2403 Shelburne Rd., Shelburne, 497-3288

Remember Bangkok Bistro Thai Steakhouse? I do. Following Amigo's, Little Saigon and Pattaya, the quirky steakhouse was the next short-lived restaurant to hit 2403 Shelburne Road back in 2006. I loved its marinated steaks, vegetables stir-fried in ginger, and bizarre domes of bright-blue sticky rice.

Why the trip down Memory Lane? Bangkok Minute Thai Café is the Chompupong family's return to the same address.

But where Champ Chompupong turned his restaurant into a dark, zebra-print-bedecked speakeasy, his son Bobby now brings a youthful, casual air to the restaurant.

Part of that is enviably low prices. Few dishes are much more than $10, though some ambitious cocktails are nearly that. Indeed, the sign at Bangkok Minute promises pad Thai and martinis, so it seemed only right that we try a sip or two.

On a hot evening out on the restaurant's pleasant front deck, just far enough away from the road, I couldn't resist a milkshake-like Thai iced tea. We also leaned toward tea on the boozy side, with a cocktail called the Bruce Lee. Composed of green tea, lemon and vodka, it wasn't as serious as a martini, but was an ideal refresher on a sticky Sunday evening.

When a fellow outdoor diner lit up a series of cigarettes, we decided to move inside, as close to a fan as we could. Soon after, dinner arrived. When I saw my chicken-noodle bowl, I was a bit concerned. Raw lettuce and tomatoes mixed with hot curried noodles?

Though it seemed ill-advised, the thick slices of iceberg barely cooked despite their steamy surroundings. Flavorwise, the tomatoes proved to be a delightfully acidic foil to the creamy, mildly spicy ginger-lemon curry sauce.

The sauce was delicious and complex, but a tad heavy on a hot day. The slices of chicken were grill-marked on one side, lending a nice charred taste. But I was particularly fond of the chewy rice noodles. Rather than the wide, flat pasta or vermicelli I usually see, these strands were round, like medium-thick spaghetti. The mouthfeel was surprising and highly enjoyable.

The same noodles appeared in the ultra-sweet pad Thai. Though heavy on the tamarind, a liberal dose of ginger mitigated its syrupy qualities.There was plenty of peanut, too, giving the dish a savory flavor that blended well with the scrambled eggs, chicken and puffy tofu.

Bean sprouts and a few raw carrots added a nice crunch. A big slice of lemon also helped to balance the flavors, though less-astringent lime would have been a better contrast.

We were full after our big noodle bowls and my milky, caloric iced tea, but I can never say no to mango sticky rice.

In this case, I wished I had. Though it was a huge portion — big enough for two or three people — the dish fell flat.

The mangoes, which hadn't quite achieved ripeness, were hard and not quite sweet. The rice was also under-sweetened and not as glutinous as it should be. The dessert is usually bathed in coconut sauce and sesame seeds, but this one was dry and bland.

Still, I hope to return, particularly for the restaurant's inexpensive lunch deal. Fingers crossed this new place lasts more than a Bangkok minute.

Alice Eats is a weekly blog feature devoted to reviewing restaurants where diners can get a meal for two for less than $35. Got a restaurant you'd love to see featured? Send it to [email protected].

Early June brings a heady explosion at the farm stand — baby salad greens, stalks of rhubarb, floppy bunches of basil, a few early hothouse tomatoes, and... impossibly red, sweet-tart strawberries. A few perfect specimens have made their debut at Killdeer Farm Stand in Norwich, and it's hard not to eat them at every breakfast, slice them into every salad and even smash them into every cocktail.

Reading about this scrumptious salad from Warren's Common Man Restaurant had me thinkin' about my own, more pedestrian version, dormant since last summer and ripe for resurrection. Peppery arugula is a natural bedfellow for fruit, watermelon especially, but since melons are still just swellings on the vine (at least around here), strawberries toe the line in seductive fashion. If you dress the greens simply with a lemon-and-white-balsamic-vinegar dressing, then load on a handful of toasted almonds, some sliced strawberries and crumbles of soft, salty feta, you'll steer your culinary magic carpet straight to heaven.

25 Winooski Falls Way, Winooski, 654-7069

There are numerous reasons to go to Cupp's in Winooski: sticky buns that taste like drinking butter and honey; cute cake pops; coffee that's flavored to taste like s'mores. But there are two words more enticing than any of those: cupcake bar.

Recently, baker Gretel-Ann Fischer struck on the brilliant idea of making DIY cupcakes sans the mess. Each week, she posts a new list of cake flavors, buttercreams, fillings and toppings. Tell her staff what you want, et voilá, you've got precisely the cupcake you crave.

But that's just dessert. On Saturday afternoon, I was hungry for a real meal, not just the sweet stuff. So I ventured where I never had before on the Cupp's menu — to the savory side.

The How 'Bout Them Apples salad, with fresh Macs, smoked gouda and bacon, sounded appealing, but I'd had a similar salad for dinner the night before. The Slick Chick wrap with Asian slaw sounded great, too, but on this rainy, chilly day, panini felt like the appropriate choice.

And the Forgetaboutit was exactly what I needed. Lightly toasted, homemade white bread was filled with bouncy, saline fresh mozzarella and tender slices of chicken. Herb-crusted, oven-roasted tomatoes were the dominant flavor, but fresh basil and creamy, herbaceous pesto aioli did great work, too. It was like a complex, flavorful chicken Parmigiana deconstructed and stacked onto a sandwich.

I appreciated the bagel chips on top of the salad, but the greens themselves were past their prime. I had to push nearly half of my salad's blackened baby lettuces to the side of my plate. What was edible was dressed in homemade maple vinaigrette that was definitely more maple than vinegar. It was a tad sweet for my taste, but my dining partner adored it.

He was also enthralled by his Hawg Wild panini. There aren't many bakeries serving house-smoked pulled pork. The layer of smoke on this moist meat was just enough and it complimented the sweet, lightly spicy barbecue sauce that dressed it. I would have preferred the caramelized onions on top to be cut thinner and caramelized more, but thankfully, they stayed in place within the sandwich with the help of a layer of Cabot cheddar.

Finally, it was cupcake time. I started with a vanilla one, filled with coconut-white-chocolate ganache. It was like a dense punch of coconut inside the airy pastry. On top, the peanut butter buttercream was also full of flavor, but sweet enough so as not to suggest satay in combination with the coconut. To that end, toffee chunks on top also helped enormously.

Round two, vanilla cake with peach ganache filling. I didn't know how one would make a peach ganache. It turned out, it was by adding peach flavor to chocolate ganache. The deep, rich chocolate was delicious and luxuriously soft, almost melty. However, the big flavor obscured the peach. That wasn't exactly a problem. With decadently buttery vanilla buttercream on top, the cupcake was still a hit.

As was a chocolate cupcake topped with chocolate buttercream. Though the moist cake crumbled when I tried to cut it in half to share, the messy treat was still delectable. The cherry ganache within was strong enough to acheive the flavor of a chocolate-covered cherry.

The best thing about the cupcake bar is that it changes every week. I've seen flavors as diverse as wasabi and different flowers. All the more reason to keep on hitting the bar...

Alice Eats is a weekly blog feature devoted to reviewing restaurants where diners can get a meal for two for less than $35. Got a restaurant you'd love to see featured? Send it to [email protected].

When everyone at your table grasps at a basket of warm rolls as if they're hundred-dollar bills, they're either very hungry, very cold, or both.

It might have been sunny and 72 degrees outside, but inside a conference room at Montpelier's Capitol Plaza Hotel yesterday, the temperature hovered closer to arctic. A few dozen journalists had gathered for the Vermont Press Association's annual meeting and awards ceremony and, after a few hours of sitting through panel discussions, the rolls were the very welcome advance guard of our lunch, one that would almost certainly (I was told) end with chocolate mousse.

The rolls were also, indeed, vital warming devices; I was tempted to place one on my lap, but instead slathered it with Cabot butter and kept an anxious eye out for the main event.

116 Main St., Colchester, 878-6440

If nothing else, I thought it would be funny: brunch at the dive bar. But amid the tanned faces emerging from the door labeled "outback," perhaps after a game of horseshoes, and already-tipsy bodies bent over the bar, the Spanked Puppy Pub surprised me with good-humored service, a creative menu and well-prepared grub.

Sure, our entertaining, motherly server admitted that the sausage patties we ordered were "whatever the supplier brought us," but this was an Experience with a capital 'E.' Sort of a redneck theme restaurant if you will, but with better food.

The cuisine may have exceeded the bounds of its theme, but prices did not. Eggs Benedict with tangy Hollandaise sauce, ideally soft-centered poached eggs and, get this, pepper-crusted filet mignon, rang up at $10.95.

There was plenty of beef, meltingly tender and enrobed in an alluring jacket of spice. A dining companion compared the dish to the quality of the creative specials at Sneakers Bistro in Winooski, with a notably lower price point.

The awning of the Route 7 Liquor & Deli in Shelburne advertises, in red block letters, "PIZZA * SUBS* PASTA." It does not read, however, "LOBSTER ROLLS." Should it?

This was the question before me after my food-writing colleague, Alice Levitt, mentioned that this unassuming roadside stop has a lobster roll that some people swear by. I decided to check it out.

I've rarely met a shellfish I didn't like; however, lobster falls to the bottom of my list. Every Christmas, I watch my entire family fall silent as they crack open and devour bright-red, sloppy lobster tails served over plates of pasta, one of the seven fish courses we eat every year. Ambivalent about lobster, I usually stick to smelts and shrimp.

However, the idea of a transcendent lobster roll in landlocked Vermont? I could be down with that. And so in I wandered, studiously ignoring shelves of wine to locate a back counter that resembles a cross between a deli and a greasy spoon — despite the nearby case of fresh fish and the whoosh of water through the lobster tanks. I tried not to look over, lest I locked beady little eyes with a crustacean as I placed my order.

21 East Street, Northfield, 485-4857

I don't often head to Northfield for dinner. It's too far from Montpelier to do a dinner-and-a-show evening. When dining in Northfield, dinner is the destination. That's why it took me almost a year after it opened to visit Irish pub the Knotty Shamrock.

Clearly, I was in the minority. I arrived last Saturday just before 8 p.m. to find the only available table was little more than a varnished plank of wood toward the back of the restaurant. Even the bar, with its inlaid four-leaf clovers, was packed.

400 Pine Street, Burlington, 863-3968

For as long as I've worked at Seven Days, I've known the nearby Cheese Outlet/Fresh Market for one thing. It's the site of the best cookies on Earth. I'm not exaggerating.

Ideally balanced between chewy and crunchy, with nary a hint of cakiness, some bizarre alchemy ensures that the chocolate chips remain slightly melty long after the cookie has cooled. The desserts are also sizable enough that I can usually only eat a third at a time. Unless, that is, I get it right out of the oven. Then the slightly salty cookies simply prove too irresistible not to inhale all at once, my ensuing loginess be damned.

Given my over-the-top devotion, it's strange that I'd never gotten lunch at the spot that's just a few minute's walk from my desk.

The prepared-food case offers a glut of options, but luckily Seven Days calendar editor Carolyn Fox was there to help me choose. We brought a veritable buffet back to the office at a  cost of $25 and change.

We started with still-hot macaroni and cheese. A crunchy, light, breadcrumb-covered crust yielded to a creamy, mild cheese sauce speckled with pepper. Even though I tend to prefer sharper cheeses, it was difficult to discern this from the one I make at home. And I didn't have to cook or clean up!

Behind my house is a rhubarb patch in its prime, with floppy deep-green leaves and stalks the color of bubblegum. I'm not much of a baker, so rhubarb crisps and crumbles and clafoutis won't appear in my kitchen anytime soon. I am, however, an enthusiastic drinker, and rhubarb can lend a racy tang and vegetal pucker to cocktails, as well as a bouncy, rose-colored hue.

Adding bits of rhubarb stalk to your drink won't do much of anything — a rhubarb simple syrup is the key to liquifying its charms. Boiling sliced rhubarb with sugar and water for about 15 minutes renders a rosy-pink syrup that smells like lemon candy, as well as a mush of rhubarb pulp that's delicious spooned over vanilla ice cream or yogurt (yum).

225 Interstate Corporate Center, Williston, 288-1110

It was a busy eight days for my stomach. After the last three indulgent meals of Vermont Restaurant Week — an elegant dinner at the Kitchen Table Bistro, spicy Asian specialities at ¡Duino! (Duende) and the best French cuisine I've ever eaten in Vermont, at 3 Squares Café in Vergennes — I took Saturday off and ate Uncle Sam's cereal. But there were still Restaurant Week participants I wanted to get to, even if their special menus were no longer available. On Sunday, I headed to one, Texas Roadhouse in Williston.

Before you jump on me about evil corporations, let me remind you that this franchise is locally owned and actively supports local charities. I participated in a rib-eating contest there two years ago to benefit the DREAM Program, a Winooski-based mentoring charity.