Phat Thai restaurant, Denver, Colorado

"Honeybunches, can we speed it up a little please?"

"How come, Precious? Why so antsy?" 

"I don't know, Hon, an uneasy sense of doom, I can't really put my finger on it."

Well, there's the Cherry Creek parking situation. Joe parked on the street, but that was competitive and metered even at night. 

I love tall doors. They promise lots of open wasted overhead space. You go through one, and yay! a mezzanine.

Crab egg rolls.

This is duck something.

This is chicken something. 

Excuse me, there's some rice on the table.

I didn't pay, I think the meals are about $30.00 each.

I'm showing the architecture because that's what you're paying for. I should have walked around and shown more, but it was night, the iso is cranked up quite high, and the shutter stays open for half a second so, it's a big place, it's very nice inside, I enjoyed being in there, it attracts attractive people, you'd enjoy it too. Go there, have a nice meal, see and be seen.

The wait staff is friendly and attentive and very helpful, ours did something that touches a nerve, but I recognize this is a personal peeve, she interrupts, and hard, three times.

They're wearing black t-shirts. She comes up from behind. And I am in close face-to-face contact, in deep conversation then YOU WILL ANSWER NOW is the drink okay? It's fine thank you. Gone. Now where was I?

X3.

But who's counting?

I have to get over myself.

The food is pleasantly hot. It snuck up on Joe. Ha! He thought his chicken pleasantly mild, just his style, and then POW!, there it is. Now I happen to like that a lot, but Joe, eh, less than me.

My duck turned into a bowl of delicious flavorful mush. I picked at it and didn't finish. It was duck, I am certain, because the menu said so. My sticky rice turned into a solid lump.

Thai inspiration is one thing, and the duck I had was inspired, but Thai cooking skill and understanding how rice behaves is another.

The waitress suggested two cocktails, and boy, did they sound good. The peach one sounded like a ladydrink, so I'm inclined to it, but it has whiskey in it. And the other one was Mary-something, it had the word fabulous in it. And vodka.

Something happened internally as I listened to her list the drink ingredients that made me realize I just flat do not like alcohol in any form and never will. It's like built-in Antabuse. Odd realization to arrive at so late. I cringed inside upon the words "whiskey" and "vodka" and "gin" all three words hit the same emotional chord as "poison" "gasoline" and "lighter fluid." Then I think of Coca Cola as replacement and big happy sunshine comes out.