Friday, May 18, 2012.
Take Me Out Of The Ball Game. Thai Thai.
An LSU baseball game bumped the first half of my radio show, so I thought I'd use the free time to get a haircut. And to get my barber Harold Klein's reading on why Chef Rene Bajeux had such a brief hegemony at the Rib Room, after all the fuss that was made over his coming. Harold, whose shop is downstairs from the Rib Room in the Royal Orleans hotel, had a hand in getting Rene to take over.
That's what I thought of doing, but the beautiful weather got the better of me, and I stayed home instead, walking around the woods looking for more wild mushrooms.
Both Marys were on the South Shore. "Go to Ricky's and find out how he's doing," Mary Ann said, referring to Ricky Seubsanh, the owner of Thai Thai. I must always go there alone, because Thai food is among the many cuisines the Marys are suspicious of.
Ricky had the usual assortment of stories to tell, most of which involved the recent repainting, inside and out, of his restaurant. "I have five more years on my lease," he said, as if something about that would resonate with me.
Against my will (until I tasted it), my meal began with fried dumplings and an intense tom yum goong--the spicy shrimp soup with vegetables. The pad prik king was my own order, a dish with a funny name but am intriguing, musky flavor I like. Also distinguishing it from more familiar Thai dishes is a predominance of whole green beans. Made with chicken, this batch was just what I wanted, with one flaw--it wasn't steaming hot. Most Thai dishes need to sit for a minute before you can eat them, but not here.
A side trip to Menchie's Frozen Yogurt. ("Fro-yo," as they call it where Jude lives.) Banana was the flavor, and it was just okay. This may be good. I have been coming here too often lately.
I'm listening to an audio book on psychology, entitled Switch. It tells of an experiment in which moviegoers were given oversize buckets of free popcorn, some of them visibly bigger than others. But all the buckets held far too much for one person to eat, and each person got his own. The popcorn was intentionally stale, to the point that it was almost a chore to eat it. The result: the people with the big barrels ate twice as much popcorn as those with the smaller ones. They tried this over and over with different movies, places, and demographics, and the result was always the same. If the plate is big, you eat more, regardless of appetite.
Well, there's no question that portions in restaurants have been too large for quite some time. Restaurateurs know that big portions bypass the rational mind, and subliminally make people happy. The effect is so widespread that I don't get many phone calls complaining about small portions anymore. That used to be one of the most often-heard complaints.
I think a certain kind of restaurant could get mileage out of advertising that it serves modest quantities. In fact, it's already going in, in the increasing number of places whose menus are full of tapas and appetizers.
Thai Thai. Covington: 1536 US 190. 985-809-8905.
