Restaurant Trends for 2011

1. New priorities for beaten-up consumers: People today are expressing entirely new — and more complex — sets of concerns.  Now they’re focusing inward.  Their concerns are personal, emotional and ethical.  The economy has people scared and they’re looking for a “safe harbor.”  The consultants advise hotels and restaurants to lure these hunkered down consumers from their psychological storm cellars by replicating the “campfire experience” — building emotional ties and connecting to communities.  They need to audit their businesses based on next year’s hot buttons:  economic survival, reassurance, intimacy and friendship, feeding my knowledge, feeding my emotions, artisan/hand-made, neighborhood/local, authentic/real, comfort and safety.

2. Putting focus on the left side of the menu: That’s where the emotional resonance is.  Look for more creative snacky things, more small plates, more portion options…things sized for one, for two, for a crowd.  This isn’t just a small plates phenomenon, because it isn’t about the size of the plate.  Sharing is the key, sharing responds to consumers’ needs for comfort and safety, for intimacy and friendship.

3. Upscaling the downscale: Consumers are trading down in order to trade up.  That’s what’s behind the explosion of “gourmet” hamburgers smothered in the likes of manchego cheese and Iberian ham, or artisan hot dogs and Kobe dogs served with goat cheese and guacamole or home-made relishes, or french fries revved up with parmesan cheese and truffle oil.

4. Fresh = local = hand-made = safer = better: Baum & Whiteman believe the words “organic” and “natural” are diluted (polluted, actually) by big-brand food companies, so they’re being replaced in consumers’ minds by “fresh” and “local” and “hand-made.”  People are looking for edibles they can trust, and for food communities that stand personally behind their products.  Restaurants and hotels are spotlighting house-made or locally-made bread, artisan-cured salami, chef-pickled vegetables, locally-butchered beef, honey made from nearby hives, foods purchased from regional farms — all these theoretically reflecting sustainability and helping local farmers and being better for the environment.

5. Fried chicken is the new pork belly: The new trend is fried chicken — crisped in all sorts of inventive ways by lowly diner cooks and exalted chefs alike.  Ahead of the curve:  Korean fried chicken, invisibly coated, amazingly flavorful and fried twice for ultra-crunch, moving out of traditional Korean-towns into mainstream neighborhoods.

Apply Three Shades Of Eyeshadow

Does it seem like you only use one color in an eye shadow trio? Stop wasting the other colors! Break out of your everyday makeup rut and learn to apply all three on one eye!

Step 1: Pick Eye Shadows
Choose a light… medium and dark shade of the same color family.

The light shade is for the lid. The medium color is for the crease. The darker color for the lash line.

Step 2: Your Shape
If you have round eyes and sockets, concentrate shadow on the outer edges but don’t go 80’s and do a cat eye. You want a crescent shape.

For those with less of a crease, blend the medium shadow across the eye, creating a deeper crease.

For almond-shaped eyes, keep the medium tone near the lash line.

Step 3: The Medium Eye Shadow
After applying a thin layer of foundation or eye shadow base, place the medium colored shadow into your crease. With your brush, blend back and forth.

Step 4: The Light Eye Shadow
Using your brush, place shadow onto the lid, under the crease shadow and all the way to the lash line.

Step 5: The Dark Eye Shadow
With a flat shadow brush, line your eyes with the darkest shade. Blend.

Finish with a coat of mascara.

Done.

Katrina Kaif not throwing birthday party

Online Directories for Exporters of Jewelleries & Other Accessories!
Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif has stopped celebrating her birthday ever since her then boyfriend Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan got into a brawl in the middle of her birthday bash. Recently, it was reported that the actress was planning to throw a big party as she turns 27 on July 16. However, the actress denied any such plan.

“No, I am not planning on throwing any lavish b'day party, unlike what the rumours say,” the Times of India quoted the actress as saying. “I have not planned anything yet. My movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is releasing on 15th July so most probably I will be busy with the promotional activities,” she added on when asked if she would join her family in London

Afridi stars

Shahid Afridi took 3 for 16 as Hampshire, the leaders of the Friends Life t20 South Division, thrashed bottom-placed Middlesex by seven wickets with three overs to spare at Uxbridge.

Afridi, who has now taken 13 wickets for 83 runs in 18 overs in the competition, dismissed Scott Newman and Neil Dexter with successive balls as Middlesex collapsed from 61 for one to 74 for 6, before struggling to 121 for nine.

It was a pathetic score on a fast-scoring ground where Gloucestershire piled up a record 254 for 3 last Sunday, and the result was never in doubt once Jimmy Adams and James Vince had put on 51 in six overs for Hampshire's second wicket.

Hampshire, who won the competition last year, have now won nine of their 12 matches, while Middlesex have been beaten nine times in 11 games.

Middlesex lost Paul Stirling in the third over when he was caught and bowled by Dimitri Mascarenhas, but they were going well when Adam Rossington and Newman were putting on 41 in four overs for the second wicket.

Then Rossington, who had made 25 off 17 balls with a six and three fours, was bowled by Mascarenhas and Middlesex stalled.

Afridi had Newman caught at long off for 24, Dexter fell lbw next ball and when John Simpson was brilliantly caught and bowled by Imran Tahir and Ryan McLaren was run out by Vince's direct hit, Middlesex had lost five for 13 in four overs.

Sam Robson offered some resistance with an unbeaten 28 off 30 balls, but there were only two boundaries in the last 13 overs.

Hampshire's Adams hit as many as that off his first two balls from Stirling, and though he struck only two more, he anchored the innings with an unbeaten 38 off 50 balls.

Vince provided the fireworks by hitting 39 off 22 balls with two sixes and four fours before he holed out to long on off Steven Crook, while Sean Ervine completed the job with 22 off 14 balls, including four fours.