Sauce

Dyann Shaver from Madras, Ore., was looking for a recipe she has lost for making a nontraditional type of barbecue chicken that used concentrated lemonade in the sauce. She said that she found the recipe in an article about barbequing in Better Homes and Garden magazine in the 1970s. Steve Newman from Santa Rosa, Calif., shared his recipe for making barbequed chicken with lemonade concentrate. He said that while concentrated lemonade may seem like a surprising ingredient this chicken never fails to please.

Spring officially arrived, thank goodness. We're ready for the bounty of herbs soon to come. Happily, a recent meal at T'afia, an eclectic restaurant in Houston, made our herb-loving hearts beat faster. Chef Monica Pope served a mound of red quinoa with quickly seared scallops and an herb-laden sauce that we nearly licked off the plate. We started garden-planning immediately: flat-leaf parsley for flower-bed borders everywhere. Plenty of pots of tender cilantro near the back door for easy kitchen use. The inspirational sauce, a Moroccan staple known as chermoula, uses lots of parsley and aromatic cilantro.

The traditional steakhouse gait is a swagger. Fulton's new Venegas Prime Filet is an attempt at introducing some new steps to the dance - why not a tango, a promenade, even a salchow? This is the new anchor restaurant in the same Maple Lawn development where Carlos Venegas also operates Ranazul, a Spanish tapas bistro. The former oZ chophouse space has been transformed with an eye for low-key romance and everyday comfort. I don't think you'd even call it a steakhouse. The seating arrangement is the sweeping kind; the restful palette is orange, copper and rust; and there are moments of high drama in the exuberant Spanish-influenced decor - there's a feel of old Hollywood, and the room suggests the potential for memorable dining.

Meridian 54 is the new restaurant in that crossroads building where Red Fish used to be. A succession of owners never could set Red Fish right after the departure of Ted Stelzenmuller, its founding chef, now executive chef and co-owner of Jack's Bistro. Part of the problem might have been that the posh azure-and-snow decor of Red Fish almost demanded a menu with culinary ambition, even when there wasn't a new chef around to refresh or maintain it, or maybe even an audience looking for it. In its relatively short run, Meridian 54 has also lost its original chef, Russell Braitsch, who moved on to open Diablita Cantina.

Vietnamese pho is rapidly replacing chicken soup as the universal cure-all. Or maybe it's just me. In this Worst Winter Ever, where the colds all last three weeks and the threat of snow never ends, a large bowl of steaming broth filled with rice noodles and interesting cuts of beef - a soup that you individualize with garnishes served on the side like bean sprouts, fresh cilantro and basil leaves, hot peppers and wedges of lime, not to mention condiments such...

Ginger Hale from Ruxton wrote in search of a recipe she has lost for pork chops cooked with prunes and molasses. She said that her mother got the recipe in the mid-1940s from what must have been one of the earliest TV cooking shows. Unfortunately, I did not receive any answers from readers about this particular recipe, but I was confident that I could find something close to what Hale was looking for if I searched the Internet. These days pork, either stuffed or cooked with dried fruit, is a popular combination.

When veteran restaurateur and chef Robert Kinkead decided to open a seafood restaurant in Annapolis where Phillips was, the news created quite a stir. After all, his Washington establishment, Kinkead's, has been one of D.C.'s best-known eating places for decades. Here was someone with a known record coming in, taking over a dead space and planning to offer fresh, classic American seafood dishes, everything local when possible. It would be less expensive than his original restaurant, but the quality would be the same.

Among the attractions at the Shoppes at Shipley's Grant are a Starbucks, a Cold Stone Creamery and a Coal Fire pizza restaurant. Coal Fire is not a part of a chain - at least not yet - but I think most visitors would assume it is. It has the rosy suburban looks, streamlined menu and commitment to quality ingredients that customers have come to expect from fast-casual chains. Coal Fire is a project of the folks behind Nottingham's tavern, and they have obviously worked hard to develop this concept.

The bonus for driving out to Ceazar Restaurant in Elkridge is a trip to its adjoining parent store, Ceazar (formerly Sizar) International Market. It's a great place to buy crates of dates, sacks of basmati rice and honey-soaked pastries. It's fun to browse here, too, because it's the kind of place that reunites Americans with roots in the Mediterranean and Middle East with the cherished grocery products from the old country - "Ah, Kurukavechi Turkish Coffee, at last I've found you." Ceazar Restaurant, which opened this year, is every bit worth seeking out. It's just a few minutes off of Interstate 95, and we had little trouble finding its business park address.