- Doughnuts in general can be classified as disgusting, what with being balls of fatty, fried dough covered with toppings like coconut, über-rich frosting, sprinkles, fruit toppings, etc. and crammed full of similarly fatty, unhealthy substances, but perhaps no one has created a doughnut quite as disgusting as the 'Do or Dine' restaurant on Bedford Avenue in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn made famous in Spike Lee’s film “Do the Right Thing.” Co-owner Justin Warner has crafted a doughnut that is equal parts disgusting and controversial, injecting foie gras into doughnuts. Foie gras is, of course, a controversial French delicacy made from the fatty liver of a duck. "It looks like a donut, but it tastes like heaven," Warner said of his new creation. The treat is controversial not because of the revolting idea of fatty duck liver in a doughnut, but because foie gras is banned in several states because of animal cruelty concerns. The ducks whose livers are used for foie gras are often caged and forced-fed so that the fat builds up on the liver. True art is almost always controversial and Warner seems to revel in the drama, selling the foie gras doughnuts for a whopping $11 each. That someone is charging $11 for a freaking doughnut is the true outrage, but he claims to average 30 orders a week. A donut filled with the controversial liver pâté could be viewed as a means of making typically pricy French cuisine, accessible to the masses. Foie gras is typically served in upscale restaurants, but putting it in a doughnut is a decidedly different approach. As with anything remotely controversial in the world these days, the foie gras doughnut has already inspired an online petition to stop the restaurant from serving it. The petition, called "Do or Dine Restaurant: Stop Serving Foie Gras Donuts," has collected over 600 signatures collected already. Signees have tagged their digital signatures with predictable messages about the injustice of birds dying to make doughnuts. As for Warner, he’s playing the “struggling entrepreneur trying to survive in a cruel world” card. "We are just a small restaurant trying to stay alive and give good food to our neighborhood," he explained………….
- NBATV and TNT knew what they were getting when they signed newly retired Shaquille O’Neal to be a studio analyst: a bombastic, goofy, oversized kid in a 7’1, 350-pound body who loves controversy and will say most anything to generate buzz and interest. While it’s often difficult to tell when O’Neal is actually being critical and when he’s merely looking to deliver a verbal prod, his run as an analyst should deliver plenty of entertaining moments (certainly more entertaining than the crappy movies he’s acted in or the terrible rap albums he has released). The first of those moments came during NBATV's show Tuesday to announce the league's schedule for the 2011-12 season. The season is in peril due to the ongoing lockout, but that didn’t stop O’Neal from delivering a passive-aggressive verbal blast to one of the team’s expected to contend for next season’s NBA title - if the season is actually played. O’Neal was asked a question about the Miami Heat and while he couldn’t praise Heat stars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade effusively enough, he didn’t have much to say about the third member of Miami’s supposed “Big 3,” forward Chris Bosh. In fact, he had nothing to say about Bosh and all but refused to mention his name. O'Neal referred to the Heat as having a "Big 2" while praising their chances to bounce back after a disappointing loss in last season’s NBA finals. "The Miami Heat, they've got a lot of great players, the 'Big 2.' They will be back," O'Neal said from Louisiana during the broadcast. "LeBron James is taking a lot of criticism, but I know LeBron very well. He hears everything that everyone is saying, so I think he's going to come back and have an MVP year this year." When the conversation was steered back to his “Big 2” comments, O’Neal shot down the idea he had created some sort of controversy but immediately reverted to praising James and Wade while excluding Bosh. "Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, you know, they're great players, they're probably the greatest backcourt ever assembled," O'Neal said. "And you know, they're going to get back. They're going to get back. They play well, they went through a lot, they put a lot of pressure on themselves. That's how they like it. And they will be back." Of course, O’Neal was a teammate of both Wade (for Miami’s 2006 championship team) and James (in Cleveland prior to LeBron knifing the entire city in the back with “The Decision”). Maybe he just has a better memory for guys he used to ball with…………
- As America becomes fatter, lazier and more unhealthy, many Americans are looking to anyone but the person staring back at them in the mirror to take responsibility for their obesity and changing their flabby physique. With many states requiring restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus, relying on eateries to tell you how much fat and how many calories your double bacon cheeseburger with mayo and extra barbecue sauce contains is a nice way to manage what you consume - or it would be if those calorie and fat counts on menus were accurate. That is not necessarily the case, not if the results of a new study led by Dr. Lorien E. Urban, study author and calorie researcher at Tufts University, are accurate. The study found that nearly one in five of these counts on restaurant menus are wrong. Urban’s team reviewed calorie counts of 269 food items from 42 randomly selected fast-food or sit-down restaurants in Massachusetts, Arkansas, and Indiana and found 40 percent of the food items contained 10 calories more than what was labeled on the menu. Worse still, almost 20 percent of the foods contained more than 100 calories than what was stated in the nutritional facts. One particularly mislabeled item’s menu listing was off by an absurd 1000 calories. "You really don't know what you are getting," said Urban. Eating an item mislabeled by 100 calories might not seem like a big deal, but given the frequency with which Americans tend to eat at chain restaurants and the quantity of items they tend to consume at these places, 100 calories per item could add up to 500-600 calories for a meal. According to the study, eating an extra 100 calories everyday can contribute to an added 10 to 30 pounds a year. What are the causes of this menu misinformation? The study’s authors suggest it is largely due to kitchen variables due to the fact that most fast-food items are created on site and the amounts of various ingredients used varies substantially depending on who is preparing it. That makes a definitive answer for how to address the issue difficult to pinpoint, but at a minimum it should have Americans more alert and inquisitive when it comes to what they consume. With more than a third of adults obese and two-thirds classified as either overweight or obese, now would be an excellent time to be more alert about food. To read more about this riveting research, stroll on over to your magazine rack and pick up your copy of the July 20 issue of the Journal of American Medical Association……….
- Is there anything a foreign nation can do (besides genuflecting and outright ass-kissing) that won't offend the Chinese government? Probably not, not if Philippine lawmakers visiting tiny islands their nation claims in the disputed South China Sea leads to such obnoxious whining and complaining from China. Four legislators, accompanied by members of the military and journalists, visited what are known as the Kalayaan, or “freedom”, islands. Perhaps the Chinese were enraged that Congressman Walden Bello replaced a tattered national flag at the municipal hall of the most inhabited island, which has a population of 60 people. That’s right, 60 people live on the entire island and China is getting snippy over it. Bello did tweak the Chinese at the end of the tour of the island, saying his group “successfully enforced Philippine sovereignty” over the land. “When we landed it was clearly on Philippine soil. We felt that, when we were with the structures, with the people over there…. You know, this was a settled community. Yes, it had military personnel but it had also a thriving civilian community, that’s largely made up of fisher folk. So there was no doubt on our part that we were indisputably on Philippine soil, on Philippine territory,” Bello said. Those words provoked an angry response from China, which claims sovereignty over the entire South China Sea, including the Kalayaan islands, which are part of the Spratly islands group. So angry were the Chinese that their ambassador met with a foreign affairs official over the matter. Embassy spokesman Ethan Sun characterized the visit as sending the wrong message. “It goes against the declaration of the parties in the South China Sea and serves no purpose but to undermine peace and stability in the region and sabotage Philippines-China relationship,” Sun said.
Sun tagged those words with a warning that the Chinese government will continue to monitor this sort of activity closely. Not to be outdone, Bello derisively called China’s response to the trip “immature.” Filipino Press Secretary Edwin Lacierda didn’t exactly back up the four lawmakers by reasserting that the lawmakers took the trip on their own initiative. “The only thing we can assure them is that we are continuously dialoguing with them and the mere fact that the Chinese ambassador was able to speak with Under Secretary Conegos is a manifestation of the open lines of communication between the two parties,” Lacierda said. China’s ridiculous claim to the entire South China Sea should continue to be a point of controversy going forward as Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also claim all or part of the sea, which is believed to sit above deposits of natural gas and oil. China insists on bilateral talks to resolve the issue, but all of the other nations want to be a part of the discussion as well. Both the Philippines and Vietnam have complained of Chinese incursions into their waters in recent months and the incidents have included alleged harassment of vessels by Chinese sea patrols. Ironically enough, those who went on the Filipino lawmakers’ trip to the disputed islands reported friendly interactions between the locals and Chinese fishing crews working on the island. Just don’t expect that sort of friendliness from the involved parties in suits and ties…………
- Perhaps inspired by Bono and The Edge of U2 and Damon Albarn of Gorrillaz, Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O has written her own opera and her work will receive its world premiere at St Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, as part of The Creators Project series of events which run from Oct. 13-16. While the U2-helmed Spiderman musical has flailed and faltered both critically and financially and Albarn’s opera has exactly become a theatrical sensation, Karen O is hoping for better results when her work premieres in an area of Brooklyn located under the Manhattan Bridge overpass. Oddly enough, a media release for the event does not provide a title for the opera, but does describe the project as a "psycho-opera" and "an assault on the tragic joys of youth." All of that sounds very dramatic and jazzy, but why is anyone assaulting the “tragic joys of youth” and how does an opera go psycho? Presiding over the apparent psychotic break from reality will be director Adam Rapp, the acclaimed novelist, playwright and filmmaker. Perhaps creating an air of mystery about the project is part of the plan and if so, well done thus far. The unnamed opera will premiere alongside other The Creators Project works like Jason Pierce's collaboration with director Jonathan Glazer, Untitled: A Physical Manifestation Of 'Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space', and an installation called Life On Mars Revisited, which sees photographer Mick Rock's classic footage of David Bowie "visually remixed" by director Barney Clay. Put the ingredients together and it’s definitely one of those cool, hipster, artsy New York City happenings where the cool kids abound and being seen lends you a lot of credibility on the scene. Hopefully Karen O’s opera has a name by the time the event happens so people can actually find and see it…………
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