Breath Mints and vegetarian

Question

1. Do you need to make a berakhah on breath mints? 2. If I am at a strictly vegetarian restaurant and I turn on the stove, can I eat there. Let's say that they use wine vinegar, but not in my dish, does this treif up the pots? 3. If you don't have a candle that was burning before Yom Kippur, do you light a candle to make havdalah or do you skip this blessing? 4. The Rama (Yoreh Deah 105:2) says that a hot solid food does not absorb in a keli sheni. The Shakh quotes the Maharshal who says that a hot solid food can absorb. Since R. Abadi holds that we can use the utensils at a non-kosher restaurant, should I assume that we hold like the Rama??