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Sounds like it could be a temperature issue; make sure the cake is adequately cooled before icing (and make sure the icing is adequately cooled too). Could also mean the icing is too oily--you could try mixing in more confectioners' sugar.

Saigon Le is absolutely my favorite for Vietnamese. Whenever I go home to Memphis, getting takeout from there is my no. 1 priority.

Also seconding @dbrackst: I'm not a meat-eater, but all my local friends who are tell me that Corky's is totally overrated.

The Beauty Shop is fun for brunch if you're into a fun, kitschy atmosphere.

And I love the Cupboard for Southern-style fare: it's a great spot for a lunch of sweet tea and meat-and-three (or, in my case, veg plate). Can't go wrong with their Italian spinach, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, baked apples, spiced beets, corn muffins, yeast rolls, and (I hear) chicken-fried steak. (If you do go, though, listen to my recs as far as the vegetables go...a few other things I've tried have been less than stellar.) What I totally love about the Cupboard is the old-school, down-home vibe; they get a really varied clientele and everyone's friendly.

One generalization I'd make about Memphis cuisine is that you're better off sticking with ethnic or Southern cooking. Yes, there are some good "fancy" places, but to me it's not the best city for spending lots of money on supposedly fine dining.

What's the weather like where you are? If it's still temperate, you might try something in the stew realm: I've had good luck serving West African groundnut stew (Moosewood recipe, tweaked) to meat eaters; vegetarian chili can also work well, as can Brazilian black bean soup/stew, or even just a really good beans-and-rice dish. If it's more summery, you may want to avoid things so warm and heavy. You could try a Middle Eastern spread--hummus, falafel, tabbouleh, and so on. A make-your-own burrito bar could also be fun: just warm up some tortillas, cook some black or pinto beans, and make other obvious accoutrements available. Or go Asian and do a vegetable stir-fry; if your family really is scared of tofu, you could add nuts (as is or as sauce) to up the protein. If you do Asian, you could also have people make their own summer rolls--really quite easy, and very fun.

Whatever you do, I'd recommend not trying to substitute for meat. In my opinion, the main reason non-vegetarians think they hate vegetarian food is that the only vegetarian food they've been exposed to tries--and inevitably fails, often miserably--to mimic non-vegetarian food.

I make better CalmTheHellDown sauce than @truthman2008.

Mushrooms would be good. Frankly, if it were I, I'd skip the tomato, though--too much soggifying potential. How about asparagus, mushrooms, onions or shallots, and fresh thyme?

The paper bag with banana works, and in my experience takes overnight, not multiple days. So yeah, ripening them this way won't give you an instant result, but will definitely speed up the process, and will give you *good* results. If you're really in a pinch, yeah, you can nuke them, but in my experience this can result in an unevenly "ripe" avocado, and the flavor won't necessarily be all that it could be. Personally, I believe that unless you can wait the day or so it will take to truly ripen them (paper bag method or whatever), waiting is worth it.

I'm going to go with sharp cheddar. It's not my favorite in all contexts, but its versatility gives it the win in my book. Can be melted in a sandwich, eaten straight or on a cracker, thrown in a salad, grated on pasta, and so on.

I bring food for longer flights, and like the rest of you I make sure to keep it non-stinky and not too perishable. The funniest situation I ever encountered was when an elderly lady became angry at me because I didn't offer her any of my personal pizza. Yeah, pizza is maybe not the wisest choice for a plane, but I was probably 11 or 12 years old. Anyway, this lady was sitting next to me and said, "ooh, that smells good," and looked at it enviously, then actually asked me for a slice when I was taking a while to eat it (was and am a slow eater). I was just a kid and had NO idea what to do, so I said I was saving it for later (which I was) and she proceeded to glare at me and huff and puff for the rest of the seven-hour flight. What a delight!

One further thought: if you've got the basics down and are looking to jazz up your vegetarian meals, it might be a good idea to start mastering a new cuisine or two. Grab an Indian cookbook, for instance, or look around for recipes on the web from different ethnic cuisines than you usually cook. That way, you'll be adding so much newness to your cooking that you won't miss what you're leaving behind!

Honestly, I'll probably just make a sandwich--avocado, tomato, red onion, cheddar, and mustard on whole grain bread. I've been cleaning and organizing my apartment all day and I don't think I can handle much more domesticity.

Lipton's pasta packets. Oh, the shame. They're a rare indulgence, but still embarrassing! The cheddar-broccoli one is my favorite if I have the energy to chew, and I stir in some broccoli florets to make it slightly less lethal; the spinach fettucine one is for when I don't have the energy to chew. I'm not going to lie: those things are damn tasty, particularly when you've been sick for a while and need some solid, salty, fatty food... I keep myself from eating them more often by never having any dairy milk in the house (my college roommate used to make mac&cheeze with soy milk and ICK).

It's definitely an uncomfortable situation, but I agree with those who think Hannah handled it tactfully. It also sounds like the customer responded admirably. Personally, I wish servers would question such egregiously low tips--not to say, "did you mean to give me this little?" but simply to ask if everything was okay. I say this because I've dined with a few people who tip ridiculously poorly for no particular reason; in most cases, it's because they haven't re-calculated proper tip percentages since the '40s or '50s. The family patriarch will grab the check and proudly pay it, leaving a "standard" 10% tip. Perhaps because the guilty parties are elderly, no server has ever commented, and the others at the table feel unable to say anything because we must thank them for the meal. This is why I actually really like checks that come with the option to select 15%, 18%, or 20%; at least that way no one's going to get completely screwed, and 18%, while not ideal, looks like the standard.

Oh, I forgot to mention what must have been the most stressful set (yes, set) of experiences! It took me _years_ to figure out that one really. must. grease. cake pans. I can't even count the number of times I found myself desperately trying to salvage chunks of cake and splodge them together with icing right before birthday parties. Now I use cake pan liners and whatnot and never have any problems, but oy, did it ever take a lot of spikes in blood pressure for me to learn my lesson!