Mabelline

I've never seen anything of the sort at the buffet I described. The only thing close to the children is a separate ice cream station, scaled down for kids, alongside the adult desert bar. This place is assiduously clean, and about every couple of minutes, someone's arriving from the kitchen with fresh food. So, for myself, nah, I'm not worried about eating there. In fact, the food at the hospital scared me more.

Damn! I just now reread John post about 15-18 scallops per serving. Oh, man! That must be like a few generations back where they fed prisoners and servants so much lobster they were gonna revolt (as if)! Or when the entrances of the rivers on the East coast were so full of monster sturgeon that the ships had to wait them out to dock...

We've got an excellent quality place here in Billings called China Buffet. Most people are down on a Chinese buffet, but I love this one. Flavorful dim sum, dumplings, seafood of all kinds, flavorful Chinese dishes, good signage denoting hot,peanuts,seafood, etc., and wonderful service. They are some of the nicest people I've ever met; when SO ate in there without me and they found out I was in the hospital, they sent down two quarts of hot and sour soup to telemetry (and they don't usually deliver). There are quite a few Asian places here, but we always find ourselves headin' there.

To me it all kind of boils down to this: as she has done previously with a couple of top picks, Ms. Sharpe has chosen a restaurant (that another well-respected food critic tried three times, and was more dismayed each time) as #4 in a state as big as Texas, for cryin' out loud. And now people are disputing her judgment. And, for what it's worth, her meal there was sauteed red snapper with a lemon-chive butter sauce,topped with lump crabmeat and grilled oyster mushrooms. Dessert was tiramisu. Her closing remarks: "Of his name, White says,"Doesn't sound Italian, does it?" Could have fooled me. " So I still feel R.W.'s review was indeed frustration that once again, she is making some real odd picks.

I actually have one for Montana! In Butte, Montana, formerly a copper 'company" town, there were once so many Cornish miners that pasties are a phenom. And they are goood! By the way, it's Bute-long u.

Oh, Lordy, I hope it didn't sound that way! I am of course respectfully asking for his side. I just figured we seem to be -ahem!- grilling him without input. Andy, just so long as that Dr. Batch critter doesn't interview him

Marlena, I forgot all about telling you how much respect I have for your no-nonsense decision to do for your folks rather than do an invite to a truffle festival. Both your heart and your head were in the right place. Truly admirable.

Marlena, Hello! Your food is absolutely fabulous! Imam biyaldi: the imam fainted, one of my first excursions in things Med. along with ful mesdames. Love them! Are you nominated at Barcelona? If so many prayers and wishes go to you. Besides, the Basset Caucus is siding for you! Now you've got me wishing the eggplants would shape up and quit looking like used kitchen sponges.I love your blog!

I've got a crazy solution; one of youall across the water who's a writer go interview him for eGullet. Then we can get to the true brass tacks of the hue and cry, and he can be given more of a chance to illumine us, hmm? The only thing I take exception to, truly, was the statement of the ribsteak being the refuge of a cheap restaurant. Tell that to Ruth's Chris, Del Frisco, Peter Luger, etc.

Oh yeah, buffets as a kid were a Wonderland to me, being brought up almost exclusively on home cooking. I went wacko for Anything that was different; the stranger the better. I feel as though a successful buffet with friends and/or relatives is one of life's great pleasures. It is nice to the major food provider/cook, because after it's up, you get to relax. Marlena, I'd just about bet you scandalized your little group with your first aid kit I can hear them back at the rooms. Oh my, did you see that? And I thought she was such a nice girl! Bless her heart!

I can understand the dilemma of the theatres, but really by having such ungodly prices for the refreshments is kinda killing a goose that lays your golden eggs. Their beef--sorry-- ought to be with the studios, and actors making so damn much in relation to the whole thing. Because if the theatres stood up and closed on one weekend, I bet that would jerk a knot in the tails of all those folks who innundate us every Monday with the box office receipts ad nauseum. I can hear it now: last weekend there were no big winners at the box office. But the Ice Capades and Rockettes were slammin'!!

Perhaps the reason R.W. went so far out about the uniforms, is on account of that's how Pat Sharpe started her paean to a #4 restaurant, to wit: "The guy prowling the dining room of Terra Bosco's in a chef's jacket with a rolled bandana around his head is owner Richard White, and judging by the smears of red sauce on his jacket, it's not for show." So it seems to me that R.W. might have accentuated that aspect in order to point out how her article had started.Don' know. But it made sense to me...

No that's a stop watch, not a coin. Edit to add, fifi, 3 days to West Texas and back to Austin sounds like a bar bounce to me.

You are right, Richard, and it does smack weird, maybe that's what is prompting our hen peckin' session. It just ain't right somewhere, almost like eating the same things in two different restaurants. And R.W. did give them more than a fair chance, to me.

I say make that puppy sorry he hurt you. Eat as you like, and as soon as you feel better, go join a gym, and everytime you are fossilizing in the house, go to the gym, and walk around the track if nothing else. It did work for me; I relocated less than a 10 minute walk from the gym. Everytime I was moping around, I walked over and did a round on the machines, then walked the track till I felt tired. Kept me from shooting somebody---no, not me.

Best W.C. Fields imitation: Ah, Yessss, a veritable smorgasbord......

We won't be speculating no further, will we? I say let's start a write-in campaign to get R.W. that job. I hear they pay good.

Well, fifi, she did admit the staff at the hotels knew her by name. Hmmm, mebbe she was wringing that expense account pretty dry. Then she woke up one day, looked at her palm pilot, and found out,eek, deadline for the ten best is due tomorrow. So what the hey, those p.r.s sounded real good....This is all speculation, of course.... Edit to add: Go ahead, John, nobody'll bite you.

Yep, my daddy told us to buy the best boots, hat, and saddle you could afford, then the rest would take care of itself. And you know, it always did. Bravo for the goody run!!

Yeah, and why'd it take her 3 days to go from Austin to West Texas, eat, and come back? And then decide it wasn't worth writing up? Then she picks a top 10 by their publicity releases...

Make some roasted cauliflower with some other raw veggies with the dips and watch those little ladies go bananas!

You ain't seen nothin' yet. Yesterday we discussed in depth, mind you, the viability of milking them!!

Theabroma, that's great---I've been messing with the comal idea, and although I've got my gram's big ol' molcajete, there are some things I don't do with it because I don't want to mess the seasoning of it's surface up. Absolutely about the mulattos esp., I haven't gotten a good one up here. And the tortilla press is decided on, too. The molinillo, too. And the cool pinata. FIL has a double cab dually, so I'm only worried about them carrying too many things; I will keep on refining this. THANK YOU to everyone for helping me !! It is sure appreciated.Barkeep, shots all around!!

Oddly reminiscent of the Kinky Friedman song "Get Your Bisquits In the Oven and Your Buns In the Bed".... Who by the way, is running for governor of Texas on a platform of WHY THE HELL NOT?

Did anybody else watch the Badger Lord of the Rings...and as an aside, how many knew all the words of Immigrant Song? I am quite partial to the Viking Kittens.