Dining: For most of us, eating fruitcake never sounds like a good idea, so making it would be a complete waste of time. And under normal circumstances, there really would be no reason to even try to make it better because the ingredients on their own: the funky red and green cherries, the unidentifiable weird crunchy nuggets (whose idea were those?), and the strong liquor just aren’t appealing. And, its sooooo dark that you can’t help but feel that there must be something hiding in there. Comment.

Dining: Sausage lovers, rejoice! You’re about to get your own restaurant! Comments (1).

Dining: There’s a new nightcap in Williamsburg, and — gasp! — it’s not alcoholic. Comment.

Dining: La Taqueria on Seventh Avenue is showing off its tequila collection. Who says no one likes a show-off? With video … Comment.

Dining: The owners of Bar Toto and Bar Tano — the sleek, Euro-modern bar-cafes — are expanding their mini-empire to include an all-day cafe in the Eighth Avenue storefront just vacated by the failed Pumpkins Organic Market, The Brooklyn Paper has learned. Comments (6).

Dining: Brooklyn has many heroes. But on Thanksgiving, these are the giants. Comment.

Dining: The grand opening of Morton’s the Steakhouse last Thursday night was a venerable who’s who of Brooklyn royalty — and even Mayor Bloomberg made a rare appearance in the borough, acknowledging that it would be a mis-steak not to “meat” the new neighbors. Comment.

Dining: It is the best of times, it is the most exhausting of times. Comments (2).

Dining: Morton’s the Steakhouse — a national chain that will open on Nov. 21 in hopes of taking the legendary Peter Luger by the horns — offered The Brooklyn Paper a sneak preview of its Adams Street dining room and menu this week. Our full-team coverage — including Gersh Kuntzman, Ben Muessig, Sarah Portlock, Mike McLaughlin and Vince DiMiceli — bring you inside for a mouth-watering exclusive look at their lunch that you’ll only see on BrooklynPaper.com. With video … Comments (3).

Dining: Just in time for that other bird holiday, Atomic Wings opened its first outlet in Park Slope on Nov. 4, giving Brooklynites a taste of what many believe has been the most-elusive snack in the borough — the perfect Buffalo chicken wing. Comments (3).

Dining: Morton’s is best known for its $53 porterhouses, but when the chain’s first Brooklyn location opens on Nov. 21, its bar will actually be a great place to ride out the recession. Yes, we are talking about three cheeseburgers for $6. Comments (2).

Dining: Downtown office workers, starving for a delicious lunchtime sandwich, can now have their day on Court — F. Martinella’s has opened. Comment.

Dining: Finally, Manhattan will get a taste of what Brooklynites have been devouring for years. Comments (8).

Dining: Spencer Rothschild has a dream to make the corner of Fifth Avenue and President Street in Park Slope into a “Latin American beach resort.” Comment.

Dining: Is the revitalization of Red Hook back on schedule? Consider the latest evidence: a former Van Brunt deli is now the upscale New American bistro Kevin’s — a sit-down eatery with a local feel. Comments (4).

Dining: Even the organizer of next week’s Brooklyn vegetarian restaurant week admits that vegan and vegetarian cuisine is going the way of the dodo bird (which, apparently tasted good). Comments (17).

Dining: The New College Restaurant looks like it’s been taking finishing classes. It’s now a hipster hot spot called “South Slope.” Comment.

Awesome: Our burgermeister Gersh Kuntzman brings you to the Burger Bash in this exclusive video. With video … Comment.

Dining: So a Tibetan restaurant has opened in Ditmas Park, prompting at least one important question: What is Tibetan food? Comments (2).

Dining: The proof is in the pupusa for a beloved Latino food vendor from Red Hook Park whose simple snacks may be named the best street food in the city next week. Comment.

Dining: The best gelato doesn’t come from a cooler in Sicily, but rather a tanning salon in Bensonhurst. Comments (3).

Dining: Anyone who’s seen “Sideways” knows the basics of wine tasting — swirl glass, stick in nose, inhale — but how do you go about tasting a Jim Beam? Or a Basil Hayden’s, for that matter? Comment.

Dining: In the end, Heath Ledger’s legacy is not an A-list life lived in the fast lane, but a cozy little restaurant in Greenpoint. Comments (4).

The Search: Our columnist admits that some brunches are OK. Comments (1).

The Search: Our dumped columnist finds a silver lining in the cloud of romantic despair: He’s done with brunch, baby! Comments (6).

Dining: Here’s an offer you can’t pass up: Free food. On Sept. 18, dozens of eateries along Park Slope’s Seventh Avenue — the dowdy older brother to hot hip restaurant rows on Fifth Avenue and Smith Street — will be doling out hors d’oeuvres and other toothsome samples in the latest phase of the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce’s “Buy in Brooklyn” campaign. Comment.

Dining: Downtown Brooklynites will be unsuspecting guinea pigs at a new deli on Court Street: the Italian-sounding F. Martinella delicatessen near State Street is actually a retail concept store for the Boar’s Head cold-cut conglomerate. Comments (2).

Dining: The city reversed itself and halted work on an embattled raw bar being built on a residential block of Hoyt Street in Carroll Gardens. Comment.

Dining: Are you craving a big night out, but feeling the pinch of inflation? Do you want to get away from it all, but can’t bear to get on a plane and witness how little the U.S. dollar now buys? Well, as close as Gravesend, there is a Russian nightclub where your dollar seems to have all of the purchasing power of the ruble, circa 1989. Comments (1).

Dining: Restaurateur Joe Chirico plans on reopening the historic Gage and Tollner chop house somewhere in Brooklyn. Comments (3).

Dining: The legendary Harlem fried-chicken-and-waffles joint, Amy Ruth’s, may not open in Downtown as planned, leaving many soul-food-lovers empty-stomached. Comments (1).

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comment.

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comment.

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comments (1).

Brooklyn Angle: Our columnist went to the official “Welcome Back” ceremony for the Red Hook vendors — but found himself getting nauseus from all the politicians taking credit for “saving” the vendors from the very bureaucracy they set up to ensnare them! With video … Comments (3).

Dining: Spencer Rothschild’s two-month-old Mexican restaurant, “Barrio,” gets a warm reception in Park Slope. Comment.

Dining: Sweat dripped from customers’ chins into their mugs of Sixpoint beer. The fumes of grilling pork rose to meet the smell of close, hot bodies. And then it began to pour. This was the second annual UnFancy Food Show, a celebration of Brooklyn food artisans and small producers in a defiantly un-fancy setting in Williamsburg. With video … Comment.

Dining: Food producers from all over the world flocked to the annual Fancy Food and Confection show at the Javits Center, but Brooklyn companies came out in full force. We tasted everything and present this year’s report. With video … Comments (1).

Dining: Sandy Miller’s new book, “Cafe Life New York,” takes an in-depth look at 21 New York City coffee shops — six in Brooklyn — and what makes them special. Comment.

Dining: Four months is a long time to go without decent General Tsao’s chicken, but South Slope’s patience will be rewarded when a new Chinese restaurant opens in the former Red Hot Szechuan spot on Seventh Avenue at 10th Street this summer. Comment.

Dining: On Wednesday, April 30, over 500 hungry people crowded into Steiner Studios for the 11th year of “Brooklyn Eats,” a celebration of food and entertainment from throughout the borough. Comments (3).

Breaking Chews: We're dishing up Brooklyn's latest food news! Comment.

Dining: Recipes for Super Bowl snacks from local chefs. Comment.

Dining: In a town with plenty of hole-in-the-wall, so-so Mexican joints, Piramide delivers carefully seasoned “modern Mexican” cuisine in a warm setting. Comments (1).

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comment.

Dining: ”The American Cancer Society doesn’t like tobacco, that’s for sure,” said Sally Cooper, the regional vice president of the American Cancer Society, but that didn’t stop her group from throwing an over-the-top fundraiser at DUMBO’s Tobacco Warehouse on Tuesday. Comment.

Dining: Visit any of these eateries and you can dine like a globetrotter without leaving the borough. Comment.

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comment.

Dining: Park Slope is turning into a veritable Little Bangkok. On Seventh Avenue, between Eighth and 15th streets, GO Brooklyn has counted at least four Thai restaurants. This reporter likes pad Thai as much as the next guy, but is there really room for all of these eateries? Comments (1).

Dining: Ever wonder how the letters in alphabet soup are made? Across the country they are created with extrusion dies made at Maldari & Company in Gowanus. Comment.

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comment.

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comment.

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comment.

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news. Comment.

Dining: ”It’s been crazy,” Spero Katehis, owner of the New St. Clair Restaurant, told GO Brooklyn as he worked the register and answered phones on Feb. 25, the first day that the Cobble Hill stalwart was back in business. After a five-month break, the diner opened its doors under the watchful eye of Katehis (who also owns the Carroll Gardens Classic Diner on Smith Street), and on its first day, it was indeed swamped. Comment.

Dining: ”Every restaurateur has to grow up at some stage,” laughed Mark Henegan, and with this month’s re-launch of Madiba, his eight-year-old South African restaurant in Fort Greene, Henegan is doing just that. Comment.

Music: If you saw these billboards cruising all over Carroll Gardens and park Slope last weekend, they were literally pedaling this weekend’s “Gowanus Goes Green” festival. Comment.

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comment.

Dining: As kosher kitchens busy themselves in preparation for Passover, the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts in Midwood is on hiatus for a few weeks — so they were able to kibbitz with GO Brooklyn about Passover food trends. Comment.

Dining: ”Japanimated” — focusing on the art and culture of the land of the rising sun — is the theme of the Brooklyn Museum’s “First Saturday” on April 5. Comment.

Dining: Borough President Marty Markowitz kicked off Brooklyn’s restaurant week with a startling revelation to his wife, Jamie: He has secret trysts at the Downtown Atlantic restaurant, where baker Fran Sippel dishes up what he can’t have at home. Comment.

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news. Comments (2).

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news. Comments (1).

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news. Comments (2).

Dining: Last summer, Turkish restaurant Alaturka opened on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. Not long after I finished my last bite of “shwarma,” it closed. In November, Mediterra took its place. Comment.

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comment.

Dining: Historic cookery specialist Carolina Capehart shared three “receipts” — or recipes — which she believes will be “fairly easy for readers to try.” Comment.

Dining: As guests sat down to dinner on Tuesday night at Marco Polo Ristorante’s 25th anniversary celebration, a group of musicians crowded around the piano and launched into the theme from “The Godfather.” Live music, endless amounts of wine and a jaw-dropping menu of Marco Polo’s famous Italian dishes? Now that was an offer few could refuse. Comment.

Dining: Toro, the formerly Spanish-Asian fusion restaurant inside the white Italianate building on DUMBO’s edge, is back in business — losing the Latin flavor and adding an awesome lunch deal. Comments (1).

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comment.

Dining: I’d heard rumors about the building forever. Perched on the corner of North Sixth Street and Wythe Avenue, completely encased in vertical wood planks, some people said it was a restaurant, others claimed it was a private dining club and still more swore it was a warehouse with some dark, nefarious purpose. What’s inside of 77 N. Sixth St. was quickly growing into a Williamsburg urban legend, like the affordable studio apartment or pleasant rush hour commute on the L train. But it’s a Toyko-style Japanese restaurant. Comment.

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comment.

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comment.

Dining: Let it be known that 2007 was the year of the cocktail in Brooklyn. Lists of “elixers” concocted by “mixologists” were as important in some restaurants — more important sometimes — than the entrees. Here is a fond look back at a year of indulging in bacon and booze in Brooklyn’s restaurants.  Comment.

Dining: For Carolina Capeheart, slow cooking isn’t about basting a chicken in fat and leaving it in the Crockpot all day — it’s about plucking that bird, churning that butter and roasting the whole thing herself over an open fire. Comment.

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comments (1).

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comment.

Dining: Bay Ridge’s Austin’s Steakhouse offers rich slabs of beef in a sophisticated setting. Comment.

Dining: Actress Lorraine Bracco unveils her new wine in Bay Ridge Comment.

Dining: The Center for Kosher Culinary Arts brings classes in fruit and vegetable carving, sushi-making and more to Midwood. Comments (4).

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comments (1).

Dining: Ted Allen’s one lucky foodie. On Monday, March 10, the Clinton Hill resident and television personality — he calls himself “cable famous” — will have a chance to combine two of his great passions, food and philanthropy, when he hosts “Savor,” an evening of fun, fundraising and French fare held to benefit the Gay Men’s Health Crisis. Comment.

Dining: In an event that can only be called revolutionary, timid, tree-hugging, animal-loving vegans are being invited to take off their gloves (organic cotton, of course) and get up to their elbows in spicy wings for a “Vegan Buffalo Wing Eating Contest.” Comment.

Dining: “Yiddish food is the Rodney Dangerfield of cuisine,” said Park Slope cookbook author Arthur Schwartz. “It doesn’t get any respect.” With the release of his newest book, “Arthur Schwartz’s Jewish Home Cooking,” the Marine Park native is hoping to change all that. Comments (1).

Dining: Dust off your bibs and elastic-waist slacks, “Brooklyn Eats” is back! The ultimate smorgasbord celebration of the borough’s restaurant scene, which was an annual event from 1997 through 2006 at the Brooklyn Marriott in Downtown Brooklyn, has announced its 2008 date and a new locale: April 30 at Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Comment.

Dining: As we write, the heady scent of homemade chocolate treats is wafting from every corner of the borough. Among the sweets emporiums we visited for freshly made Valentine’s Day gift-giving ideas were a 61-year-old chocolate shop in Midwood that has been handed down from father to son, a less-than-year-old-kosher chocolate store in Park Slope, and everything in between. Comments (1).

Dining: Dec. 21 marked the first official day of winter, the season of snowball fights, roaring fires and wooly sweaters. There’s one beverage that celebrates the feelings that this time of year provokes: hot chocolate. Comments (1).