munchymom

Sorry I missed this thread the first time around - I grew up in Plymouth NH and still go back to visit my folks. If you want to get back to the Lakes Region, Meredith is a nice town to visit. George's Diner is good for diner food, and Lago is a nice upscale Italian place with a good view of the lake. While you're in that neck of the woods, Rattlesnake Mountain is not to be missed. It is my very favorite hike in terms of bang-for-the-buck; an easy, half-hour hike that leads to a wonderful view. If you want a snack after your hike, you're not too far away from the original location of The Common Man in Ashland, NH. The upstairs bar is very congenial and has great bar food. The Common Man has become a very successful chain in NH, but the original definitely is the best.

I can't really call it "food", but I'll finish the version I learned: Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts Mutilated monkey meat Dirty baby birdies' feet All this stuff is rolling down the dirty street And I forgot my spoon! (Use a straw!) I'll add a ditty I learned at summer camp: Mushrooms are a vege-table That you eat when you are able You will know them when you eat them You will know them when you eat them If in Heaven you awaken Then you'll find you were mistaken And the mushrooms you have eaten Weren't the ones you should've et! Must've been toadstools - tough luck!

Antico Posto in the Oakbrook Mall, another Lettuce restaurant, is really very good. When we lived in the far south suburbs (really more like the northern suburbs of Kankakee) we did indeed drive to Oakbrook just to eat there.

That Japanese school lunch looks so good! My little guy's not school-age yet, but I see the school lunch menus in the local paper and they make me shudder. Chicken nuggets, hot dogs, pizza, tacos. Sodium-laden, processed crap. The stuff is scary. I took a bag lunch to school and my son will too. I do think this kind of monitoring can go too far; I remember a previous thread on a similar program, with an article quoting a mother alarmed because her daughter was buying a bottle of juice every day, and you know that's just 150 calories she doesn't need. As though juice were crack or something. I bet that kid ends up with an eating disorder.

Well, you learn something new every day. I'm glad I never tried to order one in a restaurant!

I work out first thing in the morning (1 hour on elliptical machine) and don't eat anything first. I do consume a half-liter bottle of water during the workout, and another immediately following. I don't usually feel ready to eat until at least an hour post-workout. At that point I eat something with both protein and carbs, like peanut butter on toast, or an Egg Beater omelette with cheese and a piece of toast.

Today's breakfast was an omelette filled with some asparagus, ham, and a little bit of leftover cheese fondue. Unfortunately my pan was a bit too hot (I just switched from an electric to a gas cooktop and am still figuring it out) and the eggs got crunchy on the edges before the fillings were completely heated. A good mix of flavors though.

Deep-fried stuff on a stick is a staple of festivals all over the US - there's a thread on here somewhere about the Minnesota State Fair that shows a bunch of it. I agree with those who say Southern food isn't necessarily unhealthy, especially in the summer when so many good vegetables are available. I also agree that the rising obesity probably has more to do with rising consumption of soft drinks than the food people are eating.

My husband and I used to live in a place that was so restaurant-deprived we would *drive twenty miles* to get to an Olive Garden. I was always reasonably happy with the salad (though the dressing is kind of artificial-tasting, same as Good Seasons mix) and the breadsticks. The entrees- I'd say more miss than hit. I once ordered a Chicken Marsala there that was literally the worst thing I have ever been served in a restaurant. Now that I live in a place with other options - well, OG would be about the last place I'd choose to go. I guess I do see a pretty sizable gap between Olive Garden and our local, non-fancy Italian places - a lot less prefab junk, crusty bread instead of squishy breadsticks, non-iceberg lettuce in the salad, and everything at least edible, with some things pretty good.

Pine nuts and avocadoes. I consider getting a few extra nibbles of these to be one of my rewards for being the cook.

Cheap or expensive in absolute terms, I dunno. (I'm sure that there are all kinds of expenses that are radically different in Thailand, not just food.) Certainly I could make it at home for less. But as I said above, it's about the same as one would spend at Subway or McDonald's - and there are plenty of middle- and working-class people who patronize the fast-food places on a regular basis. It's not an elite experience.

All kinds of restaurants are discussed here, not just the expensive ones. At my favorite Vietnamese restaurant here in Charlotte, you can get a truly immense (and also very tasty) bowl of pho for $6.50. That price is well within reach of the average American family - comparable in price to a sandwich at Subway or a McDonald's combo. Sure, we all like to talk about the fanciest fine dining places, but there's plenty of discussion at the low end as well. To your larger point about trends at the high end affecting what people in the middle class eat - it's a slow process but it does happen. The food that I ate as a child in the 1970's is very different from the food my parents make now - the variety of "exotic" ingredients and fresh produce available in their rural New Hampshire town is just amazing, and completely different from what was available twenty years ago. They've been reading the food magazines for years, and it shows in their cooking.

This is a topic I have plenty of experience with, because my husband is vegetarian and I am an omnivore. I do use meat analogs in cooking, because they're an easy protein source and can be pretty tasty. My main advice is - don't expect them to taste like meat, and you will be less disappointed with them. Also, use them in dishes where meat is not the main focus, and where highly flavored ingredients are used. Veggie Burgers - My favorite brands are Amy's (I especially like the Chicago and Texas varieties) and Morningstar Farms - (their Tomato Basil burger in particular is good served topped with melted mozzarella and pizza sauce.) Quorn - Quorn makes several products that, as folks are wont to say of many strange foods, taste like chicken. I use the Naked Tenders and Naked Cutlets in dishes that have a liquid component - they tend to be dry. Just this week I made a "chicken" salad by cooking the Quorn, then combining with minced celery and onion, chopped walnuts, and mayo. It came very close to the real thing in both taste and texture. I also use them in soup, stew and curry. I toss Morningstar Farms ground beef substitute into pasta sauce and vegetarian "chili". It adds a nice texture and the crumbles by themselves don't really have a lot of flavor. Tofu - It took me a long time to get used to tofu, but now I actually like it. Most often I use it in stir-fries. I saute the tofu in oil first to give it a little texture, then take it out, stir fry the vegetables, and add the tofu back in at the end. Oh, and I always use Extra Firm and drain it on paper towels for half an hour before starting to cook.

In the universe where a ordering a Margarita in a restaurant is likely to bring you a 20-ounce fishbowl filled with a shot of tequila, a bit of ice, and 15 ounces of artificial-lime-flavored high fructose corn syrup. This is why I order beer when I eat Mexican food, and make my Margaritas at home.

Just wanted to follow up and thank everyone again for their advice. I'm afraid I ended up ignoring it. My altruistic desire for my husband to have as good a meal as mine was surpassed by my selfish desire for a big slab o' meat and a chance to try the next big thing. We went to Custom House. My quail appetizer, short rib, and gratin potato were excellent. My husband fared better than I expected with a very good risotto, roasted trumpet mushrooms, baby beet salad, and truffled fingerling potatoes.

I haven't seen it, because it's on the other side of town from me, but the local paper reports that there is a new Vietnamese restaurant in Charlotte called: Pho Real

Oh, my. This meal gives new meaning to the phrase "pig out." I think the desserts looked awesome! I'd love to try some bacon toffee.

I just asked my 3-year-old what he wants for breakfast (he doesn't have sufficient foresight to plan for a whole day) and he said "No oatmeal." Okay, you don't want oatmeal, what *do* you want? "No Triscuits or Goldfish." [the snacks he had yesterday] Okay, no Triscuits or Goldfish, what do you want for breakfast? "You don't want anything." [He has a little, as Bugs Bunny would put it, pronoun trouble.] Toast? "No." Sausage? "No." Chex? "No." I guess he's not hungry.

I'm not sparrowgrass, but I can make a guess at the reason for the reaction: Marshmallows aren't vegetarian. They have gelatin in them. I hate to admit it, but I kind of like some of the potluck concoctions - casseroles with Campbell's soup and a potato chip topping, that kind of thing - if only because it's the kind of food I never make at home, and certainly not anything you'd get at a restaurant, but it can be kind of tasty. I think it's all the sodium. Since I don't have any of these dishes in my repertoire, I tend to volunteer to bring the soda or the paper plates to potlucks.

I don't think that wanting privacy in a forum that can be read by anyone in the world is unreasonable. Stalking and harassment are rare but real possibilities. My full name, due to the combination of an uncommon first name, an uncommon last name, and a cross-cultural marriage, is very rare if not unique. I don't want just anyone to be able to do a Google search based on something I post here and pinpoint my home address and phone number. If people choose to give less credibility to something I write here because they don't know my real name, so be it. I'm not a public figure. My real name wouldn't mean anything to anyone here, so using it would be giving away something important to me, without any discernable gain in return. After I posted on this thread yesterday, I did an auto-Google just to see if anything came up. My married name got zero hits. My maiden name got a few, all in another country. I like it that way. I don't want an online paper trail available for anybody who cares to see it. I don't want some future employer, passing acquaintance, or nostalgic ex-boyfriend to search for my name and find all my postings on eG or other forums in which I participate. That could be perceived as "not being willing to be held accountable for my words." I see it more as a choice to keep separate spheres of my life, well... separate.

I don't post with my real name anywhere on the Internet because I am concerned (well, maybe paranoid) about privacy. I don't want to post a photo of my kitchen or my three-year-old child, with my real name underneath it, so that J. Random Wacko can look me up on Google Maps and come to my house. If I were forced to use my full name on eG, I would get a new username and post nothing that would give a clue to my location, my age or family status - which, on a board where I might want to post about what my kid's eating or what restaurant I went to last night, would limit my participation greatly. I'd still read here but I don't think I'd bother to be a participating member.

A toaster. Everything else lives in the pantry.

The one time we went there, the fondue pot got so hot that when my husband brushed a finger against it by mistake, he ended up with a burn the scar of which is still visible 7 years later. The place just seems like a total safety hazard. Open pots of hot oil on every table? Being served to people who are also drinking wine? Their insurance rates must be astronomical.

Thanks to all who replied. I'll mull it over and let everyone know where we went (it's Thanksgiving weekend.)

Oh no! Looking at this page I see that Cinnamon and Fresh Georgia Peach are gone. I'm crushed! Crushed, I say! (There is nothing better than a scoop of cinnamon ice cream on top of a warm brownie. And the peach was awesome all by itself.)