Both the Japanese and Japanese food fans around the world have been devastated by the culinary impacts of the deadly earthquake and subsequent Daiichi nuclear plant fallout, with Japan's water, spinach, milk and fish all possibly contaminated with radioactive materials. And now, we can add rice to that list: the Japanese government has banned rice cultivation in contaminated soil. Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano said, "We had to come up with a policy quickly because we are in planting season." more ›

The cost of rice has shot up dramatically in recent months, and some analysts say a domestic shortage is on the horizon. The price increase is part of an alarming trend that’s seen the cost of flour rise 13 percent, milk 10 percent, eggs 30 percent and soon – make sure you’re sitting down – beer 10-15 percent. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck on Broadway and 231st St. in the Bronx, an aircraft alert at JFK at Queens, and a person fatally struck by a train at 57th St. and 8th Ave. in Manhattan.
• Entries for the NYC Half-Marathon will start being accepted at 11:59pm on May 29th. Details.
• And the Design Trust for Public Space is accepting submissions for its Grand Army Plaza redesign competition.
• An Internal Affairs Bureau Lt. has been reassigned to a surveillance booth in a housing project after his friend allegedly raped a young woman in the apartment of the cop's girlfriend as she begged him to stop.
• The body of Rabbi Zev Segal, missing since yesterday morning, was found in his car, which apparently slid into the Hackensack River in NJ.
• The memorial for promoter-gossip Baird Jones is being held at Plumm, a venue he wasn't a huge fan of.
• A Gawker employee was shackled and thrown into the Tombs after drinking a beer-in-a-bag in the subway system.
• The carjacker of Mayor Bloomberg's personal car, which was in the possession of one of his aides, faces 15 years in the slammer for the crime.
• A lovely castle-like house in Flushing, Queens - turrets and Tudor details!
• Former Gov. George Pataki underwent emergency surgery this morning to relieve an intestinal blockage (he's had problems with this before!).
• And former Project Runway contestants Jeffrey Sebelia, Santino Rice and Kit Pistol watched Project Runway finale in LA amidst their young, adoring fans.

It seems like every other weekend, Brooklyn is home to some kind of homestyle cooking competition, with a constant rotation of cupcake-offs, chili massacres, a big jerk-off, and probably some vegan tofu spread-a-thons somewhere. Prizes at these things are typically anything from homely trophies to a few cans of PBR, but the just-announced, upcoming inaugural Risotto Challenge is something special indeed: The prizes are going to be very nice. More on that below. more ›

Even though there wasn't a "villain" along the lines of Santino Rice or a favorite like Michael Knight, the fourth season of Project Runway has been pretty captivating with some very lovely work. Tonight, the three remaining designers' Bryant Park Fashion Week face-off will be shown and a winner announced. more ›

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Grand Central Terminal gets the full PBS American Experience treatment with this documentary from filmmaker Michael Epstein (Monday & Thursday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13). The one hour film traces the history of the terminal, its construction and its impact on New York and the rest of the world. Expect tales of robber barons, dead commuters, and of course fawning over an architectural treasure. more ›

href="http://londonist.com/2008/01/6_years_on_amne.php">Amnesty International bringing Guantanamo Bay to the American embassy to raise the profile of the continuing campaign to close the detention center.

We love Momofuku, especially now that the Noodle Bar has moved to a larger location where we can actually bring our friends and chat with them at a table over dinner instead of just hoping to find one or two spaces at the bar. The food is amazing, and being the devoted carnivores that we are, we enjoy chef David Chang's devotion to adding meat to every dish on the menu (with one exception). more ›

Yesterday morning, Secretary of State Condolezza Rice visited Community School 154 in Harlem. Accompanied by Representative Charles Rangel, Rice, former Provost at Stanford, encouraged the students to dream big, “One thing that I want you to promise me is that you won't let anybody else tell you what it is you ought to be interested in. You'll find what you are interested in and you'll pursue it and you won't let anyone say 'Why would you want to be interested in that? You’re from Harlem.'" more ›

On tap for this year’s 33rd Annual Atlantic Antic festival, taking this Sunday from 10 AM to 6 PM (rain or shine, buddy) is the usual bonanza of pony rides, live music, and balloon animals. This year’s Antic has an added emphasis on food, which should hopefully make it a remedy to all the street fair food fatigue that’s been going around recently. more ›

In recent years, Third Avenue in Brooklyn has seen three children killed by vehicular traffic. Last year, 4-year-old James Rice was fatally struck by a Hummer at Third Avenue and Baltic Avenue, and in 2004, PS 124 Juan Estrada and Victor Flores were fatally struck by a vehicle as they crossed Third Avenue at Ninth Street, just blocks away. On Tuesday, arts organization Groundswell Community Mural Project unveiled a mural at Third and Butler: In the mural, the three children are represented, asking drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians alike to respect each other on the road and to prevent any more tragedy. more ›

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take her medicine and offered their own suggestions to how the city should capitalize on the local music scene. And everyone thinks that a suggested tax on bottled water is a great idea. more ›

At the Ethnic Market highlights international specialty foods and ingredients that you're very unlikely to find at your local Gristedes. more ›

Stuffing is generally seen as a Thanksgiving tradition, and we know very few people who bother with it at any other time of year, ourselves included. What a damn shame. Now is the time for stuffing, it turns out, while the markets are full of fresh figs and local sweet potatoes. The figs add so much flavor to this stuffing, added in raw at the very end. The sweet potatoes add richness and pull up the figs' sweetness to a level we prefer, and the texture of the wild rice is the perfect foil for the rest. more ›

The NY Times reports that Newark authorities may be close to naming a suspect in the Saturday night execution-style shootings of four people. Three friends were killed, while the fourth, Natasha Aerial, survived being shot in the head and has been talking to investigators. The Star-Ledger offered this description of the crime:

Aeriel, her younger brother, Terrance, and two of their friends, Dashon Harvey and Iofemi Hightower, had driven to the school playground to drink, eat and listen to music, authorities said. But at around 11:30, a group of Hispanic men gathered near them. Scared, the friends exchanged text messages saying they should leave. more ›

A helicopter operated by Liberty helicopters, a tour company, was forced to make a precautionary landing in Riverside Park yesterday morning at 10AM. No one was on the ground when the chopper touched down at a baseball field near West 79th Street, and no one on the helicopter was injured. more ›

Senator Hillary Clinton has never been on the cutting edge of fashion. Nor was she ever meant to be (okay, she was on the cover of Vogue in 1998) and she's poked fun at her fashion choices (have pantsuit, can rule the world) before. But this past week, everyone's got an opinion about her style. more ›

Last year Brooklyn band Bishop Allen released twelve EPs, one for each month. This year they're delivering twelve songs which make up their label-debut full length album, The Broken String (out July 24th). more ›

Yesterday was supposedly the luckiest day of the century and many people got married to better their marriage success odds. The Post has a feature on a couple who met while they were waiting for a 7 train - the wedding of Diana and Joseph Saporito included seven bridesmaids, seven groomsmen, 21 tables (21 being a multiple of seven) and Lucky 7 lotto tickets. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a cyclist struck on Fresh Meadow Lane and 67th Ave. in Queens, a water rescue north of the GW Bridge in Manhahattan, and someone fatally jumped from a building on West 15th St. in Manhattan.
• The NYPD will boost efforts to get citizens to respect their authority by mounting Big Wheels Segways at beaches and parks this summer.
• Satellite radio duo Opie and Anthony have been suspended for laughing at the prospect of the Queen of England and Condoleeza Rice being violently raped.
• The last public figure who blamed NYC for the 9/11 attacks just died yesterday, so Rudy Giuliani tensed at the mention of an opponent's platform, probably out of concern for the guy's safety, when a candidate reiterated the allegation.
• Andrew Cuomo doesn't give a crap if the Dell Dude did attend NYU. The new NY State Attorney General is suing over allegedly deceptive advertising practices by the computer company.
• Plans for a new Hunts Point House of Detention in the Bronx have been arrested, as the owner of the illegal dumping ground adjacent to Rikers Island claims it's worth is $375 million and the City is considering eminent domain. We honestly do not know who to root for in this one.
• Seeking to rein in governmental waste, The New York Times reports that Albany lawmakers are seeking to rein in government authorities, in a colossal waste of publicly funded irony and spent credibility.
• We wonder if it's child abuse to expose an infant to Paris Hilton's spread-wide-open legs. Only time will tell the eventual damage.
• Because the military isn't experiencing enough heat these days, an F-16 fighter jet dropped a flare that ignited a good portion of the Garden State.

JV and Elvis, the on-air duo who inhabit "The Doghouse" on 92.3 Free FM, had their suspension from CBS Radio upgraded to a firing. The morning show pair were suspended late last month after CBS received complaints about a show in which a prank call is placed to a Chinese restaurant, and lewd language and racial slurs were employed in an attempt at humor. It was the second time in a month JV and Elvis found themselves in hot water. Earlier in April, the two were criticized for using a number of anti-gay slurs against a musician guest on their show after he admitted that he didn't listen to commercial radio and had never heard of them. Their site appears to be dormant at this time. more ›

Mr. Gonell, Mr. Ferrari, Ms. O’Connor and Mr. Torres, along with several other recruits, said that they knew being a police officer would never make them rich, but that their desire to join the force outweighed the financial hardship. more ›

It's a gorgeous day out (high of 76 degrees!), so we're going to echo our earlier suggestion for an outside Saturday event. Head to Chinatown for the Taste of Chinatown, where you can try a number of different Asian foods for $1-2. According to a menu, the dishes include "Peking Duck, Shrimp Salad, Green Curry Chicken, Thai Spring Roll, Papaya Salad, Banana Sticky Rice, Thai Iced Tea, BBQ Pork/Duck/Ribs, Fried Squid, Grilled Beef Papaya Salad, Lobster Balls, Vegetarian BBQ "Roast Pork," Shark Fin Soup, Oyster Flavored Jerky, Vietnamese Sandwich, Mango Pudding." more ›

Comedian John Roy has been all over TV and the country. He's won Star Search 2003, was featured in season 4 of Last Comic Standing, has been on Comics Unleashed and Premium Blend, and now he's coming to the Comic Strip on March 20th and 21st. more ›

Yesterday, WNBC's Chopper 4 captured footage of a minke whale swimming in the Gowanus Canal Bay. Minke whales are a suborder of baleen whales, which rise to the surface the way this whale does. more ›

. According to WNBC 4, "Authorities were trying to rescue what appeared to be a whale that had wandered into Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal." Chopper 4 has footage, but it's not online yet here it is (it's kind of hilarious, the person in the chopper - perhaps Dan Rice - says he can't follow the whale because "the water's so dark" but you do see something breach the surface three times). more ›

In 2006, over 10,000 pedestrians were hit by cars and trucks in New York City. One hundred sixty-six were killed. The City's pedestrian safety efforts are inadequate. Where is Mayor Bloomberg? He has spoken out about transfats, gun violence and smoking. If killing a pedestrian with a car was considered assault it would be the second leading type of homicide behind only gun violence. Where is his leadership on this issue? more ›

In an effort to keep the United Nations in NYC, Mayor Bloomberg may revive an old plan to create more office space that could benefit both the U.N. and other city developers. The NY Sun reports that the plan would involve building "swing space" for the U.N. during the renovation of the Secretariat building. One possible place for the swing space: Long Island City. Picture it, ferries of U.N. employees across the East River! more ›