[CH] Longview, WA, hot food
Margaret Lauterbach (melauter@earthlink.net)
Mon, 06 May 2002 13:52:01 -0600
From another list, a glowing endorsement: She suggested a Thai restaurant
in Longview that
she described as a kind of "hole in the wall." Let me recommend:
Hart C's Jumbo Steakburger and Fine Thai Cuisine
3171 Ocean Beach Hwy.
Longview, WA
Let me even say, it is worth any amount of driving out of your way
to get there. When we drove up and saw the restaurant sharing space
in a building with Kim Khim's Laundromat, we did think "hole in the
wall" sort of over-stated the physical pretentions of the place.
I mean, it is painfully modest in appearance. But we went in.
We had the single most best meal I think I have ever eaten in a
restaurant. In this crummy-looking little establishment, they cook
Thai food that is just wonderful. We had a hot seafood soup for
the first thing, which was out of this world: lemony and limey,
and filled with gobbets of white fish, octopus curls, shrimp, and
oysters... and, yes, hot, but not volcanic. I nearly swooned. I'd
have been happy if that was the whole meal. But we had ordered
(hot) chicken and bamboo shoots in coconut sauce, too. And it was
sublime. It was sweet, and hot, and I'd have been happy if that was
the whole meal... But we had ordered a fish, too, a (hot) Thai style
(some kind of) fish, presented whole, swimming in a sauce of alarming
hot color, covered with scallions and mushrooms, and it was out of
this world. I'd have been happy if that was the whole meal...
Our waiter came back to the table at one point and said, "You ate
dhe ho fees!" (We were sucking the bones at that point.) "I love
dhat fees," he said. We did, too.
All the while we slurped and smiled, they were doing a pretty good
take-out business as well. And we had to notice, as humble as it
is, the place is scrupulously clean. Shining clean. I have never
seen so much hand-washing in my life. The walls are clean. The
floors are clean. The exposed to the dining room kitchen is clean.
It's clean.
If you are passing through the Longview stretch, try to make it at
dinner time. Honest. This is a treasure.
I wish I lived near there. Margaret L