[title type="h5"]Saturday, May 31, 2014.
Boom! Thailicious![/title]
The rain-filled weather system that arrived Tuesday is still out there, still letting the precipitation loose by the inch. The storm cells are all about precipitation, with the really scary stuff limited to the first day, when a couple of tornados were in the area.
But that changes today, with what my Aunt Una used to call an "electrical storm." Four bolts of lightning blast the immediate vicinity of the Cool Water Ranch in one minute. The second one was very, very close to home. Only a split second passed between the power's going out and the sound of the bolt.
That happened in the first half-hour of my radio show, and it knocked my audio connection off the air. I had it figured that I'd have to do the whole show on my cellphone (it's crazy to pick up a landline-connected phone in a storm like this). I was also worried that the remote unit I use for my shows from home might have been damaged by the surge. But after about ten minutes the power came back on, and the codec worked fine.
To dinner at Thailicious, a café serving the obvious menu in Slidell, near North Shore Square mall. A cook by the name of Kathy is familiar to me from a couple of visits I made years ago to the Thai Orchid on Robert Boulevard, also in Slidell. There I had what is still the best version ever of a dish named pad prik king. Like many Thai dishes, it's a soupy dish made with a choice of meat (pork and chicken are best), the usual vegetables, and green beans. Also in the mix is an herb related to ginger, with a flavor I can only call musky--but in a good sense.
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Panang curry.[/caption]
I don't know how Kathy remembers me, but she does--along with the details of my last order. This time I go to another dish in the same general category. Panang curry is light orange color, with a more interesting complex of spices than in other Thai curries. (I will probably get some disagreement on that from the fans of red, yellow, green, and musaman curries.) It too has a soupy consistency, despite the fact that Americans who don't know any better are put off by it.
Well, I love it. And probably would have loved it even more if I remembered to tell Kathy that I like the three-star pepper level (extra hot, but not Thai hot--the latter packing a heat that only one who grew up in Thailand can appreciate). That takes the delicious sting out of the dish, but it's great anyway. Kathy can really cook.
The Gourmet Yankee--a regular caller to the radio show with a New Englad dialect thicker than clam chowdah--was there having dinner with his wife. He's also an Eat Club regular, so he knows me by sight. He's a fan of Kathy's cooking, too.
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Thailicious.[/caption]
I may have made a breakthrough tonight. Since age fifteen, I have been saddled with a taste for Krystal hamburgers. The revival of sliders in hip burger shops raised the reputation of these little square burgers with their steamed onions, pickle and mustard. But they are indefensible from the standpoint of a meticulous eater.
I find it hard to avoid a Krystal when I see one. And there it is, a few blocks away from Thailicious. I pull up to the drive-through and order two cheeseburgers, extra mustard. Always before, that flavor--which has never seemed to change--brought back a flow of nostalgia. But this time they didn't push the button. Not the same experience. I doubt that the Krystal has changed, so it must be me. I may never eat another one.
It's about time.
[title type="h5"]Thailicious. Slidell: 2165 Gause Blvd W. 985-649-8900.[/title]
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