Chinese Food

My mothers favorite food in all the world is Chinese Food! I think the first Chinese Restaurant(China Moon??) she went to was in Levittown, in the shopping center with the (Peter Pan?) Bakery, just down from Sears where she was working. She is always looking for Chinese food, Gainesville, San Francisco, New York, Epcot, Beverly Hills, Lecanto, Crystal River, Anderson, St. Petersburg, Lakeland, Bartow, Orlando, Miami and Key West have all been searched.

The best story of her adventures with Chinese food has to be when she and Pops (Gordon) lived in Key West. For the longest time there was one Chinese place they would go for take out and they are creatures of habit for the most part and usually order the same thing. They’d walk in and the ordering would be 1 order sweet and sour pork, special fried rice no onion, egg foo young, no white rice and the only variable being either pepper steak, shrimp or chicken chow mien. Low and behold a new take out place opens, so Mom decides to try it out, sends Pops off to pick up the order. He returns home and mom is looking and shaking her head, something isn’t right. So she asks where he got the food, he looks at her like she has 3 heads, where else, the place we always go. I got there and they saw me and said, Oh Mr. Stevens your order in the back. 10 minutes later they came out with the order.

Mom stood there shaking her head, but I ordered from the new place! Their neighbors were the lucky reciptants of the extra order of Chinese food!

Now the phrase, “Mr. Stevens, your order in the back” ranks up there with the other family favorite, “$5 for you Mr. TV man”, get your minds out of the gutter, $5 was for a parking space!