People, places and things...

Oh, the places you'll go, and I'm not talking about the classic Dr. Seuss book - I am referring to the job I've held for the past year and a half.

As a representative of Kansas Soybeans I have the opportunity to meet and see many interesting people and places. This week was just a small slice of the variety that is life. Garden City.

I had an experience in Garden City I could have never anticipated. It was fun, diversifying, and of course hilarity ensued.

I had Thai food with a college friend.

It was a small hole in the wall place with brightly colored walls (orange), a beautiful Buddha statue and Otis - the slow waiter. Of course his name probably wasn't Otis, but for the purpose of this blog, we'll call him Otis.

After a cocktail at the hotel bar, with drink tickets, we ventured to downtown to check out the Thai restaurant. I'd never eaten Thai food and to be honest I was a little nervous, but excited. I had heard Thai is a rather spicy cuisine and I'm not really what one would consider a 'spicy' kind of diner. Nonetheless, I'm always up for a little fun, and my dinner company ensured that I would at least have fun.

We walked in and there were only two other women in the restaurant. We sat down at a table for two near the kitchen and took in the atmosphere. We talked, and most of all laughed, because it took about ten minutes for Otis to realize we were in the restaurant. We weren't in a hurry - so we just listened to the other conversation going on in the dining area. Apparently the one woman, in the crazy shirt, had gone to Thailand. Obviously she had a good time.

Finally Otis came to take our order I ordered sweet and sour chicken (I realize it is boring, but getting me in the restaurant was a plus - baby steps). The other order was some type of curry dish. "What color do you want?" he asked. We looked at each other and must have seemed confused. "What color?"

"What do you mean what color?" she asked.

"Red, yellow or green spice," he said with little explanation.

"Okay," she looked at me and then him. "Red, I guess?"

Then he finally explains that the color represents heat. He must have picked up on the fact we had no idea what the hell he was talking about, which was surprising. I mean, he could have been talking about plate color for all I knew. He explained that red was hot, green was not so hot and yellow was the in between.

"Yellow then," she laughed and he asked me if I wanted spicy. I quickly informed him no.

We laughed about that and then we waited, and waited, and laughed a little and waited. Still no drinks and the food was still not out. We were close enough to the kitchen that we could hear them talking - and that was a main source of our dining entertainment. We estimated a good 30 minute wait until he came out and informed us there was no more peanut sauce. What he didn't know, was that we had been nibbling on the crushed up peanuts used as a topper, in the shaker on the table. We were hungry! We opted for a substitute sauce and finally the spring rolls arrived, but we still didn't have any water.

We waited and he finally brought out my plate, and we had to remind him about not only the water - but the lack of utensils. "Oh my god," he said in some sort of accent. It was actually pretty funny. He was pretty cool - even if he was not a five star service provider.

The food was excellent. Generally that is the case when you go to an establishment such as this. We were going to guess the health inspector probably hadn't made a visit in a while - but that was okay with us. We dig a good hole in the wall. The ice was in a beer cooler, which we found hilarious, and there was no fountain - just cans of soda.

The owner/chef was a San Francisco native and talked about his similar restaurant in the bay area and coming to Kansas to help his aunt run a gas station. He didn't last in the gas business, he was a good chef and wanted to open a restaurant.

You can't find that kind of conversation at the chain restaurants. The Buddha was a gift from a customer. Now that's loyalty.

I, for one, am certainly glad he decided to open his restaurant.