Stories, week 1: Chau Chow City 1

I decided that every Sunday, my post would include a short story.  These should be considered works of fiction.

One of my favorite restaurants is Chau Chow City in Boston, near-ish South Station/Chinatown area.  Its not particularly great value or service or food, but it is good, and it's open till late in the am, and its fun.  Picture a chinese restaurant, a little gaudy and touristy and over the top, the kind of place that looks like it could be the scene for a gangster-movie shootout.

"Freshman year, I was waiting with A. for a friend of mine from England, H., to arrive at South Station to visit.  Anyways, its around 10pm, and A and I, being hungry students, decide to grab some food at this place, Chau Chow City, while we wait.  We sit down and order some soups, waiting for H. to arrive before ordering main courses.  In walk a woman and her husband, decently dressed, the man balding, in glasses, the woman thin and fidgety.

They sit next to us, and after some time, begin to order.  The woman, speaking slowly to the waiter as if to a small child or retard, wants chinese broccoli with garlic sauce- not oyster sauce, not soy sauce, garlic sauce.  Just garlic sauce.  Definitely no soy sauce or anything other than a light garlic-oil sauce.  After a couple minutes of this, A and I are cracking up- the poor waiter is suffering it well, but the situation is a tad ridiculous.  I, being polite, and with my back to the couple, am being careful to keep still, though my face is about to split with my smile and the effort of swallowing the laugh.  A. is rather less circumspect, almost out of his seat.

Without warning or hesitation in her demands, the woman picks up a chopstick and whips it at A.  At this point, three things happen: I lose my bearing and start laughing alound, A actually does fall out of his chair with laughter, and the chinese waiter goes pale as a sheet.  This woman was, after all, a close cousin to the customer from hell. 

Again, with no hesitation, the woman turns back to the waiter and says "oh, its ok, they're my kids".  A and I are laughing too hard to deny it, and besides, she's entertaining us.

And in such a vein did the rest of the evening pass, and the tradition of late-night Chau Chow's was born."

Alright, hope that was enjoyable.  I'm going back to work now, and will hopefully rest before dawn.