Greetings from searingly hot, windy, and rainy Florida. I came down here for my mom's birthday, even though it is terrible weather and I hate this type of humid heat...but, parental guilt works so well on me! I got the "You don't really want to come down here, you should make the trip" and then the next sentance was the killer "but I would love it if you would come down".

Aannnyway...we went out last night and had a fabulous meal at a local place I've never been to and we got talking about having Whispers at the old Whisper Inn in Sarasota. The first one I had was with my grandmother years ago and we got schnokered on them. If you've never had a whisper, you should. They are decadent and delicious. Usually served in a big martini glass, the whisper is a delicate balance of ice cream and booze....mmmmmm, two of my favorite things. The recipe has always been a well-kept secret until the advent of the internet. I hereby give to you the recipe and urge all the drinkers out there to serve this as a party favor at least once.

Ingredients:
1 oz kahlua
1 oz amaretto
1 oz vodka
1 scoop vanilla ice cream
ice
Directions:
Mix in blender...not too much ice, the trick to the whisper is to make it smooth, like a thick chocolate shake.

Enjoy,
Seth

oops, well a perceptive reader emailed to tell me that I had excluded most viewers from posting comments because of the settings I had chosen for the site.....stupid me, thats what I get for being a complete techno moron. I have changed the settings so hopefully, you'll be able to comment on my scathing reviews and tell me how totally off base I am!

Enjoy,
Seth (posting from my window overlooking the Gulf of Mexico as we wait for tropical storm Arlene to arrive in Florida.)

There is not much choice in dining establishments for a Sunday night in Belfast. We aimlessly drove to town while considering our options last night....pizza hut? naw.....Darby's?...probably closed and the fries are limp.....ok, lets see whats up at Seng Thai. We've eaten at Seng Thai a number of times and it was always good, but never "wow!" so we were kind of lacklustre about the whole thing. I do have to say that we left feeling "Wow, that was an excellent meal." Hooray for our team, we cheered ourselves up on a Sunday night with food out!

So, we get to the Thai shack on Rte 1 in East Belfast and the place is packed with cars. Nowhere even to park....I finally squeezed in next to a few cars and we went in expecting to wait a while because the place is small.....it appeared that everyone came in separate cars and ate together, because there were empty tables to spare...another good sign.

So Greg looks at me and squinches up his face and says "I'm SO hungry...I'm starving!!!....Lets get lots of food!" We ordered the crispy potatos and the chive dumplings to start....the potatos came out first and they were slices of sweet potatos dipped in tempura batter and deep fried and came with a nice peanut sauce. The presentation was divine, even down to the radish cut into a rose blossom. The potatos were fresh and excellent and I highly recommend them. Next to come out was the plate of four chive dumplings. The flavor was good, but I was expecting something different and couldn't get passed the texture, which was a bit slimy. Greg loved them and raved about them. We ended up leaving one of the dumplings behind.
I was in the mood for spicy, so I had the chicken in hot basil leaves extra hot....my mouth was on fire for the rest of the night....loved every bite! I need to figure out how to make that at home...damn! Greg had the garlic chicken which was very fresh...even down to the fresh garlic...an A+ in my book. We cleaned out plates and shared a bowl of ginger ice cream....a perfect evening.
One piece of advice though...stick with the American red wines...the Thai one that they advertise is not as good as the other wines they serve.
A new coat of paint would serve this place well.

Food A for excellent
Service A-
Atmosphere: Kind of a dive on the inside. Could do with spruceing up. But we loved the sparkles on a lot of the pictures! B for the sparkles!

Enjoy,
Seth