I am Type A, so I can rant.

It was my turn to pick up the food for Bible Study (for 35-40 people).  Normally this type of task would sound mundane and not much of an issue.  But for a freak like me, it has to be an event.  For some reason, I am this crazy control freak. Thirty years and I still have not had a stroke! "Why, why all this drama?" you may ask. Well Dear Reader, follow me as we take a short journey back in time.

Monday morning I slipped into work in a foggy haze. I haven't had my coffee yet, and I had 10 emails waiting for me to mechanically click - as if unchecking the box would make the task finished. I then double clicked the most dreaded icon on my desktop - ACCESS. Reader, I doubt Pandora ever had to go through the effort of opening a box, or Satan having to cajole Eve with an apple, Microsoft Access is evil enough! There was an annotation next to my name, I had a project going out on Tuesday.  Shit.  Who the hell is going to pick up the food? Surely I can't let the Bible Study folk down, I just got baptized.  I quickly penned an email to the entire group asking for succor.  By 2 P.M. there were no replies. I was pissed.  Do Christians not help each other? How is this possible?  I understand, I go to a rather free thinking Church - but traditional community is stressed, would nobody help?  Thankfully I did not let out a profanity laced bromide at work because by 7:00 my personal inbox was filled with offers of help.  Apparently people do not check their personal email at work. Something called integrity, or restraint. In fact, one particular deacon even called me. My faith was restored.  

Tuesday morning came and I decided to pull some strings to see if the project could be accelerated. I then found out a component (that was originally included in the reorganization was no longer demanded); hence, I was going to pick up the food.  I was going to feed my people.  I would be the Asian Jesus, sans sandals, and wisdom, and a beard ....

Well I picked up Thai food from Jitlada and you know what? IT WAS FUCKING TERRIBLE!

I ordered three items: 1. Vegetable Curry Fried Rice, 2. Vegetable Pad Thai, and 3. Broccoli Chicken. The problem with all the items was mediocrity, attributed to an inability to handle mis en place, and a wok. 

The fried rice was really wet.  I attribute really wet fried rice to two things: the kitchen cooks several orders in batches, or they did not dry out the rice prior to cooking.

 The Pad Thai was serviceable, but it was not particularly better than any other generic Thai food in the area. 

 But the culinary Hinderburg had to be the Broccoli Chicken.  The chicken was rough, stringy and dry. This could have been prevented if the chicken was properly "velveted" before cooking.
  But I will admit the saving grace is the service. The employees and the kitchen help were very friendly, and offered to provide me with a bevy of condiments and utensils (I think they gave me 50 chopsticks).  But you know what, I got stressed out - I tried to control everything. From "Production Schedule," to "emails," but what tripped me up, what screwed up my entire Tuesday, was really bad chicken.


But you know what really ticks me off.  The last group to pick up the food from the very same restaurant, brought amazing food.  The rice was fluffy and seasoned well.  The Pad Thai was not some wet clump reminiscent of medusae on the shoals of a beach.  And the chicken ... shit they ordered beef!