morda

Where are you coming from? I'm just wondering what options you normally have. I know this isn't really a restaurant, but I might be tempted to swing by the new Whole Foods on Woodruff Rd. and sample their various food bars for a casual option. But I'm in Clemson so I always make it a point to go to Whole Foods, Earth Fare, or some other specialty grocery whenever I'm in Greenville. There's always something I need/want. Blue Ridge Brewery on the main drag is a good choice for casual on a Sunday night, but I don't know that they'll be open on that particular Sunday. The food is decent, with an interesting variety of game meats (haven't tried any of that). My favorite reason for going there on Sunday nights is that they have that special Sunday liquor license so you can get beer. Oh, avoid the fried shrimp, it was tasteless last time I went. I've never been to Barley's, but I would hope they have the same deal ragarding the beer. Edited for egergious spelling errors.

Well folks, things have changed. The husband is home now and I just opened the package. Lo and behold, the crabcakes are COOKED. They have a distinct brown color. I'm warming them up in the oven as I type. The only confusion now what we got exactly. From the price my husband claims he paid (around $35), it doesn't seem like we could have gotten 3 jumbo lump crabcakes. But they sure look like lump-like. Backfin would be more shredded, wouldn't it? Maybe I should take a picture and post it... Off to find the digital camera, morda

My husband was in Baltimore this past week and I had lurked around the board to get him some good eat recommendations (he went to Pazo, btw). After reading about Faidley's I told him it was imperative that he bring some crabcakes home to me. Well, apparently there was some miscommunication between him and the order-taker, and my husband is now on the way home with 3 uncooked crabcakes (and no coddies ). I think they sent along cooking directions as well, but here's my real dilemma. I'm not much of a deep fryer, although I can do it if forced too. But I really don't feel like heat up a whole pot of oil just cook three crabcakes. Has anyone had them broiled or baked? Will I be doing a major injustice to them? Should I just suck it up and go buy a big container of oil (peanut? canola?) and start cutting up potatoes? TIA! morda Edited to add: I assume from their baseball-like shape that they can't be pan-fried. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks, GG. Yes, normally 33 Liberty would be my first choice (or sushi at Sushi Koji). I had seen the link from some other discussions and Devereaux's is on the list. Should I take its exclusive from your list of suggestions to mean that you think the others are better choices?

I'm an ABC if that's relevant... 1. Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice? White rice, or if specificied, jasmine rice 2. Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree? Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish? I put some rice in a bowl. Then, for sanitary reasons, I use a serving spoon to scoop a bit of the entree into my bowl. Eat a few bites and repeat. If I'm positive all the food will be consumed in that meal and I'm eating alone or just with my family, I might take bites directly from the entree dish with my chopsticks. 3. Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user? Chopsticks. 4. Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat? Some of everything. 5. Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout? They have such dishes?!?! 6. When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things? Get something different everytime. 7. What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them? My favorite chinese takeout place was my parents'. Might be unfair tho since I was basically eating my mom's cooking when she had access to a restaurant grade gas stove and deep fryer, buckets and buckets of homemade chicken stock (made on chicken delivery day), made-from-scratch dumplings, etc... As for my least favorite place, I've never tried a bad place more than once so I can't really rate them relative to one another. I love the idea of chinese takeout, but I rarely find a place where I can stomach the food. So, on average I only have chinese takeout a few times a year. Right now I live in South Carolina and unfortunately not in one of the cities so I'm out of luck. The chinese restaurants range from mediocre to bad (I didn't even bother trying the one the local college kids told me was just "ok".) However, I've had good luck when I live in Boston and the metro DC area.

Hi all-- I'm trying to arrange a dinner this weekend in Greenville with some friends. We've been to 33 Liberty several times and love it, but my friends want to try a different restaurant. They've suggested Devereaux's. I've read a bit about it and it seems worth a try, although I'm a bit worried that it's on the very expensive side, rather than the somewhat expensive side. So I guess my questions are: Is Devereaux's a good choice? How expensive is it? And does anyone have any other worthier suggestions for a nice dinner out with friends? It can be any type of food (not just Southern or continental), as long as the restaurant is somewhere between very nice and upscale. TIA!

This isn't in NC, but close enough to the border with SC to be worth mentioning: Split Creek Goat Farm Yummy cheeses and fudge. They goat milk and chicken eggs as well. And the farm is a sight to see..all the animals are peacefully coexisting and looking happy and healthy. I went by this weekend and saw the cutest week-old baby goats. They are having a "Spring Festival" on April 17 which sounds like a lot of fun. They say that they will be featured National Geographic Traveler Magazine sometime in the near future. morda

Thanks for the info, Gifted. I had heard about Blais being about Two Urban Licks, but the posts were a couple weeks ago so I wasn't sure if things had changed. Speaking of Two Urban Licks, has anyone been? Does it live up to the hype? And does anyone know what dinner for two would cost (say, food only, before tax/tip/alcohol)? morda

Hi everyone... So I missed Blais at Blais, and I guess I've missed Blais at Bazzaar. Anyone know what he's up to at the moment? Or is there anything else in Atlanta at the moment that is Not-to-be-missed? I have a night or two in Atlanta next week and I'd like to do some culinary exploration. I'm also interested in some inexpensive places for our other meals (2 lunches and a dinner), so any suggestions are appreciated. I think we may be staying in the Buckhead area, if that makes a difference. TIA, morda Edited because it's spelled Bazzaar and not Blazaar

I've only made a couple of cheesecakes, but I just made one recently and it was the only one that hasn't crack. It was also the easiest cheesecake I've ever made. 1) I didn't have a crust. John Thorne's "Simple Cooking" convinced me it's not necessary for taste. However, for nice presentation some kind of crust is necessary. 2) I baked in a springform pan, but not in a water bath. I put a second pan underneath in case my springform leaked, but it didn't at all. 3) I baked it one hour, took it out when it was still jiggly (a little too jiggly for my taste, but I've overcooked cheesecakes before and I did not want to overcook this one). 4) Cooled it on the counter one hour, stuck it in the refrigerator. No fancy waterbaths or hours of cooling in the oven, so I agree with the others that overbaking is probably the reason for cracks. Leaving the crust off saved me a lot of time too. I need to work on the texture (a little too fluffy, even though I was careful to mix very slowly and minimally), but the taste was fantastic--not overly sweet, wonderfully sour. morda

Hi all-- I'm thinking about making the Whole-Wheat Meat Samosas from Madhur Jaffrey's Step-by-Step Cooking for a party tomorrow, but some folks are vegetarians, so I'd love to do some potato filled ones as well. Anyone have a tried-and-true recipe? Alternative veggie fillings are welcomed as well. Also, recipes for sauces to serve them with would be great as well. TIA, morda

I find that tartare is a useful word on a menu. For example tuna tartare. I'm not sure what other term non-Japanese restaurants could use, other than "raw", which sounds less appetizing. I have a strong adversion to the terms low-fat, lite, light, and reduced, but that has more to do with the product than the words. Here's a fun one I've seen pop up: lower-carb. Lower than what? I bet they lower the total carbs by just reducing the serving size. morda

For some reason, I read that as Vodka, and thought "whoa, that's some breakfast, johnnyd". Me, I don't eat breakfast. If it's warm out, I drink some OJ or a yogurt shake. If it's cold out, it's milk tea. morda

Might want to think twice about that one, unless you have cancer: Cyanide in fruit seeds It goes on to say that you can't really eat enough apple seeds to for this to be dangerous. But... But my mom likes to eat them too morda

2 kraft singles (extra calcium cos that's supposed to help with weight loss as well) sandwiching pimento cheese. The singles don't melt right anyway. eat with fork.