Meet The Writers / Sara Bonisteel

Las Vegas has oversaturated its high-end restaurant scene, according to a prominent restaurateur.

Drew Nieporent, president of the Myriad Restaurant Group which owns Nobu, believes Las Vegas' new City Center development and its top restaurants may kill other eateries in this gaming town.

"Las Vegas is a fantastic place now for restaurants except it seems to me they've oversaturated," Nieporent tells Bloomberg. "This new City Center has approximately, I think it's close to two dozen new establishments, all pretty high end, and what that's going to is it's going to -- I think they'll do well because it's new -- but a lot of the other places in Las Vegas are going to feel the impact because they don't have the mass audience like we do in New York."

Nieporent says the current economic crisis hasn't affected New York's high-end dining scene too badly because "New York is 365 days of business."

'Good Eats: The Early Years'
By Alton Brown
Stewart, Tabori & Chang -- 2009
Buy it on Amazon

Fans of Alton Brown are sure to like "Good Eats: The Early Years," an episode-by-episode companion guide to his popular Food Network show. Of course, Brown has gone on to host "Iron Chef America" and become a spokesman for Welch's and Diamond Crystal Salt, but it is "Good Eats" that garners him perhaps the greatest culinary respect.

The book follows "Good Eats" through six seasons, episode by episode. There are diagrams, screengrabs from the show, tips from each episode, and recipes, which Brown calls "applications." Think Mr. Wizard meets Julia Child on Monty Python -- that's actually what this host is going for.

"Good Eats: The Early Years" is not the TV show. "It's more like 400 pages of liner notes," Brown writes. "But really good liner notes."

See what we tested and whether it's worth buying after the jump.

Have you heard the story of the Christmas pickle?

According to Bronner's, the world's largest Christmas store in Frankenmuth, Mich., it's an old German tradition to hide a glass pickle ornament on the tree after the children go to bed on Dec. 24.

The first one to spy the ornament on Christmas morning gets an extra gift from St. Nick -- or so the legend goes.

Check out Slashfood's gallery of foodie ornaments after the jump.

We've heard of the bacon explosion and meat cocktails, but have you dared to try the McNuggetini?

Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark created the drink this fall and are riding a wave of fame -- meeting with casting agents, drinking McNuggetinis with Hoda Kotb of "The Today Show" and readying themselves for a Playboy magazine article, the New York Times reports.

In their McNuggetini video, the gals create a sweet and savory cocktail out of a McDonald's chocolate shake, vanilla vodka, chicken McNuggets and barbecue sauce. The meat is used as a garnish.

"Together we've invented a drink that combines dinner, dessert and booze in one chalice of multitasking," the women say.

Slashfood has long been a fan of Momofuku Milk Bar's Crack Pie, and it seems we're in good company.

Anderson Cooper confessed Tuesday during a guest host spot on "Live with Regis and Kelly" that he and his famous mom, Gloria Vanderbilt, can't get enough of Christina Tosi's Crack Pie.

"They have a pie that's called crack pie that is literally crack," Cooper said. "There is crack in that pie because once you have that pie, you can think of nothing else but having more of that crack pie."

Well there's not exactly crack in there. Tosi's recipe calls for butter, heavy cream and sugar. Lots of it.

"I sent it to my mom," Cooper said. "My mom's now addicted to crack -- pie. And uh, yeah, seriously, my teeth are going to fall out. It's like doing crack. After a while of doing it your teeth will fall out."

To which, Kelly Ripa quipped, "crack pie is whack."

To drive home just how much he loves the pie, he brought the studio audience samples on Wednesday's show.

Cooper's also a fan of Milk Bar's Compost cookie. "It's the best cookie I've ever had."

UPDATE: Now you can order Crack Pie and Compost Cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar online.

[Via Serious Eats]