Well, it was bound to happen sometime. After almost a week of carrying around our plates, we ended up having to go to the mall to do a little (energy star) appliance shopping. And that required a fast food fuel up. So off we went to our favorite fast food Thai restaurant in the food court (yeah, I know there's all sorts of issues concerning fast food. And malls. And food courts. One step at a time...).Slightly nervous, we pulled our blue, ceramic-tin plates out of our bags. Then clutching our plates to our chests as if to ward off what we knew would be a barrage of strange looks and "look-ma-weirdos" smiles, we joined the line. Cin gave the lady our order. Then we thrust our plates over the counter toward her and said in a rush, "can you put our order on these plates instead of your plastic ones?"
The lady behind the counter was very kind. She only stared at us for a little while. Then, she smiled, took the plates, and asked, "would you like that to go?" I really think she was hoping we would say yes. Meanwhile, the guy to our right who was waiting for his food looked long and hard at our two metal plates laying on the counter, then turned and looked at us. I'm not sure what he was thinking, but he looked away when I smiled at him. The lady behind us in the line muttered something to her boyfriend. And as the plates were handed down the steam line to await their load of hot Pad Thai, each person who handled them did a double take, then looked at us and the cashier.
There was an extra bit of confusion with the chef, who expected to see either the standard white styrofoam plate, or the take-out box. However, after a bit of rapid-fire Thai, he shrugged, flipped our meals out of his frying pan onto his big ladle, and plopped them down on our metal plates. Success! We paid for our meal and scurried away to a table, elated in our ability to get garbage-free fast food. Or at least nearly - we still had a paper napkin and two sets of chop sticks. Still, better than having a whole lot of plastic.
As I sat and chop sticked (chop stuck?) mouthfuls of spicy, hot Pad Thai (with tofu) I thought of some good things/bad things of our garbage reduction experience. Bad things are:
1) We had to wash these plates somewhere before we could put them back in our bags. We were unsure if we would get in trouble using the bathroom sinks. Then in a flash of inspiration, Cin solved the washing problem. She reached into her home-made messenger bag and pulled out her re-usable lunch bag. Then she stuffed both our dirty plates in - we'll wash them at home when we do our regular dishes. Saves on water.
2) The plates were hot. I mean "I'll sue you for burning my hand, you dirty granola crunchers" hot. We would have to be extra careful to warn any servers that putting hot food onto the plates makes them heat up quickly. Or else find a way to insulate the bottoms.
3) We still had some garbage. Time to break out the ol' camping KFS and a cloth napkin to carry around.
Good things are:
1) We made people think - even if they thought we were weird. They still were exposed to an alternative to junk food garbage - they learned there are ways to live without garbage. And education is the only true weapon we have.
2) We brought a smile to the faces of the restauranteers. Our little escapade probably was the only bit of change in an otherwise normal, hum drum mall food court routine.
3) No toxic chemicals!
All in all, a positive experience. When we move into our new little home, I'm sure all the local fast food restaurants will get very used to us clanking our metal plates down on the counter and saying, "fill 'er up!"
