Thanks for the Crepes

My experiences were much better, and they were all formed in Memphis, Tn. Sweet succulent, not dried out, crispy clam strips. All across the USA, at the time, according to accounts still available, if you care to seek them out. That sweetness is what still lingers, and was revisited by the frozen breaded clams that Sea Pack provided the other day. It's not the "Clam Box," but it is what I can bring into my little limited realm of experience. I also wanted to share it with others who maybe jonesin' for clams, and not know how to get any.

JoNorvelleWalker, I'm sorry your experience with HoJo's was so bad. Where was it? I really miss being able to get not overcooked clams. It is so easy to ruin them, but they're one of my favorite foods when done properly, which is kind of difficult to do or obtain from others. Berkshire pork sounds great, and probably out of my food budget.

huiray, That clam pasta is inspiring envy in me, and I try really hard to avoid that! Wow! So Beautiful. I made it a point to get some 3 buck Chuck Chardonnay so I could make white clam pasta, but it'll be made with canned clams. We had fresh mahogany clams from Maine the other day as an appetizer, but that's a rare treat, and they were on sale. My canned clam dish is still really dreamy though, and even canned clams pack an absolutely amazing amount of Vitamin B12 as well as being crammed with minerals. I'm going to enjoy my clam pasta soon before the parsley expires, but I'll be thinking of your much elevated dish.

After the spate of posts on whole fried clam bellies, I had to have a fix such as it was, sort of. I'm old enough to remember being able to go to Howard Johnson's restaurants even in Memphis anytime I liked for a good clam strips fix. That was a long time ago, and although there are reports of still extant HoJo's where lucky folks can still get this delicacy, I'm not among them. The clam strips from my local fresh fish shop, which is very good in many areas, are the very nadir of clam strips I have ever experienced. They come out of their freezer pre-breaded, and are like thick fried rubber bands. I'll betcha a C-note they've never sold a second order to any unsuspecting customer, and I NEVER gamble. So, in my limited budget and environment, I went to the grocer and bought the only clam strips (frozen and breaded) I had access to. Sea Pack. I was a little worried, but you know what, after I coaxed my no-thermostat oven to screaming hot (like for pizza) this product came out crispy, SWEET, and reminiscent of HoJo's which was the best result I could possibly expect. Only the really small pieces were rubbery or hard, and we had enough for two that the two four-dollar boxes satisfied us enough to leave those for the coons. The big pieces, and there were lots, were crispy, tender, and SWEET, just like I remember HoJo's. So you landlubbers who can't get up to Maine, Rhode Island or Connecticut, or ... Sea Pack! It's decent, just make sure you get the oven screaming hot and don't overcook. I made my own tartar as usual. "Joy of Cooking's" recipe starts out: make traditional mayonaise. Mine starts out: add "Joy of Cooking's" chopped veg to Duke's (no sugar) mayo. I also add chopped green olives. This addition is from Duke's tartar sauce, but since they use good, fresh ingredients, it's very likely to go moldy before the expiry date. Tartar, to be good, must be made fresh IMO, with flatleaf parsley, onion (preferably spring), dill pickle, capers and olives. My version has a lot of veg, and not one whit of sugar. We also had a nice chef's salad with boiled eggs and cheese, but I'm afraid we both ignored it for the most part. Should have served it as a first course.

AnnaN, My last attempt at hollandaise was during a dinner party many years ago. I can make it no problem, but it's a dedicated task. I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off as usual, everyone else enjoying beverages and otherwise being useless. I asked my brother to stir while I had a very short bathroom call of nature. When I got back the sauce was broken, and brother was my biggest detractor, recommending Knorr Swiss from the packet. Ever since then I make deconstructed asparagus with hollandaise: over (very) easy eggs cooked in excess butter to drizzle, over cooked asparagus with fresh deseeded lemon wedges to spritz. I would venture that it's actually a superior dish, and doesn't require the extreme focus of traditional hollandaise.

I am not a much of a candy maker, nor a Modernist at all, so I would approach this with a different tool. Vanilla sugar is made by just burying vanilla beans in sugar over time and letting the sugar take on its aroma. If I were to try onion sugar, and it sounds good, based on a quick onion pan bread I make from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything." The bread calls for caramelized onions and brown sugar on the bottom of the pan as the bread bakes. I would probably try mixing some not too wet sliced onion (not Vidalias, and not spring) with some brown and white sugar, closing that up in a container for a while. I'd stir it everyday to test my hypothesis that the sugars would prevent decomp and to distribute the onion flavor into the sugars more evenly. I also believe the sugars would draw out the onion juices and essences, without the solids through osmosis into the drier sugar. I'd see what I had after a while, and if I liked it as is, I'd use it like that. People who are less terrified of boiling sugar may want to caramelize the sugars after sorting the onion out, and then grind them. I think the flavor of the onion may change on the high heat of carmelization of sugar though. Caramelization of onions never comes near those high temps. ETA: Just to make it clearer that there's still some water content in caramelized onions even after the sugars begin to brown. This keeps the temp down. When one drives off all the water, you have bitter, burnt onions. Just sayin'.

Yeah, even though you can spend time and skilled effort to get to what you want from a website, there's absolutely no reason to. I used to be a sysop, debugger and programmer, database admin, BUT I got paid fairly well for those things. If I encounter a ridiculous restautant site, like the last two linked to above, my first thought is PLEASE make it shut up. (Easy with my HP keyboard volume controls, which will be pried from my cold dead hands. Defensive weapon, you know.) My second thought is get me the heck out of here! I enjoy food porn in the form of menu descriptions or photos as much as the next eGer, but I draw the line at doing any what-should-be-paying work to get it. There's too much else out there that is not designed by arrogant so and so's. ETA: To make clear that DiggingDog's menu links were not the ones I was calling "ridicules sites." Those are the last two musical, useless resto sites above his post. Sorry, but this is one of my sore points with modern life. DiggingDog, Cool you were able to get to some menus, and I hope you didn't have to spend too much time getting there. You have more patience than I, my friend.

Kerry, I know you're reporting your real experiences, but they seem like a fairy princess fantasy world to me. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your European odyssey with us. It looks like they sure do understand how to make good bread over there. Wow! One question: Vivanda seems like a fairly upscale restaurant, and while I believe shellfish has much more flavor cooked in its shells, I don't think I'd be exactly comfortable picking up and peeling saucy shellfish in a white tablecloth environment. Those are lovely-looking crawdads, and I couldn't leave them on the plate. What did you do?

Smithy, I also am seriously coveting your tomatoes. I do love the perfume of a sun-ripe tomato. How do you make your great-looking shrimp/pasta dish? I make a similar one with long pasta, mushrooms and shrimp sauteed in garlic butter and garnished with Parmesan and flat leaf parsley. I first had it many moons ago in my early twenties when a roommate made it for my birthday, and it's been in the rotation ever since. Leftovers are even delicious. Some people (certainly not me ) have been caught sneaking cold midnight snacks. Good to hear they're getting some rain in Texas. I understand they really, really need it, although I know rain is never ideal for vacation plans. ETA: I can't improve on your idea of garlic/butter/lemon sauce for your king crab, except to add that with some of your lovely homemade bread and a nice salad, that fits my idea of one of the ideal dinners available on earth. My battered 1997 copy of "The Joy of Cooking" says all crab sold in the U.S. must be either live or cooked, so unless regulations have changed, yours is cooked. I always treat crab as already cooked, and have never had a problem. I don't have access to live crabs, but sure would love to.

Great article weinoo, I sometimes feel like I'm in the 1973 Woody Allen movie, "Sleeper." One year nutrition studies tell us coffee, tea, salt, cholesterol, eggs ... are the devil. A few years later: coffee, tea, salt, cholesterol, eggs ... are NOT the devil. I guess processed sugar is the current devil? Before we know it, health food will be outlawed like in that crazy movie. The article pretty much follows my approach to food and nutrition and my grandma's and RN mom's sage advice.

You garden looks great Shelby! Thanks for sharing the photos. I, for one, would be very interested in any future progress reports you would care to share with us. Good luck with the corn. It likes a lot of nitrogen and water. It's best to try to get it harvested before the really hot dry part of summer, or it will parch. You also can't plant a single row, or it won't pollinate properly. I always moved the corn to a different area of the garden each year and tried to plant it where I had peas or beans the year before, because those crops actually fix nitrogen in the soil. I would definitely expect to have to irrigate it in Kansas. Your okra should do well in the hot dry Kansas summer. In really dry years where everything else was parched, the okra was thriving and producing like crazy. Condolences to Darienne and ElainaA who reported recent snowfall. It's time for winter to move on!

huiray, I hope you enjoyed your Filet-O-Fish sandwiched with extra tartar. It appears McD's has downsized the bun to fit the much smaller fish fillets. Haven't had one in a long while. Before they did the bun downsizing, but had downsized the fish, my husband informed me that you could request an off-menu double fish fillet, and that took it back to the old fish to bun ratio. It took it nowhere near the old price ratio. This sandwich was on the dollar menu in the good old days with the full-sized bun and fillet and full piece of cheese. It cost $4.00 to get two of the smaller fillets on the same bun. It still came with the quarter piece of cheese that's standard today. I remember the really really good old days when this sandwich used to come with shredded lettuce and pickle. It's still the best fast food chain fish sandwich. I went on a quest to see if I could get better a couple years ago, and went to Burger King, Dairy Queen, Wendy's, and several more that I'm perhaps not being able to remember because I am getting seriously nauseous thinking about it. It's possible to get bigger, but they are raccoon fodder. Fortunately, there's a mom and pop fish market very close to us that will fry up any raw fish they sell to order or make generous whiting sandwiches at 2/$5.00. Unfortunately, you'd better make your own tartar sauce because they offer none except in overpriced commercial brand jars. And make sure you have your own lettuce in the house. They have really good fresh fish though.

The thick/thin asparagus question is a good one, and my answer is: it depends. I used to think the thinner the better until I started buying some that came from Peru several years ago. Maybe they were just getting started in the business; I don't know. You're supposed to wait until the second year to take a harvest. It doesn't even make sense that thin asparagus would be fibrous, but this was, not woody, but the most fibrous asparagus I ever ate. Peruvian asparagus has gotten much better in recent years, but I've never seen thick stalks from there. I just love asparagus though, and I wouldn't kick thick or thin stalks off my dinner plate ever. It's a nutrition powerhouse, and so delicious topped with an over easy egg fried with extra butter for drizzling and a spritz of lemon. I can eat this as an entree with some good bread. I'm now thinking about Shelby's garden asparagus which is producing prolifically right now, lucky girl. dcarch's photo of NYC asparagus is the stuff dreams are made of, wow!

Hey Smithy, Do you recall the name of the all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant where you ate in/near Rockport, TX? I went on yelp and Google to search, and too much stuff came up to even make a guess, and I cannot seem to get this out of my mind. My first husband and I used to enjoy AYCE seafood dinners at the Hungry Fisherman (Shoney's subsidiary, now defunct) when we lived in Memphis, TN. We had to go over the state line into Mississippi IIRC to get it. I'm certain that at my age I probably couldn't get my money's worth with AYCE anything like I did when I was in my early twenties, but the idea and the memories it evokes are really grabbing a hold of me. One of the best parts of the Hungry Fisherman experience to me was going out on the huge back deck over their small lake and feeding the geese, ducks, koi and monster catfish our leftover hushpuppies and fries. They had lights rigged so you could see the beautiful color patterns of the koi and the giant catfish breaking the water to get their treats The Hungry Fisherman of old is also the place I had my own very first Maine lobster. I did not appreciate it when the waitress clipped a bib around my neck, but when I started digging in, I definitely understood.

RWood, I know that camera cake was a labor of love, and your friend is so lucky to have such a talented and giving person in their life. The people on this forum never cease to amaze me.

Hey mgaretz, I love celery braised with beef stew or pot roast! I have never seen a recipe for either one that included celery, and you're the first other person I have seen to include it. Even celery frowners (and I know there are many) wouldn't recognize this vegetable after it has taken a long hot bath in beef juices.

Hey y'all! Don't know if this a nationwide thing or not, but they are airing ads on our local broadcast area that are touting double cheeseburgers for a buck until the end of the month. Get it while you can. I think, but can't prove, because I am just too lazy to do the research, that I reported upthread on my side-by- side experiences with the cheaper replacement "McDouble" and the original "Double Cheeseburger." If your as obsessive as me, you can go to the nutrition part of the website and see that the McDouble is just a bunch smaller than the double cheeseburger. Otherwise, take my word: not as good a value. I know these are not haute cusine or anything, but for this little country girl who has to cook dang near every single day, they are a tolerable and affordable break. Husband love's 'em, so he's happy, which is always my goal. The national website shows double cheeseburgers on the dollar menu, but I didn't find anything on the expiration date. Get 'em while you can if you care. ETA: and like rotuts says, you are going to have to nuke this thing to get the cheese melted. At least with double cheeseburgers, you won't have to remove any veggies first and then re-add them. But I still hate their steam cabinets.

liuzhou, Would you mind telling us if the peanuts are grown in China or imported? Lots of folks know about peanut oil for Chinese cooking, but I've never heard anything about peanut crops being grown in China. Please PM me, if you think I'm in jeopardy of thread hijacking, but I'm burning up with curiosity on this issue. Sorry.

liuzhou, At least I don't see the dreaded "green ring" around the yolk, or perhaps this doesn't happen with quail eggs like it does with chicken and duck eggs? Thanks for sharing this with us from China.

Dinner tonight was just leftover roasted chicken with spinach salad. I cooked the chicken in the oven indoors the night before. I had gotten the grill all ready to go and even had my bag of mesquite wood chunks out on the deck in prep to cook it on the grill outside. Then Mother Nature rained on my parade at what I call the "point of no return," which is the amount of time you need to get a wood or charcoal fire started and cook your food before sundown. Oh well, the mesquite experiment (inspired by Smithy's posts about mesquite-cooked Texas BBQ in the Camping, Princess Style thread) is still on the slate. The spinach salad is simple but delicious. Only one grocery in our area carries more mature curly spinach. Some of the leaves are large enough to need to be torn in half. Curly spinach is sweeter, thicker and more succulent and flavorful to me than the tiny flatleaf baby spinach you find everywhere. I used to grow it, and of course it was better, but what I can commercially get is very respectable. You fry up good bacon, boil some eggs, and use good tomatoes as garnishes. This time of year grape tomatoes have the best flavor around here. Then you toss the spinach with sliced spring onion and a good vinaigrette made with (I like) white vinegar, a little good oil, salt pepper, and some sugar all to balanced taste. It needs minimal dressing whether cold or wilted. You can cook the vinaigrette or not. I didn't, but when I do, I usually throw in the green onion after the mixture boils. This is wilted salad when you heat the dressing. It's a very visually appealing salad either way, and most folks (including my not-very-salad-inclined husband) will eat more than they do with most salads.

Oh patrickamory, Your "spread" looks so inviting! Looks like tip top quality everything. You have some lucky friends/family who shared this lovely meal with you. Would you mind commenting on "finocchiona"? My eyes skipped the last syllable, and I looking around your photo for fennel slices, and when I found none, went back and read it again. I guess this is some kind of charcuterie that's flavored with fennel. Wow!

Hey gfweb, Thanks so much for taking the time to share the culinary aspects of your trip to Spain with us! I'm sorry the paellas in what otherwise looked like a really awesome restaurant were so disappointing. I do have to say that the photo of paella in the old 70's Betty Crocker cookbook is more visually appealing than either one of them. I've made the recipe several times although not verbatim. It calls for a can of lobster. With fresh seafood it turns out phenomenally, and looks better than either of the ones from the resto you went to. Betty rocked in her day! I'm with rotut's philosophy: Life is too short for bitterness or envy. I revel in every good thing I'm able to grab from life, and for my circumstances, I consider myself very, very fortunate. I also relish the fact that there are people in this world with more opportunities than I have who are so generous to share some of their experiences that I dreamed of in youth, but now may never see firsthand. I know it takes time to do what you did to put together this account, and I appreciate your generosity.

I agree that thin has a definite context. A thin cookie or cracker is usually thicker than a flour tortilla, which is much thicker than phyllo. I don't have any special equipment other than my trusty rolling pin. I have made flour tortillas once, when I ran out of store bought. I found this to be fun but quite the workout to get them thin enough for my liking, to the point where bench flour was jumping and popping around as high as my face in the static electricity generated by my efforts. I was using a silcon pastry/baking sheet liner to roll on. That may or may not happen again, but I can really not imagine undertaking phyllo. I know a lady from Turkey, and she uses the frozen stuff from the grocery store, so it's good enough for me. So especially in a recipe for a specialty from one nation or culture designed for an audience from another nation or culture that may be entirely unfamiliar with said specialty and how the finished product should turn out, a specific thickness range is essential. I would not attempt such a recipe without one.

gfweb, The fried squid looks great (everthing else too), and it included the tentacles. They're my favorite part, and difficult to find in a restaurant around here. Thanks for sharing.

Good to know you can freeze active dry yeast with good results. I was afraid it might kill the little beasties. I always keep mine in the fridge, and have used it successfully over a year after the expiration date, but usually do the proofing/rehydration step with expired yeast. With fresher yeast I'll skip that process unless I will be adding a lot of expensive ingredients to the dough.