Cooking Oil

There are three general varieties of olive oil on American grocery-store shelves. Here's a guide. Extra virgin olive oil Made from fully ripened olives that are pressed right after harvest, this oil should have a robust, fruity flavor and rich, greenish-gold color. Use extra virgin olive oil when you want its flavor to shine through - on salads, in vegetable dishes, for bread dipping and to season marinades, sauces and soups. Olive oil All-purpose cooking oil, sometimes described as "pure olive oil," has a mild taste that can be a flavor-enhancer in various dishes.

IT TAKES only a day to turn a well-kept side street into a big, greasy pit. It's happened twice in the last month on Orianna Street in Northern Liberties, a local business owner named Christina tells us. One day Orianna looked fine. The next, there was a huge, sticky wet spot on the sidewalk. At first, Christina thought it was water. But it never dried up, and the stuff got all over her dog's paws. It also reeked of food. Christina guessed that it was used cooking oil. Before we keep going, we should tell you that one of the main reasons Orianna looks good at all is that Christina and her family keep it clean.

This Soviet city yesterday began its first broad-scale food rationing since World War II, a move exhausted shoppers actually welcomed after weeks of dwindling food supplies and panic buying had emptied store shelves. In stores throughout the city that survived a 900-day German blockade during the war, shoppers for the first time this fall could buy such staples as flour, rice, butter and eggs without waiting in long lines. "If they can keep stores supplied with these minimal norms of food, rationing will be a very good thing," Tamara Kirillova, 64, said at grocery store No. 72 in the southern part of the city.

They know what it wasn't. It wasn't rancid food, chemical contamination, bad cooking oil or food preparation procedures. State health officials haven't figured out what it was - what caused 29 children to become ill after eating meals purchased last Wednesday at a McDonald's in Blackwood. A week after the incident, Health Department spokeswoman Darlene Weiner said the state was looking for "another common link among the kids" - a new clue to the mystery. The children, from St. Agnes School, Blackwood, became nauseated about 45 minutes after they ate lunches brought to the school by their parents from a McDonald's on Blackwood-Clementon Road.

Missing signs show up in school In reply to Mark Doorley's letter ("Stolen freedom," Oct. 26) regarding stolen Democratic campaign signs, I ask him to not automatically blame their disappearance on fellow voters who happen to belong to the other party. I attended Back to School Night at one of our local high schools recently. On entering one of the classrooms, I was surprised to see those lawn signs plastered all over the walls and the ceiling! The teacher had instructed his students to bring in as many campaign artifacts as they could, and, yes, they are taking the signs off people's lawns!

Here are four mouth-watering ways to get your holiday guests in a dining mood: CHUTNEY DIP 1 cup light or cholesterol-free mayonnaise 1/4 cup mango chutney or other chutney 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger 1 teaspoon grated lime or lemon peel Combine the mayonnaise, chutney, ginger and lime or lemon peel. Cover and chill. Serve with cooked shrimp, sliced cucumbers, chicken nuggets or cut vegetables. Makes 10 servings. Per tablespoon: 97 calories, 8 grams fat, 5.9 grams carbohydrate, 142 grams sodium.

A California man won first prize of $25,000 for his " 7/8 Chili" at the recent 22d annual World's Championship Chili Cookoff in Rosamond, Calif. Yes, chili is still a burning national issue, as evidenced by the more than 80 entries submitted from each of the 50 states and the 20,000 people who came to Rosamond, some from as far as Australia. Kenton Stafford, 39, a construction worker from Fillmore, Calif., has been attending chili cookoffs for about five years and has entered about 20 of them.

Passersby may have noted a crane towering over the Four Seasons Hotel last week, just out of misting range of the nearby Swann Fountain. The crane was hoisting microturbines to the roof, to help generate the hotel's energy (equal to getting 509 cars off the road annually), and as a bonus, hauling up the wooden frames and bags of house-blend compost for what is to be a modest kitchen garden. It was certainly the most visible bit of greening going on in the city's hard-pressed feeding sector.

TAMARA SEPE and her husband, Bill Curran, have lived in the Callowhill area for the past seven years. They each have their own businesses and are raising their 10-month-old son there. "We like the proximity to all the amenities of the city," Sepe said of the area, known as "the Loft District" to some and "Chinatown North" to others. "We also like the architecture and history of the neighborhood. We like the community, and we like its social history of being a community of immigrants.

IT TAKES only a day to turn a well-kept side street into a big, greasy pit. It's happened twice in the last month on Orianna Street in Northern Liberties, a local business owner named Christina tells us. One day Orianna looked fine. The next, there was a huge, sticky wet spot on the sidewalk. At first, Christina thought it was water. But it never dried up, and the stuff got all over her dog's paws. It also reeked of food. Christina guessed that it was used cooking oil. Before we keep going, we should tell you that one of the main reasons Orianna looks good at all is that Christina and her family keep it clean.

KABUL, Afghanistan - In the gray light of each cold dawn, the parents of 10-month-old Shoaib hold their own breath as they listen for the rasp of his, waiting to see whether their coughing, feverish little boy has survived another night. Winter's chill has settled over the Afghan capital, and with it, privation is sharpening, especially among the city's poor. Nighttime temperatures regularly fall into the teens or lower. The season's first snow is on the ground, the open sewage ditches are crusted over with ice, and in shantytowns such as the one where Shoaib's family lives, survival turns on a series of cruelly simple calculations.

TAMARA SEPE and her husband, Bill Curran, have lived in the Callowhill area for the past seven years. They each have their own businesses and are raising their 10-month-old son there. "We like the proximity to all the amenities of the city," Sepe said of the area, known as "the Loft District" to some and "Chinatown North" to others. "We also like the architecture and history of the neighborhood. We like the community, and we like its social history of being a community of immigrants.

Andres Oppenheimer is a Latin America correspondent for the Miami Herald Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's critics took advantage of his absence for cancer treatment in Cuba to blame him for all kinds of misdeeds, but it's time to give him credit for having performed a true economic miracle in his country. I'm not kidding. What Chavez has done in Venezuela over the last 12 years is nothing short of an economic miracle: Despite benefiting from the biggest oil boom in Venezuela's history, he has somehow managed to turn the country into a shambles.

MAHIMAHI WITH WHITE BEAN RAGOUT AND TOMATO SUGO 4 8-ounce portions mahimahi Sea salt White pepper 1 cup raw navy beans soaked for 24 hours 4 cups water 1/2 Spanish onion 1 celery rib 1 small carrot 1 sprig thyme 1 fresh bay leaf 1 pint cherry tomatoes 5 cloves garlic 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon butter 5 basil leaves For the sugo: In a stainless steel...

There are three general varieties of olive oil on American grocery-store shelves. Here's a guide. Extra virgin olive oil Made from fully ripened olives that are pressed right after harvest, this oil should have a robust, fruity flavor and rich, greenish-gold color. Use extra virgin olive oil when you want its flavor to shine through - on salads, in vegetable dishes, for bread dipping and to season marinades, sauces and soups. Olive oil All-purpose cooking oil, sometimes described as "pure olive oil," has a mild taste that can be a flavor-enhancer in various dishes.

Passersby may have noted a crane towering over the Four Seasons Hotel last week, just out of misting range of the nearby Swann Fountain. The crane was hoisting microturbines to the roof, to help generate the hotel's energy (equal to getting 509 cars off the road annually), and as a bonus, hauling up the wooden frames and bags of house-blend compost for what is to be a modest kitchen garden. It was certainly the most visible bit of greening going on in the city's hard-pressed feeding sector.

Concrete countertops are becoming more popular, and understandably so. The ingredients are relatively inexpensive, the installation is relatively easy with a step-by-step guide, and the project is green. Designer Fu-Tung Cheng, the guru of concrete use in kitchens, baths and other residential spaces, continues his mission in his new book, Concrete Countertops Made Simple (Taunton Press, $21.95), which comes with a how-to DVD and illustrations for adding style and flair to your DIY project.

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. - Every business looks for a trademark, and Matthew Danchanko has spent five years toiling to make quality the mark of his general contracting company in Johnstown. But since last week, the most discernible quality of Danchanko Inc. might be that its dump truck smells like french fries. With diesel costs climbing locally to nearly $4.90 a gallon, Danchanko began researching biodiesel and invested about $3,500 in the equipment and supplies he needed. Biodiesel is made through a process of straining used cooking oil - procured from restaurants for a small fee - that is mixed with select additives.