Vegan Top Iron Chef Competition

Grab your mixing bowls and tofu for the newest and animal-friendliest cooking competition in NYC -- Veggie Conquest. The debut of this monthly event is August 22 in Chelsea (maybe next month we'll get to host it, DP), and is open to everyone, including non-vegetarians.

Based on shows like "Iron Chef" and "Top Chef," Veggie Conquest gives participants one ingredient they must use. The chefs make a dish at home and then bring it in for the judges (judging the Aug. 22 competition are Joshua Katcher, Kathy Patalsky and Brian Preston-Campbell), who crown a winner. Tickets are $5 for chefs and $10 for tasters, whose responsibility is to eat what the chefs bring. If you sign up after the ingredient is revealed, ticket prices will be higher -- $10 for chefs and $15 for tasters.

The website for Veggie Conquest has information about tickets, contest requirements, and more information about vegan food. At the event there will be cooking classes so you'll be ready to compete in the next month's competition or at least have a few tricks up your sleeve to impress a vegan dinner guest.

Any guesses about what the secret ingredient might be?

Another Day, Another Fail

Spotted this epic marketing fail in a laundromat on Newkirk. Can you identify the fail?

Cortelyou's Newest 99 Cent Store, I'd Like You To Meet Spell Check

You would think the new 99 cent store on Cortelyou would hire a native English speaker to proofread their awning before they put it up. You'd be wrong.

Can you spot all 6 goofs and typos on the sign? And I'm not counting the American flags. They aren't officially mess-ups, more like just a cheap marketing tactic (like anything sold in the store would actually be made in America?).

Leave your answers in the comments section!

Ringling Caught on Tape Beating Elephants, Tigers

Here's a reminder to avoid any circus that uses animals, but especially Ringling Bros. at Coney Island. PETA conducted an undercover investigation for 6 months to record this heartbreaking footage of Ringling Bros. trainers beating elephants and tigers. Not only do the Ringling elephant trainers hit and whip the elephants, they also stick bull hooks into the elephants' skin and pull.

If everyone who planned to go to the circus this summer saw this video, Ringling's business would definitely suffer. It's shameful that even after all of Ringling's national sponsors stopped supporting them because of abuse allegations, Mayor Bloomberg and borough president Marty Markowitz still let them set up shop for the whole summer in Brooklyn, putting money before morals.

Please watch the video below and only support circuses, like Cirque du Soleil, that don't need animals to entertain.

R.I.P. Bally's Juice Bar (2008-2009)

Well they've been boarded up for weeks with no sign or explanation and their phone number has been disconnected. I think it's safe to say Bally's juice bar in Newkirk Plaza is dead.

We welcomed the juice bar when it opened last fall, cast a critical eye at their bland smoothies and lack of vegan options, and recently called them out when they started hawking ice cream, despite their claims of being a health food joint.

Ultimately it seems Bally's fell victim to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of course $6 smoothies and juices are a tough sell in a recession, but the 2 year planned renovation of the Newkirk Ave subway station certainly isn't helping any businesses there. The outdoor seating section that seemed like a great idea when Bally's first opened is now boarded off and filled with construction materials. And now with high fencing obstructing views of stores and many parts of the plaza closed off to pedestrians, if you enter the subway station from the east you would never know Bally's exists.

Maybe Bally's will re-open when all the construction settles down, although with rents as high as they are now that seems unlikely. Even if they were planning on re-opening or are just undergoing their own renovations, what kind of business shuts its doors and leaves with no "thank you" or notification of any kind to its customers? So closed or not, they're dead to us. Goodbye Bally's, we hardly knew ye.

Vox Pop's Publish Yourself Doubling As Psychic Reading Space

Maybe this is old news, but I just noticed that Vox Pop's side business, Publish Yourself, which allows people to publish their very own books that no one will buy people can buy, is now doubling as a psychic reading space. Perfect! I was worried that with Sander leaving Vox Pop would lose some serious crazy points, but phew! No need to worry! Kookiness intact!

Found in Coney Island: Knockoff iPod for Yuppies

We found this hilarious prize at the Coney Island Arcade this weekend. It's one of those Chinatown bootleg items that is so cheap they don't even pay someone to come up with a name for it. The box simply says "MP4. Personal Juke Box For Yuppies." Don't even bother using this thing if you're old, rural, or unprofessional. Also, MP4 is a video format. But it's a juke box? Huh? This thing is probably just filled with candy. Lead based candy.

Be Careful Around Careful Bus

This bus, part of "Careful Bus Inc.", ran right through a stop sign at Dorchester and Westminster with barely even a rolling stop. I guess the company name should be read "Careful, Bus".

'09 Subway Rankings Are In: Q Looks Good, B Is Almost The Worst

The annual "State of the Subways" report from the Straphangers Campaign has just been released, and apparently Ditmas Park has some of the best and worst trains in the system.

The Q train fared well, ranking 5th best out of the 21 lines. Check out the detailed report here, but in summary:
-The Q is scheduled to come less often than the average line and arrives with near-average regularity
-Cars on the Q break down much less often than those on the average line
-You're more likely to get a seat on the Q
-Cars on the Q have near-average cleanliness
-The Q line performs below average on in-car announcements

As for the B, which ranked 20th (second worst), the full report can be found here, but the basics are as follows:
-The B train has a below-average amount of daytime service and doesn't run at night
-The B line arrives with near-average regularity
-B cars break down less often than those on the average line
-You're more likely to get a seat on the B
-Cars on the B are less clean than those on the average line
-The B line performs worst on in-car announcements

And for those of you close enough to the F, don't get your hopes up about a good report anytime soon. It ranked 16th out of 21.

Filming in Flatbush: Queen Latifah in "Just Wright"

We stopped by the set of the new Queen Latifah and Common movie, "Just Wright," this afternoon. The plot, according to the film's IMDB page: "A physical therapist falls for the basketball player she is helping recover from a career-threatening injury." Fantastic. "And the Oscar goes to...".

They've taken over a few blocks of Beverley Road and parts of Westminster. The actual house they are filming in is the same house used in a shoot for Comedy Central's "Michael and Michael Have Issues" back in May. Whoever owns this house is making some dough this year! Maybe they'll throw a big party and invite all their neighbors who have to put up with restricted parking and everything else that goes along with a major motion picture shoot this entire week.

We were glad to see that Queen Latifah was pretty easy going on the set, as far as we could tell. She didn't rush from the trailer to the set like a lot of actors do when they film in the neighborhood. Instead she stopped along the way to talk to fans and crew members. Although when she sat down in her chair and saw us snap a quick pic of her, she told one of her security guards to come over and shut us down, which he immediately did.

Vox Pop on CNN

CNN's Campbell Brown show sent a camera crew over to Ditmas Park Wednesday morning to get the scoop on Vox Pop's much blogged about communal capitalism model. They talked to Debi Ryan, Sander Hicks, and a local family that invested $1,000 in the Cortelyou coffee shop.

One funny thing- when the segment aired on CNN last night the news ticker at the bottom of the screen (the one that shows unrelated news bites) flashed "Statue of Liberty replica decapitated on YouTube." Kind of neat that two separate stories about our little neighborhood hangout spot have made national news in the same week.

Check out the full segment below: