| India's new star performer
Whether or not the Michelin Guide to Great Britain 2008, launched last week, felt it should give one of its new stars to an Asian restaurant in order to stave off possible criticism of a French bias, I am really glad that it decided to choose Quilon. Travellers to India will know that, outside private homes, posh hotels are usually the best places to find fine Indian cooking. The big hotel groups such as Taj, Oberoi and Sheraton invest heavily in training schemes for chefs and managers and latterly London has felt the benefit. Chefs at all the Michelin-starred Indian restaurants in London - Amaya, Benares, Rasoi Vineet Bhatia, Tamarind and now Quilon - have an Indian hotel background. (Given the historic British affection for Indian food, I wonder when a River Caf of Indian food - the cuisine lovingly produced by a non-indigenous chef/restaurateur - will open.) Sriram Vishwanathan Aylur, chef of Quilon, has worked for the Taj group for 20 years.
Mamet, Miller, Scorsese and Stones
Not since Clifford Odets has an important American playwright known Hollywood quite so well (or loathed it quite so much) as David Mamet has. In his 1988 satire "Speed-the-Plow" two Hollywood producers offer up a particularly dazzling array of Mametian verbal pyrotechnics focused on the struggle between commerce and culture on the Left Coast. In this new production, the producers are played by two actors with considerable experience of Hollywood themselves: Kevin Spacey and Jeff Goldblum. The Cut, 011-44-870-060-6628, oldvicthe atre.com. 'The Art of Lee Miller' Philadelphia Museum of Art Through April 27 Lee Miller was definitely one of a kind. A great beauty, she became a highly successful fashion model in New York during the '20s, posing for the likes of Edward Steichen and George Hoyningen-Huene.
Facing Backlash, Blackwater Has a New Business Pitch: Peacekeeping
The beauty of an airship is you don't need big runways and airports," Wrenn says. "You can use them to deliver supplies where airplanes can't go." Doug Brooks, president of International Peace Operations Association, which represents private security contractors (though not Blackwater, which pulled out of the group in October), says in many parts of the world, "private companies are in fact holding peace operations together." The industry, in Brooks' view, is in part a natural consequence of the West's unwillingness to commit its military forces to troubled regions, leading to what he calls "Westernless peacekeeping." Globally, such contracting is a $20 billion industry, and growing, he contends. Critics, however, note that the Blackwater name is a huge obstacle to its plans for expanded peacekeeping.
Cow-manure gas coming soon to Palo Alto
Central Valley cows may soon be providing gas for some Palo Alto homes and businesses, replacing nonrenewable supplies that are currently piped in from Canada and the Southwest. The cow gas, or biogas, would be available as part of an opt-in natural-gas program patterned after PaloAltoGreen, which supplies solar and wind energy to the city, paid for by those willing to add $10 a month more to their bills. The program is in the "very, very beginning stages," Assistant Utilities Director Jane Ratchye said Thursday. The department began investigating the gas program as part of its long-term plan for the gas utility, cognizant of the community's interest in environmentally friendly energy, Ratchye said. And cows, and their piles of manure, popped up as the most likely renewable source of gas, said Joyce Kinnear, manager of utilities marketing services.
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