After 10 days of sickness, I can’t stand it any more. I need to get out and find a life that has nothing to do with kleenex, Sudafed, Advil and chicken soup. Today the headache is finally gone, and I don’t feel quite so totally exhausted.

So today I met Linda for lunch at the new PF Chang’s out on Cornell & 185th, more or less. It was Linda’s birthday. Well, actually her birthday was several weeks ago, but what with one thing or another her birthday lunch kept getting postponed.

I love PF Chang’s. I’ve never had any dish there that wasn’t wonderful.

Linda ordered coffee, and I ordered tea (they have a tasty gunpowder oolong), while our waiter prepared our special made-to-order sauce. I asked for spicy, since I wanted to clear my head out. Lunch started with the lettuce wraps, which are wrap-your-own burrito thingies using lettuce as the wrap and with a spiced chicken filling. I added some of our special sauce to bring the spice level up (Linda is not as big a fan of heat as I am). The sauce was perfect.

PF Chang’s serves family style. Linda ordered moo goo gai pan, and I ordered crispy honey shrimp. I was pleased that we were offered a choice of brown or white rice. I went with brown. It was sticky and yummy. The moo goo was tasty, if uninspired. A dollop of the special sauce helped. The shrimp was fried in a crispy coating, and tasted slightly of honey. It was perfect, in my opinion. I threw a tiny bit of special sauce on it, too, but it didn’t really need it.

Since it was Linda’s birthday, a dessert was complimentary. We shared an order of banana spring rolls, a confection made with wrapped, fried bananas surrounding a scoop of coconut-pineapple ice cream, all drizzled with vanilla and caramel sauces. I would really like to know where they obtain that ice cream!

PF Chang’s for birthday lunch:
gabbing for two hours with Linda:
coming back to life: priceless