Maryland Department of Natural Resources/Tom Brady

Ugly but delectable: the snakehead fish

New Yorkers were shocked by recent news that snakeheads - fierce predatory fish that originated in Southeast Asia - had been discovered in Central Park's Harlem Meer. They were said to be bigger and more dangerous than piranhas. The Central Park Conservancy put up signs warning anglers, "If You Catch This Fish, Do Not Release: It's Highly Invasive And A Threat To The Ecosystem." TV and radio news outlets ran footage of nervous correspondents standing by the lake interviewing bystanders, who had supposedly seen the fish's dorsal find cutting through the water. These reporters wondered out loud if pets and babies were in danger. Well, long before these fevered reports surfaced, Fork in the Road was eating the fish at restaurants within the city limits...and thoroughly enjoying it.

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@NYCFireWire via @evgrieve

A fire has been reported prior to 11 a.m. this morning at 1310 Surf Avenue in Coney Island, Brooklyn, the home of Nathan's Famous, the frankfurter merchant. The building had been undergoing extensive repairs and renovation following Hurricane Sandy, and had not been yet opened for business. The fire was soon declared under control, and no damage estimates are yet available. Stay tuned to FiTR for further news.

Here's the original tweet from @NYCFireWire

Update: According to the NY Post, the fire started at 9:45 a.m. as a result of ongoing contruction. It was extinguished in 20 minutes.

[thanks to @evgrieve]

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The picture of the restaurant on its Facebook page.

If you've been watching the coverage of the Boston bombing on any of the networks, you know the the manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev took place on Willow Street in Watertown. Right around the corner, and front-and-center in many of the live video feeds, is a restaurant called Strip T's, at 93 School Street, which has become one of Google's top search terms over the last hour or so. Here is what FiTR has gleaned about the restaurant.

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Click on image to enlarge

The outdoor dining area at at Doma Na Rohu on Seventh Avenue South is demarcated with lovely pots of early-blooming forsythia.

As early spring temps soared toward an unseasonable 80 degrees, restaurateurs across the city hastened to push tables and chairs out onto the sidewalk pavement to attract outdoor dining enthusiasts. And come they did, as nearly every outdoor seat this afternoon was taken. Making FitR wonder, How did they all get off work for such a long interval?

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Monica Heisey/Vice

Here is the formula -- if you can figure out what's in the little piles.

It's been done before. In fact, graham crackers were invented in 1829 by Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham as the perfect food, the one you could allegedly eat all by itself and have a balanced diet. Now Atlanta-based computer programmer Rob Rhinehart has invented a liquid diet that, he believes, contains all the nutrients the human body needs to survive, and even thrive, dispensing with the need to encounter actual food ever again.

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This guy hanging outside Broadway Panhandler is a shoo-in for a medical certification.

A bipartisan coalition has introduced a bill in the New York State Assembly and Senate simultaneously that would permit use of cannabis for medical purposes by patients who have been certified by a doctor. So far, 18 states have passed similar bills, including New Jersey.

The legislation, known as Bill 6357 in the Assembly, and Bill 4406 in the Senate, still manages to spell marijuana as "marihuana," the same way it appears on the 1937 Federal Controlled Substances Act, in which it is categorized as a useless and very dangerous substance, the same classification that persists today.

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Photos courtesy of Traverse magazine

Pulled pork sliders taste better in a garage, according to Batali.

Apparently, Mario Batali spends his summers in Leelanau County. That must be in the Finger Lakes or in the Adirondacks, right? Wrong! It's a rather obscure part of northwestern Michigan. Not in the UP (Upper Peninsula) either, but right across Lake Michigan from Green Bay, Wisconsin - to help you football fans get a bead on the location.

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In happier days, a garrulous, wild-haired Sammy Hagar chatted with a reporter about an upcoming show with Sammy's Beach Bum Bar & Grill as backdrop. "Rum's the best mixer on the planet," he says, as a casino executive looks on approvingly. Beware of seemingly friendly guys in suits, Sammy!

Operated by Sammy Hagar but owned by Bally's Casino via Caesar's Entertainment, Sammy's Beach Bum Bar & Grill was a fixture on the Atlantic City Boardwalk for the last three summers. In fact, it was the only outdoor bar actually situated on sand, between the boardwalk and the Atlantic Ocean. It was a relatively large place, with about 60 tables, and waitresses dressed in hot pants. A loud rock soundtrack blared from speaker horns overhead. The specialty of the place was tall drinks served in colorful plastic glasses with umbrellas in them, with fried tidbits as the main bar snacks. The place seemed more like it belonged in Florida or California.

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marioanima / flickr

A fire was reported at 3:04 a.m. this morning on the grounds of Alice Waters' Berkeley restaurant, Chez Panisse. No one has been injured, but the restaurant's front dining area sustained serious damages.

"At this point, it appears to be an exterior fire that worked its way to the interior," Fire Department Chief Bill Kehoe told ABC News.

[CBS; ABC7]

Just look at the size of that smoker!

Today at noon, FastPass tickets ($125) go on sale for this year's Big Apple Block Party, one of the city's signature food events. The two-day weekend festival, now in its 11th year, will be held June 8th and 9th in Madison Square Park. FastPasses, which work on both days, entitle you to $100 in 'cue and beverages (read: beer). Last year, they were $100, so this represents a bit of inflation, but the pass is still a very good deal. Why?

[Update: Another modification from last year, besides the price, is that the passes are only good for one of the days. Oh, well!]

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