Would you like a crumpet Hero Cookie with that?

meh. For no particular reason except for the fact that I'd been reading backwards (as predicted) and came across a few too many random Hero Cookie adventures (even some when he used to be known as the Thunder Chicken) and remembered that I was ORDERED to pay some homo-age homage to him on my blog.

Speaking of Thunder Chicken, how's THIS for homage?

So, many weekends ago, the Thundering Hero Chicken Cookie himself arrived home on a random visit and ORDERED me to find him an AFC restaurant to eat at. What's AFC, you ask? Asian Fried Chicken, and according to the link he sent me it was supposed to be damn good and available in Canada as opposed to his current London, England roaming grounds. So, as the dedicatedly loyal friend I am, I found him 2 restaurants that served the infamous poultry. On that weekend, we picked the one with the closer address and headed out.

Just to make sure the place actually existed and would be open for our late-night arrival, I called ahead.

Me - Hi, I was wondering what time you were open until?
Guy with HEAVY Korean accent - Hello!
Me - Hi, what time are you open until?
KG - Hah?
Me - What time are you open till?
KG - Oh...2 o'clock.
Me - You're open till 2 o'clock?
KG - Open 2 o'clock.
Me - Okay, thanks... *I take a moment to weigh how good the chances are that he actually understood me* Wait, what time do you CLOSE?
KG - Hah?
Me - CLOSE. What time?
KG - Oh...10 o'clock.
Me - Ah hah. Okay, thanks!

And so we drive out before 10 o'clock that night to the address I'd pulled off the internet. When we got to the plaza it was supposed to be a part of, we were baffled--we didn't see a Korean Chicken place anywhere. We circled a few times reading the different signs lit-up around the plaza and nearly gave up to leave when...

Me - There it is!

And there it was. We'd missed it on the first drive by because the sign wasn't lit. We'd missed it on the second drive by because the windows were dim...due to the grease build-up on them!

At the realization of the reason for the place being so dim, I shot the Thundering Hero Chicken Cookie a look that said: "What the HELL are we getting into?!"

The second look I shot at the THCC was one that said "This was YOUR idea, hence, this is YOUR fault." I gave him that look when we opened the door to the place only to find that the first and best seat available in the place was the middle bench seat out of a minivan!

Oh man.

We ended up ordering 2 orders of the stuff--one of each type; one fried plain, one fried with sauce. We accomplished this communication with the guy behind the counter by having me walk up to the sign up on the wall and POINTING at the pictures of the chicken!

Choosing to sit on two folding chairs rather than the cushy bench by the door, THCC and I waited for our food. Despite his constant whines for liquid, THCC somehow managed to refrain from ordering anything to drink there. This possibly having to do with the fact that half the drinks in the display refrigerator were either dented or already open. We spent our wait time exchanging various "looks" and head shakes. One particular moment was spent restraining our laughter as another customer miraculously appeared through the grime to place an order and then plop down on the best seat in the house to wait.

As soon as we got our food, we burst out of there into the cold February air, only to dissolve into retarded giggles and exclamations of whose fault it was that we were in that situation in the first place.

It was, and still is, THCC's fault. Period.

However, as most Hero Cookie stories turn out, our adventure only ended in good. The AFC not only turned out to be edible, it was actually pretty darned good! Figures Hero Cookie could only eat 3 pieces of the 20 we'd ordered before he called it quits...some lame excuse having to do with jetlag... ;)

And there you have your homage...homo. :D