At first, I thought it might not be appropriate to address Fran's patently silly rants in the last number. After all, this is a column about eating, and a lot of womyn take eating awfully seriously. I know I do.
    But, upon reconsideration, I decided that airing my dirty laundry might be constructive. Many misogynist pigs out there probably think that lesbians exist simply to turn on men. Their image of lesbian culture is confined to Hollywood propaganda in movies like Chasing Amy and Bound.
    Well, that isn't the case. We lesbians quarrel, get jealous and kiss and make up, too. Fran, for example, made me a delicious tofu curry to apologize for the lies she printed two weeks ago. We washed it down with a pint of Baskin Robins Rocky Road, a bottle of red wine and a romp in the hay. And, contrary to what she wrote, Fran would never hit me. We leave domestic abuse problems to the breeders.
    She was just angry that I publicly admitted that she enjoys being dominated. She thought a display of machismo would help appease her sense of outrage. She can be so rash sometimes.
     Well, enough about that. I've got a restaurant to review. This week, we ate at Khuan Khe, a Chinese restaurant far off the beaten track. It is near Sokol Metro station, but you may never find it if you don't take a car.
    Initially, I was doubtful about this restaurant. Not only is it Goddess knows where, but the menu comes only in Mandarin and Russian! Well, my Chinese is about as good as Fran's Russian, so you can imagine the bind we were in. The decorations might look expensive to a Russian, but I found them a little gaudy.
    The only positive note was that the man at the coat check didn't try to manhandle me. Instead, I simply handed him my coat. That was a relief.
    Luckily, our waitress, who was dressed in a cute Chinese pullover, was quite helpful. Her English wasn't so great, but she made up for it by making excellent recommendations.
    For appetizers, I ordered shrimp in spicy sauce (R160). They were those small shrimp and they sure packed a punch. Fran ordered the Vietnamese spring rolls (R70), which was a giant serving of five good-sized rolls stuffed with all sorts of goodies. Those didn't last long.
    Our next course meant a soup for me and a salad for Fran. My sour soup (R70) was lacking the 'hot' element, but I made short work of it anyways. Fran was equally satisfied with her pork and radish salad (R130) although again it was lacking adequate spiciness.
    The main courses maintained the generally high quality of food. Fran's chicken fingers with sweet pepper (R155) certainly bested my expectations of chicken fried in dough. It was sautéed pieces of chicken with the right proportions of veggies thrown in. They served it right on the frying pan. My Gunbao pork (R145) actually tasted quite similarly to Fran's meal. I think they might have used the same sauce.
    A side of rice with veggies (R60) was a good compliment.
    One problem I had was that food was-n't served communally, like Chinese should be. Instead, our orders were placed directly in front of us. I didn't have any complaints about the size of the meal though - they certainly gave us a pile of food.
    The desserts aren't a strong point. They don't have any of those tasty Chinese pastries. The mediocre fried bananas (R70) were a poor substitute.
    Khuan Khe has a huge selection of bottled beers, with a .3 bottle costing R65. I got the Lao Shan, as I have a weakness for those rice beers. Fran followed my lead.
    I have to say, this restaurant is a pretty decent place. They know the value of a big serving and that counts for a lot in my book. I still don't know what they were thinking when they tucked it away in that neighborhood, though. We had to walk forever just to get a taxi.