I'm a Gulf Coast resident, and I tend to see promoting the local fisheries industries as safe and tasty as a valid part of the oil spill recovery process. I still see and hear people from outside of the region refusing to eat our local catch because they're convinced that the oil is still causing problems in the seafood industry here.

If you're near a Target that sells refrigerated grocery items, I've seen Noosa significantly cheaper there per ounce than at the specialty stores they usually sell it at. Otherwise, I only buy it when The Fresh Market has $1 off or 2-for-1 sales on it.

Thai pretty much dominates 'ethnic' around here. I've generally been very happy with Jasmine Thai in the strip mall between Destin Publix and Destin Commons mall. I'm not really up on Korean, but Oki-Doki on Beal Street in Ft. Walton Beach tends to get good reviews for a hole in the wall kind of place.

Cobia and redfifish are both pretty mild whitefish in terms of flavor, with redfish being a bit more on the delicate side. Cobia is a very seasonsal fish in Florida- it will typically run locally for a short period of time every year and is much prized when it does show up on menus and in markets.

Wahoo is good if you can find it- mild flavor than tuna, strudier texture. I'm surprised not to see mahi-mahi (aka dolphinfish) mentioned since it's one of the more common warm water fish. Amberjack is a bit stronger than grouper or red snapper and falls into the same warm water fish niche.

Eh. We moved to Florida to avoid the snow; we'll also skip restaurants where the upsell is constant to the point of feeling overpowering.

World Market store finder:

http://www.worldmarket.com/store-loca...

I've seen Quisp at Fresh Market in recent years, as well as some 'heritage candies' like Charleston Chews at Cost Plus/World Market.

Chinese isn't going to be easy anywhere in the state as you're discovering. Vietnamese should also be possible in the Orlando area, and Ft. Walton Beach west of Panama City is surprisingly good for budget Thai food.

Urbanspoon seems to have better traction among the locals in my part of the panhandle because Yelp took forever to sort out the local geography.

I tend to think of Trip Advisor as for the people who want to eat at a place with the best ocean view, and don't particularly care if their 'grouper' is actually Asian catfish as long as it's cooked acceptably and the fries are at least lukewarm.

They're almost universal for homes on sewer in my part of Florida that's lagely been built after 1950.

On the flip side, I don't know anyone who composts food waste, largely over concerns that food waste left outside will draw the wrong kind of critters including some dangerous snakes.

Pita bread from the bakery- probably wouldn't be a top 5 pick in some of the other places I've lived, but it's the best I can find around here

English toastng bread- our go-to all purpose white bread

boneless chicken breasts- nicely trimmed and seem to hit a good spot on the price-performance scale, especially when they're on the 2-for-1 Tuesdays monthly list

house blend decaf coffee- I supertaste bitter, and this is one of the few coffees I don't have to add an insane amount of sugar to in order to even hit tolerable

store brand ice cream- nice short ingredient list, good flavor

store brand coconut water- currently $3.50 a liter compared to $5 a liter for name brands

I've seen frozen rabbit in my local Frest Market. The one down by you might also carry it.

I started to say Burger King, but at least the ones around here have Icees that are acceptable crushed ice products when you're utterly craving a Slurpee and there isn't a 7-11 for a couple hundred miles.

So I'll go with Taco Bell because there are just so many other superior counter service Mexican places out there that are infinitely better.

The only time I've had it was years ago when a local independent grocery store was trying to show support for a local emu farm. We bought it ground and served it as burgers, and I don't really remember much other than it wasn't too different from a beef burger.

Especially when used as the crunch in no-bake 'haystack cookies'

Hot chocolate mix.

We've been happy with The Fresh Market's poultry, and their chicken breasts are $2.99/pound on Tuesdays in January if you want to give them a try at a lower financial risk.

They're also very nicely trimmed.

I live in an area where the local Filipino population is slightly larger than the local Thai population. We've got about 3 Filipino restaurants and 30+ Thai restaurants. When someone asks for a reason for that difference, they're met with a shrug and 'Filipinos do home cooking when they want a taste of their roots; they aren't a restaurant culture'.

I can think of a few places on the Northern Gulf Coast that top a fish sandwich with slaw instead of or along with tartar sauce, but I'd never really thought of putting it on a burger before.

I'll eat potato chips with ketchup once in a while, but wouldn't expect a sub place to just have some on hand for that purpose.

I supertaste bitter, and find that I'll need a half teaspoon of sugar in even a 100% Kona coffee to cut the bitterness down to tolerable for me.

So I'm with you on this one.

Grouper throats are sometimes on the specials boards at Stewby's Seafood Shanty in Ft. Walton Beach, along with a lot of other old Florida fish shack staples. It's a newer restaurant (though the owner has been in the restaurant business for years) built out of an old portable classroom, and has a few picnic tables in a climate-controlled porch, and a drive-thru window.

And very tasty relatively affordable seafood it is:

http://stewbys.com/

Vitamix- CIA version

And the flood control gate at the north end of town that seems designed to be slammed into place if there's ever the kind of large scale race riots that drove port business from Cairo to Paducah in the 50s and 60s.

At one point, the city was one of the richest small cities in the country because of the port, and there was supposedly some amazing residential architecture there. Shame that folks couldn't get along.

Back to food, I think at one time there was a restaurant at the state park on the far southern tip of town, but again that would actually require getting out of the car, so we never investigated it. And Fort Definace is apparently not even a state park anymore, so scratch that.

Whaler's Catch was our big road trip date night when we lived in Martin, TN. Glad to hear it's still there and doing well.

We used to go through there on the way to Cape G. or St. Louis in the mid-90s. And yeah, I'd also go on to Cape or Paducah instead of like actually stopping your car and getting out in Cairo. (Heck, even Lambert's in Sikeston, MO is probably a better option if you can manage to not get hit by 'throwed rolls'.)

It's a weird and creepy place, especially after dark.

I've got a couple of Tastybite foil packs I like for a quick & lazy lunch. I also find it amusing that the company is a supplier for MREs for the Indian Army.

And cocktails should be served in mason jars. (Yeah, I've read and laughed at the hipster wedding flow chart.)

Down here, mahi-mahi (aka dolphin fish) is a nice mild white fish. Grouper and red snapper are also pretty mild, but are going to be more expensive.

They're getting their Christmas Market candy & cakes selection in, including the elusive Rittersport Rum Raisin candy bar that's normally very hard to find in the US.