By STEVEN DAVEY
The other noon, I find myself in Cabbagetown. Feeling a little peckish and in the market for something remotely healthy, I drop into Ginger at Carlton and Parliament for a quick six buck green papaya salad topped with grilled beef and crushed peanut. I place my order at the counter and take a seat to wait in the pan-Asian take-aways panoramic front window. Since this Ginger — there’s three others scattered about downtown and at least two more in the works — is right on the corner and has large glass garage doors that open to the street on two walls, the noise from the street is deafening.
A fire engine, siren blazing, gets caught in traffic behind a screeching streetcar negotiating the 90 degree turn as it makes its way heading south on Carlton. Every other vehicle rumbling down Parliament seems to be an empty dump truck, just off the DVP and belching exhaust into the café, bound for a load of fresh landfill from some lake-side condo development.
But the wait’s short and a smiling server wearing a black Ginger T-shirt with the slogan, “as hot as pho” printed on the front brings my order over to where I’m sitting. At first, it doesn’t register, my first thought being that Ginger co-owner David Tran must be doing well for himself to get T-shirts made for the staff.
It’s not until I’m half-way back to NOW’s Test Kitchen, that my inner foodie remembers that the phrase isn’t pronounced “hot as foe,” but “hot as fuh” as in, er, fuddle duddle.
How very, very droll.
