Fighting with the Teriyaki Lady

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It has been some time since I’ve blogged, but last night I was reminded again why this site exists. Somebody should listen to me. Hell, you’re here reading it.

Now, I’m a big fan of the Red Green Show, a program embraced by men and utterly and completely misunderstood by women. Finely woven into each program’s parade of inane sketches is a segment that Red opens with “And now for some advice for you older guys.”  While the material is generally for men older than me, it provides a clear idea of my mental state 15 or 20 years from now.

I often wonder how long it will be until I’m the grouchy old man yelling at kids to “stay off my lawn!” (or in my case, our salal groundcover

Yesterday, I may have got my answer. It had been a long day at work. I was driving home through the cold and heavy rain wondering about dinner. With the wife away in sunny Florida, it made little sense to cook solo. The solution was my favorite teriyaki place on Puyallup’s South Hill. Yum.

I parked, placed my to-go order and paid $8.27. When it came up in the neatly tied plastic bag, I stepped back to the dining table where I had been waiting, opened my little bag and – with full experience that the cook doesn’t put teriyaki sauce on the steamed rice – I intended to pick up the bottle off the table, drizzle a little over my meal, tie off the bag and go home.

Imagine my surprise when the teriyaki lady, who just 15 minutes earlier so impatiently took my order, came literally RUNNING around the counter and re-tied my bag before I could reach the little bottle available to every customer who dines in. What gives?

“You pay 25 cents!” she proclaimed, holding a small plastic container of teriyaki sauce. “You pay 25 cents!”

I calmly retorted that the sauce is free and available to anyone who dines in. At which point she held out her hand, again offering the small plastic container, and for a third time, “25 cents!”

This is when chasing neighborhood kids off the salal and Red Green came crashing into my weary brain. I went off on the small Asian woman very loudly. I didn’t swear, but made sure other customers about to order heard me clearly and understood my beef.

As I left with an admittedly very delicious teriyaki meal but no sauce, I let her know very clearly that 25 cents had cost her a customer forever.

Now, I won’t name names, but if you’re a Puyallup resident, please think twice before visiting the teriyaki place next to the Starbucks by the old Safeway off Meridian.

And get off my lawn, you darn kids!

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Filed under diet, home town, my life