Steamy, Hot, Goodness.. with a little salt on top

DINING
Destination: Puerto Rico

Can you taste the salt in the air? Are you working up a sweat? The Rake’s Tour of World Flavors visits Babalu this evening for a multiple-course tasting menu and wine pairings. Enjoy authentic Latin Caribbean cuisine in an opulent lounge atmosphere. Tonight’s menu begins with Tostones Rellenos de Camarones, fried green plantains loaded with shrimp (Yum!), accompanied with the fruity Cono Sur, Viognier, 2006. The main course will consist of roasted pork (pernil), rice with pigeon peas (arroz con gandules), and sweet plantains. While this is actually traditional Christmas fare in Puerto Rico, it’s also incredibly delicious. I mean, there’s a reason why we serve it during the island’s most celebratory season! Savor the dish with a full-flavored Wrongo Dongo, 2005, and move on to the Tembleque dessert — a coconut custard — with a glass of Errazuriz, Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc, 2006. You’ll leave with your tongue titillated, your belly full, and your head spinning from the blissful combination of good food, good wine, good ambience, and good company. Space is limited, so make your reservation now.

6 p.m., Babalu, 800 Washington Ave. N., Minneapolis; $40.

Speaking of Food

The Rake’s food section is growing, with the addition of two new food writers, Jeremy Iggers and Ann Bauer. Go check out Ann’s new wine blog, Beyond the Cask, and Jeremy and Ann’s food news blog, Breaking Bread. And don’t forget to tune into Stephanie March’s food blog, Consider the Egg. Stephanie has been diligently blogging about food at The Rake for almost two years now. So think about our fabulous food bloggers when you click on over to the Culinate Grill Me Contest to vote for your favorite. Win a trip to Napa Valley to attend the COPIA Cooking School’s prestigious two-day grill course taught by best-selling authors and grill masters Andrew Schloss and David Joachim. Culinate will select one winner at random from among readers’ entries, and one winning food blogger based on reader votes. Each winner is invited to bring along a companion for the journey.

THEATER & PERFORMANCE by Eeva-Liisa Waaraniemi
Which One’s the Alternate Reality?

By now, most of us are well-acquainted with certain virtual versions of humanity; could the Simpsons or the Flintstones be imprinted any deeper in our collective memory? Fred’s ragged smock and Marge’s conish hairdo aren’t weird to us anymore. What we do find weird (and sometimes disturbing) are the new digital humanoids who are becoming increasingly finely molded to resemble us. Welcome to the “Uncanny Valley of Simulated Memory,” the imaginary place where the more human-like the computerized characters become, the more unbelievable they are. Thus the title of tonight’s premiere at the Ritz: The Closer I Get, The Less I Believe It, a performance of dance, digital images, and music that explores the relationship between media and humanity. What happens when physical reality is indistinguishable from virtual creations? The show is just over an hour long, so there will still be some light in the sky when you step back out into the hub of Northeast Minneapolis’s unique cultural district. If you want to milk the evening for all it’s worth, head over to The Sample Room or Psycho Suzi’s for vittles that are real enough to rot. This may reassure you.

8 p.m., The Ritz Theater, 345 13th Ave. N.E., Minneapolis; 612-623-7660; $15.

MORE THEATER & PERFORMANCE
Shakespeare in the Parks

Don’t feel like being cooped up in a dark theater tonight? Go see the Cromulent Shakespeare Company’s outdoor performance of As You Like It. We’ve already established that you can’t go wrong with Shakespeare. And the frolicky gayness of this particular comedy lends itself so beautifully to the outdoors. Do a little dance to hold back the rains, and enjoy the evening with a little Shakespeare in the park. Tonight’s performance is in Loring Park, but you can catch them Friday (7 p.m.) at the Lake Harriet Rose Garden, Saturday (7 p.m.) at Como Park, or Sunday (2 p.m.) at Hiawatha Lake Park.

7 p.m., Loring Park, 1382 Willow St., Minneapolis; 612-220-3397; free.

FILM
The Hour Is Upon Us — the 48th Hour

This month’s Cinema Lounge is upon us. (They sure do come around quickly!) And tonight’s lineup features the Minneapolis Audience Award Picks from the 2007 48-Hour Film Project. See the top eight films and meet some of the filmmakers. Tonight’s films include Der Hund by Eric Mueller, Le Film Animal by Jesse Gangle, The Day the Earth Was Attacked For 6 Minutes (& 58 Seconds) by Brian Prom, Open House by Keith Hurley, Plot Hole by Matt Gibson, Mourning Wood by Nick Abdo, Single Female Sci-Fi Vet by Luke Ogrodnik, and em>Naked Abe by Mike Scholtz.

7 p.m., Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater, 810 West Lake St., Minneapolis; free (but you’re welcome to make a donation to IFP-MN).

Bollywood Terror

The Institute for Advanced Study’s Summer Asian Film Series continues tonight with Mission Kashmir, a popular Hindi musical about a family torn apart by violence in the Kashmir valley. The screenplay was written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Suketu Mehta, and the film was directed by the almost legendary Vidhu Vinod Chopra (2000, India). Cast members include Hrithik Roshan, Sanjay Duttand (in a stellar performance), and Preity Zinta (stunning as ever).

7 p.m., Nicholson Hall, Room 155, Institute for Advanced Study, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; 612-626-5054; free.

MUSIC by Jill Schoepf
Feist

Over the past three years, this Canadian punk rocker has metamorphosed into an indie-folk-rock darling, collaborating along the way with Peaches, Broken Social Scene, and the Norwegian folk duo Kings of Convenience. Following a soulful Parisian solo debut (Let It Die, in 2004), Leslie Feist’s talent is now firmly cemented with her latest, The Reminder, a combination of alternately buzzy, sultry, brash, and wistful songs. While her music is notably kaleidoscopic in genre, a well-worn gossamer voice is the link that winds throughout Feist’s repertoire; and her songwriting’s poetic approachability has helped her elbow past those run-of-the-mill indie rockers to make it into mainstream stardom.

7:30 p.m., Pantages Theatre, 710 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-339-7007; $26.

It’s Minnesota — We’ll Always Have Another Winter

Join the Last Great Winter (not to be confused with Florida rockers Last Winter) for a CD Release Party tonight in St. Paul. While the CD doesn’t actually hit the stores until Friday, you can catch a preview tonight at Dunn Bros. on Grand, or catch them next Wednesday at the 331 Club. Stop on by and chill a while with singer/songwriter Jeff Ray’s honeyed vocals and deft slide guitar stylings. Claiming to draw from the eclectic range of performers that includes Ravi Shankar, Nick Drake, and Greg Brown, Ray serves up sweet-sounding Mississippi Delta blues.

8:30 p.m., Dunn Bros. Coffee, 1569 Grand Ave., Saint Paul; 651-489-5375; free.