Above is my idea of a great, terse dinner. Mustard Crusted Rack of Lamb with Mashed Potatoes and lightly steamed, buttered Green Beans.

Here on the Treasure Coast I have not found much in the way of terse food. However, there is a lot of coconut fried seafood. Which, really, is the anti-terse. Terse food is fresh, well, but lightly seasoned and usually not fried. I make an exception for potatoes. Otherwise fried food is verboten.

An old friend of mine, an English professor, used terse to describe his writing style. No excessive adjectives, adverbs or fluff. Say what you mean. Or, write what you mean. He later became famous for writing the biography the movie Becoming Jane was based on. That was the genesis of my terse food concept.  For example, Grilled Mahi in a pineapple glaze, great, add coconut and fry – not so great. I am suspicious that Grilled Pineapple Glazed Mahi coated in Coconut and fried is on a menu somewhere around here.

Back to Coconut fried seafood. Why even eat seafood if you are going to do that to it? Maybe it makes disgusting old frozen shrimp palatable? My husband and I dined at a local restaurant well known for its scallops, which I was bound and determined to try. So I did.. after I scraped the coconut off the scallops were pretty good. My husband had butterfat infused tomato based pasta that was almost good, but just too much..butterfat..and we like some butterfat …more anti terse. Perhaps I should mention the last time my cholesterol was taken it was 135.

I am a design person, have been for years. I am not sure what happened, but I ended up in the running to be a restaurant reviewer for our local newspaper. It is a blessing I did not get that gig. The job went to a retired school administrator of some sort who is always right about the restaurants and rarely makes an ugly comment. For you uninitiated non-Southerners, ugly is comparable to surly. I am sure would find myself unable to be so nice.