Sure the place was a bit of a dive. But when you serve the kind of amazingly authentic Thai food they did, who cares that the lighting is fluorescent, the dingy walls bare and the flowers on each table, dusty silks. People are there to eat the food and subsequently forget all else surrounding them as their eyes roll heaven-ward and they enter some parallel universe of pure gastronomic bliss.
But alas, this well camouflaged nirvana is no more. The glorious Pad Thai that got me through most of a pregnancy too fraught with morning sickness to cook, is relegated to a mere "what I craved" recollection. The intensely dark and bitter Thai Iced tea, saved from un-drinkablilty only by the sweet coconut milk cloying in clouds among its ice cubes, is a thing of the past. And don't even get me reminiscing about the chlorophyll-ic bite of the green tea ice cream, the fragrant curries, the palate cleansing papaya and cucumber salad, and the tamarind candies.
Oh, Taste of Thai Restaurant......how I shall miss you. Perhaps, someday, if I am lucky, I will find another Thai restaurant to call my own. But I remain steadfastly certain that none will ever truly replace you or your diamond in the rough eccentricity and your five minute commuting distance from my house. You and you alone were the first to introduce me to the exciting allure of South Asian cuisine and I shall never forget that. Soon enough your small empty confines will house some depressing new Diner or Chinese take-out place. But you will never be far from my memory.....and in my kitchen, as I seek to replicate your dishes....your heart will go on...... I am sure.
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