Five Must-Have Tools for Any Kitchen

Here are five kitchen-related things you really need and how to use them efficiently. Kevin Purdy and the Lifehacker editors have listed  five core purchases that any kitchen should have, along with the best advice I’ve seen on how to get the most for your money out of them.

What are the five?

* Three decent knives, sharpener for two of them

* Five pots and pans

* A restaurant supply store, or an Asian market

* Serious instant read thermometer

* Reliable, small kitchen scale

Rab enjoying the Tastes of Times Square

Taste of Times Square 2009 .. so delicious!

I have  been waiting for this event for months!! On June 8th, 2009; The Times Square Alliance organized and executed the Taste of Times Square.

Food fanatics and music fans have long known that “Taste of Times Square” represents a great gastronomic and entertainment value, offering an impressive range of top-quality international cuisine for dollars per dish, and a diverse variety of musical morsels for no cost whatsoever.

One of New York City’s most popular annual outdoor food festivals, Taste of Times Square, is your chance to sample “tastes” of delicious signature dishes from Times Square’s best restaurants, enjoy classic New York street performers, catch top-notch local entertainment on three stages, and show off your hottest dance moves all evening with help from a swing band and free dancing lessons from Swing46 + drumming along with the Drum Café.

WHEN: Took place Monday, 5pm-8:30pm

WHERE: West 46th Street between Broadway and Ninth Avenue, including historic Restaurant Row.

ADMISSION: Admission to the festivities was free!

I tried to tell as many friends as possible. I felt sorry for those that did not take my tasty suggestion seriously!

Since I work on 49th & 8th Ave; I decided to stroll on my lunch break around 2:30 PM EST to see if they were setting up the tents that of the respective restaurants that will house the ‘goodiness’. There was no food on the tables but I was ready to ’sample’. I had purchased my tickets ahead of time at the Times Square Information Center, located at 7th Avenue, between 46th and 47th Streets at the gift kiosk.

I happily flashed my CrossRoads: Times Square Card to key in on a discount for Times Square employees. This allowed me to nab 2 extra tickets for every 10 dollars of Taste tickets that I purchased. I walked to each tent mapping out what I was going to taste when the food servicing began. I was armed with 24 tickets. [$20 + 4 extra tickets with CrossRoads card before 6:30PM]. I walked back to my office and told co-workers about what was getting ready to go down. I finally got off work @ 6Pm and immediately did a light jog to 46th Street and 9th Avenue. A Korean traditional dancer/drummer was performing. I stopped a few minutes to watch. Incredible, since I was gunning for the ‘tastes’ and not the sounds.

When I saw the crowds of people; it dawned on me that I would need more tickets! Call it greed or call it amateur journalism, where I would try to ‘review’ every offering. So, now I was armed with 36 tickets. So… where should I start? The list is below with the restaurant tent and what food I tasted and the number of tickets it cost. Here we go.

• FireBird Russian Restaurant - Salmon Caviar with onions; oil; garlic served on a rolled Blini. - 3 tkts

• Joshua Tree - Crabcake Sandwich with a lettuce-based salad with tomato and dressing on a 7 grain mini bun. So, so tasty! - 4 tkts

• The House of Brews - Home made potato chips fried in peanut oil and wrapped in a faux ‘ The Village’ newspaper from Breadbaskets.com - 1 tkt

• Toloache - Guacomolé and yellow corn chips - 2 tkts

• Bourbon Street Bar and Grill - Chilled Watermelon Soup [They also served Alligator meat in a blanket]. I didn’t eat. But I can see it was popular for the street convo. - 2 tkts

• Bistecca Fiorentina - Tuscan Steak House - Tortellini ai Funghi (Cheese filled with sliced Portebello and cream of mushroom sauce). Mmm, Mmm good! - 3 tkts

I stopped by to watch the crowd participation of the Drum Café before crossing 8th Avenue to see the other restaurants stretching to Broadway.

• Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar - Brownie dessert - 1 tkt

• Planet Hollywood - Banana Fosters Cheesecake dessert - 3 tkts

Banana Fosters Cheesecake from Planet Hollywood

• Charlotte Restaurant - Pan-seared Tuna with simmered, pickled vegetables. - 3 tkts

• Dervish Turkish restaurant - Stuffed baby eggplant (with sautéed onion, tomato and other spices). - 2 tkts

• Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. - Remoulade with Hush puppies. Mahi Mahi, Rice, sweet corn, shrimp and Parmesan cheese). So, So tasty! - 2 tkts

Bubba Gump Co. Hush puppies... Mmm!

• Trattoria Dopo Teatro - Gaspacho Soup - 1 tkt

• Sofia Ristorante Italiano - Fried Calamari with tomato sauce - 4 tkts

calamari with sauce + lemon wedge

The calamari was done right!

At this point; I struggled to chew on the calamari and send this down my esophagus. I had to sit down at one of the café table and chairs they provided.

Before you ask if I drank any water. Yes, I did. I had a 500ml bottle of water. Not to mention, Nirvana; Sobé LifeWater and Honest Tea were giving out samples and selling bottles for 1 ticket.

It was after 8PM. I had to sell my last 6 taste tickets for $6 to a person who just wandered on to 46th Street from Broadway. Little did she know that most of the restaurant tents had cleaned out and began to pack up.

Let it be know there were many other restaurants representing. See full list here. But since I do not eat meat or poultry; most of my samplings were limited. There were veal; steak; chicken and pork dishes up and down 46th Stree. Perhaps another reviewer will touch on these Theater District delicacies. You can see the full list here. They will be in magenta to the right.

Taste of Times Square Brochure

Taste of Times Square - Restaurant tent placement

Taste of Times Square - List of participating restaurants

Taste of Times Square - More restaurants and Sponsors

Taste of Times Square - other sponsors

Please don’t miss this event next year. This event is worth traveling from another city to come to.

Enjoy more photos below.

Africa’s francophone countries have been slow to liberalise compared to many of their anglophone counterparts but the tide may be turning as events in Senegal seem to show.

Its increasingly liberalised media is winning the battle for audiences hands-down and putting very real pressure on the previously well-entrenched state broadcaster. Russell Southwood looks at the latest survey results from Adesr.

READ MORE HERE:

The article is titled: Call of The Wild (Foods). Be sure to leave comments on both sites.

Just click on amNewYork hyperlink above.

SL 3 unveiled at Musikmesse 2009
Please click the video links below:
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Rane SL 3

Five years ago, the Rane SL 1 became what is now a modern classic, setting the stage for the future of digital DJing. Like the SL 1, the SL 3 is one tough piece of hardware, built with premium components. Both feature galvanic isolation to prevent computer noise interfering with the audio path. The Rane SL 3 ships with a soft carry case and an international power supply for easy transfers between DJs.

“Our professional customers want a bigger sound from a smaller box with simpler connections, so that’s exactly what we’ve made,” reports Steve Macatee from Rane Corporation, “The SL 3 is about minimizing noise and maximizing audio performance.”

The SL 3 design concentrates on optimizing sound quality and producing a rugged and compact solution.

The Rane SL 3 is an advanced bus-powered 24-bit USB 2.0 audio interface for Serato Scratch Live. Like all Rane products, the SL 3 is handcrafted in the USA under strict quality control to insure long-term reliability and performance.

At a time when most companies are cutting corners, the SL 3 is a premium product designed with the discerning performer in mind.

“If you play on quality sound systems, make your own music creations, like to remix live or use uncompressed audio, then your crowd will really appreciate the advantage the SL 3 gives you,” says Sam Gribben from Serato, “It’s the biggest way yet to DJ with Scratch Live, it’s an absolute monster of a box!”

The Rane SL 3 has a massive 104 dB dynamic range, allowing plenty of space to mix between vinyl, CDs and Scratch Live with headroom to spare.

The studio grade input preamps are the same as those found in the Rane TTM 57SL performance mixer. Each channel is individually switchable, allowing for a mix of turntables and CD players. The compact design eliminates the need for extra cables, making for a quick and easy set up.

Armed with an extra set of auxiliary channels, the SL 3 opens the doors to future expansion and creative configuration for DJs and electronic musicians.

The Rane SL 1 for Serato Scratch Live continues to be available as the industry standard for digital DJs.

The advanced Rane SL 3 for Serato Scratch Live is shipping now.

Serato Audio Research has been recognized as the market leader in time and pitch adjustment since its inception in 1999. Serato formed a product partnership with Rane Corporation in 2004 with Serato Scratch Live. Scratch Live is a revolutionary DJ product that enables DJs to control digital audio files on their computer. Serato has since expanded its reputation for excellent pro DJ products with the release of Video-SL and ITCH DJ Software in 2008. For more information, visit http://serato.com.

Full Story here:

Need to find a street and directions to that Street that’s interactive …. In Lagos, Nigeria?

Then bookmark this site.

MapNTL.com was born in New York City about four years ago when Ireti Ajala and a friend wanted to visit a certain Brazilian restaurant in Queens. Not knowing the exact location, Ajala’s friend used MapQuest to search for the street and to generate driving directions to the restaurant. Immediately, he realized that a city of 10 million people needed this resource, real fast! By far, this is no Google Maps. It’s a start though. The graphic user interface could use a nice 2009 renovation.
Accra, Tema and Kumasi Ghana could use this framework for a map also.

Full Story here:

Woo Hoo. The Star Trek Movie directed by J.J. Abrams, starts today in the USA. If you don’t follow this type of Sci-Fi; then that’s OK.

Star Trek is a generational thing that is passed down to family members. Not that old in the Sci-Fi world. It was conceived less than 45 years ago by Gene Roddenberry. The franchise; now managed by Paramount has sprouted into many branches. Just like the Marvel universe or the the fantasy world of J.R.R.  Tolkien; stories upon stories can be culled from the Star Trek universe ( The story of the Milky way Galaxy basically!)

Well; many of my followers know that I am a Sci-Fi fan. So it would only be right that I review and inspect this renewed interest in Star Trek.

The new film delves into the life of James T. Kirk. But like all science fiction universe setting; it’s not a good story until you tie other settings; characters and ‘historical facts’ (Oh! The irony!) into the  story for the latest generation. I’ll see that film tonight and try to cobble a review for tomorrow.

But more interestingly; are the prequels stories to the prequel film that can be read on the iPhone.

Countdown #1 & #2 on the Apple iTunes store as an app

Many will remember the TV series fondly; but many may not know the origins of famed sci-fi characters such as James T. Kirk; the Vulcan Spock or the venerable Enterprise of Kirk’s days. The film will actually set this up. But it’s the iphone apps; [There are four!] called ‘Star Trek: Countdown #1, 2, 3 & 4′.

iVerse Media has worked with the Screen writers of the film itself; Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman and writers Mike Johnson & Tim Jones to churn an incredible comic book series to be read on the Apple iphone and iPod Touch.

Star Trek: Countdown is a series of four comic books  done incredibly by Artists; David Messina; Giovanna Niro; Ilaria Traversi; Robbie Robbins & Neil Uyetake, Stunning; elegant; easy to follow along. Well laid out. Comic book art cannot digitally get better than this! Each numbered app has an average of 80 panels to touch and slide to the left. I suspect if they translate in Japanese or Arabic; then the scrolling/sliding would be different.

The story (in these four comic books) focus on Spock and a Romulan named Nero. The story involves a slew of races and familiar characters to the Star Trek Universe. More importantly; these four iPhone apps set up the story for the new movie premiering on May 8th in the USA. Yes. You will be able to watch the movie; but a Sci-Fi head like me likes to go in armed with the geekiness to ‘find the patterns’ in the latest Star Trek showing.

I have seen this before. The Wachowski brothers did it with their ‘Second Renaissance’ series of The Matrix within a series of animations called the Animatrix. Although, not a comic book; This was before the iPhone. But effectively pulled more interest into the universe the writers and director wanted to take it.

I like it! This is a great idea and a tight story. I ‘ve already read all Countdown apps twice! Spread the word and download via Apple iTines Store by clicking the screenshot image above of the app chiclets.

Enjoy!

Norwegian based Rap artist Yosef Wolde-Mariam & Tshawe Barqua. They both come from African parents. They are now signed to Universal Republic with an expected US album release debut on September 15th, 2009.

You may have heard their international success track single called Beggin’. This track samples a 1968 Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons track. They have been rapping as a group since 1992. Don’t sleep! They have skills.

Madcon “Beggin” (official video)

Americans may have also heard their music from the avant-garde; hip mini advert series by Adidas called ‘The Game’. It’s the advert with all the familiar sports players; graff artist; djays; skateboarders; musicians; rap artist; models and general celebs. See the 3 YouTube links below. The first & second ones sets up the party scene. The third contains the re-worked MadCon Track - ‘Beggin”. Re-worked to dodge the massive sample lift payoff!

Finally! Here is some video I recorded with my iPhone at the job. Universal republic held a small showcase at the 1755 Broadway location in New York. This is my Qik stream.
• http://qik.com/video/1519162
• http://qik.com/video/1519172

KENTUCKY GRILLED CHICKEN

** New and ... tasty???

Has anyone tasted this? Has anyone posted a dance video to this site? Leave a comment!

** UPDATE ****

Oprah Winfrey shocked the nation of the United States and those all over the world yesterday when she endorsed the ‘UNTHINKFC’ grilled chicken scheme. The Oprah chicken promotion at http://unthinkkfc.com/ and oprah.com/kfc gets you 2 pieces of grilled chicken, 2 sides, and 1 biscuit, for

** But you need to the get the coupon by 9:59 Coupon available for printing from 9am CDT 5/5/09 to 9:59pm CDT 5/6/09. Coupon is redeemable at participating KFC® locations in the U.S. from 5/5/09 to 5/19/09, excluding 5/10/09 (Hmmm Mother’s Day, no coupon use?).

Published in the WSJ.com

By MICHAEL ALLEN

NKANDLA, South Africa — Now that 67-year-old Jacob Zuma is about to become president, the question is: Who will be First Lady? And Second Lady? And will there be a Third Lady?

He’s been married several times and at the moment has more than one wife. This is lawful in South Africa. Read on people .. this gets interesting. Be sure to leave a comment.