Thai Chef The derelict South China Café on 18th Street finally shut its doors a couple of months ago and was quickly replaced by Thai Chef. The location seemed transformed into a sleek Castro restaurant almost overnight. South China Café was the first restaurant Vida and I went to alone together but since we it was the worst meal we have been served I couldn’t maintain much nostalgia for it. I won’t forget the cheap 1970’s plywood booths or the dirty counter where we ate. The ubiquitous boxes of beer in the window will always appear in the corner of my mind whenever I walk by but I’m not sorry to see it go.

On Friday Vida had a half-day at school. It rained all day so we came home and cleaned the house together. Vida sprayed and I wiped. Vida vacuumed while I swept. Lately Vida has been too tired to go out for dinner after school. Whenever I bring up the possibility she says she wants to go home. Since we were home all afternoon she was ready to go out. It was pouring so she opened her frog umbrella and I put her on my shoulders.

I didn’t see the sign on the window advertising the “friendly faces” of Thai Chef until after we left so I was completely taken by surprise when we were greeted by a very tall Thai man dressed as a women. She was completely and elegantly made up in a very tight, short dress. The hostess was drawn to Vida immediately and offered her a balloon that had been lingering around since Valentines Day. All together there were three well-muscled “women” attending us and the other diners along with a few more traditionally dressed male servers. Vida was fascinated commenting that the women sounded like “boys”. Later on in the meal I could almost see the little wheels of her mind turning when she commented that the “girls look like boys”.

The novelty of the service was a distraction from the mediocrity of the food. Thai Chef seems to cater to the bland and unadventurous diner—of which we are pretty much included. The menu wasn’t anything special as far as Thai places in the neighborhood go and nobody asked me how spicy I would like my coconut milk soup. Vida patently refused the spring rolls since they were just filled with cabbage and mushrooms but ate almost the entire dish of fried rice with the serving spoon. The food wasn’t outstanding enough for a return visit but the “friendly faces” were definitely memorable.

Restaurant Total: 169  ¶ 5:41 AM