One of our most sacred traditions as a couple is Date Night. We’ve been having Date Night for about as long as we’ve been together. It’s taken many forms, but all of them have involved us setting aside one night of the week to spend together without plans or checklists or agendas. We’ve watched movies, studied the Bible together, cooked up something special, gone out to new forms of ethnic cuisine, gone for walks, had picnics, you name it.
This past Wednesday, we did the oh-so-traditional Dinner and a Movie Date Night, and it was terribly fun. Kelly and I may be creatures of habit at times, but we love variety, so we try to go to restaurants we’ve never been to and see movies we’ve never watched. Here’s a quick review of this week’s selections, in case you’re in the market for good restaurants and movies.
Typhoon!
Typhoon has two strikes against it before you even walk in the door. The first is that they have an exclamation point in their name, a bold but ill-advised move perhaps culled from the playbooks of the corporate masterminds at Yahoo!. The second is that, as a Thai restaurant, they’ve chosen a name that is clearly intended to be a pun.
But if you can get inside, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. On one hand, they were nearly full on a Wednesday night, which is a good sign–people in our area usually only go out to eat on Fridays and Saturdays, during which the streets magically fill up with hungry people who come out of nowhere and form queues near anything resembling a restaurant. On the other hand, the restaurant was full of people who were, well, Caucasian. Redmond imports plenty of folks from East, and you’d expect that they would go where the authentic food is. Apparently, they’ve found somewhere else.
The menu’s full of delicious-sounding dishes–while it has the old Thai standbys (pad thai noodles, say, or red curry), it also has a good dozen or two entrees with clever names and eclectic flavors. We chose a dish called Drunken Noodles and a Chicken Stir Fry with Crispy Thai Basil. And a cup of Golden Monkey tea. Did we mention the tea menu? It’s quite good, and it’s substansive enough to warrant its own standalone folder.
The food was prepared in an open kitchen and arrived quickly. The portions were plenty generous, and the presentation was good, too–dishes garnished with sparse greens and cleverly cut carrots that looked like small orange fire-cracker explosions. The entrees were quite spicy and flavorful; they were about at our limit for comfortable eating, and we ordered it at the medium spice level. The food temperature wasn’t as hot as we might have liked, though, and some of the crispy items weren’t actually crispy, a sure sign of food that isn’t really made to order.
We got rushed service from a rather overworked waiter who nonetheless kept the water flowing and the tea hot. No complaints there.
Overall, I’d give the place 3.5/5. It’s Thai food with a little something special. Give it a try.
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
And this was our movie choice for the evening. It’s a period romantic comedy, which is a genre I (Jonathan) usually associate with formulaic plots and plodding pacing. Thankfully, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (hereafter, “Miss Pettigrew”) was refreshingly different.
Instead of focusing only on the lives of the privileged, the camera mostly sticks with Miss Pettigrew, a poor, middle-aged woman who’s just lost her job. Again. Her parents left her with a judgemental attitude she just can’t shake, which makes it tough for her to get along with folks who violate her high moral standard. But Britain’s on the verge of entering WWII, and jobs are scarce–before she knows it she’s lied her way into becoming the social secretary of an up-and-coming young singer and actress with a steady stream of suitors and engagements but little common sense and fewer scruples. You can guess what might happen when these personalities are pressed together and run through a break-neck sequence of high-society antics, but you’d probably be wrong.
To say much more would be to spoil the plot. It’s a feel-good film by the end, but the characters are complex enough to surprise you a little along the way and there’s plenty of wit and humor throughout. Overall, it’s a great date movie that won’t leave you feeling like you just watched, instead of eating, your popcorn. 4 stars out of 5.