Barbara's Fish Shack Minimix Tempura - shrimp, squids, fish, chips, scallops, zucchini - fried fish and chips style. Not bad, but the breading falls off easily. Bring your own tartar sauce.


Barbara's Fish Shack Clam Chowder - Translucent soup, thickened with cornstarch or similar, embodied by a strong chicken/seafood bouillon taste and a big hit of thyme. Powerful seafood aroma and heavily seasoned  with salt. Served with oyster crackers.

Sam's Chowder House - Classic New England style with a strong bacon scent, bay leaf, and a sweet clam flavor that is legible but not pronounced. Infused with a strong dose of milky creaminess but not particularly thick with starch. Diced potatoes still have their edges intact. Served with sourdough and butter.

I go back to this recipe again and again because it's robust and darn tasty. The texture of the liquid should be somewhere between creamy and brothy, still light and slightly translucent but thickened with broken down starch from the potato and tinted by the milk. I prefer more milk, potato and heat on the tongue, but you may prefer less. Customize!


1 small onion
2 cloves garlic, smashed, minced
4 hot italian sausages, casings removed and broken up; You can also use mild sausage and toast some hot pepper flakes. Hard sausage like linguica can be used, but I prefer fresh sausage. Likewise, mix up ground pork with italian seasoning like anise or fennel.
4 large russet potatoes, diced
1 qt chicken broth, or more
white beans, canned
kale, ribs removed and chopped
2 cups whole milk
salt
black pepper

Saute onions and then garlic. Add sausage and brown briefly. Add potatoes and stir for 5 min or so and toss in herbs. Pour chicken broth till ingredients are nearly all covered. Top off with more chicken broth or water if necessary. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Add white beans after about 10 minutes. After another 10 minutes, or when the potatoes are tender, throw in the kale. Lower the temperature again and stir in the milk. Be careful not to have the burner too high or the milk will curdle. Warm till the soup is heated through and the kale is just beginning to wilt. This soup will not need much, but adjust salt and pepper to taste.

After several days cloistered in Beta, I'm excited about spending more time with Rift in the future. The play is engaging and varied. There are interesting lore-based dynamic events which utilize a public grouping system that gets your nooby level character raiding straight out of the starting area. I particularly like how NPC chit chat seems to generally relate to whats happening in the world events. The class system is extremely flexible and practically begs for hybrid character builds. Despite my compy being below recommended specs, the game is running surprisingly smoothly. Even with all the eyecandy turned off, graphics are pretty. While the game is sometimes slow in the middle of crazy battles or crowded areas, the amount of lag is better than I've experienced in other games.  Maybe mmorpg again?