Ra Ka De Ka Thai Kitchen

Our coupon adventures continue!

It was either Bonnie Jean's for soul food, Abbey's Real Texas BBQ for, duh BBQ, or Thai at this newish place near the Kaiser on Zion...

TC and I had never been here before so we wanted to give it a shot. I'm just glad I have a kid that likes all kinds of food.

It's in the strip mall across from the Kaiser Permanente Hospital on Zion, right next to Carl's Junior. I have a story about Carl's that I'll save 'til the end, okay...

This is a small take out place. Not quite fast food but more like casual eat-in or take out place.

Haha, the people ahead of me in line ALSO had used the SAME coupon! Score! TC got the Pad Thai...

while I got the Lettuce Wraps with Chicken...

along with an appetizer of Spring Rolls which they conveniently cut for us.
I believe the filling had tofu for the protein. TC wished we had more of their peanut sauce. These were pretty light and tasty.

The chicken lettuce wraps looked like Chicken Larb. The lettuce was iceberg. The spice level was medium which I regretted because they dumped in a shitload of red pepper flakes in there, rendering it unedible for TC.

TC's pad thai with chicken and shrimp. It was very saucy.

Here's that super spicy chicken for the lettuce wraps. Bert ate it later that evening; the spice level didn't bother him. It also tasted quite good cold.

This was the view of Kaiser from our window.  In the foreground is Carl's Jr. I will NEVER forget this Carl's Jr. even though I've never eaten there myself...

In fact, Bert was at that very same Carl's when I was starting labor with TC a little more than 11 years ago. I remember telling him, "Oh go ahead, and have your lunch. I'll be okay", something or other like that. At the time, I hadn't started to really push yet. So off he went. And wouldn't you know, after he left, I really started to feel the contractions. Even though I had the epidural (think of a nice big ass needle in your spinal column), I could still feel EVERYTHING. OMG, it was so painful. I remember telling the nurse, "Can you please page my husband?"...

It felt like hours but in reality, it was only about half an hour or at most forty five minutes. But those were the longest minutes of my life waiting for Bert to get back so he could "coach" me through this. We laugh about it now but man, at the time, I was desperate! This couldn't happen to me!

It reminds me of the scene from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" where Bronco Burger defect Arnold goes on a bathroom break at All American Burger. Star employee Brad Hamilton is left to deal with an irate customer who is not happy with his breakfast and wants his money back "guaranteed". Wait, why don't I just shut my trap and show you?

"I hope you had a hell of a piss Arnold!". That's one of my favorite lines from the movie!

That's not to say Bert was an "Arnold". He really wasn't gone that long and he did come back right away when he was "paged" by the nurse. Without his help, I probably would have had a worse time during the birth! Like full on panic mode! So thanks Bert for being there for me and I hope you enjoyed your Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger! :)

On a side note, did you notice a young Nicolas Cage as one of the fast food employees (@ the 1:21 mark)? That was his first role and he was credited as "Nicolas Coppola". I also noticed that this is definitely the "movie version" of "Fast Times" because in the beginning where Brad is cleaning graffiti off the bathroom mirror it says, "(I Eat) Big Hairy Pussy". In the "TV version", the word "pussy" is already erased! Gee, I wonder why!?

Someone should make a complete director's cut with all of the deleted scenes spliced into the movie. The deleted scenes are the one's they show during the hilariously "sanitized" TV version because they had to cut out a lot of the raunchy scenes.

Who else ate at Ra Ka De Ka Fresh Thai Kitchen?

Mary and Jake went here last year

Official Website of Ra Ka De Ka