HOLY SMOKES: To celebrate the one-year anniversary of Smoking Sloe’s (847 Ft. Salonga Road, Northport, 631.651.8812), owner Roger Montague has introduced a new menu with “recession-fighting” prices.  He’s also made some significant additions to the menu, including meaty angus beef ribs, smoked to perfection. 

MEET ME AT MAC’S: Need a place to throw your Super Bowl Party? Upstairs at Mac’s Steakhouse, is the perfect place. Watch the Super Bowl in style and comfort on their six-foot HD screen. It’s the perfect place for parties of 20 to 40 people for the big game!!! Chef Ron will customize your menu.Call Scott @ 631-549-5300.

SUPER CHEESE BOWL: All your guests will win on Super Bowl Sunday with the Artisanal Gourmet Home Tailgate! It’s all in the box — eight unique cave-aged cheeses that are at peak ripeness, crackers, condiments, nuts, dried fruit, cheese display tags and interesting printed facts and trivia on each cheese to stimulate conversation. It’s a culinary touchdown serving up to 20 people as you watch the Giants win the Superbowl. Open Box - Assemble - and pray the Giants win all in 10 minutes. Cheeses included in this Collection are: Ardrahan; Azeitão; Bijou; Bra Tenero; Fougerus; Majorero Pimentón; Smokey Oregon Blue; Sparkenhoe Red Leicester.$175.00 each. http://www.artisanalcheese.com/prodinfo.asp?number=13929

SWEET ADVICE: It’s one of the busiest dining out days of the year, so make your reservations early for Valentine’s Day. The romantic spots will fill up fast. Mazzi’s, Honu, Jonathans, Panama Hattie’s, Danu, NoMa, Prime, Mac’s and more will be hot spots on Thursday night Feb. 14 – so make your call now. A little tip from one Foodie, stop by your restaurant on the way home and give them flowers for your table – with a personal note. Most fine restaurants will accommodate you and it sure could help the entire evening bloom.

WINE DINNER: At Matteo’s (300 West Jericho Turnpike, 631.421.6001, www.matteorestaurants.com) Wine Dinner, Fri, Feb. 8, featuring a  wine portfolio from Sicily. Guest Speaker from Italy Lucido Matricadi Internatioanl wine expert. Five course dinner and wine tastings $59.95 per person plus tax and gratuity.

CELEBRITY CHEESE: What’s more exciting than watching grass grow? How about watching cheddar age? If it sounds like a hot way to spend a Saturday night to you, you’re surprisingly not alone. In fact, nearly 1.7-milion people logged on to www.cheddarvision.tv to watch a 44-pound wheel of cheddar age in a cheese store in England. Perhaps the world’s only celebrity cheese, “Wedginald,” as he’s affectionately called by the artisan cheese makers at West Country Farmhouse, sat aging for a year, his every … um move … recorded by a webcam. Wedgie was occasionally prodded, turned and graded as he headed toward the big day when he was ready to pair off with some tasty oat biscuits, grapes and strawberries. Wedginald went to the highest bidder in a charity e-bay auction finally going for £1,145, or $2,237 which benefited the British charity, BBC Children In Need. Wedgie’s final destination… New Zealand.

IS THE CHOWDER FRESH? When British marine biologists dredged up a crusty old clam from the seabed 250 feet down, north of Iceland, they did what any good scientist would do… they sliced it in half. Counting growth rings much like one would do to determine the age of a tree, the scientists from Bangor University in Wales learned that the ocean quahog they had just killed was the oldest living animal ever found. The clam, a member of the species Arctica Islandica , was estimated to have been between 405 and 410 years old when a band saw ended its marathon life. The Guinness Book previously put the record for longest-lived animal to a clam of the same species — 220 years — though a shell in a museum came in at 374. The scientists are studying the species to determine what evolutionary path has given the bivalve such resistance to the normal aging process, and perhaps apply what they learn for human benefit. As to whether they make good chowder, the Bangor team didn’t say.

ICING ON THE CAKE: When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double its size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat fewer calories per serving.

KNISH KNOSH: From The Little Big Book of New York we learn that a Knish is a pastry of Eastern European Jewish origin, consisting of dough filled with seasoned mashed potatoes or other vegetables. During the early 1900s, when hundreds of thousands of Eastern European Jews emigrated to America and settled in New York City, they brought their family recipes for knishes. Knishes were made at home until Yonah Schimmel, a rabbi from Romania, began to sell them at Coney Island and from a pushcart on the Lower East Side. In 1910, he opened a knish bakery on East Houston Street, where it still stands today.

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