Fun Holiday Story (sorta)

[ghostjmf]

My sister is worn out so we are going out to eat Chinese food. Phone calls reveal that my favorite restaurant, & also the family's default Friday Night Chinese Dinner place dating back to when both my parents were alive & well (not the same place) are both not open
Christmas Day Eve (the owners not having watched A Christmas Story, or whatever. Or having Christians working there. Or Just Plain Old Americans Who Want The Day Off, perhaps.).

So we head toward default Chinese restaurant which is open. My brother says its good & he ate there last night. My brother has found one Chinese Food dish he will eat beyond the perennial Chicken Wings, & that's Chicken With Broccoli. He tells them to make sure the sauce isn't spicy or "too gooey" or "too brown" or pretty much "too" anything, guaranteeing he will he get wok-fried chicken but either steamed broccoli or at any rate something with Very Little Sauce. He is not, shall we say, a good source of Chinese Food Recommendation. Oh yeah, he will also eat won-ton soup, but it turns out he doesn't like this place's.

My sister says the one time she went there with my mother, they had a very intriguing menu but were out of every single requested dish.

We go there. The place is packed. There are only about 4 wait-staffers. The menu has very nicely described intriguing stuff, though not heavy on the Szechuan stuff I like best. They do have everything we ask for, unlike my sister's last trip.

About an hour later we get our food. It is very delicious. I would give the restaurant an "A" rating even though it didn't specialize in spicy, & the one spicy dish we got, my sister's "two styles of spicy lamb", was so barely spiced that my sister could actually eat it instead of saving most for later, with even more rice. My sister gives the restaurant a B+ or A-, saying it just needs a little more oomph to the seasoning to bring it up with the best.

After we got home, my brother's girlfriend, who had eaten there the night before the night before last with him (so he's eaten there 3 nights running; same Chicken With Broccoli, I'm sure) says she heard (from what source I don't know) that 2 large parties who ate at that same restaurant the night before last night were taken to local hospitals with severe food poisoning, & we should go at any sign of discomfort.

Since the restaurant was still actually open, packed, & serving customers, including us last night, my guess is that either the local health department is really losing it (which actually is highly likely), or that they've narrowed down the food poisoning source & that would have been an item we did not order.

My guess is for some kind of seafood; both my mother & sister love this stuff (despite my mother having brought us up kosher) but for whatever reason didn't order any last night; the duck & lamb dishes were too intriguing to pass up.

Now, sometimes there is shrimp in the hot-&-sour soup (which I decree "too small to worry about kosher-wise", along with the small slices of pork in there; hypocrit, I know) & my sister & I both had some.

Another thing that can make people sick from restaurant food is of course MSG. I am very sensitive to it, but only about 1/2 hour after I've already eaten. I have to avoid a Somerville place I love because of it. Some day I'll try to have a long talk with the owner about this, but I already heard someone else try it, to no avail. The owner just can't understand why only a few people get sick from it, if its bad.

I have pretty much given up asking about it in advance, since you never get a straight answer from those who have already sprinkled everything with it. I can tell you the restaurant last night didn't sprinkle everything with it. At least not last night they didn't.

None of us are sick at all. That's the good news.

[Beebs52]

Yay! No sick is good sick.

This reminds me of the last scene in my favorite movie that you've referenced.
"Deck the harrs with barrs of horry, fararararaaa ra ra ra ra."
"NO! Nonono! Deck the HALLS!"
"Deck the harrs with barrs of horry..."

I so love that movie.

We tried to find a Mexican restaurant open on Thanksgiving Day and couldn't. Ended up going the 19th Hole for chicken wings. And they were cooking turkey! (We were waiting on our turkey to finish.)
Oh well.

Happy Hanukkah belatedly!