what do you suggest: side-dish(es) for lobster stew for elderly?

[eShirl]

We're making lobster stew for a small family meal in honor of Mom & Dad's 60th wedding anniversary! (recipe from Marjorie Standish's "Cooking Down East." What should I make to go with it? Nothing too hard to chew or digest... probably going to have oyster crackers but not sure what else I should fix?

[elleng]

1. Don't know how 'Down East' this is,

but corn bread just popped into my head.
And a vegetable they like? Green beans, cooked sufficiently to be chewable.
Now you've got me thinking about lobster!

[pinto]

2. Know little about elderly dietary issues...but baked pea beans? Creamed corn? Johnnycake?

Have fun, whatever you end up making. Lobster stew (chowder?) sounds great.

[grasswire]

3. yes on the oyster crackers

How about a composed salad of avocado slices and grapefruit (cut to omit the membranes)? Drizzle with a tiny bit of good vinaigrette. This is a dish that would be familiar to older folks, too. You could put down a leaf of butter lettuce on each individual plate, and then arrange the stuff on. Pretty, fresh too.

Or a fresh melon fruit cup to start the meal would be nice.

Oyster crackers, definitely. Or pilot biscuits.

If you want to go all out, you could make a couple of very traditional New England appetizers. Codfish balls would be great.