Long before the kids arrived, Barbara and I found ourselves in Philadelphia's Chinatown at 2:30 in the afternoon. We were hungry and hadn't eaten lunch. We wandered past a few shuttered restaurants and popped into the first one that seemed open. It was, sort of.

We were seated, and then the unusual happened. Since we were the only customers in the joint, our waiter wasn't in any hurry. We talked about a few menu items. It was a hot summer day, and he suggested we try the spicy (but chilled) cucumber salad.

It was fucking awesome.

So was my eggplant in ginger sauce (the eggplant had been deep-fried for just a moment, so it had a skin but wasn't crispy). I can't remember what Barbara ate, but it was good, too. The bill came to less than $20 (probably less than $15, since I'm sure we drank water considering the heat outside). And I still remember the meal, though I probably couldn't find the place again--if it still exists.

Last week, my sons's preschool had a fundraiser at the local (in a manner of speaking...it is in Maryland) Friendly's. Friendly's serves "American" food--that is, hot dogs, mac and cheese, chicken tenders and fries, fries and more fries. Oh, and lots of ice cream. The deal was that if our school could bring in 100 more customers than the restaurant averaged for a Thursday night, we'd get a percentage of the overall take.

We jammed the place. It was a madhouse. The kids (who all knew each other, of course) roamed the aisles. There were upwards of twenty or thirty people waiting for tables at any given time. We were masses of humanity consuming sugar and cholesterol in large quantities. Kids rising and crashing with mismatched sugar highs. Lots of hollering and crying, though very little in the way of fisticuffs.

The food, needless to say, was terrible. Well, except for the ice cream, which wasn't nearly as oversugared as I thought it would be. The atmosphere was our (that is, the school's) fault, but the restaurant compounded the problem by bringing in fewer employees than usual. There were, I think, three waiters and waitresses for some forty tables. You pay your bill up front (y'know, like Denny's), and I had to wait (behind just one other person) for about 15 minutes before one of the overburdened waitstaff could come ring me out.

I much prefer going to small, hole-in-the-wall places. There's a pretty good chance I'll find something on the menu that I've never eaten before, but if there's a problem there's always someone in the restaurant who can take care of it, pronto. I don't know if the manager of the Friendly's was there on Thursday, but I never saw him or her. All I saw were the hard-working staffers, who were doing all they could just to keep their heads above water.

Still, I have to admit that chain restaurants aren't all bad. While I cross my fingers before walking into a "local" restaurant with my sons, I do no such thing when wandering into a chain. Their cavernous rooms and dreadful acoustics are perfect for drowning out the howls of a two-year-old who has just been told that he may not steal fries from the table next to us.

Max and Sam are relatively adventurous eaters. They both like lo mein (noodles!) and Max, in particular, is willing to try just about anything. He generally disdains what he has tasted, of course, but I like his spirit. Sam prefers food he knows, but every once in a while he does branch out. This week, he consented to having marinara sauce on his pasta, something Max abjectly refuses.

I miss being able to duck into any restaurant and grabbing a bite. Right now, Barbara and I are able to do that on occasion--and there are a plethora of great Asian joints in the Maryland suburbs. It's well-known that the most of the good restaurants in D.C.'s Chinatown migrated north right around the time the new arena started rising around them. These days, you can find a Radio Shack, three Starbucks and a Banana Republic in Chinatown...but dim sum is a tough ticket.

In a few years, it should be easier to hit the type of joints we like. It'll cost more (I can only imagine how much food Max and Sam will be eating when they're ten and seven or--shudder--fifteen and twelve), but I've never been against paying good money for good food.

Spicy cucumber salad would taste real nice right about now. I think I'll go look up that recipe and whip some up.

Jon Worley isn't a hardcore food snob, but he does prefer his grub to have more flavors than just salt and sugar.