A little late to the party this year but if you’re still stomped on what to get your geek, here’s my list of top ten gifts ideas for geeks this holiday season.

1. iTunes Gift Card ($15^) – This is an oldie, but a goodie! It keeps your geek legit, allowing he or she to buy music, movies, audiobooks, and iPhone/iPod Touch Apps legally.
2. Starbucks Gift Card ($25^) – Starbucks is a geek’s second home and all things from our second home is welcome.
3. Star Trek (movie, 2009) Blu-Ray ($19.99) – an action packed and all-around geeky flick. I own it and I love it!
4. Belkin BG108000-04 Conserve Energy Saving Surge Strip ($34) – This surge protector converse electricity (up to 15%) while keeping your geek’s gadgets running safe. It features two always-on power outlets and six that can be completely switched off (prevents standby power consumption) with a wireless remote. I have one and I love it.
5. Mophie Juice Pack Air ($76.94) – It’s a slim profile pack/case that adds up to 20 extra hours of audio and six extra hours of video playback for an iPhone 3G or 3GS. A must for any iPhone geek.
6. Roku HD-XR Player ($129.99) – A full HD internet video streaming box. It flawlessly supports Netflix instant streaming and Amazon VOD. Plus, they recently added wireless capabilities (802.11b/g/n) and a channel store with Revision 3 and Twit Network; making this a welcoming addition to any geek’s living room.
7. SoctteVest Fleece 5.0 Jacket ($140) – This is the ultimate geek jacket. It has 24 pockets with no-bulge engineering, wire management for headphones, and clear touch pockets.
8. Amazon Kindle ($259) – If your geek loves to read, this is the device to do it on. It now boost even better battery life and more file support. And best of all, they’re in stock and you can have it under the tree this holiday season.
9. HP Mini 311 ($399.99) – This is one of the better netbooks on the market. It sports an Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, a 12 inch LED-backlit display, NVIDIA ION LE graphics with support for 1080p video playback, HDMI output, and decent battery life (6-cell battery).
10. MacBook Pro ($1199^) – If your geek is in the market for a new laptop and money is no object to you, the Macbook Pros are a solid investment. It’s never been more affordable than now to gift one!

Luke’s Lobster offers the best value on lobsters, crab, and shrimp rolls in the city PERIOD

For a lobster roll in New York City, Luke offers the best value. Granted you’re not going to get sit down service like you do at Pearl Oyster or Ed’s Lobster, but their lobster is fresh, they serve them perfectly, and the price is definitely right. Their rolls are served in two sizes, small and large, but are really tiny and small. As of November 18, 2009, they go for $8 and $14 respectively. They also serve delicious crab ($5/$9) and shrimp ($4/$7) rolls too. For the best value, grab one of their combos. The $20 Taste of Maine combo includes a small lobster, crab, and shrimp roll, as well as a par of Empress claws and a package of Miss. Vickie’s chips and a bottle of Maine’s Root Drink or Poland Spring Water. The Noah’s Ark combo is double the Taste of Maine offering with a $2 savings at $38. Butter, mayo, and seasoning is optional, but they are light by default. If you like your rolls really buttery, do let them know when ordering. Like I said earlier the rolls are really small, but a roll and a half with a bag of chips should be enough to satisfy most hungry stomachs.

I love Luke’s because unlike most lobster rolls served in NYC, the lobster is not shredded or minced but are served in huge chunks/bits. Plus I’m not a huge fan of mayo, so the way Luke’s serves their rolls are ideal for me. I’ve never had a lobster roll in Maine, so I can only compare it to what I’ve had in NYC and I think Luke’s the best so far.

The restaurant is really tiny with limited bar-style seating (8 seats at most) and is not recommended for groups. If you’re a fan of lobster roll, this is not one to be missed.

Small Lobster, Crab, and Shrimp Roll and 2 Empress Claws – Part of Taste of Maine Combo – $20

Menu as of November 18, 2009 – View Larger Image

Miss. Vickie’s Chips and Maine’s Root Drink

Large Lobster Roll – $14

Large Crab Roll – $9

Manolith.com announced their 12 hottest geeks. Their criteria of a proper geek girl entails being geeky, a techie, and being hot. I agree that all of their picks are hot, but some are definitely NOT geeks. Marina Orlova is clearly hot and I love Hot For Words (her show), but what makes here more of a geek than iJustine. In my opinion, iJustine is way geekier having been on MacBreak. I digress. Here are my picks for the Top 10 Hottest Geeks, they are mostly overlapping (w/ manolith.com’s picks) but these are the one’s I see deserving of the award.

Leah Culver

Leah Culver is one of the co-founders of Powance, a social micro-blogging service that has since been acquired, and is now coding at Six Apart. She’s insanely cute, an incredible programer, and is a true to geek in every sense of the word.

Jade Raymond

Jade Raymond is the single reason I love Canada. She’s a Canadian executive video game producer at Ubisoft were she lead the creation of the widely popular Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed 2. She’s also a correspondent on G4’s The Electric Playground, a TV show focus on video games. What’s hotter than a hot geek creating one of the hottest games of all time?

Marissa Mayer

Marissa Mayer is the vice president of search product and user experience at Google and is one of company’s many public faces. She’s the gatekeeper for many, if not all of Google’s product releases. She’s been named by Fortune magazine as one of the 50 most powerful women in the world and is the youngest woman ever to make the list.

Veronica Belmont

Veronica Belmont is a A/V nerd that started her career as an audio engineer at CNET, where she became a cohost on BOL. She’s an avid gamer and is a science fiction geek. She currently hosts two shows, Core on the playstaion network and Tekzilla with Patrick Norton at Revision 3, and writes a biweekly column at MaximumPC called Trending Topics.

Jessica Lynn Horn

Jessica Lynn Horn, also known as Jessica Chobot is a host (IGN Daily Fix) and writer for IGN.com Entertainment. She’s a hardcore anime and gaming nerd. Have you noticed, I love cute gamers!

Morgan Webb

Morgan Web is a host and senior producer of G4’s X-Play and Underground. She also writes a monthly video game column at FHM entitled “Tips From The Gaming Goddess”. She’s a avid gamer and tech enthusiast, what’s not geeky about Morgan?

Felicia Day

Felicia Day maybe an actor, but she’s also straight up GEEK. She’s known for creating the internet sensation, The Guild, a sitcom centered around World of Warcraft. She’s uber cute and you can be find her logging massive hours on WOW.

Natali Del Conte

Natali Del Conte is a technology news journalist and a host on CNET’s Buzz out Loud and Loaded. She’s a serious geeks that brings here tech savviness to audiences of all kind.

Amber MacArthur

Amber MacArthur was the geek from TechTv’s Call for Help. She currently produces CammandN, a video podcats about tech, and Girls Go Geek, a show that highlights women in tech for XBOX. She also host net@night with Leo Laport on the Twit Network, where they geek-out about the web.

Cali Lewis

Luria Petrucci aka Cali Lewis along with hubby Neal Campbell produces and hosts Geek Brief TV, an video podcast centered around gadgets. Her show is geeky and she’s hot, that makes her a hot geek!

Fine traditional Korean food at a fair price. They have the best Korean ginseng chicken soup (samgyetang) in New Jersey

PalkagJung is a traditional Korean restaurant with a very diverse offering. They provide a generous amount of Korean side dishes (Banchan) and their services is attentive and friendly. They’re best known for their authentic Korean ginseng chicken soup (samgyetang), which is the best I’ve had in all of New Jersey. This soup is composed of a whole chicken stuffed with rice, ginseng, garlic cloves, daechus, and number of other herbs. It’s traditionally served in the summer for its supposed nutrients, but I’ve had it in the winter and it think it’s just as good, if not better.

In addition to their amazing chicken soup, I also recommend any of their hot bibimbap dishes on stone plates and tofu soups in stone pots. There ingredients are very fresh and any of those dishes wont disappoint. If you’re looking for Korean BBQ, they also have that here. It’s not great, but decent. There’s no permanent grill at the table, they bring out portables ones for you.

Korean Side Dishes (Banchan) – Free w/ Meal

Octopus Bibimbap – $13.99

Wafels & Dinges has the decent Belgian waffle. Stick with the basics if you want wholesome Belgium Waffle, try the off-menu items if your feeling adventurous.

Wafels and Dinges (W&D) is a Belgian waffle purveyor that also has a line of packaged waffles sold in organic grocery stores such as Fairway, Food Emporium, and Garden of Eden. They operate out of a truck and can be found in various locations throughout Manhattan, depending on the time of day. See their truck schedule here or follow them on Twitter and Facebook to stay up-to-date on their whereabouts.

W&D has some god dam good waffles. I like their liege waffle ($5), it’s nice and crisp on the outside and soft and chewy in the inside. They also have a good selection of dinges (toppings) to choose from; the first one is free, the second is +$1 and +$2 get you unlimited dinges or a WMD (Waffle of massive deliciousness).

In addition to traditional Belgian Waffles, they are also experimenting with nontraditional favors. These are items not on the menu and it’s a bit of a secret, but if you ask for it they will serve it. The two that I know of and have tried are their BBQ Pull Pork Waffle and Bacon & Syrup Waffle. Both are decent, but not spectacular. There may be other items on this off-menu that I am not aware of, please contact me if you know of others.

Overall, I would recommend sticking with their regular offerings for that good wholesome Belgium Waffle taste and trying their off-menu items if your feeling adventurous; either way you can’t go wrong at Wafels & Dinges.

BBQ Pull Pork Waffle – $8.00

business as usual

The Truck