by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2007/09/15 03:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2007/09/15/4924525.aspx
Nothing technical, you know how it goes....
There are certain restaurants where I have some dishes that are my favorites, and I pretty much order them any time I am there.
Some people upon noticing this may claim that I am in a rut.
But for me, it is just recognition of what I like best....
I have already talked about (for example) The General's Noodles at Typhoon! at least three times in the past.
And how I am willing to scoot all the way over to Bella Botega to get some.
That dish is not what this post is about.
Now I have also mentioned the Panang Curry at Thai Kitchen in Bellevue, of course five stars....
And to be honest I have been willing to scoot there before, too. And not just because I think it might be closer than Bella Botega.
Because I love the dish.
I especially love how the container they put it in cannot leak (an admitted edge over the General's Noodles).
And is the perfect size to eat directly from the container, slowly putting the rice in as I eat it.
Minimal dishes to do, which is perfect for a man who has actually on occasion bought dishes to avoid doing them!
Anyway, several days ago I had scooted there and picked up two orders to go, to eat for dinner on two successive nights.
I ate one that very night. :-)
Then the next night I ended up having dinner with someone, so the other one sat in my fridge another day.
The next night after that, I pulled the container out of the fridge, preparing to eat dinner.
I put the can of limonata right next to the container.
I turned to the dish....
When suddenly, I stopped.
There was a hint of something strange through the container.
Something green maybe.
I looked closer -- a definite spot of green.
Damn.
It was only in there two days. And it was in the fridge!
And wouldn't the five star curry kill off any potential nasty things trying grow in the food, at least for a little while?
Anything that can beat Brett should be able to beat some green whosiwhatsis no problem!
I wanted to raise my fists to the heavens and curse this ill turn of events.
I looked at it and where it was, and wondered if I could just avoid that part of the dish and eat around it.
But maybe if it really had gone bad, that would be a bad idea.
A very bad idea.
But the dish was so good, I had to figure something out.
Was the restaurant still open?
Could I get some more?
Should I just admit to my hunger and risk eating around the greenish spot in the curry?
I wouldn't have to tell anyone or anything, after all. It's not like I would write about eating around the mold in my blog or something, right?
I decided I had to open the container and look.
Maybe I could make an intelligent decision based on the smell of the dish.
Rationalization? Maybe.
But I was hungry and a wonderful dish sat before me.
I'll kick the the ass of this green whosihatsis before I'll let it scare me off.
Determined now, I slowly opened the container....
Very slowly.
The slowness was not due to the anticipation, though.
The container may well be leak-proof, but they are truly a fucking pain to open.
Nothing is perfect, right? :-)
It was open now. Somehow my eyes were closed.
I was afraid to open them...
It smelled wonderful!
Cautiously my eyes opened, to look at this greenish invader that had added so much stress to my dinner.
Crap!
I took a moment to reflect on this terrible ordeal I put myself through.
Then I ate my five star Panang Curry.
The entire dish.
Including the green pepper sticking out near the top....
This post brought to you by ป (U+0e1b, a.k.a. THAI CHARACTER PO PLA)
orcmid on 15 Sep 2007 2:48 PM:
You've outdone yourself Michael. This is wonderful. I e-mailed the link to my wife so she could be delighted too. I had to bite my tongue to avoid telling here about it instead.
Mihai on 16 Sep 2007 3:20 PM:
Ok, will keep an eye on you.
If you stop posting in the next few days, I will call 911 :-)
But you'll be ok :-) Mold is used to make penicillin, so cannot be that bad :-)
Jster on 16 Sep 2007 6:52 PM:
I used to feel bad about ordering the same thing each time until a friend pointed out that variety isn't really the spice of life. What we really want is to enjoy something. Consistency means having that same enjoyment every time. Variety can be disappointing.