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FieriCon Turns Midtown Into Flavortown, Shake Shack Heads to Staten Island, and More Intel

David Chang sounds off on the Trump Tower street closures, plus more news and gossip from around NYC

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[The bar at Motorino Williamsburg]
[The bar at Motorino Williamsburg]
Daniel Krieger

FieriCon, a Guy Fieri-themed restaurant crawl through Midtown, is happening tomorrow. It’s basically SantaCon with frosted tips and bowling tees instead of white beards and red felt robes. The official FieriCon homepage notes: "You do not have to dress like Guy Fieri but it is highly encouraged." The first stop is the Hog Pit on 26th Street, and the last destination is, of course, the celebrity chef’s 500-seat Times Square monster, Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar. The restaurant crawl’s organizer Dave Gold says that 30 people have already signed up. Interested parties can enter their information on the official FieriCon website to receive more info about tomorrow's bacchanal.

Shake Shack is gearing up to expand to its fourth New York City borough. The Staten Island Advance reports that Danny Meyer’s burger chain is planning a new restaurant inside the Staten Island Mall. The Shack team hopes to open sometime in 2019.

— Momofuku emperor David Chang, whose restaurant Má Pêche had to partially close on Saturday due to protests near Trump Tower, shares his thoughts on the security checkpoints and road closures in the area that will likely continue whenever the president-elect is in town:

Ligaya Mishan is blown away by the tamales at Alimentos Saludable in Sunset Park: "They come slapped on a paper plate, trussed in corn husks still damp with steam. Unshucked, they almost seem to breathe, heat rising off the fat tongues of masa. The dough is soft, as if making up its mind whether to be cake or pudding, and marbled with mole poblano, salsa verde or salsa roja, so that sauce finds its way into every bite."

Sarma Melngailis, the Pure Food & Wine restaurateur who short-changed her employees and pinched hundreds of thousands of dollars from investors, was back in Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday. The Post speculates that Melngailis may be close to getting a plea deal.

Uber put together some "best of" lists compiled from rider data. New York’s most popular restaurants, based on Uber drop-offs and pick-ups: Vandal, Catch, and Beauty & Essex.

Post critic Steve Cuozzo tears into this year’s Michelin Guide star ratings: "Günter Seeger, a pretentious, precious, overpriced and often empty temple to its preening chef, is a better restaurant than universally praised, heart-stoppingly wonderful Le Coucou. In what alternative universe can this be true?"

Voice critic Zachary Feldman checks out Prospect Heights newcomer Faun: "Seafood presents some of the cleanest flavors in deceptively austere compositions. 'Nduja, southern Italy's potent and peppery sausage spread, is used sparingly to prop up crisp octopus tentacles, while slab bacon imbues a fatty hunk of mackerel with welcome smokiness, a dollop of orange jam punctuating the plate like an exclamation point."

— And finally, here’s a quick guide to tempering chocolate from Jacques Torres: