Susan in FL

Is your salad served in a bone dish?? (What a cool idea!)

Good review... thank you! P.S. Are you ready for the next Friday the Firkinteenth®, at another spot near and dear to the hearts of us all?

That's pretty! I'm glad you guys brought this up about family-style. On the rare occasions that I serve family-style instead of plating, I haven't really been concerned about the presentation. I just put the foods in bowls and/or plates and set them in the middle of the table. Next time I do serve family-style, which might be this weekend or next when we have company for a belated Easter dinner, I will be keeping all this in mind!

For what it's worth, in one of the Thai restaurants I go to they have shrimp Pad Thai, pork Pad Thai, chicken Pad Thai, vegetarian Pad That, etc. listed on the menu. Go for whatever appeals to you. I'm glad you got the impetus! I'm not sure about the name of vegetarian fish sauce, but my bet is that somebody here will. While I was out burning off calories in my walk/run today, naturally I was thinking about food... where for my colleague and me to go for our dinner meeting tonight, and what thickness of rice noodles to use in this cook-off!! I understand this is a matter of personal taste/preference, as well. What do you all prefer, and why?

Russ grilled chicken, but not the usual almost-charred way which sometimes turns out overcooked. This was slow cooked on the grill and turned out soooo tasty and juicy. To go with it he made a salsa-slash-salad of black beans, corn, avocado, etc. and served that on top of a crispy slice of iceberg lettuce. ...Very good refreshing dinner.

Thanks, Rochelle! That is a good-looking recipe. And everyone has already given some good input. I'm loving this! Susan, I hope you don't mind if this other Susan jumps in with a photo, too. I wasn't sure what I was looking for when I first started on my sweetened salted radish search, and I ended up with both of these: One says sweet salted turnip and the other says preserved radish (sweet). Hopefully this will give those of you unfamiliar a visual idea of what to look for. I had also been looking for the little dried shrimps for quite a while and recently found them. Kasma Loha-unchit calls for dried shrimp as well as fresh in her Pad Thai recipe. I have a good source for rice noodles. It's in a town 30 miles from here, but it's worth the drive. However, I have ordered stuff, including Jasmine rice and sticky rice, from both Temple of Thai and ImportFood.com on more than one occasion, and I've been very pleased with the quality and the prices. I imagine that they would be reliable sources of rice noodles.

Tonight, a pot of clam chowder I made with a dozen great big chowder clams. Mmm-mm good, but not Campbell's!

That is one of the hardest questions I've ever tried to answer... For largely sentimental reasons, probably the original Silver Palate Cookbook.

Thank you, Lucy! I was busy and out of town during the past week, so I have been quiet in following your blog. It was truly wonderful and as several people mentioned, so inspirational. I couldn't go without posting a note of thanks.

Good points about antiques. I'm not a dealer and I don't have any $500.00 plates (that I know of!?! ), but I love antiques, too. I buy single plates, except for accumulating a "set" of pink depression glass. Usually when we have company for dinner, and sometimes for ourselves, I use all different ones for plating. It can make for a "too busy" presentation if garnishes are overdone or there is too much vertical placing of food, etc. When I use antique plates, I go for a more simple plating of the food on those. Also, neither the depression glass nor the plates with patterns are very photogenic!

Yes, and when you walk in, you don't "see dollar signs"... you SEE DOLLARS! LOL!

We just returned from Pensacola, and enjoyed another great dinner at McGuire's Irish Pub. Obviously it wouldn't be what one would pick for a quiet romantic dinner, but it was perfect for both celebrations we had at this restaurant. We had a large group there for dinner Friday after my son's and his girlfriend's winging, as we did after his commisioning. The food is very good, and both times the service to our somewhat rowdy bunch was excellent. They brew beer, and the IPA was delicious. They have a good wine list, too, as well as for cocktails. Some of the dinners at our table were lobster, steak, oysters, and burgers, and eveybody loved what they got. They seated us in a room with the one big round table in it. Some restaurants have reopened, having rebuilt or made the repairs, and others we saw were still closed. Pensacola itself is coming along, although many areas look different; however, Pensacola Beach was shockingly sad to us. We've known the amount of destruction that Ivan did there, but seeing the devastion for ourselves months later was... well it's undescribable for me. We certainly salute the efforts and the regrowth by the local people, and whenever we had a chance during our stay, we supported the businesses along the beach -- restaurants included -- even if a small purchase.

Betts, thanks for reporting back!

I thought I would bump up this topic again in hopes of getting you a response from someone who has been to Marco Island recently. It was several years ago that we were there, too, and we were disappointed in the restaurants , but I'm hopeful that some new places have opened. At the time, the best was the restaurant at the Marriott, where we stayed.

Catdaddy, I see the dates of your trip have passed, and am hoping to see your comments when you get a chance... Links are helpful, but I also like to hear eGers' impressions, notice of closings and new openings, etc.

I was glad to find this thread. I'm planning to be there for a workshop in May, and it's never too early for me to start researching on where I'll eat when I'm planning a trip!

I have ordered from some of those already listed, and in addition: Lotus Foods for rice -- it's where I buy most of my carnaroli rice for risotto; and for some of my Thai ingredients, ImportFood.com and Temple of Thai. Besides those, recently I have ordered most often from Marky's and iGourmet. I have never encountered mediocre products when ordering online.

I would enjoy pad thai for the next cook-off. I've made it only a couple of times, so I think I would meet the "always wanted to make at home (and may enjoy out) but rarely have made, or haven't made successfully" criteria.

Our dinner tonight was unconventional and the courses were out of order from the usual, because we waited until 4 PM on Easter Sunday to decide what to eat and go to the store for the makings. It all centered around wanting to use a lobster stock I had in the freezer for pasta cooking liquid, so we made a lobster pasta as the main course. Then we thought about Easter, and realized we wanted to have lamb involved somehow. Since we went that far with tradition, we felt compelled to work eggs in there somewhere, in lieu of Easter eggs. The result... Appetizer: A Taste of Clams on the Half Shell First Course was Lamb Chops! The Main Course of Lobster Pasta Salad Course Spinach, Prosciutto, Edible Flower Leaves, and a Fried Egg with White Truffle Vinaigrette

I have never heard of this place. When I first saw the title of your topic, I thought you were looking for a source for buying rice paper, to make spring or summer rolls, and I was all ready to tell you where I get mine! Too bad about your experience.

Thank you... extra special thanks to you (and "J")... This was a blog to remember! The photos were outstanding. It was easy, comfortable reading, too, which means a lot to me. There was plenty of good writing to go with the photos, but not so much that I couldn't keep up, due to time factors. I really enjoyed following this.

I almost missed the Victoria and Albert's review! I was on the lookout for that! It looks like you edited, to add it to your previous post, and so an email notification didn't come until another reply was added. Anyway, I am so glad you enjoyed it. In case anybody is interested in the comments from others and myself about this restaurant, and a few others in the area, click here about Victoria & Albert's and here and here and here for some fairly recent descriptions.

I really enjoyed this course, and it was informative and helpful. I was particularly glad to learn about the methods of preventing liquid from running out of the food and on to the plate. The biggest challenge for me as a home cook (who loves plating and presenting food with lots of visual appeal) is to create a plate that I am satisfied with in time for the food not to get cold. Any tips? Thank you very much for the course on this subject of great interest!

Doesn't anybody besides me love the smell of frying/ fried chicken?

I forgot to mention another change from my olden days and another comment. After I took the pieces out of the buttermilk and coated them with the flour mixture, I let them sit on a high rack for about an hour and a quarter before frying. I believe that is a valuable step. Also, I don't drain on paper towels after frying. Surely, I should have been that smart and known better than what I did, giving me the overly salty crust. Same here. I did have some sense in that regard. Very good point! -- One easy for me to forget, I love the crust so much. Last night was a lesson in that for me, with the wonderful taste of the chicken meat.