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But I thought you was used to the business
The best part about dinner with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rushthatspeaks, gaudior, and B. at Mu Lan tonight was making a wistful remark about a dish I once had there with sliced lotus root, then ordering their smoked pork with leeks and realizing when it arrived at the table that there were slices of delicious crunchy lotus root in among the hot green leeks and extremely smoky, mahogany-red rich pork. It was not the same dish. It just also had lotus root. It hadn't said so on the menu. I was pleased. But I think the most awesome part was the bit where the rest of us had gotten a table and Gaudior was still trying to park somewhere blocks and blocks away and on hearing that we were ordering for our fourth person because she was still attempting to stash the car somewhere legal, the waiter looked horrified and told us to tell her to park in the abandoned gas station across the street. I went outside to call Gaudior. The waiter came by a second time to make sure I'd passed the message on. Gaudior came in, much food was had by all. When we left the restaurant, we found the car waiting peacefully beside some derelict-looking pumps spray-painted "NO GAS" in adamant red capitals. From the number of vehicles drawn up around the station, other drivers had evidently made the same call. The really confusing part was that the garage still appeared to be in operation: windows lit up, car on the lift, mechanic in coveralls doing something to it. Gas station itself, total urban exploration. Or a really cheap parking lot. I hope we tipped that waiter enough.
rushthatspeaks, gaudior, and B. at Mu Lan tonight was making a wistful remark about a dish I once had there with sliced lotus root, then ordering their smoked pork with leeks and realizing when it arrived at the table that there were slices of delicious crunchy lotus root in among the hot green leeks and extremely smoky, mahogany-red rich pork. It was not the same dish. It just also had lotus root. It hadn't said so on the menu. I was pleased. But I think the most awesome part was the bit where the rest of us had gotten a table and Gaudior was still trying to park somewhere blocks and blocks away and on hearing that we were ordering for our fourth person because she was still attempting to stash the car somewhere legal, the waiter looked horrified and told us to tell her to park in the abandoned gas station across the street. I went outside to call Gaudior. The waiter came by a second time to make sure I'd passed the message on. Gaudior came in, much food was had by all. When we left the restaurant, we found the car waiting peacefully beside some derelict-looking pumps spray-painted "NO GAS" in adamant red capitals. From the number of vehicles drawn up around the station, other drivers had evidently made the same call. The really confusing part was that the garage still appeared to be in operation: windows lit up, car on the lift, mechanic in coveralls doing something to it. Gas station itself, total urban exploration. Or a really cheap parking lot. I hope we tipped that waiter enough.
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Nice! I'll look for it. My vague plans for the next time I visit were the whole fish with dry bean curd, because
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Before next time, let me know and I'll give you the details so nobody will have to drive around forever or hope there are spots in the no-longer-a-gas-station.
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Shall keep in mind!
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I've had dinner and you're making me hungry.
The gas station sounds like an odd little time-slice that drifted across from a World's Fair future. Just waiting for a Ford Galaxie.
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I like this image so much I would like to request a poem.
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I'm glad for the helpful waiter and convenient ex-filling station. Very glad it was a good dinner for the four of ye.
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I cannot imagine there is not Taiwanese food in New York City.
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I'd have to believe there would be as well. The question is whether they're in neighbourhoods where I'd have any reason to be seeking a meal. In retrospect, that's more what I should have said.
Actually, I just googled, and it turns out that Saint's Alp Teahouse on Third Avenue has Taiwanese food, and here I'd thought when I passed it by that it was more some sort of Western hippie-type teahouse. It sounds like a simpler menu than the place you spoke of here, but I'll definitely hold it in mind.
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And the company fabulous.
Nine
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I had not eaten there in years; the last time was also with B. and I ordered whole cuttlefish by mistake. (They were delicious, and a great deal of fun to eat, but not what I was expecting.) I don't know why I think of them as less convenient to walk to or back from than the Friendly Toast or CBC, which are also in the general Kendall area, but statistically it just seems to happen less. This should change.
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It used to be a gas station and a different garage (Hondar House; they specialized in a certain Japanese brand but for trademark reasons couldn't use that name as-is). The garage moved out (to another location over on Prospect St) and a new one moved in.
The gas station stayed the same.
Years later, the gas station closed; for a while there was a sign (which I really wish I'd photographed) painted by the owner complaining about how he could no longer afford to run a gas station because of the oil companies, the Federal Reserve, and I don't remember who-all else.
The garage is still there, as noted.
The city property database says it's owned by the same guy who was listed as the gas station owner (and who painted the sign). My guess is that the garage is paying rent but only on their part of the space (so they don't care about people parking in the station unless they block access) and the owner is using the rent to cover taxes and whatnot.
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Thank you for the local insight!
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I don't think there's an arrangement—I don't see what the garage would get out of it if there were. I think our waiter was genuinely distressed at the thought of
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Free parking is where it's at - I will scour a block for the right space, nice to get a tip off.
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I'm not sure it's ever happened to a party I've been part of before. I approved!