Anita Lo has had a topsy-turvy week. A fire broke out at Annisa, causing the restaurant to close indefinitely for renovations just days before she won her episode of Top Chef Masters, the first win for a New Yorker on the show.
[Eater]

Aaron Sanchez of Centrico and Paladar will star in the Food Network's Chefs Vs. City, a show that pits a chef against a local foodie in what the show's website refers to as "the ultimate foodie tour."
[Eat Me Daily]

Mr. Chow of the eponymous restaurant is suing executive chef Philippe Chow (formerly Chau) for changing his name, inciting brand confusion, and taking credit for dishes that Mr. Chow actually invented.
[Grub Street]

Kyle Bailey, the third chef to helm Allen & Delancey, is leaving the restaurant, as is the pastry chef, Tiffany MacIsaac, who has worked there since the opening. Owners Mary Feldman and Dick Friedberg are in the process of finding replacements.
[Grub Street]

The scourge of the extra dry martini has started to abate, what with the growing popularity of the 50/50 martini. And vermouth is starting to make a comeback as a key ingredient in cocktails. At Employees Only, Dushan Zaric makes a chai-infused vermouth, as well as a vermouth infused with herbes de Provence, and one infused with red bush tea, all of which are made fresh daily.

"We go through one bottle of vermouth per day," says Zaric. But for home use, he recommends refrigerating it, as most people keep their bottles of vermouth for far too long. He adds, "Go small. Buy the 375ml bottles instead of the 750ml."

The chai-infused vermouth mixes well with almost any brown liquor, according to Zaric. At Employees Only, it's mixed with cognac, lemon juice, simple syrup, and pomegranate juice, and garnished with three dried rosebuds.

"It's a celebration of beautiful women," intimates Zaric. Oh? "A good cocktail is like a beautiful woman. It should be stunning to the eye, exhilarating to smell, and wonderful to taste."

Ahem.

To make chai-infused vermouth at home, go to your favorite tea shop or Indian food shop for some good loose chai tea.

Employees Only's Chai-infused Vermouth

6 oz Dolin Rouge
1 1/2 tbsp loose chai tea
2 pods of cardamon
3 dried cloves
1/4 cinnamon stick

From a 750ml bottle of sweet vermouth, pour out 6 ounces.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the vermouth, tea, cardamon, cinnamon, and cloves. Bring the mixture to a boil, then cut the heat and let it cool.

Once it's reached room temperature, drain it, and pour it back into the bottle of vermouth. Enjoy on ice or mixed in a cocktail.

Put your opposable thumbs to good use.

[reddit via Eat Me Daily]

All types of establishments are being considered by the Fork in the Road staff as you read this--from humble Fujianese noodle shops, to Sichuan food-court stalls, to sit-down restaurants that might be described as fancy.

So tune in tomorrow morning, and see how our list compares with yours, plus get a valuable list of Chinese places you may want to visit or revisit.

See other Our 10 Best lists here:

Hamburgers, Pizza, Tacos, Hot Dogs  

The dish that the book gets its title from is hardly still served anywhere in the various Chinatowns of New York. Why did it become so popular in the first place?

Chop suey perfectly fit the tastes of Americans from the 1890s on. First of all, the dish was filling and cheap--you could buy a bowl for 30 cents. It was flavorsome, satisfying Americans' tastes for rich meat and vegetable stews. Chop suey was exotic.

The United States was then stepping out from the shadow of England, beginning to exert its might around the world. At the same time, foreign immigrants were pouring into this country. Nothing could show that you were up-to-the-minute and worldly-wise like stepping out to the local Chinese restaurant for a late-night bowl of chop suey. And it was safe. Catering to their customers, Chinese chefs removed everything weird and imported from the dish, changing it from an earthy stir-fry to a bland, soggy, and overcooked stew.

When early Americans first tried Chinese food, they were disgusted, but still kept trying it. What do you think that says about us?

We've always been fascinated with weird food; witness all the television shows about culinary adventurers trekking once again to Thailand to eat insects. Between 1784 and 1885 or so, Americans liked to try Chinese food, just for the experience, but none of them admits to actually getting a taste for it. But then in 1880s New York City, something happened and we fell in love with Chinese food.

Dole is now suing the makers of the film Bananas! for slander. The film documented a 2007 trial involving Nicaraguan farm workers who claimed the company was aware of a chemical used on the crops that could make the workers sterile.
[Bloomberg]

13 Dunkin' Donuts locations in New York will become Tim Hortons, a coffee-shop brand famous in Canada. The stores will close Friday and reopen July 13 under the new name. Tim Hortons already has three co-branded restaurants in midtown Manhattan.
[Nation's Restaurant News]

A year after New York started requiring that restaurants list the caloric value of the foods on their menus, the effects of the law are being studied. The research doesn't look at the impact on a person's diet overall, just on what a person chooses for a particular meal.
[Wall Street Journal]

Because the truth no one tells you is that while canning and pickling and curing your own (locally grown, organic) food may be many things -- rewarding, sustainable, health-conscious, creative and challenging, even -- one thing it ain't is cheap.

And she argues that it's not just the economy that's fueled the DIY impulse:

In fact, the whole DIY scene seemed to gain ground just when everyone needed new, hipper, cooler creative things to spend their money on. Cases in point: the "everybody knit your own socks out of $30 skeins of mohair" trend and the "sew your own purse out of vintage bark cloth" trend. The DIY-grub trend, like a slightly more practical younger sibling, has been nurtured by years on a steady diet of hipster, locavore, get-your-hands-dirty, foodie propaganda...

Burger King is really on a roll, having managed to offend Hindus and Mexicans, plus anyone who dislikes stupidly overt blowjob jokes, in a matter of months.

The latest, depicting the Hindu goddess Lakshmi perched on top of what looks like a ham-and-cheese sandwich, plays on the goddess's usual pose on a lotus flower. The ad is extra special because Hindus never mix meat and religious practice--even those who usually eat meat might go veg for a holy day, and most priests are vegetarian. The tagline reads, "The snack is sacred." It sure is!

Then there's the Texican Whopper--"the taste of Texas with a little spicy Mexican." Aha! Do you get it? Mexicans are really short, of spicy disposition, and also they like to wear their flag as a poncho, while wrestling. The Mexican ambassador to Spain was less than thrilled!

And finally, a lovely little rendition--shown only in Singapore, of all places--of a blond giving a blowjob to a seven-inch...sandwich! And just in case you didn't get it, the word "blow" is plastered across the ad.

The funny thing is, Burger King keeps giving these weird, standard-issue apologies--"We didn't mean to offend any of our customers," etc--and yet they keep rolling out these bizarre ads. It's definitely a way to keep people talking about Burger King, but does it really put anyone in the mood for a Whopper?

Fork in the Road's Albany correspondent, Jan Galligan, offers the following miscellany:

I remember a grade school version of the BOSCO song
that we used to sing on the playground...[editor's note: in Kenosha, Wisconsin]

I LOVE BOSCO
THAT'S THE DRINK FOR ME
MOMMY PUT'S IT IN MY
MILK - TO TRY TO POISON ME.

Following is a list of ingredients, and a descriptive statement from the Vermont Country Store:

Corn Syrup, Sugar Syrup, Natural Cocoa, Water, CaramelColor, Malt Extract,
Salt, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), No Artificial Flavor

Features

Bosco syrup has been made since 1928. It contains no artificial flavors, is
fat-free and is an all natural product. Use with milk for a delightful and
healthy drink.

Care Instructions

No refrigeration is required.

Nutritional Information

Serving Size=2 Tbsp (40g)
Servings per Container=16
Calories 110
Total Fat 0g 0%
Trans fat 0g
Sodium 30mg 1%
Protein 0g
Total Carbohydrate 27g 9%
Sugars 21g

Shelf Life: 18 Months--2 Years

At $5, the quarter-chicken combo shown below is an amazing deal--the spice-rubbed bird's sienna skin pulls right off to reveal flesh of perfect oiliness, and the attendant rice and beans (pick white or yellow for the former, black or pink for the latter) are so copious that you'll probably never finish.

For an additional dollar on the $6 special, you can also have salad and a beverage of your choice, or if you really want to splurge, wash it down with a President beer. The roast pork pernil, fried kingfish, and beef stew are also estimable. And Tropical is no mere carryout--there's a commodious seat-yourself dining room attached. 2145 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard, 212-531-0233

Update, 6:45 p.m: The victim was identified by the Camden Country prosecutor's office as 29-year-old Vincent Smith II of Camden, New Jersey. He was apparently leaning over the top of the eight-foot-deep vat and fell in. He was then knocked out by the paddles that stir the chocolate, and was immersed in the 120-degree brown goo for ten minutes before he could be extracted.

The plant was being subleased by Lyons and Company to Cocoa Services, Inc., a company whose only apparent activity is melting lump chocolate so it can be used by candy manufacturers.

Photo by Saquan Stimpson/monstersh aq2000 @ Flickr

Vodka is dead, or at least has peaked, say the experts.

Among cocktail connoisseurs, poo-pooing vodka has become a popular sport. And, why not, when the spirit gave us such abominations as the Appletini and the Fuzzy Navel.

Now, of all people to stand up for the odorless and flavorless liquid, Jim Meehan--of bacon-infused, bourbon-peddling PDT--says that vodka hating is as passe as many claim vodka itself to be.

"Drinking is like fashion," according to Meehan. "You might think those stone-washed jeans aren't that hot now, but just wait until Yves Saint Laurent comes out with a stone-washed miniskirt. Everyone will want it."

On a recent trip to Sweden, Meehan had the opportunity to experience a different vodka culture, one tied to the food of that place, such as the staples of gravlax and salt cod. With strongly flavored foods, one needs a strong spirit to clean the palate, he explains, and vodka is the ideal pairing for such foods.

"Am I ready to buckle and put vodka cocktails on the menu [at PDT]? Not yet. But I do think we need to bring vodka back into the fold," Meehan says.

Were he to make that leap, he would likely start with Karlsson, a Swedish brand that not only distills its vodka just twice--as opposed to the multiple distillations touted by other vodka makers--but also makes single-farm, single-variety vintage bottlings. That means you can drink a 2004 Solist or a 2006 Gammel Svensk Rod (those are potato varieties, by the way). He also likes Sobieski, which costs just $11, much less than most "luxury" brands.

"Vodka doesn't need my help yet, but when it does," he says, "I'll help."

And to all those vodka haters out there: "If you close yourself off, you become obsolete. You have to stay open-minded. Opinionated and knowledgeable, but open."

The dining room at Piccola is so, well, piccola that the wait staff have to take a detour outside to serve the far corner tables. One wonders what they'll do in winter. Like the chef, much of the fish is brought in from Sicily, such as the tuna and swordfish for the crudo. These delicate, translucent strips of fish are peppered with fennel, an herb that crops up in many of the dishes.

Fish seems to be the thing to have at this heavily Sicilian-influenced restaurant. The grilled squid on a broccoli puree with squid ink is a subtle combination of flavors and textures that complement each other beautifully. The grilled octopus, with an eggplant puree and fennel-orange salad, is less successful due to a slight overcooking of the tentacles--a common, easy fault with tentacles.

Fish also features prominently in the primi section of the menu. A sea urchin pasta tasted of the sea--rich and briny--while a shrimp and ricotta ravioli (actually made with crayfish--probably a translation issue with the menu) in a tomato confit verged on berry-sweet. Diverging from fish for the secondi was probably not the best idea: A filet mignon was boring, as filet mignon so often is, and a lamb dish was good but not life-changing.

Chef Guardione was overheard talking about the "aperitivo" hour he would be implementing, which will feature a glass of champagne with oysters, crudo, or prosciutto di Parma and cheese for $18, $23, or $16, respectively. If the portions of crudo are anything like those in the appetizer, this after work drinks deal will be hard to beat.

Piccola Cucina, 184 Prince Street, 212-625-3200

Despite appearances to the contrary, this soon-to-open fast food joint in Chinatown probably has nothing to do with the movie Kung Fu Panda. It calls itself KFB for short, a play for the easily confused KFC crowd. Kung Fu Bing seems to specialize in some sort of flaky bread, also called a Kung Fu Bing, which you can get plain, or wrapped around items like sausage, egg, and cheese. The menu also lists bubble tea and juices.

A lengthy Internet search for the restaurant and/or the food called Kung Fu Bing yielded nothing except this--anyone read Serbian? LQQM -- letters listed next to the name of the restaurant -- seem to be an Internet news provider out of Beijing. A call to the franchise hotline got no answer, shunted to a strangely generic voicemail box.

The guy inside the shop said KFB should be open in a few days, at which point the exact nature of a Kung Fu Bing will be revealed.

Kung Fu Bing
Southeast corner of Eldridge and Division streets