I was out on a sunny afternoon looking for the new Gillian Welch album, due to be released that day. I checked Soundscapes first, but a look through the store found no copies. Right, back on the bike to try the big stores over on Yonge. With no luck there, I was starting to think I’d screwed up my dates. Ah, well, might as well grab something to eat as long as I’m here, right?

It was a bit odd being in Salad King when it’s not completely packed, but it was a peaceful weekday afternoon off of regular lunch hours. Nevertheless, I was still not allowed to sit at one of the larger tables by the window and dropped my bag in the dark back dining room while I went up to the counter to order my lime leaf chicken. Feeling a vague sense of duty to the readers of this site, I also picked out a Chinese basil-seed beverage for varieties’ sake.

As I sat with my number (35) for a while, I popped open the top of my basil-seed drink and stuck in a straw. The ingredients just list water, basil seeds, and sugar; how bad could it be? It is an awfully curious sensation to have your lips wrapped around a plastic straw that has big basil seeds rumbling through it towards your waiting gob. Unfortunately, I never got to actually find out what basil seeds taste like as my mouth was hit with a blast of sugar-sweetness of rare magnitude, beyond which nothing could be tasted. Wow! I never got more than a few sips of that stuff down.

My number was called, and I went to pick up my tray of steaming veggies and chicken in a thin red sauce and a heaping pile of white rice. I had ordered it medium spicy according to the chart beside the register, which has many ranges from “mild” to some very dire-sounding warnings. I should say, rather, that the chart described my selection as medium spicy for Thailand, which is why I avoided going any higher, and I was glad of it. It does quite a number on those early-summer allergies, though.

The sauce was also packed with rich herbs that lent a sweet floweryness alongside the spice. Everything on the plate was perfectly cooked, from the moist chicken to the crunchy vegetables and fluffy rice. Yum.

When I got home, there was a message from Nathan on the machine letting me know that the CD I was looking for would be released a week late in Canada. Dang.