fried rice
Monday, February 11, 2008
A recent post on V's blog reminded me of a time some co-frogs and I went to Mekong River downtown for lunch. One of us ordered the C8 (combo fried rice) and another ordered the C9 (chicken fried rice). The other orders are irrelevant to this story, but I ordered the B6. I always order the B6 because it is savory and delicious. Anyway...
After a short while, the server appeared next to our table with the first plate of food in hand and declared, "Fried rice," expecting someone to stake his claim.
Immediately, I attempted to disambiguate the situation by asking one simple question, "Is that a C8 or a C9?"
The server looked at me for a good long while, unblinking, like I'd just asked her to do long division without the aid of a calculator, and I'd swear she began to gradually go cross-eyed before responding slowly and deliberately:
"Fried rice."
Instantly, I was reminded of the "two weeks" scene from Total Recall and the Leon interview from Blade Runner. I will try using less-threatening interrogation techniques in the future.