You Know the World has Gone Awry When...

..you see a minivan parked in front of the Tamarind Tree. Formerly regarded as just another hole in the wall in Chinatown (aka International District for those who wish to be PC), SOMEHOW, this Vietnamese restaurant got written up on the NY Times. And that was the beginning of the end...

You see, when a cheap, but good eats place like that gets written up on a mainstream newspaper, it becomes a mainstream phenomenon. Not only that, it attracts the white peeps; in special, the white peeps that live in the suburbs. In this particular case, it attracted two distinct groups: the hipsters and the soccer moms.

Like it or not, the white peeps ruin the ghettoness of such places, therefore driving up the prices of the food. It's supply and demand. Market economics, call it what you want. No, I'm not trying to be racist. For places such as the Tamarind Tree, gone are the days when one would walk in and be greeted by the smell of moth balls. I'm serious, I've BEEN to those places. My peeps (meaning the Asians) would just shrug it off and say nonchalantly: "Ok, so there are some cockroaches here, but at least they are dead." Not so with a white peep. He/she would FREAK OUT. And I mean FREAK OUT. In the olden days of these places, the customers would not be bothered, and in fact, even expect getting dirty plates, having somebody throw utensils at them and yell at them when taking too long to order.

However, when these places start welcoming the Caucasian clientele, one witnesses some dramatic changes: All of a sudden they try to change the decor, wean out the bad service, and worse: they try to PASS THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT INSPECTION. These little updates produce all sorts of ridiculousness. In the case of the Tamarind Tree, this entailed the following:

1) Change in decor: the addition of a water fountain, where the water cascaded down so fast that instead of a soothing feeling, it had the exact opposite effect. Not to mention the giant tile pieces that were missing from this fountain.

2) Marketing: neon signs advertising the said fountain (something along the lines of "Tamarind Tree: with its famous fountain")

3) Menu overhaul: all of a sudden things such as chicken feet and cow tendons do not make for appetizing entrees anymore. Beef with broccoli and some kind of meat in a sweet and sour sauce sound like a much better idea!

Bear in mind that Jen, Chris, Tim and I went there before I knew about all of this. But as soon as I saw the hipsters hanging out outside and the Chrysler van pull in, I knew I was in for quite an experience.

The food was alright. I would have to give it another try, as I had been sick that day. Service. Well, our waiter started out describing the menu with a lot of fair. We ordered 4 dishes. Out of the 4 dishes, he got one of them wrong and never ordered the 4th one. When we politely brought the incident to the manager's attention, he said he would "take care of us by giving us free dessert." Free food has an effect of making you greedy and order more than you would otherwise. We each ordered something different. The waiter ractified what the manager had said: "So, I know there was some miscommunication, but seeing that you guys waited, etc, etc, I am giving you ONE free dessert." We were like: "ONE?" He's like: "Yeah." We were like: "ONE for the FOUR of us?" He was like: "Uh-huh." That was it. At that point I knew that no matter what, hipsters, minivan, tacky fountain, sweet and sour pork and all, that was still, at heart, an Asian restaurant.