These
are tumultuous political times. It seems everyone has been impacted
in one way or another from the current rhetoric and issues of
the 2004 Presidential election. Our recent trip to Royal East
Asian Cuisine proves this.
If you are
regular reader of Eatin’ Out with SL4, you are well aware
that we have two very picky eaters in our crew – Gloria
and Henry. We are all aware of Gloria’s issues –
her part-time vegetarian status, problems with making bad food
selections (see her choice of chili
at the TA Travel Stop and her pick of bean nachos at La Mexicana),
and her inability to write reviews on restaurants when she forgets
to wear a cape. Henry’s issues, on the other hand, have
been quite evident to us, but have not yet been properly represented
in our reviews. Here are just a few of Henry’s food issues:
•
He is overly paranoid and develops conspiracy theories concerning
the supposed negative health effects of certain foods. For example,
he has an irrational and baseless fear of the green pepper.
• He rigorously and attentively inspects each bit of meat
before placing it into his mouth.
• He is a man, yet he prefers Le Madeline to Sukho Thai.
After our
visit to this fine Korean restaurant, we can now safely add
“food flip-flopper” to this list. We’ll get
to the reason why shortly.
We
walked in to find that we were the only patrons in the establishment.
The atmosphere was an average attempt at elegance – the
type of elegance that you can expect from a restaurant located
in the heart of a 1960s strip mall on university between a Dollar
General and a Rent-a-Center. There were soft classical renditions
of mid-90s pop tunes playing in the background. The tables were
set with a fine bamboo shoot centerpiece
planted in a small bed of smooth deco stone pebbles. Near the
kitchen was a five-seat sushi bar
that went untouched during our entire stay. The extensive menu
included several sushi options, Korean specialties, and a few
Chinese standards for the less adventurous. We asked our nice
waitress for her suggestions, given our Korean naivety. Without
hesitation, she ran down her favorite items on the menu and
answered all our questions – such an honest opinion is
not something you tend to get from college student food service
workers around this town. You are normally met with such lame
responses as: “I don’t know, I don’t eat here”
or “Everything is great!” or “To be honest,
I am a vegan, so I don’t eat here.” Gloria opted
for the non-adventurous, why-in-the-heck-did-we-come-to-a-Korean-restaurant-choice
of Kung Pao Chicken off the traditional
Chinese standards list. It came piled high with diced
celery and – SURPRISE – Gloria decides that
she has an aversion toward that vegetable. Russ ordered some
sort of Korean soup and seemed to be
quite pleased with his choice. Kevin and Henry both went with
one of the waitresses favorite – a pork
dish with a ginger-topped salad, white rice, sliced and
sautéed potato strips, and fried potato cakes on the
side. Here is where the flip-flopping begins…
When the
food came out, Henry gave rave reviews. “This is so much
better than Bulgogi,”
Henry exclaimed in reference to the Korean dive on North Texas
Blvd we reviewed last Spring. He mentioned the classiness of
the food presentation, the clean atmosphere, and the quality
of the food. “I am going to rate this way higher than
Bulgogi,” Henry continues as he eats his meal. But when
it came time to decide on the ratings for this restaurant, Henry
seemed to have a sudden switch in Korean policy. Henry issued
a statement via the GroupWise intercampus mail system that simply
read: “I give it a 2 – I just don’t like Korean
food.” What caused this sudden turn in policy and what
became of his earlier enthusiasm?
Henry has up to this point offered no clear reason as to this
apparent flip-flop other than to say, “These are complicated
issues. All I can say is that I did give it a much higher rating
before I gave it this very low rating. And if I had to do it
all over again, I would still give it a higher rating, but then
it would be a much higher rating than the one I actually gave.
See what I mean? These are very complicated issues.”
