ORIENT GARDEN

This is about the 3^rd time that I have eaten at Orient Garden. My friend, Leo Taylor, first introduced me to this restaurant. He lives a short distance from this strip mall. This shopping center is at the corner of Fayetteville (Rd/St) and Hwy 54 (Chapel Hill). It is also only about a quarter mile from The Streets of Southpoint.  *I just checked and according to Google Maps, it is about 6 miles (approx. 11 minutes) from UNC-General Administration Complex to the Orient Garden Restaurant (all on Hwy. 54).

This is probably the second time I have eaten there by myself. I recalled that I had enjoyed a chicken dish with oranges. They had a Spicy Orange Chicken item on the menu. It had orange rind (almost cooked to candy, but not quite), a thick sweet sauce, red hot peppers, and fried, battered chicken (tempura?). I had this with fried rice & hot tea. They have fried wonton crisps that have good flavor and most of these I ate with the egg drop soup.

It is supposed to turn much colder this afternoon, but it was still relatively pleasant outside (about 50 degrees F) when I arrived for lunch at about 11:30 am. I ordered hot tea (green), but after just a few gulps realized that the heat was on in the restaurant, so I had my waitress bring a iced water. She brought a large glass of ice water. I think I finished it with the meal, and did not drink any more hot tea.

The restaurant’s exterior doesn’t reveal how good the food might be inside.

They open at 11am for lunch and the price is currently about $6.56, I think. The dining area is relatively small, but there is a beautiful tiled wall with large dragons rising above a rough sea.

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The last time I actually stopped by here, they were only open for take-out, and they hadn’t mentioned that on their web site. This was a fairly long time after the Covid Lockdown, but Covid related activity on their part.

*Still, a week or so ago, I drove up through the Seagrove “pottery” area and at one of the potter locations they still required “wearing of masks” in the store. I mean, “Get over it.” Although, I have taken the Covid shots and boosters each time, had no serious side effects, and remained healthy. Not sure if I have ever had Covid, but I’ve had nothing that even remotely reeks of Covid. I was a little “muddle headed” one time, about 10 days after one of the shots, but that went away in a day or so.

Boy, I just don’t get those that were/are so adamant against taking these precautions. As if the Government is out to grind them into submission and harm them, perhaps even to death. Now, if I had spent a good deal of my life getting a check from the US Government, would I not appear to be hypocritical by now distrusting that same government so vehemently? I sure as hell wouldn’t have joined the military, of that government, and put myself in “harm’s way” year after year, taking payroll check after payroll check month after month, and then, now, suddenly think the US Government was so distrustful, and acting so sinisterly. Don’t pad you pockets and then… “Don’t bite the had that feeds you.”