The Hunt for Chinese
Ellie is sick, and has been sick for about a week now. She doesn’t have anything major, “major” defined as “bad enough to keep her home from work,” just a bug that’s constantly attacking her sinuses and sapping her will to live. Her rejuvenator of choice when her throat hurts is a steaming cup of Chinese tea. Last night, she declared that she wanted a cup of hot tea. Since we were already out collecting Vital Supplies, I planned to stop for take-out on the way home, returning just in time to feed Abbie our bounty of tempura tasties.
The biggest problem was finding an appropriate place to stop on the way home. The China Bowl is too expense, The Mandarin is too fancy and probably doesn’t offer take-out anyway, and A Dong* is too far out of the way. Eventually I settled on China Place, which could be on our way home with a little creative driving. China Place is one of our favorite restaurants from college, located next to the campus. Our favorite Chinese restaurant from college is #1 Chinese, but it closed a couple years ago and was replaced with … another Chinese restaurant, but with worse food.
As we approached China Place, I noticed the interior was dark. In spite of the fact that it was a hole in the wall college restaurant, this was much darker than I remember it being. As we drove past, we saw a sign revealing that they had closed, and were in the process of moving to a new location a few blocks away. We shrugged and decided to try the inferior replacement to #1 Chinese, which was right down the street. We parked in front of their building, pulled the kids out of the car, walked up to the door, and discovered that they too had closed. They were going to be replaced with … China Place! Opening next week!
Desperate for hot tea and needing to find something to eat before Abbie has a hunger-induced meltdown and/or the twins wake up starving, we drove straight to our favorite nearby Chinese buffet. It was more food than I wanted for more money than I wanted to pay, but they offered immediate food and a free meal for Abbie. I suppose the twins could have eaten for free too, but Alimentum wasn’t on the Buffet.
It was a new experience for us to eat at a buffet with the twins; we had to take turns visiting the line and filling our plate. I went first, filling one plate with fried foods for me and another plate with fruit for Abbie. Abbie ate her fruit readily; she also ate my crispy pork, General Tso’s chicken, and the ice cream I got for dessert. The twins remained amazingly placated for the meal, which is a good thing since we didn’t bring any food for them.
In the end, everything worked out okay. Ellie got her hot tea, Abbie got to gorge herself, I got out of a night of dishes, the twins stayed calm while we ate, and our server gave us five fortune cookies so we didn’t even need that formula for the twins after all.
* Yes, A Dong is really its name. It’s actually a very good Vietnamese restaurant.
The biggest problem was finding an appropriate place to stop on the way home. The China Bowl is too expense, The Mandarin is too fancy and probably doesn’t offer take-out anyway, and A Dong* is too far out of the way. Eventually I settled on China Place, which could be on our way home with a little creative driving. China Place is one of our favorite restaurants from college, located next to the campus. Our favorite Chinese restaurant from college is #1 Chinese, but it closed a couple years ago and was replaced with … another Chinese restaurant, but with worse food.
As we approached China Place, I noticed the interior was dark. In spite of the fact that it was a hole in the wall college restaurant, this was much darker than I remember it being. As we drove past, we saw a sign revealing that they had closed, and were in the process of moving to a new location a few blocks away. We shrugged and decided to try the inferior replacement to #1 Chinese, which was right down the street. We parked in front of their building, pulled the kids out of the car, walked up to the door, and discovered that they too had closed. They were going to be replaced with … China Place! Opening next week!
Desperate for hot tea and needing to find something to eat before Abbie has a hunger-induced meltdown and/or the twins wake up starving, we drove straight to our favorite nearby Chinese buffet. It was more food than I wanted for more money than I wanted to pay, but they offered immediate food and a free meal for Abbie. I suppose the twins could have eaten for free too, but Alimentum wasn’t on the Buffet.
It was a new experience for us to eat at a buffet with the twins; we had to take turns visiting the line and filling our plate. I went first, filling one plate with fried foods for me and another plate with fruit for Abbie. Abbie ate her fruit readily; she also ate my crispy pork, General Tso’s chicken, and the ice cream I got for dessert. The twins remained amazingly placated for the meal, which is a good thing since we didn’t bring any food for them.
In the end, everything worked out okay. Ellie got her hot tea, Abbie got to gorge herself, I got out of a night of dishes, the twins stayed calm while we ate, and our server gave us five fortune cookies so we didn’t even need that formula for the twins after all.
* Yes, A Dong is really its name. It’s actually a very good Vietnamese restaurant.
posted by Matt at
10:37 PM
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