StripSteak Opens at Mandalay Bay

Michael Mina Raises the Steaks in Las Vegas

Acclaimed Chef Michael Mina breaks new ground with the debut of StripSteak at Mandalay Bay, his first steakhouse. With its classic menu, inviting bar scene and sophisticated atmosphere, StripSteak plays host to guests looking for the perfect filet in a modern alternative to the traditional steakhouse setting.

A dinner at StripSteak may begin with Kobe Carpaccio with Thai-Style Tomato Salad, Foie Gras Sliders with Peach Chutney and Basil or Bacon-Wrapped Lobster Fritters.

As with Mina's other restaurants, StripSteak uses only the highest quality ingredients -- corn-fed, all-natural meat; line-caught seafood and fresh, seasonal produce. While first-rate components are essential, it is Mina's creative approach to cooking that has made his name. StripSteak features a menu rife with imaginative interpretations of classic steakhouse favorites using state-of-the-art kitchen equipment.

Growing up in Washington State and working at several meat-packing plants, I was exposed to beef at a much younger age than seafood, Chef Mina said. Mandalay Bay has provided me with the perfect opportunity to go back to my roots and open my first steakhouse.

StripSteak offers two varieties of beef, Certified Angus Beef and American Kobe, and is home to two wood-burning grills and six circulating, slow-poaching chambers. The signature slow-poaching method enhances flavor and tenderness by heating the meat for several hours at a low temperature, while the mesquite-stoked grills infuse every cut with a subtle smokiness.

For example, The Colorado Lamb is slow poached in extra-virgin olive oil and rosemary jus for up to 12 hours before being finished on the wood-burning grill.

A dinner at StripSteak may begin with Kobe Carpaccio with Thai-Style Tomato Salad, Foie Gras Sliders with Peach Chutney and Basil or Bacon-Wrapped Lobster Fritters. While beef reigns supreme, other options range from Wood-Grilled Maine Lobster with Truffled Pearl Pasta and Cipollini Onions to Whole-Fried Organic Chicken with Truffled Mac & Cheese.

To match the decadent entrees, Mina created a menu of indulgent side dishes, including Duck Fat Fries, Artichokes Rockefeller and Broccoli Gruyere Fondue.

The wine list, under the leadership of Mina Group Wine Director Rajat Parr and Sommelier Bernabe De Luna Lopez, emphasizes boutique California wineries accented with selections from France, Spain, Austria, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. The collection includes Grand Cru Red and White Burgundies, First Growth Bordeaux as well as a rare collection of cult classic California wines.

In addition to the impressive wine selection, StripSteak offers a menu of classic, handcrafted cocktails. The creative cocktail list, much like the menu, pays homage to the classics while highlighting a changing roster of fresh ingredients. A Modern Ward, for example, is given star treatment with the addition of Pomegranate Molasses and Orange Bitters, while single malt Scotch is chilled with special 2-by-2-inch ice cubes.

The restaurant is designed by Japanese firm Super Potato, known for its highly polished work in Japan (Hyatt Regency Kyoto), London (Zuma) and Las Vegas (Sensi restaurant at Bellagio). When conceiving StripSteak, Super Potato chose a more unrefined aesthetic, balancing raw, industrial materials -- steel, fiberglass and roughhewn teak-with clean, fluid lines and rich hues such as plum and garnet. An expansive lounge area, with seating for 70, spills out onto Mandalay Bay's promenade, creating a boisterous and lively scene. Opposite the entrance is a large picture window that allows bystanders a peek into the kitchen and the two imposing wood-fired grills burning beyond. Behind the three-sided glass bar, the dining room is filled with cherry wood tables and booths separated by glass partitions. Four projectors cast images of flowing water onto large panels in the ceiling and two backlit blue and red fiberglass installations hang on opposite walls.

Bill Hornbuckle, president of Mandalay Bay, said, Michael Mina is a brilliant chef and we're thrilled to have him at our resort. Michael's understanding of exceptional cuisine and his versatility as a chef makes him an excellent addition to our all-star lineup of award-winning restaurants and chefs.

StripSteak's dining room seats 140 guests, plus 70 in the lounge, 36 in the private dining room and 45 in a semi-private dining room. StripSteak is open nightly at 5:30 p.m. The lounge opens at 4 p.m.
About the Author

The age of the author is 35 and this article is about the food.

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Bedroom Colors

A touch of color can transform the most subtle, plain looking bedroom into a cozy, pleasing to the eye room.Colors on the walls and in the carpet can be carried through with accessories like plants, throws, and chairs.



Colors on the walls and in the carpet can be carried through with accessories like plants, throws, and chairs.



For a feeling of peace and calmness, the walls, ceiling and carpet should be pale, pastel colors complimented with brighter colors with dark trim for curtains and upholstery.



To make a room appear cooler, neutral shades can be used. Neutral colors can add to the freshness and lightness of the room as well. A soft and feminine feeling can be achieved by using soft colored fabrics for the walls. Throw pillows of the same color can be added for a greater effect. The use of striking fruit and flower patterns on the walls and ceiling can give a bedroom a garden-like feeling and carpet, throws and window dressing colors can enhance the creative design. For a more conservative look, cool colors with clean lines can be used and colored tiles can be used for flooring.



Sharply contrasting colors are used to echo or delineate the shape of a room. For maximum coolness the walls and ceilings should be left plain. Color should be used in a subtle manner, thereby giving an overall calm and relaxing effect.



In order to soften the edges of a bedroom and to distract the eye from the ceiling, soft cloth can be hung on the walls, and floors and ceilings should be pale to match the pockets of color on bed coverings, plants and baskets. Red and white when used in different proportions, gives a cheerful and fresh look to a bedroom.



If you are on a tight budget, the best solution is to use white on white to create a maximum effect. The monotony can be broken by adding foliage. Boldly colored wall paper can be used for the walls and repeated in the curtains -- creating a warm and luxurious effect. To give a stark colored room a feeling of intimacy, pastel colored blinds can be used. Subtle wall paints will also provide a background that is subtle. Plain lines with fine floral designs will add a feeling of freshness to the walls. If a plain carpet is used in the same room, a sense of space is maintained.



A child?s bedroom can be decorated creatively with vivid colors and designs. Furniture can also be brightly colored in a variety of shapes and designs. Themes like Barbie for girls and Spiderman for boys are very popular.





Bedrooms provides detailed information on bedrooms, bedroom furniture, bedroom sets, bedroom accessories and more. Bedrooms is affliated with Antique Bedroom Furniture.

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Cheap New Jersey Homeowners Insurance How to Find It

You want to protect your New Jersey home and its contents from damage caused by theft, fire, lightning, smoke, and other disasters. But where can you find cheap New Jersey homeowners insurance?

Insurance Comparison Sites to the Rescue!

When you're looking for cheap New Jersey homeowners insurance with a reliable company, you should begin your search by visiting an insurance comparison website.

At many comparison sites you can complete a simple questionnaire and get fast homeowners insurance quotes from several A-rated insurance companies. You can then choose which company you want to insure your home.

Getting Started

Before you go online to get your homeowners insurance quotes, you'll need to make a detailed inventory of the property in your home and in storage areas. This inventory will help you figure out how much coverage you need.

It's also a good idea to check your credit rating to make sure it's accurate. Many insurance companies set your rate higher if you have poor credit.

Getting Your Quotes

Now you're ready to go online to an insurance comparison site. At the site you'll fill out a questionnaire with information such as ...

* The square footage of your home and the year it was built.

* The number of miles from your home to the nearest fire station and the number of feet to the nearest hydrant.

* Construction information about your home, such as the type of foundation and roof.

* The limits of coverage and the deductibles you want.

* Safety features in the home, such as deadbolts, smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, and security systems.

Money-Saving Tips

To get your New Jersey homeowners insurance as cheap as possible, follow these tips:

* Set your deductible as high as you can afford. The higher your deductible, the lower your premium.

* Get all the discounts you qualify for. New Jersey homeowners insurance companies typically offer discounts for senior citizens and non-smokers. You may also get a discount if you have multiple policies with the same insurance company. Ask if the company offers any other discounts.

Visit http://www.LowerRateQuotes.com/homeowners-insurance.html or click on the following link to get cheap New Jersey homeowners insurance quotes and see how much you can save. You can get more insurance tips in their Articles section.

The authors, Brian Stevens and Stacey Schifferdecker, have spent 30 years in the insurance and finance industries, and have written extensively on cheap New Jersey homeowners insurance.

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Back Pain and Yoga Guide

Looking at the latest articles on the various types of medical treatment, or look for information on health care products which could be useful. Find tips on eating well and how to enhance your own wellbeing. Apart from advice on how to deal with common ailments to resources, this guide also provide tips for healthy living, aging gracefully.

Heat Therapy. Heat therapy is an easy and inexpensive option to provide relief from many forms of lower back pain. It may be used alone or in conjunction with other therapies. Because it is so simple, it is often overlooked and physicians may forget to mention it, but heat therapy used in the right way can be a valuable part of many lower back pain treatment programs and used with yoga exercise.

Learn the importance of muscles in supporting your skeletal structure, understand how muscles all over your body and limbs affect your back and cause back pain. Learn 10 exercises for lower back pain to strengthen and relax muscles in your buttocks, legs, shoulders and neck to relieve back pain.

Diet and Exercise. Pay attention to your diet and exercise for back pain. Water is very important to your body and back. Avoiding meats and animal proteins till the pain is gone is a good idea. These foods contain uric acid that strains your kidneys resulting in back pain. Some opinions also suggest avoiding the consumption of oils, fats, sugars, or processed foods. If you have back pain, you may wish to consider taking these two vitamin supplements including Vitamin B12 and Magnesium.

Sitting cross-legged (or even in corpse pose), in long deep breathing one will first fill the abdominal area by inhaling the air down, then pressing the air consciously into the lower areas. By arching somewhat forward with ones palms on the knees, then with arms straight pressing the palms inward towards the lower body against the knees, the chest cavity will open forwards, so that you can not only keep the pressure on the lungs in the lower abdominal area, but also feel the lungs filling in and through the chest area and, finally, because of the forward arch of the spine the upper area of the lungs will fill as well, all without the need to either open the rib cage or raise the shoulders. This will also help you with your back
pain.

The goal of bringing mind, body and spirit into unity through breathing practices forms the foundation and link between the mind and the body. This provides a valuable tool for releasing tension and reducing stress and attaining peace, calm and a sense of equilibrium.

Breath with meditation and relaxation techniques can help people with health problems - physical and mental - and better manage the physical and emotional sides of their lives. Whether the techniques are used to reduce anxiety or nausea, achieve calm during the challenges of treatment, or cancer, the control that breath meditation and relaxation bestows is great. Alternate nostril breathing (Anuloma-Viloma), breath meditation, and other relaxation techniques have only proven extremely beneficial in improving the quality of life of many people in hundreds of ways.

By Glen Wood

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A Paternity Test Helps You Know For Sure

Performing a DNA paternity test is the one way to find out for sure if a man is the true biological father of a child. In cases where there is any doubt as to the identity of a child's father, such as where a mother's fidelity is in question, or in some legal child support or custody cases, a paternity test can provide unequivocal results. DNA testing is the most accurate and reliable method of determining the truth about a paternal relationship, with the results providing the conclusive proof that is needed.

Home paternity tests are inexpensive to buy and are easy to use. A paternity test kit will come complete with all the equipment that is needed, such as swabs, forms and containers. Most home DNA tests require the use of buccal swabs to take DNA samples from the inside cheeks of all parties involved. The alleged father and child obviously need to be tested, but it is useful to test the mother as well if possible. The samples need to be placed carefully into labeled tubes or containers and returned to the laboratory for analysis. Most companies that offer paternity test services aim to mail the results back to you as quickly as possible, which can take around a week in most cases.

DNA paternity testing involves the comparison of the DNA sequences for man, child and in many cases the mother. We each have 23 pairs of chromosomes, half of which we inherit from our mother, the other half from our father. If a match is found between a child's DNA and the man's, there is no doubt that he is the biological father. Having a sample of the mother's DNA can help by removing her DNA from the equation.

If there are doubts or disputes about a paternal relationship, then taking a paternity test is the way to know for certain if a man is the biological father of a child. DNA testing is a straightforward procedure that can be done in the privacy of your own home, and provide you with the answers you need.
About the Author

Caroline Smith is a contributor to Paternity-Test.ws - an online paternity testing resource offering information on home paternity tests and general paternity test information.

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10 Scariest Games of All Time

Today is Halloween - October 31, 2006, to be exact. I started thinking about some of the great games that are gory, scary or monster laden; in other words, perfect for Halloween. Some certainly stand out compared to others, and deserve to be recognized.

Here are the top 10 scary games - pinball and arcade included - ever released. Here goes:

10) Monster Bash, Williams. This game falls under the monster laden category. It has all of the major players in the classic monster genre: Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Mummy, Wolfman and Creature from the Black Lagoon. The game has a music theme and the monsters will play their instruments when the player hits the right shots. Get the band together and jam!

9) Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy tortured dozens of teens in their sleep in the seminal 1980s horror films. The pinball game of the same name is a blast to play and features a great Freddy head and claw on the playfield. The real Freddy voices in the game make this a great adaptation of the movie in to a pinball. Don't fall asleep playing this one!

8) Sinistar, Williams. The Sinistar is a robotic boss shop that eats other ships, namely the player, for sport. The Sinistar voice is one of the creepiest things ever in a video game, and when he sneaks up on you it can cause even veteran Sinistar players to twitch. This game is truly one of the darkest, scariest, frenzied arcade games of all time. Beware, I live!

7) Haunted House, Gottlieb. Haunted House is not really scary, but it is a dynamite Halloween themed pin. Three playfield levels make each game an adventurous exploration of the Haunted House. The music is fitting and keeps the game dark and sinister. This is a favorite among collectors and is a blast to play!

6) Medusa, Bally. This is a very underrated pinball game. The backglass image of Medusa is as creepy as it gets, and the pinball has an overall frightening appearance. What could possibly be more scary than a serpent woman that can turn you into store with just one glance? Yikes! The translucent flippers are also a unique touch for this great game.

5) Tales from the Crypt, Data East. This game is great in two different ways. It has some great gore in the video display, and the artwork comes from the comic books and the HBO series. This is one of the best games for the Halloween and Fright Fans out there. It also has excellent speech clips from the Crypt Keeper, John Kassir. This game has one of the very best soundtracks of all time and rivals the best modern Stern Pins in terms of music quality. The tunes come from the HBO show intro and complement the action perfectly. Bravo!

4) Bram Stoker's Dracula, Williams. Man, this is one creepy pinball game. The backglass is great, the game has excellent minigame and video modes, and the dialog from the creepy movie is a nice touch as well. This is the scariest pinball game and one of the scariest movies ever!

3) The House of the Dead, Sega. A combination of zombies and a great story line rocket this game to the top three. The House of the Dead allows players to fight zombies and chainsaw wielding undead with their light guns to save their girlfriend and to stop the evil Dr. Curien. This great game has spawned three sequels - The House of the Dead II, III and IV.

2) Mortal Kombat, Midway. Released shortly after the success of Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat became an instant success in arcades everywhere. Mortal Kombat revolutionized the gory game genre through the use of Fatalities, moves that allowed the player to dismember their opponent after winning their match. These moves included burnings, electrocutions, slicings, stabbings, impalings in the pit, and more. Graphic and grotesque, players couldn't get enough, spawning sequels Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat 4. Mortal Kombat continues to spawn sequels for the major home game systems.

1) Chiller, Exidy. Without question, the goriest game ever, especially for the 1986 release date. The player is supposed to shoot apart people's body parts (exposing bones and blood, and resulting in realistic-sounding shrieks of horror). Various special situations are created as well. For example, shooting the edge of torture racks, to pull human targets apart into two pieces, or shooting the handle of a guillotine in order to drop the blade across someone's neck. Congrats to Exidy, makers of the goriest game ever - Chiller!

Wow! That's a lot of blood, guts and gore at one time. I guess that's why we have the wonderful folks at the ESRB to help protect us from all of this nasty stuff. Or, if you're feeling froggy, check out these great games in your local arcade or in MAME or PinMAME. These represent the best Halloween games in the business and will be sure to satisfy fright fans everywhere. Now, which games will make the list for Christmas? Santa Bash, Santa Kombat and Tales from the North Pole, perhaps? Keep your eyes peeled!

About the Author

Blaine Locklair is the Editor for the High Scores Arcade, an arcade and pinball anthology site. It features articles, a calender, interviews, images, movies, music and sounds, news, tips and tricks, a virtual arcade and a scoreboard for arcade and pinball games. Visit the site at http://www.highscoresarcade.com to get some great arcade and pinball content.

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Free Online Games Games Lovers Paradise

Free games are now the new phenomenon everyone is hooked on, especially bored teenagers who find television shows boring with reality television not much of a draw either. In fact, this new found past-time is set to gain more ground as fast internet access becomes more and more cheap and easy to acquire. Quickly becoming the new social hubs, it is addictive, cheap and most importantly FREE.

The sheer draw of free online games has got no age or gender barriers. A recent game lovers' age survey showed that although roughly three-quarters of their visitors ranged from 8 - 25 years, over 17% were over 35 years of age. This proves that playing games is popular with any age group and people from all backgrounds.

As a result of this explosion of popularity, there are many platforms offering many kinds of free online games with no need to for downloading. As a result, gaming lovers have many possibilities available to them. Some focus on a specific genre such as adventure, action, strategy, board, or card games while others diversify and offer a broad range of free games encompassing all the categories above.

Furthermore, there are some gaming websites that are geared to offering a wide range of games in almost every genre. One such website is Arcadekitty.com which offers free games in categories such as strategy, adventure, rpg, strategy, puzzles just to name a few. It is more like a one stop shop for games only they are free. The advantages of free online games is that you can do it whenever you can spare a few minutes or during your coffee break for instance. Some of these games are educational or brainteasers, others are for pure fun. Free online strategy games, such as Sudoku, for instance test your brain intellect without needing a pen nor paper.

Free online adventure games are the easiest to come by. Role Playing Games allows the gamer to impersonate a desired character while visitors can also pick an online partner to play multi-player games enhancing the very social nature of gaming. Some platforms offer a system of rating which further enhances the experience of new visitors who visit later. Additionally, specific comments can be left on games on some websites. Favourite games can be bookmarked or sent to friends or placed on social network profiles such as Myspace.

Taking advantage of this social environment, some websites offer free chat so game players can hang out and chat, making new friends and meeting people from all over the world. Once again Gamerevolt.com is one such platform. The free chatroom offered by them allows visitors to create their own private rooms where they can invite their friends or new people they have met for a casual chat. Others add more social enhancing content such as forums, downloads and games cheat to their visitors. This includes X box game cheats, PS 2 game cheats, Game boy cheats, and cheats for other platforms.

On the whole, online gaming is an explosive and social environment and set to expand further in the future.

By Jake Jenkins

Play free games, find games cheat and free chat at Gamerevolt.com

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