Chopsticks That Work

I just got back from eating at the Chinese restaurant across the street. The place has a bit of history to go with the food. When I first moved into my current apartment two years ago, the restaurant had opened.

Since it was so convenient, I decided to give it a try. All I had to do was get off my couch walk 100 meters across the steet and eat.

The first thing I noticed about the restaurant when I walked in was that no one was there. But I wasn't about to let that deter me. So I took a seat and ordered.

As I waited for the food, I looked aroud the restaurant. It was a very unhappy looking place. All of the chairs and tables looked beat up, just barely functional. And the windows looked dusty. But I have seen worse, and some of them have served very good food.

But that turned out not to be the case with this place. The vegetables were lifeless looking and the meat was tough. I got the impression that everything had simply been pulled out of the freezer, microwaved and then placed on my table. All-in-all, it was an unpleasant meal.

As I left, I had two thoughts: 1) I will never go back to that place again! 2) I'm not sure what business that place is in, but it certainly isn't the restaurant business!

A few months later, I came home very tired, and cooking was the last thing I could endure. Against my better judgment, I decided to give the restaurant another try.

I shouldn't have done it. The food and atmosphere were just as bad as last time.

Over the 1.5 years, this scene repeated itself a couple of more times.

But then one day, I noticed that the place was closed, for good. In fact, all of the restaurant signs were up, but there was a message on the door saying the place was closed.

No big loss, I thought. Then, a few months later, I noticed that new signs were up and a large, garish banner screamed out NEW OPENING.

So, one day a couple of weeks later, I decided to check the place out more closely. The place had a new name. I was hoping that more than the name was new.

And, indeed, that turned out to be true! The interior was classy, almost opulent. It had an atmosphere that suggested success and happiness.

So I ordered some food. When I took my first bite, I wasn't expecting much. But it proved me wrong! The food was wonderful! Everything tasted fresh and cooked by someone with a lot of kitchen experience. I was more than surprised.

Since then, I have been back at least five times. And the food has been wonderful every time. I always order something different each time, and it is clear that the cook can produce good food no matter what the menu item is.

And there's even more good news: The place has been packed every time. It is apparent that the cook has impressed more people than me.

I really don't know what the point of all this is, except perhaps that I now have a lot of peach of mind just knowing that there's a good Chinese restaurant at hand if I can't turn on the stove myself. In fact, I now daydream about which menu item I am going to try next when I go there. The waitress now knows me so well that she stops by my table for a couple of small chats on each visit.

Perhaps the point of this is clear after all: I like it when things work, when a system does exactly what it is programmed to do, when a process is carried out properly and successful. Click, click, click!