“I’ll take two of everything,” Ryan says to Mod, gesturing to the duck spring rolls that are beautifully arranged, standing upright like flowers in a vase. “I could eat at least 20 of these.”
“Well you better eat it now, because we might not be here next month,” Mod says offhandedly, as if this is not the most devastating news ever.
We probably go to Mod’s Thai House once a week, often on our way home from skiing or after a weekend away. The scent of coconut curry and crispy chicken wings wafts through the car as the large bag of steaming takeout warms my lap in the front seat. This is real-deal Thai. I learned this when I once asked Mod if I could have a mild red curry and she shook her head emphatically. “No. If you want a mild curry, order Massaman. Red curry, spicy.”
As she expertly circles our table refilling our water glasses, she tells us she can’t find anyone to work in the kitchen. She can only do so much herself, working most days until almost midnight. “Cooks want $40 an hour and they can get that in Aspen,” she laments. “But there is no way I can afford to pay them that much here.”
This is heartbreaking news, not only because locally owned businesses like Mod’s bring color, vibrancy and culture into our tiny little mountain town — offering dishes that rival Thai food from any major city — but it’s also crushing because I know this restaurant was her dream.
Napaporn “Mod” Chansri was born in Bangkok and is the former owner of Lemongrass Thai Catering in Aspen. She came into Jimmy’s in Aspen 11 years ago to start Thai Week, a beloved offseason tradition. That’s where she met her husband Chef Manny Diaz, who had worked in the kitchen at Jimmy’s for many years. With years of combined experience working in Aspen restaurants, it was the couple’s dream to open Mod’s Thai House in April 2018.
Since then they’ve been dishing out the fragrant, flavor-packed Thai dishes that have made their way into our family’s weekly rotation. The colorful space, painted in bold shades of purple and green, also brings character and vitality to downtown Basalt, especially in summer when diners enjoy the charming outdoor seating, filling the air with laughter, conversation and the clinking of glasses.
Unfortunately, this is an all-too-familiar story. As we watch our favorite restaurants drop like flies, one after the other as a result of the economic virus that seems to follow in the wake of the biological one, it feels like these important threads that hold our valley are slowly coming undone, fraying on the edges like a pair of denim cutoffs. These are the places we consider “local,” that are owned and operated by people who live here, who raised families here, people we see in the gondola lift line early on a powder day or on top of Highland Peak, people whose kids go to the same school, who take classes at the same yoga studio, who say hello at the grocery store/post office/coffee shop.
When I lived in Aspen, I took pride in knowing a few of these oh-so-special restaurateurs. What could be better than walking through the door at L’Hostaria and having Fabrizio greet you in his bellowing voice, followed by a tight embrace and a kiss on both cheeks?
What could make me feel more special than when Jimmy would greet me by name and share a joke or a story like we were old friends in that deep voice that would vibrate throughout the dining room?
What was better than the days when Andreas Fischbacher ran Cloud 9 on Aspen Highlands and he would sit with you and laugh and tell stories like you were in an actual cabin somewhere in the Austrian alps eating real Austrian food with a real Austrian dude, his light green eyes dancing with the kind of joy that comes from doing a job he truly loved, his mustache bristling like a crisp wind through snow covered trees? There was no wasted Champagne back then, just a shot of that Austrian liquor that tastes like pine that Andreas would always share with us. It was perfection.
I figured the midvalley could be a safe haven for local restaurateurs who could depend on the support of year-round local business, but it appears that this virus is also spreading. I just hope we reach some kind of herd immunity soon. In the meantime, show up for Mod and our other local restaurants — because love is always the best medicine.
Ali Margo is a local freelance writer who will be sitting on a beach in Hawaii by the time you read this. Send your love and aloha to alisonmargo@gmail.com.
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March 14, 2022 at 05:00PM
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Margo: Love letter to Mod: Eat local, love global - Aspen Daily News
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