How far would you go for good food?
We were in Houston this past weekend for my husband’s brother’s wedding. I will debrief about the rest of the trip later. But here is one incident I want to write about first.
All weekend, we haven’t tried any of the local cuisine. Our friend Betty who lived in Houston for a number of years recommended Pappadeaux, a chain of family-owned restaurants. We remember seeing one at the airport when we arrived in Houston at midnight when all the restaurants were closed. So here we are, Sunday, at the airport, checked in and ready to leave Houston, we had one hour before boarding. Here is our last chance before leaving Houston to eat at Pappadeaux!
However, Pappadeaux was near Gate E and our departing gate was Gate C. Do we have time? Let’s go for it!
We followed the directions given by a gift shop attendant (who confirmed that the food at Pappadeaux is excellent), and took a tram from Gate C to D. After walking (almost jogging) down the long corridors and several turns to Gate E, we spotted the restaurant. Lo and behold, there was a 20-minute wait for a table. This place was popular.
We decided to order take-out. We quickly placed our order, waited 15 minutes for the order, grabbed the bag of food and ran. It’s now 15 minutes before boarding. We’ll take it on the plane with us, I figured, and eat Pappadeaux’s instead of the microwaved delight served on the plane, and watch everyone drool!
While running to find our way back to the tram, we see a sign pointing to Gate C in the opposite direction. We backtrack to Pappadeaux and realized that our Gate was only 2 long corridors away from the restaurant. If only we had seen that sign earlier! By the time we got to the waiting area of Gate C43, it was 5 minutes to boarding. The waiting area was full but we were able to find 4 seats for the 5 of us. When we opened our containers of gumbo, fried alligator, seafood po’boy sandwich, and chicken in pita bread, the aroma must have made everyone in the waiting room wishing they had made the mad dash to Pappadeaux.
As it turned out, boarding for delayed for 15 minutes. We were able to enjoy the food leisurely without having to take it on board with us. Ah, it was worth the effort.
November 17th, 2006 at 1:29 am
XD that was one of the funnest parts of the trip