Sometimes I have a craving for KFC’s chicken. One evening when I got home, I found a KFC coupon in the mail, so I decided to go for my supposed-to-be-monthly KFC trip (fried chicken isn’t very healthy, you see, so I try not to go there more than once per month). When I got there, I was quite surprised to find there were only two people in the line. “It shouldn’t take long,” I thought.
The first customer got his meal pretty soon. When he was done, the second customer walked up to the counter and started to place her orders. Normally, I don’t listen to the exchanges between the staff and their customers. I mean, other than ordering meals, what other juicy gossips are you going to get? But when I heard “how much is….” from this young, slim, looks-like-this-is-her-first-time-coming-to-this-greasy-joint girl before me with her thin voice, I knew I ran into one of those customers—she really took her time asking questions.
Well, maybe I was too hard on her. After all, only TWO minutes had passed since she started her orders. “I don’t want cilantro,” she said, “I’ll have that as long as there’s no cilantro in it.” The clerk taking her order raised his finger to signal her to wait for a moment, and then he walked to a female worker who was packing orders and asked her questions. I figured either she was a senior staff who knew how to deal with it or she could speak English and understand the term cilantro. They talked quietly, and then he walked back to the register and started punching in her order. Another two minutes passed and more customers coming in and waiting in the line.
“I just don’t like cilantro. It has this funny taste …” the girl said. A guy waiting behind me heard this and gave a loud chuckle. I guess he found the whole thing amusing. This girl turned her head back, gave a rueful smile and started to explain why. Yeah, like we cared.
“It's only in the salsa,” the female packing staff answered. I guess she was trying to ensure this customer not to worry. Or, maybe what she meant was “Miss, the only food you'll find cilantro is in the salsa. As long as you don't dunk your sorry finger in it, you'll be fine. So please just come over here, grab your food and shut the xxxx up.”
