Good Soup = Good Times

There's a Thai restaurant near my office. It used to be legendary. It got all kinds of write-ups in the paper for its excellent Thai cuisine. We went every Wednesday for the "good soup." We had to get there between 11:30 - 11:40 or be doomed to wait 30 minutes for a table. Business was booming and all was right with the world.

Then the airport started taking over land. Businesses folded or moved out of the area in handfuls. The Thai restaurant didn't close down, but the owners sold out. And the high quality food left with them. We went back not long after it was under new management and I had fried rice that I SWEAR was cooked in a pan with an old shoe! I was not impressed with the new "shoe fried rice."

But things change and the place is under new new management or ownership yet again. And while these people aren't as good as the original owners, they at least don't flavor their food with footwear. So about once a month, a few of us old-timers (and a couple of newer ones) head over to the Thai place on "Good Soup Wednesday."

Why is the soup so good on Wednesday? Because it's Tom Ka soup, of course. (I know I've blogged about Tom Ka soup before.) What makes me ecstatic about Tom Ka soup? Adding red chile sauce to it. (I couldn't find a link. This is an oil based hot sauce, not sweet and not vinegar based.) I put so much hot sauce in the soup that I cough after each bite. Yum. Yum. My coworkers think I'm crazy, but it's great.

So today we went to Thai for good soup. I added hot sauce. I coughed. I had a blast. I even talked an unadventerous coworker into trying a little bit of hot sauce. He didn't like it, but at least he tried it. Then it was time to order the meal. I always get the same meal - broccoli beef (hold the shoe fried rice, thanks). My problem with their meals is that almost every one has bell peppers. While my sister The Doctor doesn't know how to cook without bell peppers, I can't abide them. And there's no picking out bell peppers. Once they've cooked in a dish, their flavor is all through it (much like old shoe).

Two of my coworkers pointed out a dish that does not have bell peppers. It is what they always order. I decided to try it. If the one guy could try Thai, I could try Curry Chicken, right? My meal arrived. I took a sip of the juice. I didn't like it. I added hot sauce thinking that nothing could overpower that flavor (it makes your lips burn for crying out loud). Nope, I could still taste the curry. I finally had to admit to the table, "Well, it turns out that I don't like curry." They found that funny. At least I still had my non-shoe fried rice...

Except, the white rice tasted funny, too. I was like it had a curry flavor, but I could clearly see that it was just w-h-i-t-e rice. I started to think there was a metallic taste to the rice. Come to think of it, my fork was really dark and ... old looking. Maybe the metal finish was coming off in my mouth. Good thing there was another silverware set next to me. I picked up the new fork and smelled it before I used it. That's right, I smelled it. And yes, everyone at the table saw me do it. My boss asked, "What are you doing?" I replied, "Smell this fork? Does it smell funny, metallic, to you?" He refused to smell it. Well, that didn't help me. The new fork didn't look as old as the other so I just used it anyway. The rice still tasted metallic.

My coworkers had a blast teasing me about me smelling my fork and about me not liking curry chicken. I can't help what flavors I don't like. At least I tried something new. As for smelling the fork, I'm glad they got a good laugh out of it. I'm secure enough to let them laugh at my expense. (Obviously, or I wouldn't be retelling the story to you.)

So let's recap what we know about the Thai place:

• Fried rice tastes like old shoes
• White rice tastes like metal OR
• They seriously need new flatware
• Good soup is still good soup
• Good soup leads to good times