Hopefully you aren't at your desk right now but if you are and are n New York City over the Fourth of July weekend Spice Market would like to suggest their outdoor patio in the Meatpacking district of NYC as a place to grab a bit of weekend enjoyment. Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten has added new dishes including Peeky Toe Crab Dumplings and Steamed Red Snapper with Shiitake Mushrooms exude the types of bold spices and flavors he is famous for. For dessert the Thai Jewels with Crushed Coconut Ice offer that a refreshing and sweet treat for a hot summer night. This weekend Spice Market NYC is debuting carafes of the signature Ginger Margarita or Sangria cocktails. They also serve non-alcoholic drinks including the new Ginger-Lime Soda, Jasmine Lemonade and Cherry Yuzu Soda. Spice Market's Tasting Menu is $48 per person and includes samplings of 10 flavors in five courses.

Everyone knows that Manhattan empties out on sultry weekends in July and August, when the in-crowd flees to the cooler precincts of the Hamptons. With that in mind, Felidia, the flagship restaurant of celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich, is offering a discounted tasting menu on Friday evenings this summer.

The choices presented on the four-part menu at the elegant brownstone restaurant on East 58th Street aren't exactly steals, but given the food's exquisiteness and the fact that on a typical night there the tab can easily approach $200 a head, they're worth digging into. For $21, you can choose a sampling of three assaggini (or first courses), including veal semi-carpaccio with celery and Grana Padano cheese. There are also three "pastas on a fork"--long strands like tagliatelle that can be twirled--served as a tasting for the same price, or a la carte ($10–$18). Just be sure to save room the dish Felidia is most famous for: cacio e pere, a fresh pear and pecorino–filled ravioli. It's so delicious, order it a la carte ($10) rather than in a tasting with two other "classics" of the house. Accompanying the menu is a special wine list composed of bottles priced at $30 and under.

Reservations are required. Call (212) 758-1479 or visit www.felidia-nyc.com. Cin Cin!

There's nothing like summer berries. It's no surprise that July is National Berry Month. This is the month of strawberry shortcake, fresh blueberries in your cereal and raspberries that leave your mouth stained a happy red. To celebrate this month of berries the the Loews Coronado Bay Resort in San Diego, California will host an official Berry Butler courtesy of Driscoll's, the nation's leading provider of fresh berries. The Berry Butler will be on premise every Friday and Saturday, July 3 through August 1 to greet guests with fresh berries. The Berry Butler will also help young guests whip up fresh smoothies and will stage tastings. Tastings and berry treats for guests of the resort will be free of charge, compliments of Driscoll's berries. Other berrylicious events at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort include demonstrations by Executive Chef Marc Ehrler and cocktail and mocktail courses conducted by the Loews Mixology Team using Driscoll's strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.

Driscoll's has an alliance of independent farmers growing their berries and Loews hotels supports farmers as well. Their "Adopt-A-Farmer" program is an initiative supporting area farmers, fishermen and independent purveyors. At Loews Coronado Bay Resort, this includes partnering with 12 local farming communities and utilizing more than 60 seasonal herbs and vegetables from its own organic garden shown above.

OpenTable has released the list of the national winners of its 2009 Diners' Choice awards for Best American Cuisine. The list of winning restaurants was created using the 2.5 million reviews submitted by OpenTable diners for more than 9,000 restaurants in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The list on Open Table shows the restaurants in alphabetical order and includes some very well-regarded restaurants such as New York City's Blue Hill and Gramercy Tavern, Thomas Keller's The French Laundry and Per Se and Michael Mina in San Francisco. One restaurant chain, The Capital Grille, a steakhouse located in many major cities including Chicago, Boston and Denver is prominently featured.

The summer season stirs memories of fire pits, charcoal grills and outdoor parties which almost always include barbeque in some fashion. Of course a refreshing beer is often a great partner to grilled fare but many prefer the perfect wine. When it comes to uncommon wine pairings Natalie MacLean, and her website NatDecants.com, offers simple solutions to food and wine conundrums.

Here are Natalie's top choices to pair with your summer barbeque:

1. Canadian or Oregonian Pinot Noir with Planked Salmon
2. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with Grilled Portabello Mushrooms
3. Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon with Shish-kabob Lamb
4. Provençal Rosé with Skewered Chicken
5. Italian Chianti with Marinated Pork Chops
6. Australian Shiraz with Barbequed Spare Ribs
7. Rhðne Valley Syrah with Grilled Pepper Steak
8. Argentine Malbec with Herb-Rubbed Chicken
9. Californian Zinfandel with Grilled Hamburgers
10. German Late Harvest Riesling (or Spätlese Riesling) with Roasted Marshmallows

The gallery below offers a single selection for each pairing most often highlighting wines with scores of 90 or above. Enjoy!

Famous chef Heston Blumenthal will be opening his first London restaurant in 2010. Blumenthal, who runs the three Michelin-starred The Fat Duck and a gastropub, The Hind's Head, both in Bray, England, will be opening a new restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge. Blumenthal's new restaurant will explore his passion for the history of British gastronomy, and the restaurant will be three times the size of The Fat Duck. While it's great to see Blumenthal moving into a more central location we hope he doesn't spread himself too thin a la Gordon Ramsay.

Chef, restaurateur and cookbook author Mario Batali took a turn away from the Italian fare he is famous for at an event recently to benefit his new charity, The Mario Batali Foundation at the Food and WIne Festival in Aspen. Batali prepared a gigantic batch of machaca for his friends, family and fellow chefs. The Mario Batali Foundation has a mission to educate and empower children with a goal of making sure that all children are well read, well fed and well cared for. Also on Batali's board is his longtime friend, musician Michael Stipe.

Batali's machaca is a little more labor-intensive than your standard taco meat but definitely worth the effort. For the event Batali used Strauss Meadow Reserve veal from Allen Brothers. The meat was marinated in a mixture of Worcestershire, lime juice, garlic, chipotle, cumin and black pepper overnight. After browning, onions, peppers and herbs are added. The meat is cooked for two hours until falling apart, shredded, and returned to the liquid. Then the mixture is slowly cooked down until the meat is close to dry. The result can be used in tacos, flauta and just about any other Mexican preparation. The complete recipe is after the jump.

When it comes to caviar you traditionally have a choice between the incredibly expensive and increasingly scarce wild variety from the Caspian Sea, the farm-raised variety produced with varying degrees of success around the globe, and a host of sub-par imitation or substitute options. Black River Caviar from Uruguay has ushered in a newer contender that aims to fit in somewhere between the first two and be the best of both worlds, dubbed "wild-raised." The process involves replicating the sturgeon's natural habitat as closely as possible.

Black River Ossetra Malossol Caviar is produced from Siberian sturgeon, originally imported as fertilized roe from Russia in 1995. The sturgeon are fed an all-natural, organic feed. Black River's facilities are harmoniously adapted to the environment and best utilize the pristine natural habitat that is Uruguay's Rio Negro. Unlike most farm-raised systems, which involve recirculated water requiring treatment with filters and chemical products, Black River uses millions of gallons of fresh water.

The system involves a fresh water lake whose environment corresponds very closely to that of the lake-like Caspian Sea with its slow and natural water streams, as well as a "raceways" system, which is a perfect simulation of the river delta and its requisite rapids. The volume of water running through the system guarantees a totally unspoiled environment in which the water is naturally oxygenated when flowing through a cascade system, simulating the female fishes' natural journey up the river.

The continuous exercise the sturgeon get in this environment from constantly swimming against the fresh water streams allows them to grow and mature in a fashion which ensures a quality akin to their wild counterparts. After harvesting, Black River's Russian Caviar Master uses the malossol, or "little salt" method, to enhance flavor of the finished product. The delectable large grain caviar (above), has a fresh, clean, nutty taste, and creamy texture. Ice cold vodka is the perfect accompaniment, but champagne works well too.

French boutique luxury hotel group La Réserve has just opened its third property, an elegant, intimate getaway in St. Tropez with never-ending views of the Mediterranean. The 23-room luxury hotel and 10,000-sq.-ft. spa, called La Réserve Ramatuelle, also offers 12 beautifully-appointed villas on the property that are available per night, week, or longer. The hotels seven rooms and 16 suites each have a private terrace or garden and feature natural materials in a soft palette of ocher, white, and sandy beige.

Chef Eric Canino oversees La Réserve Ramatuelle's eatery, Le Restaurant, which features a sophisticated menu with a fresh Mediterranean influence and an overall focus on health and well-being. The spa features an indoor pool with a jet lane, an outdoor pool and pool house, a steam bath, and a fitness center. Superior rooms start at €400 and suites from €1,500; villas range from €4,000 to €5,000 for one night or €15,000 to €30,000 (or about $40,000) for seven nights.

At the Barceló La Bobadilla Hotel in Loja, Andalusia Spain you can have one of the most unique experiences I've ever seen offered by a hotel. The hotel offers guests a chance to learn how caviar is made. The experience begins at the sturgeon farm at nearby Riofrio where guests are given a guided tour of the farm. They can then take part in an optional ultrasound in the water to check the maturity of the roe. Once the fish is chosen it is then taken to the lab for processing. The package sounds like it offers more of a chance to observe the process than participate in the messy, smelly hands-on fish wrangling. Guests will receive the caviar sent to them three or four months later after it matures.

The Barceló La Bobadilla is a luxury hotel on an estate with forests of evergreen oaks, almond trees, and olive trees. The hotel is a replica of an Arab village, with a chapel, courtyards and a marble colonnade. There are 62 rooms , most with a separate living room and Jacuzzi. The hotel's five-star La Finca Restaurant serves gourmet national and international cuisine. The hotel has indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts, saunas, a fitness center, beauty salon and the chapel includes a mechanical organ containing 1,595 pipes.

They aren't diamonds but the 24k gold and diamond chocolates in the Chocouture Diamond Collection do feature edible gold leaf. The candy diamond is made out of sugar and set in a chocolate that is made with a single-malt Scotch ganache. Each gemlike candy is set in glassine paper inside the faux leather box. These candies sell for $105 for 16 pieces.

England's hospital food is getting a boost from a famous chef. Chef Heston Blumenthal of "The Fat Duck" is working with the NHS to pep up patient menus. As he told the Cheltenham Science Festival: "Mealtimes should be something to be celebrated in hospital." He's a year into a project with the NHS which is looking at ways of improving the flavor in the food and making hospital dining a more pleasant experience. Between this and Blumenthal's menu for the Little Chef restaurants it seems like the chef, who is famous for unique food like snail porridge and egg and bacon ice cream, seems to be becoming more mainstream. But he is in good company, many chefs including Jamie Oliver and Ferran Adria have also taken a crack at improving hospital food.

Gordon Ramsay may have just come off the worst year of his life but that doesn't mean he is giving up on opening restaurants. He will be opening a new version of Petrus restaurant in the Belgravia area of London in September. His new place will be rather close to Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley where his former friend and protege who ran Petrus at London's Berkeley Hotel has set up shop. Wareing has two Michelin stars for Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley.

Ramsay is hoping to bring new fame to the Petrus name, one of his known marquee brands. "Petrus is a cornerstone of the group and this stunning new site is the beginning of the next chapter in the life of this restaurant," Ramsay said in an e-mailed statement seen on Bloomberg. The restaurant will serve modern French food like fillet of Angus beef with Swiss chard, wild mushrooms and red-wine sauce and baked line-caught sea bass with confit fennel and caviar sauce, a menu that Wareing called "familiar Gordon food" in a telephone interview quoted in the Bloomberg article.

Wareing says he wishes Ramsay the best of luck. The two have a long history, Ramsay was best man at Wareing's wedding and he helped finance the original Petrus for Wareing but last year Wareing resigned from Gordon Ramsay Holdings. It also bears noting that Jean-Philippe Susilovic,Wareing's maitre d' for five years, will be director of the new restaurant. I'm guessing more volleys will be traded back in forth once Ramsay's Petrus is closer to opening.

A Scottish hotel has created a coffee blended to pair with a whisky. The Cuillin Hills blend was created by the Cuillin Hills hotel on Skye to match whisky from the island's Talisker distillery. The blend was created by Edinburgh Tea and Coffee Company to the specification of Peter Sim, the hotel's general manager and is a mixture of Indonesian and South American beans. The Talisker 18-year-old was used as the pairing companion but the coffee will work with any whisky. The blend has notes of dark chocolate, caramel and toffee with hints of liquorice and cinnamon. Sims says the coffee was developed to "complement and showcase malt whisky as the ideal after dinner drink."

[via Caterer Search]

Rum and chocolate are a natural match and they get their full expression in a new menus pairing premium St Lucian rum, Elements 8 with Galler chocolates at the Intercontinental Park Lane in London. The Park Lane Selection menu will be served from end of May 2009, for six months. Pairings include the Park Lane which is Elements 8 Gold, white crème de cacao, punt e mes & paire with Galler Volcaniques chocolate which has pepper flavors; the Galler 8 which pairs Elements 8 Platinum, white Crème de cacao & paire with Galler Florales chocolate which has floral flavors, and InterContinental Daiquiri of Elements 8 Platinum, white crème de cacao, lime juice with Galler Marines which has salty flavors, and the Platinum & Gold using both Elements 8 Platinum and Elements 8 Gold, white crème de cacao, espresso & paired with Galler 70% plain, dark chocolate.

Galler sells a variety of interesting chocolates, the most intriguing is the Kaori kit modeled on Japanese calligraphy sets. It has brush-like sticks of chocolate and inkpots containing Orange and Cocoa Nibs, Matcha Green Tea and Poppy Seeds, and Kalamansi. Flavors can be mixed and matched for different taste sensations.