I don’t care how many times I see it, the trick the waiters at Galatoire’s do with flaming liquor, orange peels and coffee when making café Brulot always proves captivating.

This is no ordinary after-dinner drink – or, as is probably more often the case these days at Galatoire’s, an after-lunch drink. It comes with specialized equipment, it comes flaming in portions large enough for at least several servings and it comes with a choreographed tableside preparation sure to temporarily supercede conversation not only at your table but usually at all those within earshot.

In French, brûlot can mean either “highly seasoned” or “incendiary,” both of which prove apt for this singular post-prandial. Most preparations call for an orange peel cut precisely as one long, intact spiral; a lemon peel cut into strips; sugar, cloves and cinnamon; cognac or brandy and hot, strong black coffee. Most importantly, the drink requires fire.

An adept waiter will set the concoction alight and usually play with it for a bit, tracing little flaming trails over the tablecloth that burn out quickly and conveniently cause no evident damage. It’s a parlor trick, I know, but when the end result is boozy coffee every step along the way seems a little more interesting.

- Ian McNulty

There’s bad news for John Madden and Turducken fans everywhere. The Brits have not only caught up with our bird-within-bird techniques, but they’re way ahead of us. 

British chefs have pushed the envelop and managed to get 10 different fowl varieties inside a turkey. Besides chicken and duck, they’ve found room for squab, pheasant, quail, partridge and others. 

It’s starting to look like clowns going into a Volkswagen. One chef managed to get 48 birds from 12 different species into a single turkey. Massive bird roasts are reaching 55 lbs., feed 125 people and cost more than 650 British pounds.

They say that freedom isn’t free. They also say that it’s priceless. But Sotheby’s came up with a workable figure this week. $21.3 million.A copy of the Magna Carta sold at auction for that price (complete with seal of King Edward I who stamped it in 1297 - though King John originally agreed to the basic declaration of human rights in 1215). Apparently the auction house expected to fetch $30 million, but either freedom isn’t in demand these days, or collectors decided to wait on one of the 16 other copies. Perhaps the oddest note is that this copy belonged not to a museum or even a Brit, but to Texas billionaire Ross Perot. He had parked it at the National Archives in Washington, where it was on display next to the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.There’s no telling what those signed originals would go for on eBay or if the Bush Administration might want to find out while they still have value.The Magna Carta copy was purchased by the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that counted former President George H.W. Bush as a shareholder and advisor until at least 2003 and 2004 respectively. There’s no word on how much they expect the item to appreciate in value, or where it will be kept.