Lunchtime With Tillie: Manee Thai

 

Greetings, all! It's Van and Tillie with the latest in Lunchtime With Tillieness. This time, we've encountered a bit of a "sticky wicket" with detailing our latest midday meal, all courtesy of Manee Thai on Myrtle Avenue, more of which I'll detail later. (Don't worry, not too late: I know you have things to do besides read LWT all day!)

It all started on that recent day when it hit 90-something outside. I was tempted to just stay in, but the only thing to eat was shells and cheese, which I don't think I'd eaten since I was T's age. So off we went to get food and pick up some sunscreen for Tillie along the way with me being the multitasker and all.

We made our way down to Walgreen's and after spraying some of the sunscreen on her, we started walking back toward the house. On our journey down Myrtle, we saw a few restaurants we hadn't hit before and ended up choosing Manee Thai.

We took our seats with no worries, and I gave a quick glance at the menu. I decided to get the Thai fried rice lunch special, which came with a spring roll, choice of soup or salad (I chose the soup) and a soda. And since I've recently become a fan of the Thai curry puffs, I decided to get some of those as well for an appetizer.

The first course came out, the salad. Oh, but wait: You read it right a second ago—I ordered soup. No biggie on the mix-up, I said to the waiter; the soup came out quickly.

After tasting it, though, I kind of wished it would've stayed in the back. It was exceptionally bland with tiny pieces of what appeared to be frozen vegetables and bits of tofu floating around. I had a couple of bites and was done with it. Tillie had nothing to do with it at all.

The curry puffs arrived next. The taste was OK, but they were so doughy and dense. Tillie had a bite, then another, then another, then … you get the idea: She was killing them! You would've thought these were pastries handed down from the gods the way she was eating them. She ended up polishing them off.

So I was at two strikes so far on the food, while T was basking in the glow of finishing those Thai curry boulders. The rice and spring roll came out and I thought, you really can't get rice wrong, right? Wrong! It looked intriguing on the menu: fried rice with tomatoes, onions, peas and chicken. And that's how it was served. The problem with it was the overwhelming burnt flavor. That wasn't what I was looking for! There was no way Tillie was going to eat this.

Now I've been wrong about a lot of things in my life—giving Tillie's mom half of my sandwich one day when I was really hungry, wearing parachute pants in seventh grade when they had been out of style for a year—but I couldn't be more wrong than I was with Tillie and that rice! I know I fed her breakfast and snacks during the day, so it wasn't like she hadn't eaten anything. Maybe it was a growth spurt she was going through. Whatever the case, what she did to those curry rocks was nothing compared to how she handled that rice! I don't think I'd ever seen her eat something like that. Most of the time, she even gets bored with her meal, but she was determined to stick it out on this one. I ate the spring roll, which wasn't that good (how do you mess up a spring roll?) and Tillie finished up the main course.

So here's that "sticky wicket" I alluded to earlier: Do we go there again? I mean, the staff there was really nice and accommodating, and it was clear how Tillie felt about the food. But that meal just really didn't work for me. We might go back to see if she likes it as much the second time around. If so, she's picking up the tab!