Oh food. How I love thee.

Today was a Great Day. Broke away from the routine of work and enjoyed lunch with a great group of friends at Thanh Thanh Oriental Noodle House at 10718 – 101 St, Edmonton.  Sorry Calgary peeps you will have to visit us here.  Phone 780-426-5068. They take reservations and will also take pre-orders.

Our lunch organizer, we’ll call her Leslie, a person who is a legend in our office for her Extreme High Standard for cleanliness, speed of service and delicious food, recommended this place. So we went.

There is no parking in front of the building on 101 Street, but the rear of the building has a reasonable sized lot. This can be accessed from the alley from 107th or 108th Ave. Click this sentence for a map.

Because of this, the main entrance is the rear door off the parking lot. They have a pleasant waiting area, complete with a large tank of orange fish with big eyes and gaping mouths staring at you. We stared right back. We only worried for a little bit about one fish stuck upside down in the corner of the tank. He was either the school goof ball or ready to croak.  We expressed the usual concern, but forgot about him when we were called to our table.

We were given a large table, complete with lazy Susan, that seated the 8 of us perfectly and comfortably.

Menus were distributed, and because “Leslie” had us review the menus the day before, we pretty much knew what we wanted. Our orders were placed within minutes of being seated, and the first dish arrived at our table within minutes of that. Then, it seemed plates of food were coming out of thin air and our table was groaning with delicious plates of food.

Except for one of our group, who has dietary limitations and ordered his own dish, the rest of us opted for sharesies. We ordered white rice, and:

• I don’t remember

Seriously. That was hours ago. How I am supposed to remember? My pick was beef with lemongrass and spicy coconut sauce.  Another was chicken with lemongrass and hot peppers. We also had a cashew chicken. Beef with black bean sauce.  Szechuan chicken. A vegetable dish served on noodles. And a shrimp dish.

Each dish was delicious. Fresh. Served quickly. The serving sizes were generous. The sauces addicting. They aren’t skimpy with the heat. If it says spicy hot, it will be spicy hot. Our table was monitored throughout and several times we were asked if wanted more rice.

Our collective least favourite dish was the cashew chicken. It was more like celery and cashews. They were very generous with the celery. The dish was not what most of us are used to getting when ordering cashew chicken at other restaurants in town. That said, it was still tasty and fresh. If you like celery.

Our lunch started with all of us being courteous, taking little bits of this, little bits of that. This continued for a while. Then the stomach starts to talk. To me, the conversation went like this:

Stomach:  Hey Cathy.

Me: Hey Stomach.

Stomach: This is some good food.

Me: OMG it’s delicious!

Stomach: When are you coming back here?

Me: I dunno. I’ll have to bring Michael here. But probably not for a month or so. Maybe longer.

Stomach:  Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Me: Oh stomach, I’m so sorry. What can I do?

Stomach:  Eat woman! Eat! More! More szechwan chicken! No! Not one piece! Take three!! That’s two! TAKE THREE!!!!!!!

Me:  I don’t want to be a pig.

Stomach:  No one’s watching. Spin the table. There’s a whole plate of shrimp over there. Spin! Get it! Spin! Spin! Get a spoonful of that lemongrass chicken while you’re at it. You missed it! You missed it! The lemongrass chicken went right by! *anguished cry* Spin! EAT  YOUR VEGETABLES!!!

Me:  Mom?

Mom: Just slipping in with the reminder dear.

Stomach: Focus Catherine. Focus! More rice! Beef! Chicken!

…..You get the idea.

By the time we were walking out the door, the restaurant was happy, full, loud, and had many people waiting to get in. A healthy sign the place is popular and doing something right.