Food

IRVINE — A punk when she attended University High School here, Rachel Klemek has always been allured by the subversive. Growing up in the South, and later in Irvine, she remembers not understanding the concept of cooking or enjoying food. Her childhood memories are of sitting in front of the television with saltines or relishing a Styrofoam cup of Top Ramen. "I didn't even know what butter was," Klemek said. However, to Klemek, countering her family's own culture — which never revered food — for a life of decorating cakes and perfecting hand-made marshmallows couldn't be more punk rock.

The Newport-Mesa-Irvine Interfaith Council on May 1-8 is sponsoring Open Faiths — Open Doors Week. The goal is to allow the public to learn about different faiths in the cities of Costa Mesa, Irvine and Newport Beach in a friendly, unthreatening way, according to The Rev. Julie Elkins, council president and minister at First United Methodist Church of Costa Mesa. Reservations are needed for the Celebration of Different Faiths, Common Action Awards Dinner scheduled for May 4 at the Costa Mesa Country Club, 1701 Golf Course Drive.

A bat infected with rabies was found on the garage floor of a Costa Mesa home, according to authorities. A 15-year-old boy got the live bat in a box without touching it May 5 and later received treatment, the Costa Mesa Police Department said. Because the bat was found in a confined area in the 2300 block of Vanguard Way, the public wasn't exposed, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA). Orange County Animal Care was notified that day, and OCHCA officials said they were notified two days later.

Costa Mesa resident Jai Snowdon donned a giant kangaroo suit, downed a can of Foster's beer and began hopping along 17th Street in Costa Mesa for a publicity video shoot promoting his new bakery, Pie-Not. After two delayed openings, Pie-Not, a traditional Australian bakery complete with meat pies, sag rolls and sweet biscuits, is set to open at the end of this week, say its not-so-traditional owners, Snowdon, 29, and Ryan Lopiccolo, 31. Head chef Samantha Boxer, who was born in Melbourne, developed the 24-item menu and was inspired by the well-known meat pies of Beechworth Bakery, which has several locations across Australia.

There is something endearing about talking to Corona del Mar High senior Brynne Wong. She is one of the top prep swimmers in Southern California, but she never appears to be aloof. "Sometimes I swim … just sometimes," she proclaims on her Twitter profile. Wong always seems to be smiling, seeing the humor in a given situation, even one involving herself. Take, for example, her experience last summer at the Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb. She was there to swim the 100-meter butterfly.

The numbers are mind-boggling. About 520 arrests in Newport Beach. At least 277 cases filed against him by prosecutors in Orange County. Plus an unknown amount in Hawaii, Los Angeles or any of the other places he landed after a stint in jail or rehab. But the number that's most important to those who knew Mark David Allen, or felt they knew him, is somewhere in the thousands. That's how many lives Allen touched through his documented story of a decades-long battle with alcoholism.

A driver crashed through a Chinese restaurant in Costa Mesa around lunchtime Friday, authorities said. Firefighters responded to a report at 11:18 a.m. that a woman in a Toyota Camry drove about 20 to 25 feet into Golden Garden Chinese Food at 1505 E. Mesa Verde Drive, according to Battalion Chief Fred Seguin. The woman was pulling into a parking spot in front of the restaurant when she continued into the building, Seguin said. No one was injured in the crash. Damage was estimated at about $5,000.

Seriously? Thursday is Thanksgiving? I don’t see how that’s possible. But it is, apparently, and you and I and just about everyone will have to deal with it. Checking the T-Day folder, we find that in years past we have done the history of Thanksgiving; how to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving dinner; how not to; how to prepare a traditional Italian Thanksgiving dinner; and what to do with T-Day leftovers. This year, given everything that’s going on in the nation and the world, it is time to examine what Thanksgiving really means, why it matters, and what we need to keep in mind as we approach another annual day of thanks.

UC Irvine's drama department will soon realize a 40-year-old dream, when its inaugural season of "Shakespeare Under the Stars" opens next month at an open-air theater, which production staff and technical theater students built by hand. The festival will feature contemporary adaptations of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" and "The Merchant of Venice" presented in the New Swan Theatre, a mini-Elizabethan theater in the round that can be dismantled and moved. Drama professor and department chair Eli Simon, is leading the effort on behalf of UCI's Claire Trevor School of the Arts.

WEDNESDAY 'Keeping Your Brain Healthy for Life' The Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce presents a networking luncheon with Dr. Michael Brant-Zawadzki, executive director of the Hoag Neurosciences Institute. He will talk about "Keeping Your Brain Healthy for Life. " The networking event starts at 11:30 a.m., followed by lunch and the presentation at noon. The event is at Five Crowns Restaurant, 3801 E. Coast Hwy., CdM. Chamber members pay $25 while guests pay $30. To reserve a seat, call (949)