Some interesting questions

A reader, who appears to be outside my vast circle of friends, asked some interesting questions. Since I’ve been too lazy to write about any of my latest dining experiences, I thought I would take the time and answer them.

Inst said...
hay just out of curiosity, if such products were available, would you be willing to pay for "ethical" meat that was grown in a vat? And do you eat jellyfish, since jellyfish can't really be said to have a brain, or assorted insects, since they're not really sentient?
11:08 PM, April 26, 2005

Ethical meat? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Firstly, I’m not a big fan of genetic engineering and to explain myself properly I would have to do some research, which I’m not going to do right now. (But genetically modified food is a good idea for a future article.) The idea of a brisket growing in a gigantic petri dish seems like something out of a B horror movie. (If this scene does exist, please, please let me know.) Secondly, through the years I have lost the taste for meat. I think roast beef smells like old band-aids. The closest I get to meat is soy based products, which I’m told tastes nothing like the real thing, but damn they are good.

I don’t eat jellyfish because I don’t care for the taste. According to Buddhist vegetarianism they are okay to eat. Also, jellyfish are way too cool to eat. I saw this thing on the TV that said some scientists think jellyfish are actually two animals living in perfect harmony. The dome part and the tentacles are separate. Far too rad to be eaten. Insects also fall into both the categories, free of blood but neato.

Thanks for the questions, mysterio. Please feel free to keep them coming. To the rest of you, what’s the hold up?

Bangkok Gardens

172 York St, New Haven, CT

Atmosphere: like being outside without all that bothersome vitamin D.

We went here for lunch, so they were only seating in half of the restaurant. The area we sat in was pretty nondescript, except it was almost all glass. In the entrance way there was this really cool bamboo plant that was woven into it.

What was eaten:
Vegetable massaman curry
To drink:
Thai teatini

Vegetable massaman curry – Yum yum yum. Coconut milk and all the wonderful and mysterious things that make curry so great, with peanuts, onions, carrots, baby corn and mushrooms all mixed in. I’ve never been quite clear on the proper way to eat curry, but I just like to mix the rice into it, making it a giant mess, or like an ultra thick stew. Mushrooms aside, this was really good.

Thai teatini- I probably should have just gotten a regular Thai iced tea. It was good and it did actually taste like a Thai tea, but it was really strong and I couldn’t finish it. Like watching someone kick a puppy.


Overall:
Rotating wait staff- I know that restaurants have a high employee turnover rate, but come on. Through out the course of our meal, I don’t think the same person served us twice. Kinda like speed dating, but with food.
Value- Freakin cheap. Goddamn. A good friend of mine pointed out that at some places its actually cheaper to eat there than to grocery shop and cook for yourself. This is defiantly one of those places.
Veg selection- awesome. It’s always a good sign when I don’t know what to get because there is so much to choose from.