Text 9284, 82 rader
Skriven 2011-04-07 16:17:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 171
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Bill Swisher drove up from Havasu, only three hours (200
miles) away, for a visit. Connie couldn't come because of
the cat. He brought beer.

We found ourselves at Phoenix Municipal with Alex, where the
beer is weak (of course there is a huge list of forbidden
things, of which beer is one - from firearms to unsealed
water bottles, so you have to make do with what's for sale
inside - some of the parks even forbid outside food, which
is just plain craven and nasty), and the Athletics' pitching
is weaker. The visiting Angels, who had just started waking
up the last couple innings of the previous game, continued
to prosper and destroyed the homies by 10 to 3 in a rather
uglily played game featuring many doubles, several HBPs, and
a couple spectacularly wild wild pitches.

After that workout, Four Peaks and a pitcher of Hop Knot
seemed to be the thing to do. Bill, not being superfond of
IPAs, went with Sunbru, the house interpretation of a
Kolsch. I'll stay with the IPA, thank you. For snacks I
ordered a dish of German-style pretzels, which were decent
but for some reason extremely oily. These came with a
pretty sharp mustard that might have had horseradish in it.

I'd arranged to rendezvous at the Royal Thai Grill (aka
Chuckie's place) with Carl and Ellen, friends of Annie and
Billy when they lived here. Ellen used to be a high-powered
real estate attorney; Carl is the original burned-out stoner
and often is seen grooming plants or sweeping dust at a
strip mall on McKellips. It's said that he looks so down
and out that soft-hearted passersby occasionally hand him
a dollar, which he is said to accept with gratitude and an
idiotic grin. Carl owns a number of these malls and lately
has had enough work that Ellen has quit her practice to help
out. She does not do gardening or cleanup.

Everyone at table got to suggest one thing, including
Chuckie, the owner.

We ordered everything medium, with side orders of various
unguents and potions to hot things up to taste.

A coconut seafood soup was tart and excellent, full of
greenlip mussels, squid parts, and shrimp. A bit much
cilantro for me, but I am one of those middle of the roaders
regarding that herb. It is said that you either love it or
hate it: wrong.

Catfish with basil in red curry was delicious, highly
flavored, great with rice. It tasted almost identical to
the catfish with basil at Duangrat, my all-time favorite
Thai restaurant, in suburban Virginia, but had more basil.

When I ordered the fatty pork, Chuckie protested that it was
going to be too fatty (okay with me and everyone else at
table). He didn't protest that it also came with basil in
red curry, though its menu name is completely different.
It was even more delicious than the fish, I thought.

A green papaya salad was very tart and crunchy, little dried
shrimp adding sparkles of flavor. Moderately hot. Carl said that
he'd once been visiting in the kitchen when the cook, Chuckie's
wife, let him taste a batch that she'd just made for herself.
Took the rust off his pipes, he said, and he is pretty good
with hot food.

An order of mixed vegetables (insisted upon by Ellen) could
have been Chinese: broccoli, cabbage, snow peas, and other
stuff in a soy-based sauce.

To round things out, Chuckie brought out a dish of chicken
rad nar noodles, which were excellent, with wonderful wok
taste (on a previous visit, I'd been shown the kitchen,
the powerful wok burner the centerpiece of the operation)
and otherwise both flavorful and soothing. Followed by
coconut ice cream with peanuts, the final cooldown.

$21 a head including a Singha and a half apiece.

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