2015-01-01
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
On my way home Wednesday evening, I was having a minor craving for Chinese food. (Okay, okay, it was a craving for lemon chicken... okay, okay, it was probably a craving for the lemon sauce that is used for lemon chicken... okay, okay, it was probably a craving for the sugar that is in the lemon sauce that is used for lemon chicken...). I had contemplated going all the way to Panda Hut Express, but then it would have been probably forty-or-more minutes to get home from there, by which time whatever would have been cold. (Cold pizza may be fine; cold Chinese food, not so much.) So...
I decided to try Lingnan... not the one in St. Albert (because I was already on the way into Edmonton, so it was kind of a bit too late to go to St. Albert's Lingnan Express), but the one near downtown. Got off the bus on 105 Street just south of 105 Avenue, spent a while trying to figure out how to walk around the new (currently unused) LRT station there. Got inside Lingnan at about 5:45 (not sure I should have expected what was to come when a sign on the door said something about the meal would require two hours because they prepare everything fresh), mentioned that I wanted a take-out order, and the hostess said something about a three-hour wait. "Three HOURS?!!...." She went to check if things had changed, and somebody else came to explain the background: they had lots of pre-orders from earlier in the week and last week, and the soonest they would be able to satisfy a new order would be about 8:30. I glanced at my watch, mumbled something about "Yeah, that would be three hours...", wished them a Happy New Year, left...
...and was still craving Chinese food (lemon chicken, lemon sauce, sugar, etc.).... I was only a few blocks north of an LRT station (a used one), but there was still that long wait if I wanted to go all the way to Panda Hut Express. Last time I ordered a delivery from Panda Hut Express, they had a delivery limit of the North Saskatchewan River (I was working a track and field meet at Foote Field), but I decided to see if they had changed. The app on my iPad (yes, they have an app -- I think they also have an Android version) did not say anything about a delivery limit (other than they do not deliver to Leduc, but I had no plans on going to Leduc on New Year's Eve anyway...), so I used the app to place an order, pressed submit... and waited for them to call to confirm the order...
...and waited... and waited... and waited... and finally they called. The lady said that they were rather busy, so much so the wait time for a delivery was three hours. "Three HOURS??!!!..." She assured me that the wait would be less if I could pick it up... about an hour.... So, I would be looking at probably a couple of hours -- the better part of an hour to get there, then waiting for the rest of the hour before being able to receive the food, and then the better part of an hour before getting back home to enjoy the lemon chicken (lemon sauce, sugar, etc.).... Back to cold Chinese food... and that I was kind of hungry "now"....
I decided to cancel the order (and did so sadly)...
...and was still craving Chinese food (lemon chicken, lemon sauce, sugar, etc.).... Thinking of another good Chinese food place, I decided to try calling Lee Garden. Found their web site, checked their menu, and YAY! they have lemon chicken (lemon sauce, sugar, etc.). I called, asked them how long a delivery would require, and she said something about up to an hour-and-a-half. Oh my goodness... had I known that, I could have called while I was still at work in St. Albert and been there just in time.... Anyway, placed my order (because, you know, I am now fifty percent closer to lemon chicken (lemon sauce, sugar, etc.)), and kept my fingers crossed that they would require less time.... It turned out to be just a bit over an hour -- I needed far less time to walk downtown and go to the top of the Edmonton Centre garage to watch the fireworks... AND walk back.... Oh, and the delivery occurred just before eight, which means that I had saved not much more than a half an hour than had I ordered from Lingan in the first place.
So... the lesson is... if you want to have Chinese food on New Year's Eve from Lee Garden or from Lingnan or from Panda Hut Express, place your order a week or more in advance....
Vernon
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Posted 2022-04-01.