Summer is just gettin' started here in Houston. Yippee.

I got to see a friend who came in from out of town tonight, and they felt like Santong Noodles in Chinatown. I hadn't been there in awhile, and remembered vaguely that they didn't have too much vegetarian selection and that their service was kinda rude. But whatever, it didn't matter, friend wanted to go, and maybe things would be different this time.

Round 1

Mean Lady Cashier (MLC): What do you want?
Me: I'm a vegetarian, do you have some dry noodles that are vegetarian?
MLC: Yes, this one is.
Me: Does it have vegetables on top?
MLC: Yes.

I pay. I sit down, and the food comes out. I should've taken a picture of it, but I must have been too stunned. It was a big bowl of noodles with sesame sauce, but ... with just 5 measly pieces of cabbage on it, about 2 cm in diameter each, that looked like someone thought it'd be too much trouble to get a knife out to cut it, and instead tore them by hand and threw them onto the noodles.

Fine. Well, I thought I'd get some actual vegetable intake rather than just have 99.9% carbs for dinner, so I asked if maybe there were some ready-made cold dishes I could get.

Round 2

MLC: Yeah?
Me: Do you have any vegetarian cold dishes?
MLC: Well, they have garlic in them. (Some Buddhist vegetarians don't eat garlic.)
Me: That's fine, I eat garlic.
MLC: Well then everything you see in this fridge is vegetarian.
Me (eyeing a beef dish right in front of my face at eye level): But um, isn't this beef right here?
MLC: Look you said you eat garlic so what's the problem?

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I will admit, the quality of the actual noodles is good, which is probably why everyone I know (non-vegetarian) loves to go back to eat there.

Hey, I'm not asking for high-class VIP service. C'mon, it's Chinatown. But serving me a dish with a poor excuse for vegetables and being short with me isn't really going to make me want to come back. Well, I guess I'm glad to have gotten reminded why I don't go on a regular basis.

Chinatown Boycott #1 was at Chinese Cafe, also very rude when a vegetarian-related question.