Modern Music

Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

Impressions: Spacious and attractive setting; gracious and prompt service; wide variety of tasty Chinese dishes.

What’s hot: War wonton soup, sesame pockets, Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, scallops in black bean sauce, mu-shu pork, fried apple rolls.

Starters: Sesame pockets with shrimp ($10.95), war wonton soup for two ($5.95), hot-and-sour soup for one ($1.50).

Entrees: Mu-shu pork ($9.95), Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce ($8.50), Mongolian beef ($11.95), scallops in black bean sauce ($14.25).

Dessert: Fried apple rolls ($4.95).

Tab for two: $16-$34.

It’s all in the family at Mandarin Bistro, the freshly minted Chinese restaurant in Newbury Park.

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It’s been many years since Milwaukee was home to Venezuelan food. (The now-closed Iguana, located in the current site of Tess, was the last place to offer it.) But Venezuelan fare returned in June, at the Café Plaza Venezuela (530 E. Mason St.). The café opens in the morning and operates until 2 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The menu, appearing on chalkboards, includes pepitos (sandwiches on French rolls), arepas and pabellon. Arepas are made from round corn bread that is sliced and filled with your choice of meats (there usually are about 10 options every day). Pabellon is shredded flank steak with black beans, rice and sweet plantains. Read full post…

I used to like the MTV Movie Awards, I really did. Of course, that was way back when the Twilight movies and Justin Bieber didn’t exist. The past few years, however, it felt like I was watching the same exact event every year and this year was no exception…or was it?   The 2011 MTV Movie Awards aired last night and as most of us expected, Twilight walked away with most of the awards. Since the original Twilight movie took the world by storm, we’ve been forced to watch Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart take the stage each year in total awkwardness for the Best Kiss award. Read full post…

This story about pop star Justin Bieber just conjures up all sorts of imagery as the Biebs as hes called is set on performing in Japan against the the wishes of his crew who are afraid of the dangers from the radioactivity there.

Bieber is willing to take on other venues if his crew wont travel to Japan and knowing Bieber hell make it to the country whether or not.

Japan is still recovering from a devastating quake and tsunami that hit on March 11 of this year.

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A smiling hostess seated us and our server came right over to greet us. Local musician Jack Leydon was singing and playing his guitar, taking requests and making the atmosphere festive, even though the dining room was nearly empty.

It didn’t hurt that the room itself has a clubby atmosphere with big cushioned booths, stained wainscoting and a brick fireplace.

The menu is pretty straightforward pub fare, with an emphasis on burgers and sandwiches and eight “Real Meals” supplemented by four additional meals on the daily specials page the night we visited. My husband likes to ask the server what’s best on the menu and in this case, letting her guide us wasn’t a bad idea.

Our son was with us and as a vegetarian, he found the menu a bit challenging.

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