jannid's Journal

TBA Thai and Superbly Silent
Nov 06 2009 23:24

First, the TBA - the food. It was my Thai friend's b'day, so she got to choose dinner and she chose....Thai! Go figure. LOL! There were two Thai places in downtown near the park where the movie was to be shown. None of us were familiar with them and the on-line reviews had the usual - some just loved the place to pieces, while others wanted to rend the place to pieces thus preventing the unaware from eating there. So, we went with the one that looked the closest.

First Part A, the food - very good not outstanding. Spiced a little more than most places which lower their standards to accommodate a wider variety of American taste buds, so we were pleased. I had a Bangkok Chicken with Basil that was very tasty. Serving was not too huge so I should have done pretty well calorie wise.

First Part B, the service - ridiculously inept. First, neither the waitress nor the floor manager knew what some of the dishes were. Then we discovered we could not order duck anything because they did not have any duck at all in spite of the fact that there were at least a half a dozen items by that name on the menu. Also, you would think that four people sitting at a table for dinner might mean four dinners. This was not so apparent for the staff. Who happily brought three. The fourth appeared a tad too quickly for my taste after my SU went over to where the staff was chatting. The dish tasted suspiciously like it was cooked too quickly in the same unwashed pan that was used to prepare the fish for one of our friends, so my nice SU swapped plates with me as even the smell of fish makes me, well feel a little unwell, and the taste...let's not go there. On a service scale of best being a high end fancy schmancy steak place with wine stewards, an after dinner cheese display, and discreet whipping away of plate while you hardly notice; to the bottom - Vietnamese, the place rated a negative three star Vietnamese. Now, if any of my friends are Vietnamese you know what sort of service I am talking about. All my Asian friends are, well, just a tad critical about what Vietnamese restaurants consider "customer service".

Finally, the movie and music. Stunning. The lives of the characters spiraled relentlessly downward and just when you are sure they are at rock bottom, you find they are not. Things continue to get worse until finally there is no where else to go and the star, Lulu, must face the ultimate of tragedies.

The music, composed especially for this performance, was perfection. As the characters became more ground into the dirt of hard life, the music became even more dark and heavy as if assisting in their burial (the cello had a terrific part!). Do watch for a young composer named Graham Reynolds, his rotating cast of accompanists named Golden Arm Trio were superb as well. You can find them on FB if you are interested.

Free outdoor theater with a wine bar in the midst of downtown in November. I just love living in Houston!