Mike of The Food Monkey has joined Bostonist to share his thoughts about cooking, food history, restaurant trends, and any other Epicurean issues. He promises to discuss what tastes good, but not always what is in good taste. For more on consuming the opponents and other food news, go to The Food Monkey website. To contact Mike, go to the Food Monkey's contact page. It’s that time again. Time to spin the wheel and......

Recipe and tips to make Shrimp Bisque after the jump. Post contributed by Lisa Dacundo. Image from Wikimedia Commons. For more of her writing, visit her blog, http://www.transplantedtastebuds.blogspot.com. ...

Mike of The Food Monkey shares his thoughts about cooking, food history, restaurant trends, and any other Epicurean issues. He promises to discuss what tastes good, but not always what is in good taste. For more on consuming the opponents and other food news, go to The Food Monkey website. To contact Mike, go to The Food Monkey's contact page. Last night marked the opening of the Oceanaire Seafood Room on 40 Court Street......

Wait--can you hear that? No? Close your eyes and listen carefully: A warm breeze gently rustles the palm trees and drifts over your tan skin. Sparkling blue waves crash into stark white sand; in the distance you hear hula music and laughter. Aloha! You've arrived… Ok, so maybe you can't hop a plane to Hawaii today, but you can take a vacation from the beef stew and pasta you've been eating all winter. This Mahi......

Dark Side of the Moon, Sorta... --The last lunar eclipse for the next 2 years is happening tonight. With binoculars or even the naked eye, the moon will start to look pretty darn red around 9:00 pm EST, as if the green cheese has turned into a port wine spread. The prime time will be between 10pm and 10:30pm. Why not get a better look at an obsevatory? Harvard Observatory, 60 Garden St, Cambridge,......

Valentine's Day: a time for sweets and sweet sentiments. Unless, of course, you visit Flour Bakery on 12 Farnsworth Street in Fort Point, where they've cooked up some pervy pastries especially for the holiday. Flour's delicious X-rated cookies are so true to the spirit of adult film that they aren't on display; customers must ask to see them. A word of warning: expect to be shocked—the unprintable endearments range from pornographic to really pornographic. "3some"......

Bostonist knows a girl who once got lingerie on Valentine's Day from her Dunkin' Donuts guy. They weren't dating or anything. He just thought a bra & panty set was an appropriate "getting to know you" gift. Take our advice: if you don't have access to her drawers, both literal and figurative, do not give her lingerie. If you are able to check her tags (or are one of the four people on earth who......

Meet our new food columnist, Lisa Dacundo of "Transplanted Tastebuds." She'll bring you food ideas for the weekend, such as this comforting pasta meal. Growing up in New England, many of us know what it's like to endure bitter cold winters that seem to last well into April. When we were kids, a little tomato soup from a can somehow melted away the chill that crept into our bones during the hours of sledding, snowmen......

Okay, okay, we gave the Somerville Journal a little heat for a boring blotter headline, but they definitely have our attention with the following: "Witness Says Knife Suspect Was Eating a Chicken Leg With Sauce." On January 2, two men tried to hold up a guy at a bus stop on Broadway. However, one of the perps must not have been taking the mugging too seriously, as the victim noted he was eating a chicken......

Birthdays The King's birthday is today! All hail Elvis! Dick's Last Resort, where they tend to celebrate everything Elvis, will be hosting a birthday bash including an Elvis Impersonator contest and a jelly-donut eating contest. Faneuil Hall. 6:00 pm. And keep looking for a post on what to eat tonight in honor of the king … Politics If you see some lost-looking drunk people in suits, it's either campaign workers or reporters who have gotten......

Boston Tea Party Sunday, December 16--Today Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington, 5:30 pm $5, free if you're dressed up Old South Meeting House site One lump or two? Two hundred and thirty-four years ago, Bostonians rebelled against the British by gathering at a massive protest and dumping tea into the harbor. Re-enactors will be at the Old South Meeting House to perform the debate that led up to the tea party. You'll see......

--When word got out that Mayor Menino wanted to bring in a petting zoo to revitalize Downtown Crossing, we thought it was a joke. But it turns out that the barnyard animals are at the crossing on weekends outside Filene's Basement. Animal activists are underwhelmed, and how can looking at sad, cold animals inspire people to shop? [Boston Herald] --Wondering what all the screaming was about early yesterday evening at Downtown Crossing? It didn't......

Ann Marie McNally died when her car and a BPD cruiser hit each other in South Boston in November. Yet she lives on because hackers, for some strange reason, are using her name as a way to draw people to their own sites. Louise Story at the New York Times spoke with McNally's friends and family because several of them thought they found a video for her memorial service on the web. The memorials were......

Now that absinthe is legally available in Boston, you may be tempted to try it out. But, like many potent liquids, absinthe should be quaffed with care. Hanky Panky of LUPEC, the Boston chapter of Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails, has a few words of advice for absinthe novices: "As Absinthe is quite high as far as alcohol content is concerned, you most frequently find it being used in very small quantities.......

--Don't eat the yellow pills: "Mixing cough syrup, Vicodin or Lipitor with cat litter is the new advice on getting rid of unused medications. Preferably used cat litter." [WCVB] --Another BPD (pardon us, ex-BPD) officer has pled guilty to protecting shipments of cocaine. Unfortunately for him, the people shipping the cocaine were undercover FBI. [Boston Globe] --A boiler explosion in Salem sends three people to the hospital. [WCVB] --A huge sinkhole in the middle of......

Our Senators, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, are catching some heat for an earmark on a transportation bill designed to help prevent delays at airport hubs. The earmark is for $8 million, which is peanuts in guv'mint terms, but that $8 million isn't going to Logan--it's going to airports in Barnstable and Nantucket. And Barnstable and Nantucket are hardly "hubs." Money flowing into Massachusetts is a good thing, but an $8 million earmark for Barnstable......

After the Middleborough Mess that just served to show how divided this state is over casinos, Governor Deval Patrick has decided to make a move. He's declaring himself pro-casino and presented plans to build three casinos in Massachusetts. The three casinos will be placed to distribute the resulting wealth - if it arrives - throughout the state. Those who want to open a casino will have to bid for possession of the three licenses. That......

--No, it's not what you think. David Chacon of Somerville took suckage seriously when he threw a vacuum cleaner at his roommate. The two got into a tiff, the victim went out, and, when he returned, Chacon had blocked the door. The victim busted inside, and that's when Chacon threw a knife, followed by the vacuum cleaner. Chacon was also an alleged pain in the ass when police showed up. He resisted arrest, "deliberately hit......

Massachusetts State Treasurer Tim Cahill thinks he got a raw deal from customs officials at Logan when his family returned to the country from a trip to Italy. Customs was not amused when they found Cahill's daughter with three peaches, and these three little peaches have grown into a large dispute. Cahill told the media, "If this is the way the federal government treats people when they come into this country, it’s distressing." Has this......

--A Cambridge man got revenge on an ex by slashing 30 pairs of her shoes last weekend. Not being Carrie Bradshaw types, we're surprised that anyone would have 30 pairs of shoes, period. The story also notes that he went after the shoes with a kitchen knife, which indicates that he must have taken his own sweet time sawing them up. The unnamed individual now faces charges of "breaking and entering, witness intimidation, malicious destruction......

Eric Gagne, the reliever recently acquired by the Red Sox, hasn't exactly been burning up the field. Fans have been grunting and growling, and one fan in particular communicated his frustration Friday night by throwing a water bottle at the pitcher when Gagne muffed while playing the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The fan probably made a better pitch than Gagne has been delivering, but the BPD wasn't impressed. The Red Sox Nation can......

A foot fetishist may be on the loose in Cambridge. He seems mostly harmless and is more interested in taking pictures of toe cleavage, so don't be alarmed if you see him sniffing around your sexy open-toed summer shoes. At first, this story seemed more like 10 o'clock news material, so we were surprised to see the Globe getting in on the foot fetish action. They focus on a yoga instructor who unknowingly showed the......

Elvis Presley died this week, 30 years ago, on August 16, 1977. Boston is making like Memphis by holding various tributes to the King. First on the list is Mayor Menino's Movie Night on the Common. Tonight, the city will show Jailhouse Rock for free. The festivities will include a costume contest, and we're dying to find out if Menino will step into a sequined jumpsuit and throw on a pompadour wig. That we would......

Despite the blooms of blue-green algae spotted in the Charles, the Charles River Swimmers were able to hold their one-mile swim Saturday morning. The top overall winner was Sebastian Neumayer, and the top female finisher was Emily Sutliff. The swimmers started at the River Dock, and swam for one mile between Harvard and Longfellow Bridges. The race had been cancelled last year thanks to an abundance of algae. The Globe notes that the organizers......

--We're not saying Northeastern University students like to urinate on stuff. But first it was the onions, and then it was the time-honored closet of the roommate. The NU crime log says, An intoxicated 20-year-old male student walked into his roommate's bedroom in West Village A, urinated in his closet and returned to his own bed. He will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution. We just find it interesting......

--The shootings of five people, including a 9-year-old girl, that took place in two different places in Mattapan on Saturday night may be related. Commish Ed Davis, who has been especially busy lately, referenced possible gang activity. The 9-year-old got shot in the back. In sheer coincidence, one of the shootings interrupted yet another birthday party. We're not sure why birthday parties have gotten so dangerous, but some gun-toting, allegedly birthday-hating thug(s) popped off and......

--Red Sox fans are known for their passion. But, last night, one fan went too far. A guy from East Haven broke all the boundaries and jumped onto the field at Fenway Park last night, trying to rush the Red Sox bullpen before the BPD corralled him. He told police he was trying to "impress" his 7-year-old son. The son might have been confused if he saw his own dad in cuffs. --More good news!......

Why, oh why, are Mitt Romney and Al Sharpton hating on each other? Both of them have such impressive coifs and eccentric tastes. (Romney digs Battlefield Earth - 'nuff said.) But hate they do. Sharpton threw some trash talk about Mormons in Romney's direction, and the former governor and aspiring presidential candidate is having none of it. In a debate with perpetually hung-over author Christopher Hitchens, Al Sharpton said, "As for the one Mormon running......

--The Northeastern News reports that the owner and an employee of Cappy's Pizza and Subs will be arraigned for allegedly attacking two college students who were really unhappy with their pizza. The fight took place on April 16, when a Northeastern student and a Westfield State College student entered the parlor and complained about too much hot sauce on their pizza. The students also accused Cappy's of overcharging. Then it got ugly. The versions of......

War! The Charles River, which is typically invaded by tourists in Duckboats, will have an unexpected rival this week. The question: Is there enough room in our dirty water for Ducks AND Dragons? Now before you think the Bostonist has completely flipped our lid, check out The Boston Dragon Boat Festival coming to town this Sunday, June 12. Bostonist didn't believe it at first, but the prospect of giant metal World War II duck boats......