Daily Loaf

Do to a surge in voting over the weekend, we’ve decided to keep the Best of the Bay polls open an extra two days — that means you have until Wednesday, Sept. 2 at noon to submit any and all ballots.

With some hotly-contested races like Best Local Chef, Best Local Band, Best Neighborhood and Best New Restaurant still undecided, your vote can make the difference.

Stay tuned for updates after the polls close by visiting cltampa.com/botb for updates on our Loafies awards party, to be held at our offices on Sept. 15, to be followed by our Best of the Bay issue Sept. 16.

You can also catch all updates on Best of the Bay on Twitter by looking for the tag #botb.

VOTE HERE.

If you have been paying attention to all of the ads and the commercials on Bravo, you’ll already know that the Top Chef series is back (and we’re hoping you’ve watched). This time, there’s a twist: 24 well-known, seasoned chefs go head-to-head and compete in challenges just like they’ve put the contestants from past seasons through, all to win money for their charity of choice.

Top Chef Masters is a bit different than the original show, though. Instead of sticking all 24 of the “masters” in an apartment and make them eat, sleep, booze, and live together, four of them at a time compete in an episode. I was thoroughly surprised when I saw this – they didn’t mention that in the previews, but I can understand why this was done. (Do you really think these chefs are going to give up the reins of their uber popular restaurants and two months of their lives just for a TV show? Though I would liked to have seen a Hosea-Leah hookup scenario between, say, Roy Yamaguchi and Cindy Pawlcyn.)
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Creative Loafing interns Hannah Walk and Diana Ruiz visited the line outside IKEA Tampa 48 hours before its May 6 opening. Here’s their report — with video after the jump.

How long would you wait in line for a free chair? How about a chair from IKEA? If you’re the first people in line for IKEA’s grand opening, the 65-plus hours spent sleeping on cement and passing the time playing Apples to Apples are well worth it. IKEA officially opens Wednesday, May 6, but for these dedicated fans, the party started early.

Hagen Reams, 19, Shelby Gallo, 19, Justin Gallo, 21, and Ben Dziubek, 20, began their three-day escapade Sunday afternoon, but they’re not complaining. They’ve been passing the time reading Tucker Max’s I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, feasting on vending machine goodies, and attempting to sleep when news cameras aren’t in their faces. Read the rest of this entry »

Each time I find really nice sea scallops available at the market*, my recipe wheels immediately start turning. There’s a slightly majestic quality to their clean, delicate flesh and unique flavor which I simply cannot resist. So, this week’s shopping trip yielded not only the most fantastic scallops I’ve seen in a while, but also a new dish that is fresh and satisfying.

There are a few rules to live by when cooking scallops, and once you have it down it really is very simple. Be sure to dry them completely after washing as excess water in the pan will cause them to steam and sacrifice the deep golden crust that creates such an impressive presentation. The pan must also be very hot to achieve this signature scallop sear. Take care to remember the two minute rule as a cooking timeline as well- overdone scallops are rubbery and tough, and no fun to eat.

This recipe combines the classic pairing of scallops and bacon with a topping based loosely on a variation of maque choux. The flavors left in the pan after cooking the bacon and mushrooms will marry with the cream to create a rich and tasty sauce. After all, it is my firm belief that every good scallop deserves an equally good sauce.

Here’s the recipe:

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A friend of CL sent this to us. We’re taking it as tongue in cheek, since nobody @cl_tampa is Twitter obsessed. Nobody. Video below the jump:

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Because no holiday these days passes without some portion of the female population dressing up as “sexy” versions of whatever theme the holiday may comprise, we bring you the sexy girls of Saint Patrick’s Day. Does it matter if most of them aren’t Irish?

See more pics below the jump.

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In the market for a 1978 Ford Fairmont with only 110,000 miles, new brake cables, new tires and new shocks, all for $500? No? Did we mention it’s painted with the original maps from The Legend of Zelda?

If you’re anywhere near Corvallis, Oregon, hit the link below the jump (get it, Link?)

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Today’s poll is a simple one:

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Don’t forget to check out CL’s comprehensive guide to Watchmen, including reviews, trailers and an interview with co-creator Dave Gibbons.

Creative Loafing in Tampa celebrated the launch of its new Web site last night in our South Tampa offices with a night of music, food and drinks. Pictures below, courtesy of contributor Chip Weiner.

More pics below the break:

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Jon Stewart thinks Twitter is a silly waste of time, according to yesterday’s Daily Show segment of “Jon Stewart shakes his fist at _____.”

Reporter Samantha Bee plays the Twitter enthusiast. Or is she a desperate member of the media, clinging to Twitter like a branch on the bank of a raging river? You make the call.

Spoof songs fans, burrito fans, anybody who goes to Ybor City on the weekend (maybe this weekend), enjoy:

In yet another sign of the Tampa Bay Bucs’ drastic facelift, the team released perhaps the most stalwart player in franchise history, LB Derrick Brooks, a sure-fire future Hall of Famer. Joining him on the cuts list were another popular Buc, RB Warrick Dunn, who returned to the team last year after several with the Falcons; WR Joey Galloway; WR Ike Hilliard; and LB Cato June.

All except June were past-their-prime players with substantial salaries. June, who turns 30 later this year, signed in 2007 as a free agent from the Indianapolis Colts, but never made the impact expected.  June was considered the heir apparent to Brooks, so it’s a bit odd that he was released as well. But overall, the cuts are indicative of a Tampa Bay youth movement, or to use a taboo word: rebuilding.

The Brooks release is easily the most controversial. He’s been an absolutely great player for the team, an 11-time Pro Bowler, and a pillar of the community. He even restructured his contract a couple of times to provide the franchise with salary cap space to sign free agents.

Salary cap is not currently a problem with the  Bucs. The team is a reported $42 million under the cap, most in the NFL.

What do all these moves augur? The optimist might think that the Bucs are gearing up for a run at free agents like monster DT Albert Haynsworth. Those with less sunny outlooks might see it as the new administration following ownership’s mandate to run the team on the cheap. The Glazer family owns the Manchester United soccer team, which is widely regarded to have the highest payroll in all of professional sports.

I don’t have a strong read on it either way — but I do know that if with the Bucs parting ways with Brooks and the rest, they had better be counter those moves by loosening the purse strings or else risk alienating their fanbase more than it already is.

—Eric Snider

A press conference has been scheduled for 3 p.m.

From the official site:

Bucs Call 3:00 PM Press Conference

Feb 25, 2009 -

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have called a press conference at team headquarters beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday afternoon.

The team will make both Head Coach Raheem Morris and General Manager Mark Dominik available to speak and answer questions at the press conference.

The press conference will be carried live on Buccaneers.com and a recorded version will be posted shortly after its conclusion.

[Editor's Note: Jennifer Huntsman is a US Army Reserve Signal Captain stationed at MacDill Air Force Base with Joint Communication Support Element (JCSE). She is currently deployed in Qatar. Jenny will be writing for The Daily Loaf about life in the military.]

A year removed high school and not enjoying college class attendance, I enlisted in the Army National Guard.  The military seemed like something worthwhile to do.  When I shipped off to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for Basic Training, I had a female Drill Sergeant.  This female Drill Sergeant did not enjoy privates (our rank when we join the military) getting too close to her.  When we stood near her or asked a question she would glare at us and yell in a thick Georgia accent, “Get out of my Kool-Aid!”  What exactly does that mean, I wondered?  Where the did that statement come from?

I am deployed with more than a handful of outstanding soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen.  We all work very close together.  I cannot yawn with a very large stretch unless I want to smack my neighbor on the head.  Oh joy, the comfortable working conditions in a deployed environment.  Tolerance is a trait that I have picked up in the military.

I am blessed to actually enjoy my coworker’s existence in the world.  Each troop (personnel) has a significant role in our day-to-day operations.  Any mission is complete with ease because we all know who would succeed and who may fail due to the fact that we know each other very well. Read the rest of this entry »

OK, this is awesome. Really. Just awesomely funny. I mean, what good is a depression if you can’t laugh at it? And what’s funnier than real people pretending to be video game characters? From the video humorists at CB Fresh comes this vision of what would happen if Street Fighter IV was really about the economic crisis instead of, well, whatever the hell it’s actually about. To be honest, the Wall Street Fighter story is actually probably more compelling and logical than whatever’s supposed to be going on in actual Street Fighter IV.

Video below the jump:

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My whole basis for judging value in an entertainment product comes from Street Fighter. Back in my late high school/early college days, my friends and I played a heluva lota Street Fighter 2 at the arcade. It’s a quick game, and at a quarter a pop, you could spend a lot of money fast if you die too fast, too often (which I did at first). But eventually we all got better. I remember one regular at the arcade was so good he’d actually pay for other people to play against him because no one would throw away their quarters with him at the joystick. He would even give lessons on how to pull off a special move or time the perfect throw. I never got great at the game, but I got decent, and could pretty much count on $5 in quarters lasting me a solid hour in the arcade. I decided that $5 was therefore just about the right amount of money for an hour’s entertainment. Weirdly enough, almost two decades later I still think that’s the right price, although I’ve sure as hell spent lots more money for much shorter entertainments since then. At $60 though, Street Fighter IV is a bargain.

Read the full review, including in-game video below the jump:

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From a reader:

I used to have a recurring dream that I would be climbing a staircase and right as I got near the top, the staircase would be disconnected and I would have to go through a maze of difficulty to get to the top. I have a habit of saying “This should not be this difficult.”  I guess the statement is manifested in the dream.  I wonder what your take is on it.

Thanks for e-mailing me. First, I’d like to help you look at the dream archetypically, or from a larger perspective. Staircase dreams are common.  A lot depends on if the dreamer is going up the stairs (to consciousness) or down the stairs (to the subconscious).

On a personal level however, the dream could mean something very different.  For example, you may get only so far in a project or towards a goal and something happens to thwart you. The question you need to ask yourself is if that something, the thing that prevents you from reaching the top of the staircase, is from within?

Often an inner critic sabotages ones goals.  A little voice speaks up and says, “Ah, you’ll never cut it.” Or, perhaps there’s an earlier family injunction again succeeding past a parent.  Maybe you had to stay on the sidelines so another sib could grab the spotlight. It’s hard to say. Everyone is so incredibly unique. Here’s what I suggest:

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