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Cheap Eats By Dan
Leone Joy, Luck YOU KNOW, I don't know if I believe in juju anymore. I don't know if I don't, but the more I think about it, the more it seems kind of like still being Catholic. Only instead of saying this many of this kind of prayer and that many of that one to achieve a desired result, you have to wear the right T-shirt and drink your coffee out of the right cup. You have to say all the right things and not say any wrong ones. Or, in extreme cases, you can't change your underwear. Hygienic issues aside ... I don't know. What? Just another way to try and have a say where you don't have a say? To sink your teeth into the intangible? Which, like all religious processes, gets icky and unhealthy real fast. Like never changing your underwear. So, OK, I'm done with that. Juju ... doo doo. Now let's talk about Luck. Luck in the sense of that Chinese restaurant I mentioned a couple weeks ago, in my review of Jamaican Soul. Not to brag, but I think I only got two things wrong about Luck in three sentences, which is an improvement in my accuracy average. It's not in Albany; it's in Berkeley. And no, there isn't a parking lot. Plenty of parking spots, on the street. But no lot. I must have been driving too fast. Not this time. This time I was looking for it. Again I was on my way to practice, where there would be hungry bandmates counting on me. And again I would not disappoint. Or I should say, Luck would not let us down. From the specials board: fried flounder, a whole big one, for $5.95. "Do you like spicy?" the waitressperson asked. Thinking of Crawdad, I said, "Yes. Very." XO-sauce beef, she recommended, also from the specials board. I liked the sound of that: XO-sauce beef ($6.95). It sounded like something you would eat and then fall over. Lights out. Or else hugs and kisses. Either way. And mu shu pork ($5.95), and salt-and-pepper chicken ($3.95). While I waited for all these things to get throwed together in the kitchen, I got to sit at a stool at the counter and watch myself on TV. They've got a camera trained on the cash register there, presumably recording everything in case they get robbed. Anyway, I thought I was pretty good. My first couple faces were a little stiff, but the bobblehead routine definitely broke the ice, and after that I had myself in the palm of my hand. So to speak. At any rate, it was better than anything else I've seen on TV lately. Other entertaining touches included a Christmas tree, still up in the middle of January. Nice. I like that. And a steamy, bubbly water-fountain thingy in the doorway. A couple of space-age space heaters on the floor. Nice bright yellow walls and big-sheets-of-wood wood floor. Another cozy, colorful, comfortable little place, and atmospherically it will only get better when the weather warms up some. There's a nice sort of semi-enclosed patio with a viney ceiling. I'll have to remember that a couple months from now. The food was good. I ate some of it there, some in my car, and some of it even made it to band practice. The salt-and-pepper chicken, fried chunks with red and green pepper rings and garlic, leaned a little too salty. In fact, a lot too salty. In fact, they might more accurately call it pepper-and-chicken salt. The XO-sauce didn't knock anyone over, spicewise, but it was a tasty combination of flavors. Juicy beef, red peppers, baby corns, water chestnuts, mushrooms, and I forget what else. The fried flounder was delicious. Lightly battered and done just right. It wasn't too salty; in fact, it might of could of used a little salt, which worked out nice: bite of fish, bite of chicken, bite of fish, bite of chicken. And so on. What else? Mu shu was good. But look at some of the things we didn't get: roasted barbecued pork with honey ($3.95), the oxymoronic "family happyness" ($7.25), and a hall-of-fame misspelling I'm still working on (but I think I have it), Thai-style spicy "graird" chicken with fresh lettuce ($6.50). Grilled? Anyway, check them out for lunch. Between 11 and 3 you get 1 of 26 things with steamed rice, fried rice, or chow mein, and soup, and one appetizer. Most of them go for $4.50 or $5.50, but you can get kung pao chicken, for example, for $3.99. Keep your eye on
the ball. |
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