Hits And Misses

JANUSFILES2 . . . ENTRY #0034 . . . OPEN:


I'm in the process of going through all of Oriental House's lunch specials. Since they're all the same price, I might as well try all of them and see which one is my favorite, right?

Well, make that almost all of the lunch specials. As I may have mentioned once or twice already, I don't like bell peppers. Make that I really don't bell peppers, so I think I'll give the pepper steak a pass. And before I try any of the hot and spicy selections (such as General Tso's chicken), I'm going to see if they can crank down the heat just a little.

In any case, last week I tried two more selections. First, there was the sweet and sour shrimp. I was both pleasantly surprised and slightly dismayed. Surprised, because they used some of the biggest shrimp I had ever seen. These would probably qualify for that oxymoronic description, "jumbo shrimp." Dismayed, because in spite of the fact that I distinctly specified "no bell peppers," . . . you guessed it, there were bell peppers in it. But they did remember the fortune cookie, with this fortune:

"When in doubt, just take the next small step."

The following day, I decided to try the lemon chicken. This time, I didn't have to worry about bell peppers. Just chicken, either batter-dipped or breaded (I don't remember which at the moment), then fried, on a bed of lettuce and topped with a lemon sauce.

I had a slightly different problem this time. They forgot to include a fork with my food. I tried using a couple of straws as improvised chopsticks, with somewhat mixed results. The straws just weren't sturdy enough to be used as chopsticks, unfortunately.

An hour or so later, the lady who had taken my order came by my store. I told her that the food had been delicious, but mentioned the shlight problem I had encountered. Her face immediately twisted into an expression of surprise that almost screamed, "How could that have happened?" She did promise that it wouldn't happen again.

At least they didn't forget the fortune cookie. This one said:

"Walk with a good heart and you will run with success."

JANUSFILES2 . . . ENTRY #0034 . . . CLOSE