I'll be Your Waiter This Evening

I like good food. I like a chef that understands his/her ingredients. Sadly, we're not wealthy. Places that have a chef that will prepare things properly, buying in whole ingredients, making his own sauces are usually well outside our price range. We have to go to much more modest places.

One of the places that we can afford is a wonderful little Thai restaurant up in the hills outside Dumfries. Its a charming place and there isn't a dish served that hasn't been prepared from actual ingredients. No dried packets or jars of sauce will be found in this pantry. Nothing is thawed out or microwaved to order here. Out in the back, by the bins you will see the cardboard boxes from the produce delivery stacked and waiting collection.

The way this Thai restaurant started is a charming story. The restaurant started out as a local village pub. Nothing spectacular about it. Almost every village has a pub like it. These local pubs will invariably have a pub menu. Simple easy to prepare (thaw and fry) food that will fill you up and/or line your stomach so you can continue drinking.

The owner of the pub went on a holiday to Thailand. When he came back, he had a wife. This is not an unusual occurrence in Thailand. Thai brides are a big export. When she arrived in Scotland, to keep from being bored out of her skull she asked if she could put a few Thai dishes on the end of the pub menu. This was a big success. Our Thai bride got an entire page of Thai dishes onto the menu.

Next, a back room of the pub was dedicated as a Thai restaurant. It was adjacent to the pub but it was a proper separate business with its own menu. The pub menu was reduced to a back page on the menu of the new Thai Orchid. It was very popular. Henry and I discovered the place at this point. You really had to book ahead if you wanted to get a table there. The couple in addition to creating this new restaurant on the side of the pub also had a baby, a pretty little girl.

A couple of years ago they made a few more changes, expanding the restaurant, knocking a wall through and adding a back room. The original village pub is no longer recognisable. It is now all the Thai Orchid. There is still a bar, but it is stuck out in the new back room. A second baby was added too. This time a little boy. They have also become a chain. They bought a little place in Dumfries. A great place to go for a special lunch when you're in town.

George is a fool for their fishcakes and noodles. Henry loves the soups. I try something new each time I go there. Unlike The Man of the Place, I am not bound by the constraints of being a vegetarian. I have yet to be disappointed. We love how the food is presented. Somebody spends hours carving delicate flowers from carrots, parsnips and radishes and one of these decorations is placed on each entree. The old pub menu is still available. It has to stay there for the locals. This is the only place to eat for miles around. Some of the old farmers and their wives just can't be doing with foreign food. They just want plain meat and potatoes, perhaps a bit of fried fish.

The service is either by our friend the Thai bride, a member of her family that is visiting from Thailand or some sweet faced local girl. The local girls are so charming and unsophisticated that they are always forgiven for little blunders. They do try to do well and that goes a long way. A few years ago when I ordered a glass of chardonnay, I was asked by the apple cheeked waitress if I wanted the red or the white chardonnay. I smiled sweetly and said that I would like the white chardonnay if you please.

I was thinking about the different styles of service that one receives in restaurants here and in the US. I really marvel at French and Italian waiters. They have mastered the art of hovering without being at your elbow. It will be noticed that you have stopped eating or conversation has ceased and will materialize at your table to see what you need. They are confident enough in the food that they serve that they will not interrupt you five minutes after the food is served to check that you like it. They also don't tell me their name. I know that it is policy in restaurants in the US for the wait staff to introduce themselves, but I don't really require an introduction. I know what they do for a living, they are working in a restaurant and I know this will sound crabby, but I don't care what their names are.

Bad service is unforgivable. I think everybody has a horror story or two of bad waiters and waitresses. I remember in a pizza place we stumbled into one winter's night after a movie. We actually stood up and waved our menus over our heads in order for somebody to come over and take our order. We would have gone somewhere else, but the small child we had with us was immovable. Unsurprisingly this pizza place is no longer in business.