There are many memories in our lives that seem to live forever, we take them with us to our grave. One of those memories for me was December 15, 1948. It is hard to fathom that I could at the tender age of 3 years and 5 months remember a date by the calendar. And what did I remember? My first restaurant dining experience., where it was, and the kind of food it was.
How I remember all this is entertained by some facts: my mother went to the hospital that day to have a baby, Dad took us out for dinner and the place was on a corner, under the Broadway Junction El. The El was a memory marker for sure. The restaurant… a Chinese restaurant where we sat and ate on the second floor, overlooking the street corner.
My bet is that Dad ordered me Chow Mein, the staple of all Chinese restaurants for 1940’s American/Chinese cuisine. This maneuver by Dad was an attempt to take our mind off of the fact that Mom would not be home for us, and this was upsetting for my Dad more than me, he would have to cook, otherwise.
The restaurant had a takeout downstairs and upstairs was where you could eat at tables. There was a counter with a metal railing tray holder, where you picked out the food and they placed it on a tray as you moved from item to item. This was all new to me, the food was different and somehow, I can still taste it. For a few years afterward, I thought that chow mien was the only food along with chop suey!
It would be many years later, in my twenties that I would enter a restaurant again, when with my friends in high school I went to another Chinese restaurant in Patchogue, on South Ocean Avenue, a place that is still Chinese!
No comments:
Post a Comment