Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Hoorary for Tacos

A short while ago, we learned on Twitter that the Border Grill Truck, a mobile vendor that provides gourmet tacos and Too Hot Tamales in the Los Angeles area now has 10,000 followers on Twitter as of today.

On Thursday, the Border Grill Truck will be set up at the Pointe in Burbank, a Planned Parenthood Food Fare in Santa Monica (I imagine many Mormons and Southern Baptists will be in attendance- nudge, nudge, wink, wink) and at the Downtown Artwalk at 541 South Spring Street from 5-11 p.m.

Today, I watched three episodes of the new show on Current TV called "Kill It, Cook It, Eat It," which probably won't change my eating habits as I will still probably eat hamburgers (cattle was the focus of one episode) but still refrain from eating rabbits and ducks. Somehow, it's hard for me to eat animals associated with Looney Tunes characters, though I think Foghorn Leghorn might be the notable exception (oh I forgot about Porky Pig, but my later father was Turkish and we don't want to lose readers in Bursa, Turkey or Karachi, Pakistan, as we might well get a lot of hits in those places).

But, for those of you can't eat any animal, irregardless if it resembles Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck, and you live in Richmond, Va., you can head over to the Ipanema Cafe on West Grace Street.

The establishment is open from 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. for lunch from Monday to Friday. And, they serve dinner seven nights a week from 5:30-11:00 p.m.

Among their menu items are a vegan caesar salad with grilled tofu for $8.50.

Somehow, I doubt that Virginia's attorney general Ken Cuccinelli will treat me to that or a hummus with overdried tomatoes, cucumbers and sprouts sandwich ($7.95) because we did after all 'rightfully' name him as our Worst Person of the Year for 2010.

Special Quote of the Day- Oscar Wilde

I suppose since today is International Woman's Day, it may have been more appropriate to quip rock singer Sinead O'Connor, but instead we are sticking with our original plan which was to quote the late, great author/playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) for our feature quote series on famous people from Ireland.

We found this Wilde quote from a program for the Triad Stage (Greensboro, NC, stage company) production of Cormac McCarthy's play "The Sunset Limited" which concluded on Sunday. But, their upstairs cabaret production of "Billy Bishop Goes to War" about a Canadian World War II flying ace continues until March 19.

Here it is:

"Nowadays, people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing."

SIDEBAR: Are you curious about where your food comes from? Well, Current-TV, the station co-founded by Al Gore, is airing the eighth episode of a series we just found about called "Kill It, Cook It, Eat." Tonight's new episode, which airs at 10 p.m. (reruns of the series come before and after the new episode) focuses on rabbits. I am sure your inner Elmer Fudd will be fascinated by how ferrets are used to hunt and kill these wascally wabbits or perhaps maybe not.

SIDEBAR TWO: Your morbid side may also be intrigued to see which celebrity you have recently outlived, and you can find out at (deadoraliveinfo.com), in my case, I have literally just passed Falco by 17 days. The Austrian pop star known for "Rock Me Amadeus" died in a car accident just a few days before he would have turned 41, which is my age now. You can also find out that the likes of Phyllis Diller (age 93) and Jim Nabors (age 80) are still alive, but country singer Porter Wagoner died at age 8o in 2007.

Status Update_ I'm Getting Hungry Here

First of all, our apologies to our friends in Karachi and Islamabad for forgetting to put Pakistan in our links section yesterday as we mentioned a uniquely named coffee place in that country yesterday, but we forgot to link them. Of course, all of the blame goes to Javier the intern.


As for my status update for 1/27: "I am as hungry as Gustave the man-eating crocodile."

"Mental Floss" has a great story in the current article about the central African country of Burundi where one can find Gustave, a 65-year-old croc who has reportedly eaten 300 people. Perhaps, he now qualifies for the senior citizens discount at Denny's!

While researching this piece, we found out that the T-Bone Steak House in Phoenix offers up a 24-ounce t-bone for $27, while our vegan friends in New York (actually, we don't have any vegan friends in New York that we know of, according to Javier) can go to Blossom on 187 9th Avenue. The establishment was voted the best vegetarian place to eat in 2008 and 2009 by "Time Out New York."

I'm not sure if it's going to be a t-bone or a tofu burger, but I need to get some food!

NOTE: The crocodile in the photo is NOT Gustave, but I'd advise against taking his close-up.

DC Diary- Fonzie's Jacket

I meant to blog about Day Two of our 2010 Christmas Family Trip to Washington, DC, yesterday, but getting lost on my way back from a cinema curtailed that effort, so I am writing about it tonight.

Day Two was actually Tuesday. It was far and away the busiest day of the trip, which concludes tomorrow. We saw four Smithsonian museums in one day. One of the highlights was the American History Museums, which contains lots of pop culture and athletic memorabilia in addition to historic items like the counter from North Carolina A and T students sit-in in Greensboro, NC (the Gate City opened a Civil Rights Museum to honor the four men involved earlier this year).

Since the '70s sitcom "Happy Days" was considered subversive by my late father Mehmet Gokbudak at the time, I have always had a special place for The Fonz. My father really detested the phrase "Sit on It!" which Henry Winkler's character uttered quite frequently. To my Turkish father, this was a sign of how Americans had no respect for their parents or elders.

While researching this piece, we found out that The Fonz was meant to be a secondary character but much like George and Elaine on "Seinfeld," he simply took over. There is now a web site called "What Would the Fonz Do" which makes fun of the "What Would Jesus Do" adage that fundamentalist Christians have utilized to the point of redundancy.

Another item on display at the history museum which caught my eye was the leotard of Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin, since I am a gymnastics fan. The pink leotard had an American flag and an emblem from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, in which Liukin won an individual gold medal.

We discovered from researching this piece that according to her Twitter page Liukin was spending the holidays with her family in Vail, Colo. (we hope they weren't driving her crazy) and that she has apparently been dating another gold medalist, figure skater Evan Lysacek. I must profess that even though Liukin, 21, is 19 years younger than me that I am a tad bit jealous (must be my ethnicity!).

My family and I also saw the ice skates worn by another gold medalist Brian Boitano from the 1988 Calgary Olympics, but as the makers of "South Park" have suggested there is apparently some question about his sexual orientation, but irregardless of that he would be too old to date Liukin too!

My night with the family concluded with a dinner at the Commonwealth Gastro Pub where I had a $13 lamb burger. Other menu items included a $12 grass-feed burger and a $13 uncommon burger_ none of us could figure out what that was!

We will have more on the zany Day Two of the DC trip on our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

We conclude this portion of the DC Diary by congratulating my friend Turkish-German modern dancer Nejla Yatkin, who has resided in both Washington, DC, and New York in recent years, on the tenth anniversary of her dance company NY 2 Dance.

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Local Restaurants Closing

Since we started the Things We Have Learned on Twitter today entries, we have focused on such vital things ranging from a restaurant in San Francisco serving lobster corndogs (we still can't visualize that in our minds!) and crackdowns on Shiaa Muslim worshippers in Cairo, Egypt, of all places (Egypt is a Muslim country, but they are Sunni as opposed to Shiaa Muslim, for the most part).

But, today, we focus on our own proverbial backyard as we learned today that three restaurants in Greensboro,NC, have closed or will be closing soon.

According to a tweet from John Robinson, an editor at the "News-Record" (Greensboro's local newspaper) three restaurants have indeed folded.

The most recognized one of these establishments is Sofia Bistro, which I honestly thought was a Bulgarian restaurant since Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria (hence the cheeky photo here of a Bulgarian village). But, Sofia Bistro, which will close on Saturday, actually offers French-inspired cuisine. It is/was located on 616 Dolley Madison Road.

The establishment won positive reviews and several wine awards, but owner Beth Kizhnerman told the "News-Record" that things were not going well for the business economically.

Haybe's Hearth on High Point Road (the restaurant was on Spring Garden Street for 40 years) closed its door. Terry DeMoss, the current owner, told the same publication that: "We gave it our all, but it wasn't quite good enough."

Lastly, Nate's Place, which was on Spring Garden Street, closed as well. It primarily served students from nearby UNC-Greensboro.

Things We Learned on Twitter Last Night- Heat Wave in Japan

The Japan Times tweeted that a heat wave has crippled the land of the rising sun, but merchants around the country have reaped the benefits of the dog days of summer.

The tweet linked to a story in the newspaper by Hiroko Nakahata which stated that beer and air-conditioners were selling quite well in the nation. In addition, some other gizmos like high-tech cooling scarves and chilly air sprays are also (pardon the cliche) flying off the shelves.

The heat wave has killed 118 in Japan since May.

New products like Maji cool high-tech strip cloths worn around the neck to take heat away from the skin is also very popular.

Ikuko Shimazakija, a 49-year-old housewife, told "The Japan Times" that she wears the strip cloth while riding her bike during the day and it helps her tremendously.

Closer to home, I learned from Twitter that it would be 95 degrees in Charlotte, NC, this afternoon, so assuredly folks in Japan are not the only ones trying to get through this sweltering summer.

SIDEBAR: Tom Sietsema of "The Washington Post" recently reported a new French restaurant called Bistro Provence has opened up in Bethesda, Md., which is perhaps our favorite suburb in the country. The food critic gave the restaurant a generally favorable review stating that chef Yannick Cam makes an excellent duck confit as well as scrumptious scallops and shrimp appetizers. Sietsema did state that the restaurant can be a bit pricey and noisy, but it was still one of the best places to eat in suburban Maryland.

And, if you are a Muslim who is currently celebrating Ramadan in the Washington DC-metro area there may be no better way to break the day-long fast than heading to the Syrian-Lebanese restaurant Layalina in Arlington, Va. (we don't know the religion of the owners who could well be Christians), which features hommos- a chickpea puree with tahini sauce, garlic and lemon juice.

Program Reminder- Food Inc. on PBS (Wed. @ 9 pm)

The controversial, Oscar-nominated full-length documentary "Food Inc" directed by Robert Keener will air as part of the award-wining "POV" series on most national PBS stations Wednesday night at 9 p.m.

The film has been criticized for its subjectivity regarding industrial farming, and it features shocking footage from places like a Smithfield pork-processing plant in North Carolina and a chicken farm in Tennessee where the chickens are so overfeed with anti-biotics that they can't even stand up.

In a statement on the web site for "POV," Keener said he simply wanted to make a documentary about how food gets to the dinner table. He added that the stonewalling from the food industry caused his film to move in a different direction than it was originally intended:

"I became intrigued by why the industry would not speak to me about something as seemingly innocuous as food," Keener said.

There has been speculation that Keener and the film's producers are vegetarians, but according to the Internet Movie Database that is not the case.

In North Carolina, the film will air on UNC-TV at 9 p.m. It will be followed by a discussion from local farmers at 10:35 p.m.

The 2009 film was shown in theatres last year, including the Galaxy Cinema in Cary, NC, outside Raleigh and the Carousel Luxury Cinemas in Greensboro.

21 Words in Turkish (18 of 21)

Soup

Corba


Note: This is an actual Turkish soup (Tarator Soup), which is served in the Balkan regions as well.