Hot Plate

Whew!
Ok- let's just healthily skirt the protesting for a moment and get back to some basics:

Can we just talk about the new bear meat on this season of Top Chef?

Just so you know his name is Richard and yes, I'm totally bananas for him. He's sweet and fun and funny as well. Is he killing you, too? Shall I get the coffin ready?

According to his Bravo bio:
"Richard is the Executive Sous Chef at Confidential Restaurant & Loft in the Gaslamp District of downtown San Diego. Richard grew up in food service. His father has served as a restaurant manager for years and his mother and stepfather have owned several bagel businesses in Long Island where Richard spent many summers during his youth. He's been trained by world traveled chefs in classic French techniques and their modern applications. His motto in the kitchen is, "Keep it simple (stupid)" - and he likes to do just that by keeping his plates simple and infused with natural harmony versus chaotic noise. At Confidential, Richard likes to "play" with his food through the small plates style of dining, which allows him to create many new dishes for his guests to combine. On the side, he also works at the San Diego bar, Pecs."

Well Richard, consider this an open invite for you to come over, take your shirt off and cook dinner for me any time.
Grrrrruf!

Pinkberry Not so Healthy, 8th Ave. Gays go Bezerk

Well the proof is in the pudding frozen yogurt. Pinkberry brand frozen yogurt actually contains 23 ingredients including additives, emulsifiers and acidifiers. Not that anybody really expected to be "healthy"... However in an unprecedented action bigger than anything seen by ACT UP or Queer Nation the gay men of Chelsea have taken to the streets to protest Pinkberry's misleading health-based advertising! More after the jump.

After a class-action lawsuit was filed last year accusing the company of deceptive marketing, Pinkberry posted ingredients on its Web site. But that got little notice until the case was settled two weeks ago. (The company said the lawsuit had nothing to do with the posting.)

There is, it turns out, a great deal more than yogurt in those costly white cups.

The ingredients list for Original Pinkberry has 23 items. Skim milk and nonfat yogurt are listed first, then three kinds of sugar: sucrose, fructose and dextrose. Fructose and maltodextrin, another ingredient, are both laboratory-produced ingredients extracted from corn syrup.

The list includes at least five additives defined by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization as emulsifiers (propylene glycol esters, lactoglycerides, sodium acid pyrophosphate, mono- and diglycerides); four acidifiers (magnesium oxide, calcium fumarate, citric acid, sodium citrate); tocopherol, a natural preservative; and two ingredients — starch and maltodextrin — that were characterized as fillers by Dr. Gary A. Reineccius, a professor in the department of food science and nutrition at the University of Minnesota and an expert in food additives.

The Chelsea protest was joined by JAP (Jewgirls Against PinkBerry), a coalition of Jewish girls from Murray Hill, and a smattering of girls, 19 to 21, from NYU sororities. When asked for a quote one gay man responded, "Listen, if I wanted to be fat and remember what it is to actually taste something with flavor I would have gone to Baskin Robbins a long time ago. Humph!" To which an NYU girl responded, "I know, right? I hope I'm still able to fit into my dress for next week's AEPHI/ZBT date dash! This is an outrage!"
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Gurrrl, say what you will- but Ali Alex and I were there last weekend munching down on the original flavor with raspberries, bananas and other crazy mixins' talking about boys and spring fashion and stuff. SO fierce!

Two Days Away

If you're invited to a Thanksgiving dinner and you don't know how to cook or what to bring that pretty much means you're bringing a pie. Here's New York Magazine's best and most affordable pies around the city.