-=> Ruth Haffly wrote to Dave Drum <=-

 DD> I'm not a fan of vinegar based slad dressing. Much prefer my salads
 DD> and/or cole slaw with a creamy sauce as a dressing.

 RH> I prefer 1,000 Islands but Steve's mom has always done a home made
 RH> Italian-ish--just oil, vinegar and seasonings. I've done it myself
 RH> quite a bit because it is Steve's favorite. Just pour everything on the
 RH> salad (guess-timate amounts) and mix.

 DD> Thousand is OK on a Big Mac. Or w/shaved Gorgonzola cheese. But I like
 DD> a nice creamy ranch, buttermilk, blue cheese, or even Russian
 DD> (California) dressing. Especially w/bacn bits.

 RH> I'll go for Russian but do not care for the strong bleu cheese type
 RH> dressing. I'll eat ranch if nothing else is available or alternatives
 RH> are worse, same with french. Bacon inproves almost everything but it
 RH> won't help bleu cheese, IMO.

I, on the other hoof, really like the blue veined cheeses and their acrid 
bite. I'll do ranch if there is plenty of fresh ground pepper to "wake
it up". Otherwise it's pretty bland.

 DD>      88

 DD> I had something very much like this in my first experience with chile
 DD> verde. I was in Inglewood, Californa at a Mexican sit-down restaurant.
 DD> My mind told me that rojo meant red and indicated "hot". While verde
 DD> was green and should be mild. Hoooo Boy! was I wrong!!!! Lit me up.

 RH> Steve and I went to a little place in Las Cruces, NM, once on our way
 RH> back to AZ from a trip to El Paso. I ordered something green, thinking
 RH> it would be mild; Steve ordered something red, thinking it to be on the
 RH> warm side. Somebody mixed up the heat level--mine was hot but Steve's
 RH> was mild. They were both good tho. (G)

I used to stop in Lost Crutches when I was trucking. Get off of I-40 at
Amarillo and set off diagonally on US 50 past White Sands to pick up I-10
at Las Cruces. The Petro truck-em-up stop always had good grub.

 DD> I got a pretty good culinary education when I moved to Californica.
 DD> Found the El Mexico cafe where I was one of the few Gringos. And The

 RH> One of our favorite places in Savannah was a small Mexican place where
 RH> most of its patronage were non English speakers of the blue collar
 RH> working group. Haven't found any place like that in WF but there is
 RH> (don't know if the other has re-opened) at least one good Mexican
 RH> place.

 DD> House of Yee (Cantonese Chinese) where, apparently no one in the
 DD> kitchen spoke American) I started at the top of the menu and worked my
 DD> way down. Noting 'repeaters" as I went. The J.B.'s Little Bali where I

 RH> We've been doing Chinese more as a Friday night take out since we've
 RH> been here. A little (maybe 6 tables) place opened up about the same
 RH> time as we moved to WF; we've patronised them, trying others but coming
 RH> back to this place. Usually do Korean as a sit down, tried a seafood
 RH> "casserole" last time at one place but we agreed that it wasn't going
 RH> to be a repeat.

I like a few Korean dishes. But on the most part I prefer one of the Chinese
regional cuisines. Or the Thai non-incendiary stuff. Some heat is alright.
But lets not get stupid about it.  Bv)= 

 DD> was introduced to the 50+ course Rijsttafel - more a Dutch thing. Each
 DD> "course" was 2 tb or less of a different flavour/dish. And rice. Lots
 DD> and lots of rice.

 RH> Interesting, did you count the # of courses you had?

Lost track after 20 or so.  Bv)=  It was culinary overload.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
 
      Title: Pad Thai
 Categories: Oriental, Pasta, Vegetables, Nuts
      Yield: 2 Servings
 
      8 oz Rice vermicelli *
      6 cl Garlic; fine chopped
      2 tb Chopped shallot
    1/4 c  Dried shrimp; rolled, or
           - roughly pounded w/mortar
           - & pestle to break them up
    1/4 c  Fish sauce
    1/4 c  Palm sugar
      3 tb Tamarind juice
      3 tb Chopped, pickled radish;
           - (mooli)
      1 md Egg; beaten
    1/4 c  Chopped chives
    1/2 c  Roasted peanuts; very
           - coarsely broken up.
      1 c  Bean sprouts

MMMMM--------------------------PROTEIN-------------------------------
    1/2 c  Fried tofu marinated in
           - dark sweet soy
           +=OR=+
    1/2 c  Pork; coarse chopped
           +=OR=+
    1/2 c  Chicken; coarse chopped
 
  * Either the sen mee or the sen lek style of Thai noodles
  or indeed any rice noodles will do). These should be
  soaked for a short while (perhaps 30 minutes to an hour,
  depending on the brand of noodles) until soft.
  
  Heat a little cooking oil in a wok and add the garlic and
  shallots, and briefly stir fry until they just shows signs
  of changing colour. Add the remaining ingredients except
  the egg and the bean sprouts, and stir fry until the
  protein ingredient is nearly cooked.
  
  Continuing to stir with one hand, slowly "drizzle" in the
  beaten egg to form a fine ribbon of cooked egg (if you
  don't feel confident with this make an egg crepe
  separately, and then roll it up and slice it into 1/4"
  wide pieces, which you add to the mix at this point).
  
  Finally, add the bean sprouts and cook for no more than
  another 30 seconds. Remove from the pan to a serving
  platter. Garnish
  
  Mix a tablespoon of lime juice with a tablespoon of
  tamarind juice and a tablespoon of fish sauce, and use
  this to marinade half a cup of uncooked bean sprouts, half
  a cup of chopped chives, and half a cup of very coarsely
  ground roasted peanuts. Sprinkle this mixture on the
  cooked pad thai.
  
  Cut several limes into segments and also slice up some
  cucumber into rounds then halve the rounds. Put the lime
  segments and cuke segments around the serving platter.
  
  You can also sprinkle a quarter of a sliced up banana
  flower and some Indian Pennywort leaves over the top as
  edible decoration.
  
  Pad Thai is served as above, but Thais add copious amounts
  of the four basic condiments (chilies in fish sauce, ground
  dried red chile, sugar and crushed peanuts) at the table,
  to suit their individual predelictions.
  
  Special thanks to - Muoi Khuntilanont.
  
  From: http://www.http://www.chetbacon.com/thai-html/
  
  Uncle Dirty Dave's Archives
 
MMMMM

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