UNDERGROUND RESTAURANTS
It's like something out of a spy movie: There are restaurants out there that are not on any map, not in any phone book. If you want to go, you'll need to find them -- usually hidden in quiet residential areas, perhaps accessible through a nondescript back door. You'll need an invitation from someone who's been there before. And seating is limited -- to twenty people, maybe.

Underground restaurants -- illegal establishments with no signs, no health department certification, no tax exposure, and no liquor license -- are thriving in out-of-the-way locales across the United States. Patrons crowd into apartment dining rooms or camp in backyards, while the meals are prepared on domestic four-burner stoves. The experience is more intimate and controlled than that at mass-market restaurants. Diners get the ambiance of a (paid) dinner party while proprietors, taking a sizable risk, avoid the red tape and hassles of running a traditional eatery.

The secrecy only adds to the buzz. Once a hot spot catches on, its aura becomes that of a hot, hip speakeasy. You just need to find someone in the know... and learn the secret knock.

For more information, visit:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/restaurants/2002008009_taste18.html

(Requires free login) http://query.nytimes.com/search/article-page.html?pagewanted=all&res=9C00EFD9143EF931A25750C0A9659C8B63&oref=regi

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NO MORE 'TIBET FRIED CHICKEN'
Earlier this year, Yum! Brands, the parent company of Kentucky Fried Chicken, abandoned its plans to expand into Tibet. KFC says they did it because of a predicted lack of profit. But try a Google search... everyone else says that this was the Dalai Lama's doing.

"I have been particularly concerned with the sufferings of chickens for many years," the Dalai Lama wrote in a much-publicized letter to Yum!, "It was the death of a chicken that finally strengthened my resolve to become vegetarian. These days, when I see a row of plucked chickens hanging in a meat shop, it hurts."

The animal rights group PETA seized on the Dalai Lama's letter. A rift has since formed between PETA and the office of the exiled Tibetan leader, with the latter saying that PETA misrepresented the intent of the Dalai Lama's letter. Nonetheless, both parties are pleased with the outcome -- and as for Yum! Brands? In his letter, the Dalai Lama said that Tibetans did not traditionally eat chickens and fish prior to the Chinese occupation, but instead ate larger animals such as yaks, of which fewer had to be killed. Perhaps Yum! did its research and knew this already. Or did the spiritual leader acted as an unlikely, unpaid advisor?

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3836927.stm

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'SLOW' FOOD
In response to the always-increasing urgency of modern life, the Slow Food movement, founded in Italy, seeks to slow us down in at least one key area: at the table.

Slow Food, a bona-fide organization with more than 80,000 members and over 800 chapters (called "convivia") around the globe, defines itself very succinctly: "A movement for the protection of the right to taste." They also answer to 'eco-gastronomes.' Put the two together and you get a sort of culinary conservationism -- and hence the major "Ark of Taste" project, which seeks to catalogue and revitalize endangered flavors and tastes that have been lost to food standardization.

Sure, the name "Slow Food" implies taking the time to enjoy meals, but the ultimate reason for this is pleasure, and appreciating flavor. It's about connection, both with fellow diners and with the environments and cultures where these endangered dishes have their roots. Slow Food is quite active, owning its own publishing company (Slow Food Editore) and spreading the word through culinary events put on by the local convivia.

Slow Food USA is headquartered in New York. For more information, visit them on the Web at http://www.slowfood.com