Before Thai Cusine

            For me, this whole thing is a special occasion. I mean, I put on make-up for this. AND I'm wearing heels. (Not heels of death-defying heights, but still. Heels.) Finding a restaurant to review was more a matter of finding somewhere relatively cheap that both my friends and I wanted to go to. We have decided on Thai Cuisine, which is—paging Captain Obvious—a Thai restaurant. Thinking about Thai food makes me remember my mom’s drunken noodles in all their basil-y glory. However, I know what I’m going to get at the restaurant is probably going to be very different from my mom’s home cooking. Other than what my mom makes, I’ve had very little experience with Thai food, so I’m not really sure what to expect. The Thai food I’ve had has been similar to Chinese, but with more noodles than rice and with slightly different spices, so I guess I’m expecting something slightly spicy that is sort of like Chinese only with rice noodles instead of rice and sans kitschy details like wooden chopsticks and fortune cookies with mass-produced proclamations of money or good fortune that will soon be mine.

            I’ve done a little research, and I know that drunken noodles—Pad Kee Mao—is a very well-known Thai dish, so if this place has drunken noodles I am of course going to have to try them. And if there is any sort of Pad Thai at all I might have to try that too, because it’s a generic Thai dish that is ubiquitous along the same lines as meatloaf is ubiquitous. I’m fairly certain meatloaf is known to most American households, and it’s one of those things that everyone who makes it does it a little differently. Pad Thai is the same way. I’m also planning on tasting everything my friends get, regardless of spiciness. A few bad experiences with spicy foods have made me wary of them, but I think it’s time I break myself of that habit. Spicy foods can be good, or so I’ve heard. I just have to find the right ones.

            All in all, I’m excited and a little bit nervous. This is one of only a handful of times I’ve ever gone out with friends for dinner minus adult supervision. I’m still not used to the whole idea of not having my parents watching my every step with those invisible parent-eyes that they all seem to develop as soon as they have children. It’s a little bit unnerving, sort of like when the professors here at K do something weird like extend a paper due date or cancel hundred-plus page readings out of the textbook. Not that those instances aren’t enjoyable, but when they do stuff like that I start thinking things like: “Weeeeiiiirrrrrrrrd. I have, like, free time.......What am I supposed to do now?” Anyway. The point is, I’m excited. New food. New place. Feeling like I’m some kind of secret agent because they don’t actually know I’m there to critique their food.

Maybe I should have theme music or something….