O-V-E (French version) Nat King Cole
La Belle Dame Sans Regrets, Sting
Belleville Rendez-vous, the Triplets of Belleville
C’est Si Bon, Eartha Kitt
Quelqu’un m’a dit, Carla Bruni
Boum, Charles Trenet
--------------------------------------------------------
Etiquette

Greet your guests with two air kisses. Left side first, then right. Shake hands with those you don’t want to kiss.

Let your guests know it is OK to eat by saying bon appetit.

When making a toast, say a votre sante (Ah voh truh SAN tay): "To your health."
-------------------------------------------------------------
Bastille Day Menu

Bread (Crusty baguette variety)
Wine (Pinot Grigio, but feel free to substitute your wine of choice)
Cheese (Your choice)
French Onion Soup
Arugula Salad
Pan Roasted Monkfish
Ratatouille
Pastries from Bakery (Your choice, but my choice is the Apple Tatin and a Chocolate (but of course)Chiboust Tart from Payard Patissere (Lex bet 73rd and 74th) or online
see http://www.payard.com/tarts1.php for details)
----------------------------------------

French Onion Soup

1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 fresh thyme sprigs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup red wine, about 1/2 bottle
3 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 quarts beef broth
1 baguette, sliced
1/2 pound grated Gruyere

Melt the stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, and salt and pepper and cook until the onions are very soft and caramelized, about 25 minutes. Add the wine, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has evaporated and the onions are dry, about 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Dust the onions with the flour and give them a stir. Turn the heat down to medium low so the flour doesn't burn, and cook for 10 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste. Now add the beef broth, bring the soup back to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
When you're ready to eat, preheat the broiler. Arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle the slices with the Gruyere and broil until bubbly and golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes.

Ladle the soup in bowls and float several of the Gruyere croutons on top.

Alternative method: Ladle the soup into bowls, top each with 2 slices of bread and top with cheese. Put the bowls into the oven to toast the bread and melt the cheese.
--------------------------------------------------------------


Arugula Salad

1 large bunch fresh arugula, rinsed and stemmed
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 shallot, finely chopped
Small wedge of Parmesan

1. In a salad bowl, place the arugula leaves.

2. In a small bowl, stir together the lemon, salt, and pepper. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until the mixture is blended. Stir in the shallots.

3. Toss the arugula with the dressing. Divide among 6 salad plates. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper. With a rotary vegetable peeler, shave pieces of Parmesan onto the greens.
-------------------------------------------------

Pan Roasted Monkfish Filets

Ingredients

2 monkfish filets
red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
Salt
Black Pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Season the monkfish filets on both sides with a light sprinkling of salt, fresh ground black pepper and red pepper flakes to taste. Combine the vegetable oil and butter in the sauté pan over medium-high heat. When the butter's foam subsides, add the monkfish to the pan. Cook the fish, turning once, until it browns, 4-6 minutes per side.

2. Put the pan in the oven and roast the filets until they are opaque in the center but still moist, 20-30 minutes depending on their thickness.
----------------------------------------------------

Ratatouille

1/4 cup olive oil, plus more as needed
1 1/2 cups small diced yellow onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 cups medium diced eggplant, skin on
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 cup diced green bell peppers
1 cup diced red bell peppers
1 cup diced zucchini squash
1 cup diced yellow squash
1 1/2 cups peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Set a large 12-inch saute pan over medium heat and add the olive oil. Once hot, add the onions and garlic to the pan. Cook the onions, stirring occasionally, until they are wilted and lightly caramelized, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the eggplant and thyme to the pan and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the eggplant is partially cooked, about 5 minutes. Add the green and red peppers, zucchini, and squash and continue to cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, basil, parsley, and salt and pepper, to taste, and cook for a final 5 minutes. Stir well to blend and serve either hot or at room temperature.
-----------------------------
Dessert (from Payard Patisserie)

Apple Tatin (Carmelized Apple on Puff Pastry topped with Whipped Cream)


Chocolate Chiboust Tart (Tart Shell filled with Caramel Ganache, Candied Nuts and Chocolate Chiboust Cream


Enjoy. Bon Appetit !!!

Cozy Bistro Where Traditional Trumps Nouvelle

Photo: Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times

Marguerite Bruno, 87, at work in the kitchen of her restaurant, Chez Napoléon, in Manhattan. She has started to cede more duties to her sous-chef.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oui, there will be tricolor bunting. Balloons? Certainement. And when “La Marseillaise” is played, diners will be asked to stand. But here is the surprise about Monday evening’s celebration of Bastille Day at Chez Napoléon, the diminutive, cozy, venerable Manhattan bastion of La Belle France at 365 West 50th Street: The bistro will be open.

“Normally, we are closed Mondays in the summer,” said Marguerite Bruno, 87, whom everyone calls “Chef Grand-mère.”

Already, across the city, there have been grand Francophilic celebrations of vin and fromage, cutthroat pétanque competitions and even a Web site, bastilledaynyc.com, that coordinated all the hoopla for an annual street fête on Sunday on East 60th Street from Fifth to Lexington Avenues.

But here, “there are no parades; it is not the same as in France,” Ms. Bruno said, brown eyes bright with remembrance. “Ah, the public balls. Right in the streets.”

For at least a decade after her grandson nailed it to the wall, a small sign near the kitchen of the family-owned restaurant between Eighth and Ninth Avenues proclaimed: “If Mama Ain’t Happy, Ain’t Nobody Happy.” (The sign is now in storage, thanks to wallpapering in progress.)

The mama in question is, of course, the matriarch of this 44-seat, white-tablecloth universe of chunky pâté, blood sausage and frog legs laced with garlic.

“Everywhere there is nouvelle, but here there is French tradition,” said René Morel, 76, a violin restorer from Manhattan and a Chez Napoléon loyalist who said he was “too old to remember” when he began coming there.

He was discussing the 1715 Stradivarius played by his luncheon companion, the globe-trotting violinist Rony Rogoff, 62, who was attacking the artichoke vinaigrette appetizer on a recent afternoon. “When I’m here,” Mr. Rogoff said, “I think I’m eating at Grandma’s.”

And he is. Even though she commutes to the restaurant from Bellerose, Queens, “This is my home,” Ms. Bruno said.

It would be difficult to make the case that this unassuming, doughty, 48-year-old trouper is the very soul of France on American soil, but the restaurant is certainly an increasingly rare remnant, a survivor from the lost legion of French bistros on the West Side of Midtown.

“This is French territory,” Ms. Bruno said.

It has outlived the departure of the old Madison Square Garden, the disrupting construction of Worldwide Plaza up the street, the post-9/11 economic slump and anti-French sentiment, Broadway strikes and the transformation of Hell’s Kitchen to Hell’s Breakfast Nook and its rising rents.

And because of French restaurant attrition, Chez Napoléon is now the northern bookend in the Theater District to that other, southerly, Chez: the indefatigable Chez Josephine, a French outpost at 414 West 42nd Street.

But compared with the latter’s oft-venturesome cuisine, Chez Napoléon is so old-school that “sometimes I ask tourists from France why they would want to come here, when they could go anywhere,” said Ms. Bruno’s 36-year-old grandson, William Welles, who holds forth behind the postage stamp of a bar. “They say it is getting hard to find this traditional, home-style fare in France.”

Grand-mère has always done the cooking, but these days, though she still stirs the sauce, she has yielded much of the heavy lifting to her sous-chef, Carlos Cisneros, 45, who has worked with her for 15 years.

This is a kitchen overseen by a grandmother who was taught in turn by her grandmother Julienne Meignen, “and also my aunt, Marie Ribon,” she said.

And in 1943, in the German-French border town Saarbrücken, it was Ms. Bruno and her aunt who gave some bread and other morsels to an underfed French prisoner, Alfred Bruno, who was toiling in a Nazi work camp. A year later, Ms. Bruno surreptitiously opened the barbed wire at the camp, she said, to permit his escape to Metz.

They were married in 1945, but no film for the camera was to be had, so their wedding picture could not be taken until later that year. It now hangs on the restaurant wall, and Marguerite’s welcoming face is just the same as it is now, save for a timeworn resemblance to the actresses Simone Signoret and Isabelle Huppert.

For nine years, Marguerite and Alfred operated L’Hôtel du Puy, a hotel-restaurant in Auron, a ski town in the foothills of the Alps. But since the Brunos were unable to buy the property, and the French economy was crashing, “we decided to come to America,” said Ms. Bruno, who spoke in English and French, with translation by her grandson and her daughter, Elyane, 61, who runs Chez Napoléon and usually answers the phone.

The Brunos arrived in New York in 1975 and opened a restaurant, L’Esterel, at 58th Street and First Avenue; it closed, and Ms. Bruno cooked in several places before buying the tiny, tidy, busy kitchen at Chez Napoléon in 1982.

“It is so hard to keep our prices reasonable, as the cost of meat and fish go up and up,” Ms. Bruno said. The restaurant, like so many other old-timers, is trying to negotiate a new lease for next year. “Rents are a problem for all of us,” she said.

On the walls are reproduction French flintlocks, a battered trumpet, a map of Paris in 1578 and Napoleonic murals, some painted by Mr. Bruno, who died in 1992. There are also framed jigsaw puzzles (the restaurant sells a “menu” of puzzles with designs ranging from paintings by Monet to the ocean liner Normandie, from $17 to $22).

And in one of the two mini dining rooms is a framed facsimile of the Little Corporal’s renowned 1821 letter to the French before his death. “People ask if it is real,” Ms. Bruno said. “If it were real, would we have it on the wall?”

Her daughter shook her head. “Napoléon,” she said, “his handwriting was very bad.”

Ms. Bruno padded from the kitchen to the bar and sat before her grandson at the lone seat. “I only started drinking Scotch when I came to America,” she said of her custom of sipping “just one glass of Dewar’s” after the dinner rush.

“But we are allowed,” her grandson said fondly, “to fill that glass again.”

Source: New York Times

Vegetarian Tofu Curry

Ingredients

3 Inch Fresh Ginger and 1 Garlic Clove (ground with a little water)
Handful Mange Tout or Sugar Snap Peas
2 Small Carrots (cut into strips)
1/4 Turnip (chopped)
2 Small Onion
1 Leek (washed and chopped)
Creamed Tomatoes
Firm Tofu (chopped into chunks)
Water
Olive Oil

For the Spices

1 tsp Cumin Seeds
4 Small Green Cardamon Pods
1 Brown Cardamon Pod
Large Pinch of Dried Coriander Leaves.
1 Clove
Pinch Fennel Seeds
Large Pinch Chilli Flakes
1 heaped tsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Garam Masala
Pinch Dried Methi/Fenugreek Leaves
Salt to taste (optional)



Getting Started on Vegetarian Tofu Curry Recipe..

Place your carrots, turnips and peas into a pan and simmer until they soften then turn off the heat and drain, leave to the side until later. Take a small pan and roast gently your cumin seeds, green cardamons, brown cardamon and clove until they start to smell toasted, take them straight off the heat and grind into a powder(this will only take a minute or two). Fry your ginger mixture in a large pan for a few minutes, stir. Add your chilli flakes and fennel stir well. Keep stiring add your leeks, then turmeric then the toasted spices that you ground earlier. Drizzle some oil and add a little water ( go easy on the water you don not want a stew). Add your cooked vegetables keep cooking and stiring then add your dried methi leaves and coriander powder. Pour in approx 1/4 cup of creamed tomatoes, stir well.

While your vegetarian tofu curry sauce cooks. In a separate pan fry your onions and tofu, cook until they are golden.

Add a large pinch of dried coriander leaves to your curry, stir well.
Add the garam masala to your curry, stir well.


Add your tofu and onions into your curry pan, stir well. Cook for a few minutes.

Serve as it is with rice or bread of your choice.

Source: jeenaskitchen.blogspot.com

London restaurant blast at world's hottest curry title

A London restaurant was serving up Thursday what it hopes will be confirmed as the world's hottest curry, with even the chef admitting it is "too extreme" to keep on the menu.

Vivek Singh at The Cinnamon Club grabbed some of the hottest chilli peppers known to man to create the Bollywood Burner, a lamb-based dish with a fierce kick.

The curry is so hot that diners are asked to sign a disclaimer confirming they are aware of the risks involved before daring to eat it.

The Bollywood Burner is being submitted to Guinness World Records for verification of its status as the planet's hottest curry. The verdict should be announced within three weeks.

Student Toby Steele, 19, from Brighton on the southern English coast, was the first to taste the Bollywood Burner.

"I'm usually a korma man and I suspect this is the hottest thing I've ever tasted," he said.

"It was nice actually, you could really taste the spices.

"The initial taste isn't that hot but now, a couple of minutes later, I feel a bit floaty and light-headed."

The dish, inspired by cuisine from Hyderabad in southern India, includes the Naga and its seeds -- confirmed by Guinness World Records as the hottest chilli pepper in the world.

On the Scoville scale of piquancy, the Naga scores 855,000 -- more than 100 times hotter than the jalapeno, which measures 8,000 on the scale.

"We found a list of the 10 hottest chillies and decided to try and use some of them. I think it will be the hottest curry in the world," said Singh.

The curry will not be a regular feature on the menu, he added.

Lianne la Borde of the Daily Star newspaper said: "It is the hottest I have ever tasted. At first, it tasted delicious. Then my mouth caught fire. It even made me feel dizzy."

Metro newspaper's James Ellis said it was "innocuous enough at the first bite," but one helping "saw my taste buds melt in fury at the inferno in my mouth.

"Meanwhile, my heartbeat, which started at a resting pace of 68 beats per minute, zoomed up to 128 -- the equivalent of doing aerobic exercise."

Source: Agence France Press

Buddhist Thought for the Day

Although gold dust is precious, when it gets in your eyes, it obstructs your vision.

—Hsi-Tang

Huevos Rancheros

Prepare these ranch style eggs in less than 10 minutes!

Huevos Rancheros

4 corn tortillas
4 eggs
1 cup medium salsa
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
Optional toppings:

grated Campo de Montalban cheese
chopped scallions
chopped parsley or cilantro
Warm 1/2 cups salsa in a nonstick pan then use your spatula to clear two 3-inch circles in center of pan. Carefully slide one egg from the shell into each circle. Cook 3–5 minutes to desired firmness. Quickly heat tortillas in a hot skillet or microwave just until soft. Place two warm tortillas side-by-side on a warmed plate and slide eggs and salsa onto tortillas. Repeat with remaining eggs. Garnish with choice of toppings and serve with black beans.

Nutrition Info
Per serving (270g-wt.): 300 calories (110 from fat), 12g total fat, 3g saturated fat, 6g dietary fiber, 17g protein, 36g carbohydrate, 425mg cholesterol, 1320mg sodium


Source: wholefoodsmarket.com

Savory Fig and Goat Cheese Tart with Arugula

A delicious crust of Marcona almonds makes a rich base for fig spread and goat cheese. Arugula's sharp flavor serves as an ideal counterpart to the richness of the tart.

Savory Fig and Goat Cheese Tart with Arugula

Serves 6 to 8
1/2 cup Marcona almonds
3/4 cup all-purpose flour, divided
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons honey
1/3 cup fig spread
3 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled
2 cups packed baby arugula
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
Grind almonds in a food processor with 1/4 cup of the flour until ground to a coarse powder. Add remaining flour and process until well blended. Distribute butter over nut-flour mixture and pulse until blended. While pulsing, add honey and process until clumps of dough begin to form, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Press dough into the bottom of a buttered 8- or 9-inch tart pan, building it evenly up the sides. Freeze 15 minutes until firm. Bake crust for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Spread a thin layer of fig spread over bottom of the crust and evenly distribute crumbled goat cheese on top. Bake 8 to 10 minutes longer until crust is golden brown and goat cheese is softened. Allow to cool slightly.

Toss arugula with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Top tart with arugula and serve.

Source: wholefoodsmarket.com

Nutrition Info
Per serving (About 3oz/70g-wt.): 250 calories (130 from fat), 14g total fat, 6g saturated fat, 6g protein, 27g total carbohydrate (1g dietary fiber, 14g sugar), 25mg cholesterol, 130mg sodium

Seriously Good Chocolate Zucchini Cake

If you're interested in getting your meat and potatoes man to eat more vegetables, an easy solution is to "hide" veggies in everyday foods we love to eat. This lead to the discussion of chocolate zucchini cake.
Here is a recipe for the cake.




Chocolate Zucchini Cake

1/2 c butter or margarine, softened
1/2 c vegetable oil
1-1/3 c sugar
2 eggs
2 c grated zucchini (fresh or frozen, but defrost before using)
1/2 c sour milk (1/2 c milk & 1/2 tsp white vinegar)
1 tsp vanilla
2-1/2 c flour
4 T cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

3/4 c mini chocolate chips
3/4 c finely chopped walnuts
3/4 c brown sugar

……….
Combine the first 12 ingredients and pour into a greased and floured 9×13″ pan.

Sprinkle with a topping of (3/4 cup each or more to taste) mini chocolate chips, brown sugar, and chopped walnuts.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

Source: foodieobsessed.com
chow.com

U.S. looks to jalapenos in Salmonella outbreak

Above: Cherry tomatoes and hot peppers are displayed for sale at the Food Project's Farmer's Market in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester, Massachusetts August 14, 2007.

REUTERS/Brian Snyder
-----------------------------------------------------------
More than 1,000 people have been sickened in an outbreak of Salmonella food poisoning and federal officials said on Wednesday they now suspected several causes, including jalapeno peppers.

Since April, 1,017 people in 41 states and Canada have been diagnosed with infections of Salmonella Saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

"The accumulated data from all investigations indicate that jalapeno peppers caused some illnesses but that they do not explain all illnesses," the CDC said in a statement.

"Raw tomatoes, fresh serrano peppers, and fresh cilantro also remain under investigation."

The CDC and U.S. Food and Drug Administration said warnings about eating tomatoes remained in place. They include raw red plum, red Roma, or red round tomatoes.

"Until health officials know that the contaminated product or products are no longer on the market, persons with increased risk of severe infection, including infants, elderly persons, and those with impaired immune systems, should not eat raw jalapeno peppers or raw serrano peppers," the CDC added.

The CDC said one 80-year-old Texas man had died in the outbreak and the death of a man in his 60s may have been associated with Salmonella Saintpaul.

"Only six persons infected with this strain of Salmonella Saintpaul were identified in the country during April through June of 2007," the CDC said.

"The previous rarity of this strain and the distribution of illnesses in all U.S. regions suggest that the implicated food is distributed throughout much of the country. Because many persons with Salmonella illness do not have a stool specimen tested, it is likely that many more illnesses have occurred than those reported."

The investigation has been challenging, the CDC said. "One difficult aspect is that people often have difficulty remembering exactly what foods they ate, and remembering specific ingredients in those foods is even more difficult," it said.

"Perishable foods that were consumed by ill persons are often not available to test. When food items are mixed together and consumed in the same dish, all the items may be statistically linked to illness."

Salmonella causes diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection.

Source: Reuters