For a one-day tasting event (known to the horrific as a "pop-up"), In-N-Out, arguably California's best purveyors of hamburgers, opened a stand in Shanghai. As Serious Eats notes, "The menu at the tasting advertised some not-so-secret menu items and didn't have the full line up of drinks or fries, but otherwise looked similar to the regular menu." (No fair posting Animal Style! Is nothing sacred, God?)

Does this mean that California-based In-N-Out, who are super protective of their brand, will open a shop in China? Nope. It's all part of In-N-Out's plan to douse cold water on a clone restaurant, complete with same signage and menu, called CaliBurger.

Read more about it at Serious Eats.

[Thanks goes out to Dan Berkes for the tip!]

MUSIC: Late '90s Santa Cruz band the Huxtables headline a night of "fun rock" tunes. Take, for example, the song their dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons, "Dungeon Master," which they had to revise after the latest edition of the game was released. Talk about staying true to your deliciously dorky roots. (For a more in-depth explanation of this adorable geek-rock song, go here.) Alt-country band the Bitter Sweets and Two If by Sea open for the SC gang.

9 p.m. // 12 Galaxies [2565 Mission] // $6

FILM: It's an all-Lana Turner night featuring The Postman Always Rings Twice (screening at 7 p.m.) andThe Lady From Shanghai (1948) (starting at 9:15 p.m.)

7 p.m. & 9:15 p.m. // The Castro Theatre [Castro & Market] // $6-9

THEATER: 12th century Japanese comedy and 18th century French satire collide when the Theatre of Yugen presents its annual take on Voltaire's classic Candide with Sorya! A Candid Dispute.

8 p.m. // NOHspace (in the Project Artaud) // $10-$15

The listed events were chosen by the editors of SFist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla.

Though this may amuse a smattering of transplants who neither want this city to grow nor evolve into the world-class city it secretly is, a new global Monopoly board is coming and San Francisco is not a part of it. You see, people of the earth get to vote to see which of the 68 world cities will make the final 22 on the global board game. San Francisco, it seems, is not on the list. In fact, California gets a pithy single nomination (Los Angeles) while France receives a shocking two (Paris Lyon).

Naturally, we are sick to our stomach over this slight. With geographical locations whose existence we question, like "Buenos Aires, Argentina;" "Shanghai, China;" "Caracas, Venezuela;" and "Canada," we're both saddened and surprised not to find Baghdad by the Bay among the list. Hrumph, indeed.

Fear not, San Franciscans--or Oaklanders, Athertonians, or Orindaians, or whatever--there is a write-in wildcard category where you can vote up to 10 times per day for which city not in the nomination bunch will become one the properties on the board. The downside? You have to register. Alas. Anyway, you can vote here.

Gavin, this seems like your kind of issue, yes? Let's get on it, stallion.

This is the story behind the best egg nog--and the best egg nog traditions to accompany it.

First, we must explain that this recipe is . It was a secret when Mr. George P. Hunt pried it out of a man named Otis Terrell in Shanghai in 1926, and it was a secret when Mr. Terrell pried it out of Carl Seitz, a lumber executive from Virginia, some years before. We always take care to emphasize this to our guests when they come over to help make the egg nog--secrecy adds a subtle but thrilling flavor to the nog itself. Feel free to pass the recipe along, but always make it seem as if it is being pried out of you.

Having apprenticed at the Terrell household, Mr. Hunt went on to host his own egg nog parties. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, every year for nearly 60 years, a select group of friends would gather to prepare the secret recipe, a recipe not just for egg nog but for conviviality itself.

After the jump, step-by-step instructions for starting your own 60-year tradition.

After living in Shanghai for several years, 27-year-old Bay Area artist Aliza Cohen returns home to boast her new series, Bundles & Passages, featuring work that reflects her feelings of time-honored culture shock while living abroad.

She describes her paintings and drawings as a "deep exploration of my experiences traveling throughout China and Southeast Asia, as well as my recent return to San Francisco...this collection of artwork is an attempt to amplify or diffuse the relationships between objects to create poignant moments in paint that illuminate the tension or delight of my personal journey." Groovy. What's more, there will be free booze for all! Don't miss it.

Cohen's homecoming begins tonight at 6 p.m. at 1890 Bryant Street Open Studios; free.

This morning, SFO crews found a dead body lodged in the wheel well of the nose of a United plane coming in from Shanghai. It might have been a stowaway.

A woman was arraigned in Denver yesterday, after getting arrested on Monday for beating her kids on a Frontier Air flight that took off from SFO. Witnesses report that she seemed intoxicated on the flight, was yelling and hitting the kids, and then threw a drink at a flight attendant and then followed the attendant into the aisle while yelling and pointing. This lady's got our vote for the SF Board of Supes!

And we've got a new airline flying in! Starting today, you can start buying tickets on Virgin Air from SFO to LAX (starting at $44) or JFK (starting at $139). Flights to Dulles and Vegas are forthcoming.

The world premiere of played on Saturday night at the Castro Theatre and the house was packed.

One of the themes running through the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival last year was about how there weren't enough Asian-American men in movies. Clearly things have not improved since out of the three movies we saw over the weekend, two of them featured the same dude (Ken Leung) as the male lead (and the third one was a Japanese anime).

Shanghai Kiss is the story of a struggling 28 year-old Asian-American actor (the perspicacious Ken Leung) in L.A. who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a 16 year-old girl (played by Hayden Panettiere of ABC's "Heroes"). He's forced to confront both his identity crisis and his troubled relationship with his father when he inherits a house in Shanghai where he meets the lovely Kelly Hu (who also stars in an ABC series, "In Case of Emergency" and who is in another SFIAAFF film this year too).

After the jump: donkeys in Compton or taking the bus in LA? And the director's poignant story about his father.

[Please see the note added to the end of this post for info about software drivers.]

This straight outta Shanghai drugstore special advertises itself an eight-frame-per-second sports digicam. It's complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor uses the same technology as industry-standard professional cams. Can this miniature marvel compare with cameras costing hundred or thousands of dollars? Does it deserve a place under your holiday tree?

"Cherish your happiness memoeries" after the jump!

Phillyist is concerned that the war on Trans fats could affect it's beloved cheese steak sandwiches, something for which we should all be concerned. They also seem to be concerned about which subterranean creature could be responsible for a bunch of underground explosions. Also of interest is a Quest for the Holy Grail Benefit Bike Race! which just sounds like an awesome idea but do people actually ride bikes or do they pretend to while somebody walks behind them hitting a cocoanut?

Torontoist ponders a blogger who is trying to take a picture of every damn building in the city and the incompetence of the Toronto Port Authority. They also turn to bigger issues and interview the new leader of Canada's Green Party and debate whether it's okay to diss their own city. Do Canadians diss anyone?

DCist meanwhile has a lot of visitors on their minds, especially Borat of Kazakhstan who was all over the city. Not as exciting, but more of a hassle was the appearance of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and his motorcade. Thanks to DCist, if either of them visited a restaurant, they would have learned a lot about how the heirarchy of restaurant tipping and whether to tip or not.

LAist, however, is more concerned with things feminine as they pondered a feminine dye product and how does one get a date to end. They also interview mysterious blogger LA City Nerd.

Chicagoist ponders why everyone still thinks the city is gangsta and where to get the best cocktail. They also have lots of Susie Oprah news, and crow a little bit over the fact two Chicago roasters won "Roasters of the Year" awards. Suck it, Seattlest.

Bostonist ponders the fact two other tunnels now need work and if it's possible to survive without Google for a day (stupid Comcast). With the elections coming up on us, they detail the Gubernatorial debate, featuring a question by Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's wife who apparently isn't registered to vote in the state.

Over in the Lone Star State, Houstonist celebrates the fact that the Space Center made it to on the new Monopoly board and that Houston is is going to the dogs. Fortunately for Houstinist, Jesus is too-- he is, in fact, moving to the 'burbs where he could hang out with pastor Joel Osteen and his bitchy wife.

Austinist isn't quite feeling the religious vibes, but is feeling the vibe of a Howard Dean visit and Austin City Limits being called the best music show on TV. Meanwhile, the county won't pay for weight reduction surgery anymore so it makes it that much greater a car share service will be set up. And while a historic landmark is getting knocked down, the Austin Film Festival is getting ready.

Gothamist has a taping scandal not involving a high-tech company but the Attorney General and his wife. Which isn't nearly as messed up as something a real-estate broker does (it involves both Satan and poop and do you really need anything else to know whether a story is awesome or not?). And speaking of bad behavior, they also contemplate their public transportation pet peeves.

Which, in a way, is also what SFist is up to this week as they listed some of theirs too. In fact, public transportation weighed heavily this week as their Mayor whines about the public transportation in his town. Elsewhere, their Green Candidate for Congress dances and squirrels attack!

Overseas, Shanghaist missed a track meet but went to the after-party that looked way too cool for something involving track and field and went to a jazz concert where hopefully they went used one of Shanghai's most romantic Metro spots to find love. Not finding love are several political types who ran into all sorts of trouble for a pension scam and all sorts of other nefarious acts. Politicians being arrested for wrongdoing, what is the world coming to?

Parisist, meanwhile, pondered about the beauty of break dancing, how to breathe in all of those smoky French cafes, and all the wonderful Parisian blogs (French version here, bad Google translated version here).

Links compiled by SFist's Jon "NKOTB" Shurkin

The crowd at the Kabuki Theater on Friday night had more hip-hoppers than usual, as SF Int'l Asian-American Film Fest attendees eagerly lined up three-deep for the sold-out showing of No Sleep Til Shanghai, a documentary following Chinese-American rapper Jin Au-Yeung's 2-week 8-city tour of Asia. The excitement reached a fever pitch in the pre-screening intros, with audience members shouting out "Holla!" as Jin himself called in on the producer's cell phone to say hi. "There's probably a lot of Asians there, right? So TURN OFF YOUR CAMCORDERS!" Best part: everyone laughed.... but no one actually turned their camcorder off.

Jin is a NYC-based rapper who stormed into battle dominance on 106th and Park with his quick rhymes and sharp racial analysis -- he's often been called the Asian Eminem, though to Jin's credit, he seems profoundly uncomfortable with that title. Jin was then signed to the Ruff Ryders label, and released his first album, "The Rest Is History" in 2004. In support of that album, he went on an 8-city 2 week tour of Asia, camera crew in tow. It was his first time in Asia (other than Hong Kong).

After the jump, Jin meets some lovely Asian ladies, freestyles in Cantonese and Mandarin, and does an awful lot of interviews.

Gavin's number five! Gavin's number five! Mayor Newsom came in fifth in this year's World Mayor Awards -- a markedly better showing than last year, where he came in "less than 1500 votes but strong international appeal." That's a little awkward to have printed on a ribbon.

This year, Newsom was the highest-ranked US mayor, and came in behind Dora Bakoyannis of Athens, Greece; Hazel McCallion of Mississauga, Canada; Alvaro Arzu of Guatemala City; and Oscar Samson Rodriguez of San Fernando, Philippines. Bakoyannos was cited for her strong handling of the 2004 Olympics and her fight against terrorism.

And Newsom....? Well, he got props for gay marriage and Care Not Cash. Um, didn't he do anything in 2005? (His profile does note that he broke up with the Kims this year). Check out the comments he got in support of his nomination too. "As a San Franciscan, words cannot express the joy I have in knowing that Gavin Newsom is my Mayor."

No other -ist mayors made the top ten, but in the US Americas, the mayors in Toronto, Chicago, DC, and Seattle made the finals, as did Shanghai, Paris, and London. Though we could always start Mississaugaist any day now!