My boyfriend, his son and I decided we would go eat dinner somewhere while we were out running errands.
There is only one Asian restaurant that I think has good food, but it was much further away from where we were at the time. So, I suggested a place that used to be pretty good about 15 years ago. It is called the Golden Phoenix. We happened to be driving right by it, which is what brought it to mind. So, we took a chance and went in.
Well, the first thing I noticed that had changed is the country the staff were from. It used to be owned by Chinese people, imagine that! All employees were Chinese, but no more. They are now from ???, somewhere in East India. Fine, they should still be able to read the original recipes and cook the food correctly. Not sure why the first thing I noticed wasn’t that we were the ONLY customers in there!
We sat down in a little booth, and realized we were all freezing. When the waitress came to ask what she could get for us, I said HEAT! Then she went into a lengthy explanation about how there is only one “heater” on the ceiling which was in another room, and the place is too big to heat. Then she told us how she had already talked to the owner and it would cost thousands of dollars to put another one in, so I guess they are just going to deal with it, and apparently, so are the customers.
I reluctantly ordered a glass of wine, a glass of red that is. My only choices were red and white. No brands, years, or varieties. Just red and white. When I asked what kind of Red they have, she said it is merlot. She made an emphasis on LOT. Oh boy! Cole ordered Sake since he has heard plenty about it, but has never tried it. Those were mistakes # 2 and #3. Yuck! They were both pretty bad.
We all made our decisions about what kind of food to order and did so. I figured the food should still be fine, and was looking forward to getting something good there. We ordered Sweet and Sour Chicken, Chicken and Shrimp Stir Fry, Chicken Lo Mein, Steamed dumplings and Egg rolls. About 15 minutes later, the waitress brought our food. As she was setting it down on the table, a horrible smell came over us. One or more of these dishes smelled really bad! Like a dirty dish rag or something. Ugh!
We all looked at each other to see who was the bravest one to try the food first. And I think we all tried it at about the same time. Something happened with the recipes since the new ownership because they no longer even tasted Asian. I swear there was curry or some other Indian spice in it. One by one, we put our forks down. We shamed ourselves for not leaving sooner. None of it was really edible except for the steamed rice, so we tried to fill up on that. The waitress came back and asked if we needed boxes. We were all in sync when saying “NO”!
After paying, we walked out the door as fast as possible. And, how much worse could this experience get after exiting? Well, when stepping off of the sidewalk, to get in the car, Cole’s son spotted a dead animal in front of the car! OMG!!! It had obviously been there for a while. I guess we didn’t notice much of anything until after it was too late. What a disgusting night!
Within minutes of getting in the car, all of our stomachs hurt. There was no relief all night. It was just awful!
