Prologue: When I visit Neal in Texas, Saturday night is commonly our night out. When I say "night out" I mean dinner. With his tight schedule there's never time for anything else. He gets off work at 7:00, home by 7:20, showered by 7:35, 10 minute drive to Kemah, then hopefully a relatively short wait for a table. Home by 9:15 and in bed by 9:30. Neal's morning alarm goes off at 4:30 a.m.
Scene 1: Last night, we wanted seafood, which is rather abundant here on the coast. The restaurant of choice was Pappadeaux, an upscale seafood restaurant with prices to match. Ambiance is romantic, food and presentation is worthy of royalty. But alas, the wait for a table was 45 minutes. No can do.
Scene 2: Pappadeaux is across the bridge in Kemah and surrounded by fish markets, where you can buy fresh catch of the day. We noticed a restaurant we'd never seen before called "Captain Wick's Seafood" just a parking lot away from Pappadeaux. Thought we'd give it a try.
Scene 3: Restaurant is empty except for the staff (all Viet Namese) and a group of people with children, that were not eating, just "hanging out" who were also Viet Namese. (Later determined to be family of staff.) Playing loudly in the corner was a Karaoke machine where the "family" were taking turns butchering country songs. There was a buffet set out, which looked semi-edible, but the kind hostess confirmed that there was also a menu. While perusing the menu, our hostess pointed out that the section labeled "Steaks" was crossed off. "No have steak." Okay. The seafood portion looked promising so we chose a table.
Scene 3: I ordered Grilled Red Snapper. Neal decided on the buffet. Before Neal had a chance to visit the buffet, our sweet hostess scurried back to inform me "No Snappa--fish mahket crosed--onry shlimp and oystahs." That's fine, I'll have the buffet as well.
Scene 4: Just envision the Thanksgiving dinner scene in "A Christmas Story" where the family is in a Chinese restaurant eating a sad excuse for turkey dinner and being serenaded by the staff singing Christmas Carols with a Chinese accent. The food was cold and tasteless (although the gumbo wasn't bad--but I was apprehensive, knowing how easy it is to disguise disgusting things in gumbo). The karaoke kept getting louder and more off-key, and Neal and I couldn't stop laughing. I actually showered, coiffed my hair and applied make-up for this?
Next time, we'll wait the 45 minutes at Pappadeaux.
1 comment:
Should have done better research before posting this. These friendly people were not Vietnamese, they were Filipinos. And if you were open-minded enough to other cultures, you would have enjoyed learning that just about every Filipino restaurant in the U.S. has a karaoke, and that to them, singing is just a form of entertainment, and you don't have to sound like a pro. Yes, next time go to Pappadeux or some corporate chain. You are too close-minded for a place like Captain Wick's.
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