Famous Food

L.A. Dodgers sensation Yasiel Puig went back to Cuba last night -- or as close as he's gonna get to it in Hollywood ... and a TMZ camera guy was there to roll out the bad Spanglish welcome mat.

Puig hit up El Floridita restaurant in Hollywood last night for some of L.A.'s most authentic Cuban food and music -- and on the way out our guy hit him up about ... "los playoffs."

Gotta give our guy credit ... Puig's English ain't so good yet, so we gave it the old high school Spanish try. Shout out to Google Translate too.

You might hate his music ... you might even hate his goatee ... but you gotta appreciate the way Chad Kroeger gushed about his wife this weekend when we asked about his new marriage to Avril Lavigne.

The Nickelback frontman was leaving Boa Steakhouse in Hollywood last night after a dinner date with his wife -- when we asked about life as a newlywed (Chad and Avril tied the knot on July 1).

"It's an amazing feeling," Chad told us ... adding that he plans to stay in the honeymoon phase with Avril "until the day I die."

All in all, it's a pretty good clip ... and Chad couldn't have been nicer.

Joey Chestnut is currently digesting the remains of 89-and-a-half chickens ... after once again DOMINATING at the Hooters World Wing-Eating Championship!

Chestnut chewed up and spit out the competition as he devoured 179 WINGS in just 10 minutes ... taking the title for the second year in a row.

The 29-year-old had some fierce competition during the event in Clearwater, Florida -- legendary eaters like Eric "Badlands" Booker and Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas.

Of course, Chestnut is also the reigning Nathan's hot dog eating champ -- and has also earned titles in the world of matzo balls, mac and cheese, shrimp wontons and corn beef sandwiches.

Flavor Flav's Chicken & Ribs has fried its last drumstick -- TMZ has learned, the fast food joint just got evicted once and for all from its last remaining location, following an epic battle with its landlord.

We broke the story ... Flav's Chicken in Sterling Heights, MI, was previously evicted back in June after the landlord claimed Flav's business partners had been stiffing him on rent -- but the business partners bought themselves some extra time by filing a Motion to Stay the eviction ... and re-opened.

The Motion to Stay was granted on the condition Flav's business partners and the landlord came to an agreement regarding past rent -- but that never happened ... so on Thursday, the Motion to Stay was officially denied.

U-Haul trucks showed up Wednesday to carry everything away -- and police were on hand in case anything got nasty. Luckily, it didn't.

The Michigan location was the last remaining Flav's Fried Chicken in the country -- the other locations in Vegas and Iowa have also closed down.

Paula Deen is calling BS on a former chef who claims Deen made an African-American employee dress up like Aunt Jemima ... claiming the chef is crying racism in a pathetic money grab.

The woman behind the allegations is Dora Charles -- who ran Deen's kitchens for 22 years and helped open Paula's famous Lady & Sons restaurant in Georgia.

Charles spoke with the New York Times -- and claimed Deen wouldn't just use racial slurs in the kitchens, but wanted to dress up her employees as humiliating stereotypes.

Among the allegations, Charles says Deen tried to make her ring a dinner bell for restaurant customers ... something Charles felt was racially charged.

"That's a symbol to me of what we used to do back in the day," Charles said.

Charles also claims Deen tried to make another black female employee, Ineata Jones, dress up in an "old style Aunt Jemima outfit" while flipping hoecakes at a dining station.

But Deen says ... she's not only confident Charles is making the whole thing up -- but claims on July 6, Jones signed a legal document saying she had never felt discriminated against and never heard Deen spout racial slurs during her employment.

Charles has not filed a lawsuit, but claims she wants to get her story out so everyone will know the real Paula Deen.

Deen's camp fired back in a statement saying, "Dora's complaint is not about race but about money. It is about an employee that despite over 20 years of generosity feels that she still deserves yet even more financial support from Paula Deen."

Of course, Deen has previously admitted that she used the N-word ... but insists she never directed the slur at any of her employees.

It was a meeting of the pop megastars at Katsuya in Hollywood last night ... when Will.i.am and Psy hooked up for some raw fish -- one month after hitting the recording studio together.

The two arrived to the restaurant in separate cars -- Psy had a driver ... and Will had his $700k custom-made metallic blue monstrosity.

Just last month, Psy teased a possible collaboration when he posted a photo of the two in a recording studio with the caption -- "Some cool sh**z goin on in London at 2am!! Me& @iamwill !! Guess what!?"

Mmmmmmm Ritz -- TMZ has learned, Amanda Bynes ran up a super stoner bill at the Ritz-Carlton in NYC this week ... ordering more than $2,000 worth of room service before getting the boot on Thursday.

As we reported, Bynes was ejected from the hotel for smoking weed inside her hotel room, as well as for being intolerably rude to hotel staff. Bynes denied the allegations, but her hotel bill, obtained by TMZ, appears to back up the hotel's story.

According to the bill, Amanda racked up nearly $9,000 in charges, staying in a $700-a-night room -- and $2,389 of that bill came from room service orders.

The bill shows Amanda placed nearly FORTY (40) separate room service orders -- and we're not talking a side of fries here and some nachos there ... each order averaged roughly $60-70 a POP.

A poor-man's Ryan Seacrest got a little octopus at Nobu restaurant ... courtesy of Ryan's ex, Julianne Hough.

Our sushi sources tell us ... the 2 were all over each other like white on rice ... even licking each other as they munched on raw fish.

On the Seacrest front ... we're told he's moved on.

After all, there are plenty of fish in the sea.

They asked the public for HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS for George Zimmerman's defense ... but now that the case is over, GZ's lawyers are living the high life-- eating at one of NYC's most expensive restaurants.

TMZ cameras rolled as Mark O'Mara, Don West and the rest of the team left the famous Nello restaurant in NYC earlier today ... where the lobster bisque will run you a cool $43.

Sources tell TMZ the gang was seen drinking champagne inside the restaurant ... and when it comes to the bubbly at Nello -- even the cheap stuff is expensive.

On the way out, the lawyers told us they still believe the jury in the Trayvon Martin case made the right decision -- "[Zimmerman] was not guilty from day one."

Two years after UFC badass Brock Lesnar was forced to retire due to serious stomach issues, the Beast Incarnate proved his guts are still TOUGH AS HELL ... by woofing down enough food to feed a small Italian village.

As you may recall, Brock was diagnosed with a severe case of diverticulitis back in 2009 -- a digestive tract disease that usually forms in the large intestine -- and after multiple surgeries, he was forced to retire in 2011.

But things are lookin' up ... 'cause TMZ has learned Lesnar and his wife Sable hit up Fresco restaurant in Montclair, NJ on Monday ... and Brock put his belly to the test.

Check out what he ate:

-- Ahi tuna with asparagus (shared)
-- Margherita pizza (shared)
-- Chicken Parm ... with TRIPLE-EXTRA chicken
-- Full bowl of parpadelle bolognese

... and, to top things off, dude crushed a slice of cheesecake by himself.

We're told the entire meal cost just north of $500 ... PLUS, we're told the WWE star left a "very generous" tip to everyone who stayed past closing time to take care of him.

Awesome.

"Big Brother" winner Mike 'Boogie' Malin got voted out by a California appeals court, which just ruled his claim that a business partner and her lawyer tried extorting him was ridiculous.

Shereen Arazm sued her former business partners Boogie and Lonnie Moore, claiming they siphoned money away from their restaurant, Geisha House. Before filing the lawsuit, Arazm's lawyer, pit bull Marty Singer sent Boogie a demand letter, essentially saying if they didn't ante up quickly ... all the sordid details would surface in a suit.

Boogie sued Singer for extortion, but today the California Court of Appeals scoffed at the claim and threw it out. The court said Singer's letter was par for the course in lawsuits -- making a claim to settle, or else.

Video of Paula Deen openly admitting to using the n-word will never see the light of day ... so ruled the judge in the $1.2 million lawsuit filed by one of Paula's ex-employees, who accused Paula of promoting a racist and sexist work environment.

You'll recall, the video deposition -- in which Paula says "yes of course" she used the n-word in the past -- precipitated her epic self-destruction, with scores of business partners ducking for cover and costing her millions.

We're told the video is "colorful," but you'll probably never see it ... at least if the judge has his way.

Deen was obviously terrified the employee would leak the deposition video to the media ... so last week, she filed docs asking the judge to block its release.

Korn has been hard at work the past few months using their indoor hydroponics setup to grow a few pounds ... of CORN!!!

Turns out the guys got real health conscious while recording their new album "The Paradigm Shift" -- and bought a micro-indoor farm to grow corn and other vegetables inside of the studio so they wouldn't have to buy from a store (photo below).

"TPS" will be a historic album when it's released in October since it marks the return of co-founding guitar player Brian "Head" Welch ... who left the band in 2005 for religious reasons.

Chef Anthony Bourdain doesn't take kindly to "young punks" who piss in restaurant kitchens ... so he went to Twitter and UNLOADED on Justin Bieber.

After TMZ posted the footage of JB relieving himself in a janitor's bucket in an NYC restaurant kitchen, Bourdain tweeted -- "The chef should have put his foot up this young punk’s ass."

The CNN star continued, "My dishwasher ain’t cleaning that up, squirrel balls!"

There's more ... "Looking forward to seeing him open for Menudo at the State Fair— in about ten years."

And just for good measure: "In a preemptive strike, I plan to tell my daughter that Justin Beiber tortures puppies."

Jay-Z finally revealed the answer to the question at least one person was pondering -- what is his favorite cereal? His answer blew our minds ... and inspired a crunchy new rap!

Sorry, Jay ... we own rights on this beat.

Lauryn Hill is living the PRISON HIGH LIFE ... at least compared to Aaron Hernandez -- and TMZ has the menu to prove it.

Let's start with their first meals ...

When Lauryn checked into Federal Correctional Institute in Connecticut on Monday to serve her 3-month sentence for tax evasion, she was served up with some tasty BBQ pulled pork with a side of carrots, peas and sweet potatoes. To wash it down: she was able to choose from an array of juices or milk. WHO'S HUNGRY?

Compare that to Hernandez ... whose first meal at Bristol County Jail included scrambled eggs and grits, and chop suey with green beans and bread. Prison chop suey? No thanks.

As for day-to-day life, Hill will do menial work like cleaning the grounds, educational department help, yard work, or working in the religious services department. At night, she's housed in barracks with other inmates so she can laugh and talk and have fun!

Hernandez is being kept in a 3x5 cell for 21 hours a day, only allowed out for three hours a day, allegedly for his own safety. Oh ... and he's all alone in solitary confinement. Boooooring!