Beef has been and always will be what's for dinner.

Porterhouses, filet mignon, and strip steaks are staples on restaurant menus and in grocery aisles. But there are some lesser-known cuts that are just as tasty and often less expensive.

The American Angus Association shared this beef breakdown with us. Click through to find out more about the major cuts of beef, and the best ways to prepare them.

CHUCK: Blade Steak, Eye Steak, Arm Roast, Blade Roast, Short Ribs, Flatiron Steak, 7-Bone Roast.

The chuck contains connective tissue (including fat and collagen) which partially melts during cooking. The meat is prepared by stewing, slow cooking, braising, or pot roasting to make the meat tender.

Chuck is also commonly made into ground beef (for hamburgers, meatballs, etc.), and is one of the more economical cuts available.

Source: Williams-Sonoma

BRISKET: Whole Brisket, Front Cut, First Cut.

Made from the breast or lower chest of the cow, brisket is a tough beef cut that is prepared by braising or slow smoking.

It is also commonly cured and made into pastrami or corned beef.

Source: Williams-Sonoma

FORE SHANK: Shank Cross Cut.

Taken from the upper leg of cattle, the fore shank is tough, dry, and sinewy. The meat is commonly cooked in moist heat or used to create beef stock.

Since not many people buy beef shank, it's not typically found in stores as anything other than low-fat ground beef. It is fairly cheap in butcher shops though, and an ideal cut for beef Bourguignon.

Source: Williams-Sonoma

For everyone dreaming of a chance to visit the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea, it is becoming easier than ever due to the North Korea Travel App. 

This app will feature information on over 350 locations throughout the country. Each location will feature "Tour Guide Tips" provided by Simon Cockerell, who works in the North Korea travel industry and has visited the country over 120 times.

North Korea might not be most people's first choice to visit for vacation — especially since American tourists have been arrested in the country. For those brave enough to risk the potential of an arrest, however, a visit to North Korea would be an amazingly unique experience. 

Below are some of the most famous and highly recommended travel locations in this secretive country. 

Namsan Square is your best location for eating deep fried sparrow.

Namsan Square is a major location for eating local food from outdoor kiosks and sampling some of the local beer — although, be warned, it apparently tastes like a mix of old coffee and dishwater.

The Ryongmun Cavern offers a six kilometer hike underground.

These caves in outer Hyangsan are impressive due to the oddly shaped stalactites and stalagmites throughout. Hikers are encouraged to bring their own flashlights since the electricity in the caves does at times fail.

Yangakkdo Hotel has an infamous fifth floor.

The Yangakkdo is the main tourist hotel in Pyongyang, and it is topped with a revolving restaurant. There are also rumors that the fifth floor, which is not accessible by elevator, is used as a surveillance suite for the rest of the hotel. 

The North Korea Maternity Hospital places great importance on expectant mothers. 

Mothers who have more than five children are given the title 'hero mother.' North Korea places great emphasis on childbirth due, possibly, to the fact that Kim Jong Il's mother died while delivering him. 

Youth-hero highway is the most empty highway in the world. 

The ten-lane Youth-hero highway was built during the famine of the 1990s by "young people," aged 17 to 40. Some claim that the almost totally empty highway was built to be able to double as an aircraft runway in the event of a war. 

The Ryugyong Hotel is still unfinished after 25 years. 

The 105-story glass pyramid is planned to contain around 3,000 rooms, with additional space for offices, shops, a casino, and a health complex. Work on the hotel is now being undertaken by Egyptian conglomerate Orascom. 

The Runga Dolphinarium in downtown Pyongyang features highly trained dolphins and handlers. 

The show is only about 20 minutes long, but the dolphinarium uses real salt water pumped all the way from the ocean.  

The Majon Pleasure Resort is one of North Korea's most recent '7 star' hotels. 

Built in 2009, the Majon Pleasure Resort offers the highest level of luxury available in North Korea. The hotel comes equipped with 10-pin bowling, a swimming pool, and a bar. 

The Masik-Ryong Ski Resort has only just opened in 2014.

As of publishing, no tourists have yet been allowed to ski at this location due to safety concerns. It should open to tourists in the future, however. 

The Ryonggang Hot Spa Hotel offers a unique local delicacy. 

The local speciality, clam BBQ, is cooked with gasoline. A pile of clams is spread out on the ground, doused in gasoline, and then set alight. Generally. the clams are nicely cooked, although occasionally you might encounter a clam that did not ignite and is full of gas. 

Pujon Town is the remotest part of North Korea open to tourists.

Pujon Town is deep in the south of Hamgyong Province, and most tour guides have not visited here before. Visiting it provides a chance to see as close to a real slice of North Korea as possible. 

The Chilbo Mountain range is almost completely free from revolutionary propaganda. 

Various rock formations in the Chilbo Mountains have unique folk tales associated with them. Hiking is possible along the mountain paths, and you are also able to swim in the local rivers. 

Tongbong Farm gives a glimpse of what collective farming is like.

Tongbong Farm is a model farm and a tourist destination; however, it is still very much a functioning farm. Thousands of residents live on the farm, and it is also host to a revolutionary farm museum.

No visit to North Korea would be complete without seeing the Taedonggang Brewery Bar.

The Taedonggang Brewery Bar, in eastern Pyongyang, produces some of the best beer in North Korea. Beer aficionados can buy beer and brander beer glasses here. 

SEE ALSO: If you want to explore the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea, there's an app for that

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Kickstarter threw a block party at its Brooklyn headquarters this weekend, featuring booths and games from a host of successfully funded projects.  

They also gave tours of the company's brand-new offices, located in what used to be the Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory in Greenpoint. For a team that used to work in a Lower East Side tenement building where they had to do their dishes in a bath tub, this historic building is a huge upgrade. 

The renovated space includes plenty of reclaimed wood and industrial details. Many of the construction materials are sustainable, including the building's insulation, which also happens to be edible. 

The 80-person team moved to Brooklyn in January, but this weekend was the first time they opened their offices to the public. 

The new offices are located on Kent Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. We visited during their block party this weekend.

"Future Phenomena," a massive fabric mural by Brooklyn artist Amanda Browder, hung over the building's facade during the party. The piece was sponsored by NBArts, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and Kickstarter funds.

Inside, we got a peek at where the Kickstarter team gets their work done during the week.

Susan Aflak was working crazy-long hours as an investment banker when a lunchtime visit to a food truck gave her the idea for a new business venture. 

"I barely had enough time to eat, let alone run beauty errands. If I wanted to go to a salon on my birthday weekend, for example, nothing would be open," Aflak said to Business Insider. "One day during lunch, I saw a food truck outside — and it seems kind of silly to say — but I thought, ‘If only that food truck could do it for me.'" 

In 2012, Aflak decided to leave her finance job behind to make her entrepreneurial dream a reality. After going to beauty school to get her manicurist license, she spent a year renovating a retro Airstream trailer before opening La Lacquerie, a mobile nail salon, this January. Manicures in Aflak's trailer range from $16 to $38, with pedicures costing between $19 and $45. Two or three nail technicians take appointments on any given day. Some work for La Lacquerie full-time, while others take appointments on their days off from their more traditional salon jobs. 

Her business initially consisted of private parties, but it wasn't long before she landed her first corporate partnership, with a little company called Google. 

"Tech firms in Silicon Valley are trying to make things easier for their employees. The women who work there are very busy. They work long hours, plus they have families and other responsibilities. A lot of them are living in San Francisco and taking the bus down every day," Aflak said. "I think it’s something people had been asking for, but it didn’t really exist."

The partnership with Google proved to be extremely valuable, and word spread quickly on social media. 

"Driving the trailer to Google is like a giant walking billboard," she said.

She now makes regular stops at Facebook and Electronic Arts in addition to twice-weekly sessions at the Googleplex. She'll be starting visits to YouTube soon. 

The salon has been a big hit with techies so far. Women — and a few men — stop by Aflak's trailer during their lunch hour, before they head home after work, or even for team-building events and one-on-one performance reviews. 

"Some people will bring their laptops in and work during their pedicure," she said. 

Five months after launching, Aflak's days are still crazy. She generally arrives on-site three hours before the first appointment, oversees a full day of bookings, then spends several hours managing operations and answering emails. 

"And I’m personally driving the trailer. That’s definitely the most nerve-wracking part," she said.  

SEE ALSO: A Harvard Woman Figured Out How To 3D Print Makeup From Any Home Computer, And The Demo Is Mindblowing

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David Stockman, the former budget director who is largely associated with "Reaganomics," and his wife Jennifer Stockman, president of the Guggenheim Foundation, just purchased a 4,902-square-foot penthouse in Yorkville, according to The Real Deal.

The couple reportedly paid $14.85 million, $50,000 above the most recent asking price. The apartment was sold by real estate developer Alexandre Bosoni. 

The five-bedroom, six-bathroom penthouse is located in the newly constructed 170 East End Avenue, which, according to the Corcoran Group, has a ton of perks.

The building includes features such as a Pilates room, golf simulator, and a children's interactive room with computer games.

This is what 170 East End Avenue looks like. Some of the perks include a yoga studio, squash court, and movie theater.

The apartment boasts 11.5-foot ceilings, which is especially nice when there are ceiling-to-floor windows. Here are the views you get in the living room.

The formal dining room includes a wood-burning fireplace, private balcony, and fits a 16-person table.

While scientists have discovered ways for men to improve their appearances and dance skills, they haven't found a way to improve one's singing voice.

They have, however, uncovered the various ways singing can make you a happier and healthier person.

Produced by Will Wei

NOW WATCH: Scientists Discovered What Makes Someone A Good Dancer

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Cooking is full of fun science lessons.

Michael Stevens, the host of popular science video show "VSauce" and chef Jamie Oliver team up in this YouTube video as part of the "FoodTube" series to show us how to turn eggs whites the color green using completely natural ingredients — no synthetic dyes or other funky stuff is involved.

Here's a step-by-step guide of how to perform the trick. It shows science in action.

First, you'll need an egg. Next, you'll need to chop up some some red cabbage. Soak it in water and microwave it for a couple of minutes.

This produces a beautiful purple juice. Red cabbage juice is commonly used as a pH indicator, or a compound that changes color when added to a solution to indicate whether that solution is acidic or alkaline.

Now separate the whites into a bowl. The whites are alkaline.

When the purplish cabbage juice is added to the egg white, it turns them turquoise. If you cook it in a frying pan, you get "green" eggs.

Now check out what happens when you add acidic lemon juice to the purple cabbage juice — it turns bright pink!

Check out the full video below. You can find more fun science videos from VSauce here and more from FoodTube videos with Jamie Oliver here.

SEE ALSO: Why We Crave Sugar

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The San Francisco home of Richard Thalheimer, founder and former CEO of The Sharper Image, has nearly everything you would expect from the domain of a tech executive. 

Touch-screen monitors in each room control the home's sound system, security cameras, and window treatments. Nine flatscreen TVs situated throughout the house mean that you can get a high-definition movie experience in almost every room, and an internal elevator provides easy access to all three floors. There's even a C-3PO statue in the living room. 

The 7,750-square-foot home is located just off San Francisco's Billionaire's Row in Pacific Heights, where Oracle's Larry Ellison, Apple's Jonathan Ive, and Zynga's Mark Pincus all own homes. 

After initially hitting the market for $11.95 million in October 2013, the home reduced its asking price by $1 million back in February. According to Curbed SF, it sold for $10.12 million on April 29.

The Mediterranean-style home was built in the 1920s and renovated in 2004.

Pass through tall hedges to get to the glass-paned front door.

In the Great Room, spaces for eating and lounging flow together in one communal area.

Trains may not be the fastest mode of travel, but, they can be the most memorable. From their luxurious interiors to the breathtaking scenery going by outside the window, trains can transform any trip into a nostalgic journey.

As Mark Smith, a British travel writer, told the Herald Sun, “A great train ride is that triple combination of the scenery outside the train, the experience inside the train and the people you meet and things that happen on that specific trip which make it memorable.” 

These 16 train journeys will whisk you away from one country to the next, while you dine on fine meals and watch the countryside roll by. You’ll soon realize why, for many, the only real travel is by train.

The Glacier Express takes passengers across 80 miles in the Swiss Alps at an altitude of 6,670 feet.

The Glacier Express

The train takes travelers from St. Moritz to Zermatt, Switzerland's two most famous ski resorts. The trip is 7 1/2 hours across 291 bridges and through 91 tunnels.

The Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest railway in the world, taking travelers from Moscow all the way to Beijing or Vladivostok. It travels through eight time zones.

U.S. marriage rates have reached historic lows in recent years. Since 1970 — when about 74 marriages happened annually for every 1,000 unmarried women — the marriage rate declined by nearly 60%, dropping to 31 marriages per 1,000 unmarried women by 2012, the National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University found.

The descent is even more pronounced for millennials. In 1960, a little over two-thirds (68%) of all 20-somethings were married. In 2008, just 26% were hitched, according to the Pew Research Center. 

So what's keeping people from tying the knot?

1. The Recession

The economic shock of the recession put marriage on the back burner for many young adults, according to a 2014 study from the Urban Institute.

The Urban Institute looked at millennials' age-specific marriage rates and projected that, if the post-recession rate continues, the number of millennials who marry by age 40 could drop at least 12% from the rate among current 40-year-olds.

Many millennials don't have the economic freedom or security to pursue marriage because the 2007-2008 recession led to depressed wages and increased unemployment. These young people need to focus on graduating and finding a job, instead of courtship and, eventually, paying for their weddings.

Even if the marriage rate bounces back — notably, college-educated have seen a slight increase since the recovery began — fewer millennials will marry by age 40 than for any previous generation of Americans.

2. The Growing Income Gap

With the income gap growing in America, the poor have gotten poorer. Low-income people consequently value economic stability in a spouse even more than they used to. Paradoxically, there's a shortage of financially stable partners in lower-income communities, which may limit marriages.

"Over the past 130 years, the degree of marriage equality has been directly related to the size of the economic gap between rich and poor,"Andrew Cherlin, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, told the Russell Sage Foundation.

As shown by the Hamilton Projects' charts, 83% of 30- to 50-year-old men in the top 10% of annual earnings are married today, whereas only 64% of median earners and half of those in the bottom 25th percentile are hitched.

Now, compare that to men in 1970, whose marriage rates were 95% (top earners), 91% (median earners), and 60% (bottom 25th percentile of earners), respectively.

The same arc applies to women of varying income levels, despite a growing spot in the workforce and gradually increasing salaries. The top 10% of female earners was the only group whose marriage rate increased since 1970, while the bottom 70% of earners saw their marriage rates decline more than 15 points.

But the desire to get married doesn't vary with income or education, according to a 2010 Pew survey. About 46% of the college-educated and 44% of those with a high-school diploma would like to get married. Similar percentages of the unmarried who earn just above and below $100,000 a year feel the same.

The less education and money people had, however, the more likely they said they wanted a spouse who could support a family, Pew found. In recent years, our troubled education system and economy have produced fewer bachelors eligible in this respect.

3. Shifting Public Attitudes

Aside from economic factors, people simply feel differently about marriage as an institution today. A notable decline in religiousness could hold the blame for this attitude shift.

When asked, about four in 10 Americans, regardless of age, agreed that "marriage is becoming obsolete," according to a 2010 Pew survey. In a similar poll of voters conducted by Time in 1978, only 28% felt that way. The divorce rate was also at a near all-time high then too.

4. Contraception Use

The rise of contraception made waiting to marry easier for both genders because they could have sex outside of wedlock without worrying as much about getting pregnant, Becky Stevenson and Justin Wolfers write in the Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Since 1985, general contraception, driven by condom use, has increased nearly 20%, according to CDC data. As a technical innovation, birth control especially afforded women the social and economic freedom to forgo marriage and instead pursue an education and career opportunities.

About 50% of those born between 1941 and 1949 married before age 23, Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz write in the 2002 Journal of Political Economy. With the FDA's approval of the pill in 1960, though, the age when women married started to rise. For those born after 1949, the percent married before age 23 or 24 plummeted. By the time the 1957 babies reached marrying age, the percent dropped a full 20 points than in 1950.

5. Women In The Workforce

Before 1970, more men than women acted as the breadwinners in marriage. As a consequence of that dynamic, some women may have used commitment as a tool for economic stability. But as women have gained spots in the workforce, they've attained the ability to financially support themselves, which has brought greater social and political freedoms.

In 2012, women composed about half of the labor force, up from 38% in 1970. Their introduction rose steadily from then to about 1990 when it leveled off, according to Pew Social Trends data.

Since women joined the workforce, they've also steadily made more money. In 1963, the median woman in America had no income at all. Since then, inflation-adjusted annual earnings of the median full-time female worker increased to almost $20,000 in 2009.

This trend applies to the long term, but on a smaller scale the relationship between female employment and marriage rates becomes slightly more complex, as The Atlantic's Philip Cohen has pointed out. While little doubt exists that financial freedom decreases women's necessity, and therefore desire, to marry, a major influx in the female workforce stems from married women. 

While marriage is declining, it's also changing — women aren't expected to be just housewives anymore.

SEE ALSO: The 'Economics Of Sex' Theory Is Completely Wrong

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Call for nominations!

Each year, Business Insider publishes a list of the most impressive kids graduating from high school.

Most of these teens are barely 18 years old, and they're doing more than many adults could ever hope to do in their lifetimes.

Last year, we profiled a scientist who built a nuclear reactor in his father's garage, a swimmer who won four Olympic gold medals, and a self-taught coder who runs his own app development company.

Any wunderkinds come to mind?

Send an email including the student's name, contact information, a brief description of their accomplishments, and any relevant website links to our Lists & Rankings team: Melia Robinson (mrobinson@businessinsider.com) and Melissa Stanger (mstanger@businessinsider.com). To be eligible, students must be graduating high school in spring 2014.

We'll be accepting nominations through Friday, May 23.

Thanks!

SEE ALSO: Check out last year's list of the most impressive high school grads

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A 66-year-old man behind a hugely popular vegetarian restaurant chain was convicted of murder, but continues to expand his global franchise and enjoy his freedom, according to a riveting New York Times Magazine article.

The South Indian restaurant chain Saravana Bhavan has 33 outposts in India and 47 around the world, including one on the East Side of Manhattan which has gotten a ton of praise on Yelp.

P. Rajagopal, who owns Saravana, was sentenced to life in prison in India in 2009 for orchestrating the murder of the husband of a woman he wanted to marry.

However, he served just 11 months of that sentence. Rajagopal also continues to dominate the globe with his light South Indian fare, Rollo Romig writes in The New York Times Magazine.

India's highest court granted bail to Rajagopal in May 2009, after his lawyer told the court he had paralysis and needed medical treatment, One India News reported. Rajagopal will be out on bail until "the disposal of the criminal appeal in view of his medical condition," according to One India News. In reality, Romig writes for The New York Times, nobody expects him to go back to prison any time soon.

“It’s amazing how he managed it,” Sriram V., a local historian, told The New York Times. “I mean, our legal system is not that bad.”

The murder Rajagopal was charged with — and convicted of — is both gruesome and bizarre. Reportedly on the advice of an astrologer, Rajagopal became determined to wed the daughter of one of his assistant managers, a young woman named Jeevajothi. She wasn't interested in the older restaurant mogul, though. Instead, she fell in love with and married her brother's math tutor, a man referred to in the press as Prince Shantakumar. (It's not clear whether Prince was his first name or some kind of royal designation.)

Rajagopal didn't let that marriage stop his pursuit of Jeevajothi, though.

In October 2001, Shantakumar's strangled body was found in the forest in the hills of India, The Indian Express reported. His official cause of death was "asphyxia due to throttling," according to The Times. Prosecutors say he was killed by one of Rajagopal's henchman.

In 2004, a local court convicted him of culpable murder and sentenced him to 10 years in prison, but his sentence was suspended eight months into his term. Five years later, India's Supreme Court upgraded the conviction to murder and gave him life in prison. Then he got bail again a few months later.

While The Times of India has called him a "notorious criminal," it doesn't seem like Rajagopal's murder conviction hurt his business. That may be because the food — which has been called "splendid" and "the best South Indian restaurant in Manhattan" — is really, really good.

One loyalist told The New York Times, "Some of my friends used to say, 'How can you go and eat in his restaurant? You’re actually fattening the wallet of a murderer.' And I used to tell them, 'Look, I don’t know with whom I do business in my day-to-day activity, whether he’s a drunk or beats his wife. I have no idea, but I do business. So as long as he’s giving me good-quality food, I go there.'"

We reached out to Saravana Bhavan to give them a chance to comment and will update this post if we hear back. In an interview with The New York Times, Rajagopal denied culpability for the murder and said he was "punished for someone else's mistake."

SEE ALSO: A Du Pont Heir Was Given Probation For Raping His 3-Year-Old Daughter Because He Wouldn't 'Fare Well' In Prison

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As First Lady Michelle Obama continues her mission to make our schools a healthier place, the Associated Press decided to go out and see how school lunches in the U.S. stack up against those served around the world.

The AP sent photographers to Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America to see what kids in different countries ate for lunch this week.

The photographers found that while most schools abroad don't actually sell lunch, the ones that do, put a "premium" on feeding their students healthy meals. Students were more likely to go home for lunch or bring a home-cooked meal.

Obama's campaign aims to have more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables served in school cafeterias.

However, students have not exactly been enthusiastic. Recent backlash has included kids taking photos of their meager school lunches and tweeting them, or just refusing to eat them altogether. 

PARIS, FRANCE: Pike fish, green beans, and Paris mushrooms.

LAMBERSART, FRANCE: Another fancy lunch includes rice, salmon, ratatouille, a slice of bread, a salad with celery and carrots, an orange, and a doughnut.

BAMAKO, MALI: Fried donuts, although most students go home to eat.

Singaporean photographer Ernest Goh was traveling to a farm in rural Malaysia for a photo expedition when he stumbled across a local and little-documented culture: chicken beauty pageants. The pageants feature the Ayam Serama breed of chicken, which is bred purely for ornamental purposes and is the smallest chicken in the world.

Goh began traveling to the pageants, which occur once a week in different rural Malaysian villages, and he photographed many of the chickens on display. Goh shared some photos from the project here, and you can check out the rest in his new book, "Cocks."

The Serama breed of chicken originated from the crossbreeding of Japanese and Malaysian bantams or small chickens. The name Serama comes from "Rama," which means king in Thailand. Some origin stories of the Serama say the chicken comes from a Thai king who gave them to a Malaysian sultan.Serama breeding has become more popular over the last decade. While the pageants and breeder clubs are most popular in Malaysia, there are now clubs emerging in Indonesia, Thailand, the United States, Britain, and France.At the beauty pageants in Malaysia, breeders present their chickens one by one to a panel of judges. The judges inspect the chicken based on the chicken's wings, feathers, tail, color, and comb.One of the most important factors in determining a champion is the chicken's "stance" or "spirit." How the chicken walks, puffs out its chest, and struts is very important to the judges.Seramas are very particular in that they tend to stand with their heads lifted toward the sky, their wings downward, and then strut. Goh says that many of the breeders describe them as "warriors" or "soldiers ready for battle."

Birds that have the potential to be champions can sell for as much as $10,000. Thirty years ago, birds were valued for the beauty of their breasts and their ability to stand still. Today, athletic chickens with S-shaped bodies are highly prized.After meeting several enthusiasts, Goh was introduced to Tuan Hassan, an expert breeder who has bred many chickens that have gone on to become “Grand Champions.” In the video below, Goh talks about the origins of the project and his experience meeting Hassan.

Ernest Goh - COCKS, Chicken Beauty Pageants from anotherbeautifulstory on Vimeo.

SEE ALSO: This $2,500 Chicken Is The Lamborghini Of Poultry

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Per Se recently announced that it would start allowing diners to bring their own bottles of wine to the 3 Michelin-star restaurant — for a whopping $150 corkage fee. 

This move got people talking, but Per Se is certainly not the first restaurant to allow diners to bring their own bottles. Dozens of other NYC restaurants feature BYOB policies — and it's not just the cheap hole-in-the wall joints that you'd expect. 

Here are 13 great NYC restaurants that offer BYOB policies. We've noted the corking fee for the restaurants that have one.

Agora

1565 2nd Ave.

This Upper East Side Turkish restaurant is a local favorite for its delicious kebabs, wide assortment of hot and cold appetizers, and its BYOB policy. It's tiny, but gets packed. 

Di Fara

1124 Avenue J., Brooklyn, NY

NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio claims that Di Fara serves the best pizza in NYC, and New Yorkers love it so much that they regularly wait in line for two hours just to taste the chewy, delicious pizza.

Eleven Madison Park

11 Madison Ave

The 3-Michelin starred restaurant boasts an incredible wine list to go with its extravagant $225 tasting menu. But just in case they don't have the wine you want, you can pay a corking fee of $65 per bottle, up to four bottles.

When they're in season, we will always eat and love ramps. These babies are too delicious—and their season is too short—to ever pass up.

But wild leeks pack a powerful punch (their taste is something akin to a garlic-onion hybrid), and that leaves us with less-than-desirable breath.

Normally, we're cool with stinky breath as long as the food we're eating tastes good, but tonight, our editors are attending the ASME awards (where we've received a few nomination nods!).

The only problem? We've got a ramp tasting in the kitchen beforehand. We put out the call to our readers on Facebook and Twitter—how can we get rid of our ramp breath? Here are your genius ideas.

"Chewing fresh parsley leaf seems to work well for garlic breath." —@Cooking_Anthony

"Parsley! Or lemon!" —@NPizzotti

"Parsley helps if you have bad breath, not if you just ate a bunch of garlic. Make sure everyone has a box of Altoids in their pocket before heading out!" —Annya Eyestone

"Chew on fennel seeds; widely used in India to freshen breath after meals." —@dizeedeez

"Chomp cardamom seeds!" —@MsLeighRiley

"Green tea. Chew basil, tarragon, mint, or gum. Mouthwash. Hot sauce or mustard." —Juan-Carlos Valadez

"Ginger tea w lemon. Or barley tea, unsweetened." —Shane Marie Fisher

"Several tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with water in a teacup or the same amount of fresh squeezed lemon juice!" —Samuel Edward Mcbride

"Quick rinse of baking soda and water then brush teeth." —Cristine Laarkamp Scott

"Bring a portable toothbrush and make sure you dont skip the tongue!" —Kalia Bacik

"Lots and lots of water." —Cinema & Spice

"Sharing is the answer. If we all stink, no one can point fingers #rampsforerrybody" —@BrushlandEating

"Beer!!……..also vodka!" —Richard Williams

"I never bother. I am proud of my garlic breath!!" —Kali Kardas

"Eat more ramps. you will eventually reach rampilibrium." —@elliottpapineau

More From Bon Appetit:

15 Pastas Absolutely Perfect for Spring

How to Build the Perfect Plate of Nachos 

How to Order Wine at a Restaurant 

Your Perfect Lunch: A Quiz

SEE ALSO: China Doesn’t Understand The Concept Of American Chinese Food

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My editor at BA, a seasoned restaurant-goer and keen observer of both service and cheffery, was scandalized when I suggested, in a recent piece for the magazine, that it is within one's rights to return a bottle of wine in any circumstance ­ even if there's nothing (technically) wrong with the wine.

Hearing this assertion from a sommelier and restaurateur invited skepticism, to put it mildly: "You can just send something back just because you don't like it?" he asked. "Are you ready to defend that?"

Well yes,­ with apologies to my bottle-slinging brethren, I am.

I’m not going to pretend I like the idea, or that it's something you should make a habit of doing, but sometimes there’s a disconnect between what we tout and what you really want. And in the end, it's our job to get you what you want, plain and simple. Yes, it's an awkward transaction, just as it is awkward when you send back a dish you think is too salty or something. The difference is that the crestfallen, possibly hostile sommelier is standing right there before you, whereas the chef can call you every name in the book from behind the kitchen door.

So here's how it goes: The sommelier arrives at the table, proudly pours you a sip of whatever he or she recommended, and you taste it. It's not corked or anything, but you're not really feeling it. You can (politely) reject it. Speaking from a sommelier's perspective, you're probably wrong (oh, and by the way, the chef says the food is seasoned perfectly, thanks), but at this point any decent sommelier should be pro enough to mask his or her disappointment, irritation, whatever, and just make a new bottle happen. The same goes for temperature preferences or other service requests that may fly in the face of accepted sommelier wisdom. ­You want your white Burgundy brain-freezingly cold? You got it!

When I first started out in restaurants I'd argue with patrons over whether something was corked or faulty, and such interactions never worked out well. Despite the cults that have arisen around both chefs and sommeliers, ultimately our job is to serve, which means swallowing our pride once in a while. If you're wrong we’ll sell it to someone else. If you're right, we’ll eat the cost and move on (if we're on our game we can always bug our distributors for a credit on the faulty bottle).

But here's the thing. If you're able to use a few descriptive adjectives to help your wine-server out a little bit, and if said server doesn't have some kind of righteous wine-geek agenda, you shouldn't really encounter many of these situations. 

My goal as a sommelier is to make people happy with their wine choices, to have them think me a hero for having elevated their meal through my stellar beverage choices. But hey, sometimes things don’t work out, and it's my job to get over it and get you a new bottle of something you will enjoy.

Even if you're wrong.

More From Bon Appetit:

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Earlier this week, Christie's spring art auctions sold $286 million worth of Impressionist and modern art — and most notably, Monet's "Nymphaes," part of the artist's water lilies series.

A Christie’s auctioneer opened the bidding at $18 million, and within minutes, the painting was sold to a private Asian bidder for $27 million.

The painting was estimated to be worth $25 million to $35 million and came to the Manhattan auction house from Huguette Clark's private collection and the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Clark, the daughter of the late billionaire copper baron William Clark, bought the painting in 1930 at the age of 23, reports The Washington Post. The 107-year-old painting hung in one of her three luxury apartments on Fifth Avenue until she died in 2011.

According to The Washington Post, approximately 15 law firms battled over her colossal $300 million estate up until last year. Due to the complex legal terms in the contested estate, Corcoran Gallery of Art will not receive a portion of the final sale price.

Here is another view of the painting from further away.

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Air France's new "La Premiere" luxury suite is the latest contender in the ongoing battle for luxury supremacy in the skies.

The new luxury suites will be available for the first time this September onboard Air France's Boeing 777-300 fleet. Though it may not be as palatial as some first-class suites found on Airbus super jumbos,"La Premiere" still represents Air France's boldest move yet to impart French luxury in international travel. 

"Our new La Premiere suite, from among all our new products and services, is the one that best represents our commitment to service excellence and a French travel experience," said Air France chairman and CEO Frederic Gagey. The 32-square-foot La Premiere luxury suites will be located in an exclusive cabin, with access restricted to suite passengers. Air France will install a total of 76 suites on 19 Boeing 777s used primarily for intercontinental or transoceanic routes.

Each suite will feature tweed-patterned fabrics and leather headrests emblazoned with the airline's winged seahorse logo. Suite passengers will have access to a full complement of entertainment options in 12 languages accessed through a 24-inch HD touchscreen display. The fully adjustable seats will also have massage functions. Dining options come courtesy of Michelin-starred chefs, including Joel Robuchon, Regis Marcon, Guy Martin, and Michel Roth. Passengers will also have their choice from a wine list that is updated every two months. All meals will be served over Bernardaud-designed porcelain china, beveled glasses, and Christofle flatware. At night, the adjustable seat will reconfigure into a 6.5-foot-long lay-flat bed. To mimic the relaxing feel of a Parisian hotel room, pillows and bedding for La Premiere passengers will be courtesy of Sofitel.For increased privacy, all suites feature fully retractable dividers and thick curtains.

SEE ALSO: Take A Look Inside Boeing's Futuristic New Space Capsule

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