COMMUNITY
FIVE THINGS YOUR KIDS WILL LOVE
JEWFRO
Color Their World, Maple Syrup and More ...
By Lynne Konstantin
HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON
Inspired by the 1955 classic children's book by Crockett
Johnson, in which a young boy paints a world of adventure
with a purple crayon and infinite imagination, Harold and the
Purple Crayon: A Dance Adventure is brought to musical life
by Hubbard Street Dance 2 (and
a little help from the audience).
Suggested for children ages 4-11.
learn more about maple-tree tapping around the campfire and
sample sweet and savory treats you can make at home. 7:30-
8:30 p.m. Friday, March 16. $5 per person ($15 per family
maximum).
Dinosaur Hill Nature Preserve, 333 North Hill Circle, Rochester.
(248) 656-0999; dinosaurhill.org.
MYTHBUSTERS
Jamie Hyneman and Adam Sav-
age, co-hosts of the hugely popu-
lar and Emmy-nominated Discov-
ery Channel series MythBusters,
have become spokespersons at
large for applying science to real
life. They bring their live stage
show, MythBusters: Behind the
Myths, to Detroit, with onstage
science experiments, audience
participation and matching of
wits between Hyneman and Sav-
age — as well as members of the
audience — to help the pair sup-
port or debunk urban myths. 4:30
11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Saturday,
March 3. $5 $20.
Detroit Opera House, 1526
Broadway, Detroit. (800) 745-3000;
ticketmaster.com.
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GIRLS' NIGHT OUT
Calling all girls ages 6-12 (and
their female chaperones): In
celebration of Women's History
Month, the Detroit Zoo is opening
its gates for Girls' Night Out, a
sleepover party that will include a
late-night tour of the zoo, keeper
talks, craft projects, a marshmal-
low roast and breakfast at an
animal habitat. Guests also will
meet some of the dedicated women who work at the zoo. 7
p.m. Saturday, March 10, through10 a.m. Sunday, March
11. $50 per person.
Detroit Zoo, 8450 W. 10 Mile Road, Royal Oak. (248) 541-5717;
detroitzoo.org.
MAPLE MADNESS
It's maple sugar season! Head to Dinosaur Hill Nature Pre-
serve for a lesson in tree sap tapping then turn it into sweet
treats to sample, including boiling the sap down to make
maple snow candy and maple nut sundaes. Noon 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 10. $5 per person ($20 per family maximum).
Come back for a Maple Campfire Cook Out, where you'll
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p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday, March
16. $35 $99.50.
Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit. (313) 471-6611 or
(800) 745-3000; olympiaentertainment com or ticketmaster.com .
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BOUNCE AND PLAY
Kids bouncing off the walls? Let them bounce to their pitter-
pattering hearts' content during Open Bounce and Play times
at Inflatable Playspaces in Royal Oak. All the inflatable slides,
bounce houses and obstacle courses needed for a day of fun,
every Wednesday and Friday, 10 a.m. noon, through March.
$7.95 per child; adults are free.
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Inflatable Playspaces, 5160 Meijer Drive, Royal Oak. (248) 288-
5888; inflatableplayspaces.com .
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FOODIE
A New Taqueria in Motown
Chow down like a Baja surfer at Hot Taco Detroit.
By Esther Allweiss Ingber
inding a good, inexpensive place to
grab a bite close to the Fox Theatre,
Fillmore Detroit and Comerica Park
has become a no-brainer. With hours
from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily, the lunch
trade and late crowd alike have discov-
ered fresh and healthy Hot Taco Detroit.
The eatery exists because Leslie Har-
rington simply loves Mexican food. She
and husband, Sean, live with their three
children in the Downtown building they
own: the eight-story, Art Deco lodent
Lofts on Park Street. When the couple
was unable to find the right business
to fill 600 square feet of vacant space
on the lodent's street level, she had the
brainstorm to start their own casual
Mexican restaurant. "So, next thing you
know;' Sean Harrington said, "we had
blueprints on the table to build a taque-
ria (taco shop)"
Open since Jan. 2, Hot Taco is still pull-
ing together its decor. In late January,
the look included red walls, exposed
ductwork, distressed terrazzo-tiled floor
and barstool seating at floor-to-ceiling
windows or the brushed metal counter.
Shelves behind the counter hold bever-
ages for sale, including Mexican-made
Coca-Cola and Jarritos-brand Mexican
soda pop (try Tamarind or no-alcohol
Sangria varieties).
Sean Harrington trained Hot Taco's
two cooks (there is a 10-member staff
in all) to make food that conjures up
his fond memories of Baja Peninsula-
style taco shacks.
"They're places where surfers hang
out, all along the coast," he explained,
"where the chicken for tacos might be
grilled on a car's grille used as a flattop."
The core menu at Hot Taco will always
be its tacos (corn or flour shell) and bur-
6 March 2012
I In THREAD
ritos, Harrington said. Each item includes
a choice of protein or the veggie-style,
plus shredded Muenster cheese,
chopped cilantro and finely diced red
onions and sauce. Beans, rice, avocado
and sour cream are also in the burritos.
Hot Taco ensures freshness by pur-
chasing most ingredients at nearby East-
ern Market. Cooks grind whole spices
and dry them in the oven to extract the
seeds used in Hot Taco's flavorful, house-
made sauces.
A light orange, sour cream-chipotle
sauce enhanced my outstanding Steak
Taco — already a customer favorite. The
meat is marinated for 24 hours.The Spicy
Shrimp Taco had an adequate portion of
middle-sized shrimp and just the right
amount of heat. I also really liked the Hot
Taco Chicken, the house specialty along
with a pork version. The shredded meat
concoction oozed a yummy salsa verde
sauce. Better keep your napkin handy!
Everything comes foil-wrapped in a
small paper basket, and the prices are
a bargain: $2.50, $3 and $3.50 for tacos;
$6-7.50 for burritos.
As the menu evolves, Harrington will
offer rice and beans, and a Breakfast
Burrito, featuring chorizo, beans, eggs,
cheese and pico de gallo. He wants to
sell Hot Taco's spice rubs and roasted
whole chickens for $7. Not being a
stickler for rules, he'll "open up our flavor
palette"with items like a Korean Taco,
including an appropriate sauce.
Hot Taco is the third entertainment
venture for Harrington, whose resume
includes"sailing other people's yachts"
and running a youth hostel and Down-
town's Cafe Park Avenue.
Harrington has owned Centaur Martini
Bar in his building for six years; and
HOT TACO DETROIT
2233 PARK
DETROIT, MI 48201
(313) 963-4545
WWW.HOTTACODETROIT.COM
$ ($2.50-$7.50) OUT OF $$$$
on the other corner, across Montcalm
Street, is his Town Pump Tavern. He's
had it for more than 17 years inside Park
Avenue House, the building his parents
purchased 40 years ago. A largely Jewish
clientele patronized Town Pump during
its 1920s heyday.
The Harringtons have benefited from
the area's revitalization, able to sell
luxury condos in the converted lodent
toothpaste factory. Where visiting Park
Street was a "scary" proposition in the
1970s-'90s, now the short stroll to Hot
Taco from the entertainment district or
Grand Circus Park People Mover Station
is just kind of fun. BT
You
Lego,
Girl!
By Ben Falik
ontroversy
rained down
\_-_-, )on the people at Lego (not the Lego
People) for their recent decision to market
to girls with pink Legos and Lady Lego
characters not found in unisex sets. Their
thinking? Girls don't like Legos — at least
not nearly as much as boys — but they
might if they were pretty in pink.
Opponents fired back that the market-
ing ploy was an affront to all the future fe-
male engineers, astronauts and architects
who love Legos for their buildability, not
their feminine mystique. And, further, the
move did a disservice to boys; their toy
chests could stand to have female charac-
ters whose merit wasn't based solely on
their toy chests.
For shame, Lego! What's next — sepa-
rate boys and girls restrooms at Legoland?
Really, though, my Lego-shaped bone
to pick is not with the gender bending
behind Lego's recent marketing push. Or
even with their price, though I experi-
enced some sticker shock when buying
a gift for a kindergartener friend of mine
recently.
Instead, I'm putting Kjeld Kirk Kristian-
sen and the rest of the gang in Billund,
Denmark, on notice for the way that
modern-day Legos undermine the very
essence of LegoLife. Specific sets with
specific pieces build specific objects —
Millennium Falcon, Hogwarts, Undersea
Pineapple House.They serve as pathetic
puzzle pieces destined to become static
set pieces. This playtime prison sentence
is a world apart from Legos' highest and
best use: the building blocks for whatever
your imagination imagines, beckoning to
be smashed and started anew.
I ask you: Is Play-Doh just for eating?
Are army men just for melting? Are mag-
nifying glasses just for melting army men
and cooking Play-Doh? Undoubtedly, the
answer is, "I will answer as soon as I finish
chewing this Play-Doh."
Growing up Lego, I had a solid set —
including the harder-to-swallow Duplos
— in the standard sizes, colors and flavors.
Free from instructions, pictures or the
interstellar demands of Lego Han Solo,
I built whatever my heart desired. Sure,
I made castles (penetrable) and bombs
(detonated upon contact with brother)
and unicorns (what?), but they were my
own unique and ephemeral inventions,
unlike anything created before or since.
And then I had a birthday party and
everyone assumed I had He-Man and they
got me enemy action figures and I didn't
have a He-Man and there was anarchy in
Grayskull and I couldn't break the char-
acters and they wouldn't melt and they
tasted terrible and by the time I got one
He-Man I was supposed to have four Ninja
Turtles and don't even get me started on
ThunderCats. At least I don't have any
baggage from my childhood.
Which brings me to the greatest gift
of all. No, not love. Better: the cardboard
box. When I'm playing with my kids, I
often feel like I'm watching National
Geographic (or Animal Planet).Their
unbridled imagination was on full display
recently when a big box survived the
recycle bin and morphed from a house
into a spaceship into a tunnel into a zoo
and finally into a corrugated heap. The toy
is in mint condition.
Being fungible, reusable and indestruc-
tible is a liability in the toy business — or
just about any business, for that matter.
The company would go bankrupt if ev-
eryone were a Mies van der Lego. But do
we really want to raise a generation that
follows instructions, stops at the finish
line and blithely assumes there's an app
for that?
At long last, leggo my Legos. RT
www.redthreadmagazine.com