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Munchkins Restaurant is located in the Culver Hotel. They seem to be known by several different names. The name that is written above the establishment is Munchkins and that’s what I usually go by. I have been here several times,both for lunch and dinner so it is appropriate that I write a few words about it.

When it initially opened, lunch specials were plentiful. You could get a hamburger, sushi and a drink for around seven dollars. This was very short lived and the hosts raised the prices almost 100% after a few weeks. This never goes over too well with the new patrons. The food for lunch was solid, the service solid as well. Their ventilation had problems in a few instances and the entire restaurant smelled of fish - not very pleasing … We came back for dinner last week with several friends. The atmosphere is quite nice here. Dark tones, with hints of red. Nice candles and nice decor. Everyone ordered different items, from sushi to hamburger to steak, salad, chowder, salmon .. what not … Service was a bit weird. We all received our food at very different times. As some were completing their meal, some were receiving it. We had to inquire about whether it would arrive at all. It was a bit awkward … We had varied staisfaction with the meal. Sushi was definitely not good, very chewy. Steak was solid as was the salmon. Salad was average. The chocolate soufflet at the end came to the table cold and everyone was disappointed. They should have called it cold chocolate cake ..

We had a good evening here thanks to good company and good conversation. The restaurant does not do anything for me though. Food and the service were lacking … I am not sure that I will visit it again. From my point of view it is not recommended ….

Munchkins Restaurant at the Culver Hotel in Culver City
9400 Culver Blvd,
Culver City, 90232
(310) 838-7963

Michael Philip is one of the editors and contributors for the SeeTheGlobe.com web site. SeeTheGlobe.com is a travel information web site and community. Reviews of restaurants, hotels, airlines and other travel resources are provided from first hand accounts.

It’s really difficult for a person to socialise if he is on a Diet. Totally ignoring parties and invitation is definitely not a solution.You have to strike a balance between your diet and social parties which, trust me, isnt easy at all . But we can always take necesaary precautions so as to avoid overeating.

Here is some valuable tips to keep everyone happy.

1. Try eating light snacks aroung 6 PM before leaving for the party. The problem with late night parties is that dinner isnt served before 11 and by that time rats are running in everyones stomach, so people end up eating a lot which they shouldnt.
2. At dinner, try eating vegetables only along with some fat free yoghurt . If you cant resist non-veg, go in for grilled chicken.
3. Caution: Do not drink soups at parties as they have cornflour which is by any means not good for people who are on diet.
4. Avoid unhealthy food like white bread, deep fried foods and oily vegetables.
5. Choose salads with combination of chicken and and greens with marinated vegetables. Chinese greens are great choice anyday.
6. Eat your food slowly and cherish it to the fullest.

Few more veryday Diet Tips for everyone:

1. If you prefer non-vegetarian food, eat more fish and lesser red meat. Infact one should avoid Red Meat . It not only increase Cholestrol but also makes you more susceptible to heart attack and other heart related diseases.
2. Your Diet should have less sodium and more fibre . Fibre improves your digestion and keeps your stomach in good shape.
3. People with cholestrol problem should not eat york at all.Keep them for kids.
4. Get into the habbit of eating fruits as desserts instead of high calorie ice creams and puddings.

For more Diet Tips, weight Loss tips and msucle building tips visit http://www.weightloss-health.com

About The Author

Jasdeep Singh: http://www.weightloss-health.com .

Your complete family guide on health offering free informative articles on other health issues too such as obesity, diabetes, healthy snacks and many more . visit the http://www.weightloss-health.com for more details.

If you wish to reproduce the above article you are welcome to do so, provided the article is reproduced in its entirety, including this resource box and LIVE link to our website.

While your neighbors are putting up their Halloween decorations and scouring supermarkets for bargain candy, it’s the perfect time for you to deep fry a turkey. If you’ve been thinking about deep frying a turkey for Thanksgiving but want to try it first, then October is the perfect time. It’s close enough to Thanksgiving for you to gain some valuable experience but still far enough away that your family won’t get tired of turkey sandwiches.

In October, Thanksgiving is still over a month away. It’s the perfect time to get your turkey fryer out of the attic, buy some peanut oil and test out some new dry rubs or injector recipes. Let’s face it once November comes it’s too late to subject your family to a turkey test run when they’re going to have it again in a few weeks on Thanksgiving. That’s a lot of turkey. And Thanksgiving dinner is a time to be thankful, not a time to try out new recipes. What if your bird tastes terrible? You don’t want your family to remember this year as the one where Dad ruined Thanksgiving.

Deep frying a practice turkey a month early will increase your comfort level on Thanksgiving. Let’s face it when working with five gallons of boiling oil you can use all the comfort you can get. And you’ll also get to enjoy a wonderful deep fried turkey without all the stress and the hassles that the holidays bring.

Your prep work should include making sure your propane tank is full and check to see if your fire extinguisher is charged and ready for action. Be sure to find your gloves and goggles and collect all the necessary equipment that you’ll need for the big day. Put it somewhere on hand like the garage. This way when Thanksgiving comes you’ll have one less thing to worry about.

And remember when you deep fry a turkey you won’t have turkey drippings to make gravy. October is the perfect time to plan your gravy options. You could fry up the giblets and neck in a pan and use those drippings to make your gravy. Or you could buy your gravy at the store. The deep fried turkey will be moist enough that gravy will be more important for the mashed potatoes but it’s still a good idea to plan ahead.

Here’s an excellent injector sauce recipe to try:
Buttery Injector Sauce
1/2 cup Chicken Broth
4 tbsp Butter
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
Salt to taste

Melt Butter in a pan or microwave
Mix butter in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients except salt
Add salt slowly and taste. The sauce should only taste slightly salty
Whisk or use electric mixer until well blended and ready to be injected
Inject mixture into turkey
Place turkey in oven bag or in a large bowl with a cover
Refrigerate overnight

Whether it’s your first deep fried turkey or you are an old pro, try using October to practice. It will make Thanksgiving a little more relaxed and enjoyable. The more prepared you are, the smoother your day will go and that’s something to be thankful for.

Anthony Tripodi is the webmaster of BigTurkeyFryer.com - The Deep Fried Turkey Guide. For more information about Deep Fried Turkey including deep fryers, recipes for injector sauces and dry rubs, and more, visit www.bigturkeyfryer.com

Ordering wine in a restaurant is not much different than buying it in a wine store. The main difference is that you have an audience. Yet ordering wine in a restaurant can be intimidating especially if the wine list is extensive.

Experiment or Homework
Keep in mind that even the experts will not be familiar with every selection on a wine list. If you are a novice and your are going on an important date, you should do a little homework to get some idea of what you might want to order. Unless you are feeling extremely adventurous, a restaurant is usually not the place to try something new since the mark up can range from 100 to 200%.

The Wine List
Today, most restaurants have a wine list, but expect a myriad of shapes and sizes. Some establishments might simply offer just a house red or white, while others have a daily blackboard to outline their rotating selection. Most wine lists are presented as a printed menu, with the wines arranged by color; red, white, and rose and the region of country. Additionally, many establishments will number their wines on the list, which helps big-time if you do not know how to pronounce the wine. You can simply say, “I will have the number 8″.

Before you order, you are going to want to factor in what you are going to be eating. Unfortunately, not a lot of menus give advice on food pairing. If you need some help talk to the wine steward, or sommelier. They are there to help you make the best decision for your occasion, and a good one will not try to take you out of your price range.

Getting the Best Wine for Your Money
• Skip the house wine. Unless you are familiar with the house wine, don’t bother because they generally carry the highest mark up.
• Scan the wine list too quickly to get an idea on the average price of a bottle. Try to stay within this median price range where the mark ups tend to be average.
• Choose a wine from the same region as the restaurant’s food specialty. A good French restaurant, for instance, should have a solid selection of French wines.
• Ask the server for a recommendation. Just ask if they have any special values currently.
• If two or more at your table are going to have a few glasses of wine, it is cheaper to order by the bottle than the glass.

Corkage
Many restaurants will open and serve a bottle of wine brought by the patron. A quick call to the restaurant will confirm if this is possible, and if so, they will charge a corkage fee. They usually charge between $5 and $15 per bottle, although some restaurants will charge a lower fee if the wine brought is not on their wine list.

Contributor: Stuart Glasure [Designer, Fashion Artist and creator of the Zany Wearables Collection: http://www.ZanyGiftware.com. A wine enthusiast and publishing member of the wine source: http://www.WineDefinitions.com.]

About the Author

Nerello Glasure [Fashion Artist of Zany Wearables: http://www.zanygiftware.com and a Publishing Member of the Wine Resource: http://www.winedefinitions.com.]

Recipe
(The way my family ate it)
Cut up 1 small potato into large thumb size dices.
Boil on med. boil for 10 minutes in 2 cups of water.
Add teaspoon salt, teaspoon of pepper.
Add 2 large tablespoon of butter then turn heat to medium.
While stirring, add 2 tablespoons of flour in a little at a time.
Keep stirring softly until all the flour is all dissolved and it makes thick gravy.
Turn heat on low. Add 1 can of lima beans. Do not drain. Gruel will thin down a bit.
Place lid on pot and let sit on low heat for 10 more minutes until thick.

By now the potatoes will just be starting to loose their square shape and start to look more rounded, but still firm in the middle. This is exactly what you want because the outer edges of the potatoes that mix with the flour water, is actually what makes the flavor of the gruel so good. The dish will turn out to be 1/3 gravy and 1/3 potatoes and 1/3 Lima beans.

To ad even more flavor, drain the lima beans and replace the bean juice with chicken stock.

Serving Suggestions:

You serve each person a full bowl of their very own. A cottage style bowl that is thick made of ceramic or pottery. These bowls keep the heat in best and keep the gravy from cooling to quick.

Serve with a huge wedge of warm crusted homemade bread. No fork needed for this meal! You just sop up the gravy, beans and chunks of potatoes with the bread and your fingers! Wash it down with a cold glass of milk. You just cannot eat this without the bread!

This recipe is taken from the Gruel recipe collection at
http://www.gone-ta-pott.com/gruel.html
Author: Pamela Price Svoboda

We all know chocolate tastes good, but did you know it has emotional and physical benefits as well?

Recently there have been many studies on the effects of chocolate and it has been shown that by liberating endorphins, chocolate can provide us with a sense of well being as well as energy and pleasure. It’s no wonder that some women surveyed stated that they preferred chocolate to sex!

Now I’m not talking about the junky chocolate bars you find in the candy counter. In order to get the benefits of chocolate you need to eat the good stuff - the kind that has at least 71 percent real cocoa. This is the gourmet chocolate that you probably never buy for yourself. But now that you know it’s good for you feel free to indulge, the extra money you spend will be well worth the health benefits and taste!

The rich texture and taste of this high quality chocolate acts as a pleasure for the senses. It can be an aphrodisiac and also can help energize you as it contains caffeine as well as serotonin which can lift your mood.

Even better than that, though is that eating chocolate also can benefit your health!

Dark chocolate contains phenols which promotes cardiovascular health. According to the British Medical Journal eating 100 grams of dark chocolate reduces blood pressure as well as cardiovascular incidents by 21 percent. And phenols are also loaded with antioxidants which help to battle free radicals that can cause disease.

The cocoa butter in chocolate has been used topically to heal scars and burns and chocolate is a good source of magnesium which is a mineral many of us do not get enough of. With all these things going for it, it’s no wonder there is ongoing researching using chocolate in the development of medicines that can fight diseases like cancer and osteoporosis.

But as well all know, chocolate is fattening. Your best bet is to eat the dark chocolate which has less sugar and also more phenols. Of course, you should eat it in moderation - scarfing down 3 chocolate bars in one sitting probably won’t have 3 times the health benefits and the extra sugar and fat can have a detrimental effect on your health.

It shouldn’t be too hard to find the type of chocolate that is good for your, however you may not be able to just pop down to the local grocery to pick it up. A trip to my local supermarket in search of chocolate with 71% cocoa was a bust. The closest I could find was an organic bar that had 70% cocoa. You may need to take a trip to an organic or chocolate specialty store. If you go with organic chocolate, you can be assured that they don’t contain organochlorine pesticides which are typically used in treating cocoa crops and are harmful to your health.

So take a trip down to your local organic food stores and pick up some great dark chocolate - it will be worth the trip and the expense to enjoy this healthy food guilt free!

Lee Dobbins writes for Online Gourmet Foods where you can learn more about the health benefits of chocolate.

Did you know that tomatoes were once considered poison? It’s true, the tomato is a member of the nightshade family, and was at one time considered to be toxic. Tomatoes were first eaten in the U.S. in the early 1800’s, when a gentleman by the name of Robert Johnson shocked his hometown by eating a basket of tomatoes in the middle of town. When he didn’t die, or even get sick from the tomatoes, they became a part of the American diet.

We now know that tomatoes are not toxic, and in fact are quite nutritious. First of all, tomatoes contain a lot of vitamin C, which is quite beneficial, as you’ve probably heard. Vitamin C helps the body to produce collagen, an important protein skin, scar tissue, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant, helping to prevent cell damage by free radicals.

Tomatoes also contain a powerful antioxidant called lycopene. Studies have shown that men consuming 10 servings of tomatoes a week cut the risk of prostate cancer by 45%. Lycopene also lower the risk of colorectal cancer and stomach cancer, and inhibits the growth of other types of cancer cells. Lycopene may also help older folks remain active.

Coumaric acid and chlorogenic acied are also found in tomatoes. These two compounds are thought to block the effects of nitrosamines, which are formed naturally in the body, but are also a strong carcinogen in tobacco smoke.

Tomatoes may also help to reduce the risk of heart disease. Tomatoes are a good source of potassium, niacin, vitamin B6, and folate. Niacin has been used for years to lower cholesterol. Potassium has been shown to lower high blood pressure. And vitamin B6 and folate are used by the body to convert a dangerous chemical called homocysteine into more benign compounds.

Vitamin K, found in tomatoes helps to maintain healthy bones. Vitamin K1 activates a protein in the bones called osteocalcin, which anchors calcium inside the bone. Without enough vitamin K, bone mineralization is impaired.

When you buy tomatoes, be sure to buy the ones with the brightest red color. This indicates high amounts of beta-carotene and lycopene. Lycopene is found in the cell walls of the tomato, so by cooking it in a bit of oil, more lycopene is fully released. Also, cooking the tomato in a bit of olive oil helps your body to absorb the lycopene. If all you can find are canned tomatoes, that’s fine. Cooking and canning don’t cause tomatoes to lose any of their nutritional value. So cooked and processed tomatoes are just as beneficial as fresh tomatoes.

So tomatoes, once thought to be deadly poison, are now a nutritious staple of our diet. They help to fight cancer, and they contain a good amount of vitamin C, and other vitamins and minerals. So go ahead and start adding tomatoes to your diet.

Spaghetti Sauce:

1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 small onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced (or more if you want)
1 lb ground beef (optional)
4 28oz. cans of crushed tomatoes
1 28oz. can of tomato sauce
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp dried oregano
3 bay leaves

In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the chopped onion, and cook for a couple of minutes, until the onion is tender. Add the garlic, and cook briefly. Be sure not to burn the garlic.

If using ground beef, cook the meat in a skillet until browned. Drain the meat, and add it to the pot.

Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, worcestershire sauce, oregano, and bay leaves. Stir everything together, then turn the heat to medium low, and simmer for 4 hours, stirring occasionally.

Remove the sauce from the heat, and serve over pasta. The leftover sauce will freeze well.

Tim Sousa is the webmaster for Negative Calorie Food. A blog about losing weight eating negative calorie food.