$10 Tom Yum Goong
I have a cold. So I walk into Thai Restaurant at 5757 Westheimer and ask if they have any soup. Waitress points to the menu. Tom yum goong is $3.95. I'll take that, I say pointing at the item.
Photo by Robb Walsh
Thai soups are great cold remedies, especially the shrimp, lemongrass, lime and chile soup called tom yum goong. You've got your clear broth, your citrus and your chile, all proven sinus clearers. And then you've got lemongrass, which is known as fever grass in Jamaica, where they make tea out of the stuff to cure illnesses.
The waitress brings the soup in a cute little bowl with a lid. There's six nice-size shrimp in it, and a cup of rice on the side. I am quite happy. Then I get a bill for almost ten dollars -- like $9.68 or something. "What happened to $3.95?" I ask.
"That's a cup, you got a bowl," she says. There is nothing on the menu about cups or bowls. It says Tom Yum Goong -- $3.95. I paid up and left disgruntled.
For $7.95, the restaurant serves a lunch special with soup, spring roll and an entrée. If I had known the true cost of the soup, I would have gotten the special.
Doesn't seem fair. Or am I just grumpy because I have a cold?
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