The mystery of the curious customers

I am sorry. I know that I have not been posting very much stuff lately but I have a good excuse: I am very busy!

Lately it seems that everyone who visits the restaurant wants to meet the owner. At first it was because of the attention the media paid to my mugging (I am fully recovered and doing fine — thanks for asking). Then, two weeks later, WCCO ran their mugging story, and people starting coming in and asking to see my teeth. They were mostly dentists (I hope).

Now customers ask to see me because of this picture. It is a picture my Flickr fans have seen, but for some reason now that this bit of True Thai history is framed, everyone wants to see me!

No, I am not going to tell you anything else about the picture, but I will say that most of the customers who ask to see me are older. I do not know why that makes a difference, but it does.

The new picture is sitting in the hallway between the old dining room and the new addition in an alcove where a Buddha statue is protecting it. Next time you come to True Thai, be sure to take a look.

The Queen of Koh Tao!

I was visiting a friend and because she knew I had been thinking about becoming a rock climber (for about five minutes last spring), she had taped a TV show about rock climbing in Thailand for me to watch. But she did not tell me the name of the show so I was very surprised to see Koh Tao (Turtle Island) on the screen.

I have already told you the story of how my mother's family came to be known as the Suktukwans ("happiness every day"). King Rama V did not just reward my ancestor with a new family name, he also gave him an island, Koh Tao!

I did not mention this before because 1) Turtle Island is not much of an island, and 2) my ancestor immediately sold it for $500. Only five-hundred U.S. dollars? Well, it was 1910, but yeah, no matter how you calculate the inflation that's still only $11,000 in today's dollars.

The island does, however, look like a turtle.

It is the opposite side of the island that is featured in the show because that's where the rocky cliffs are, the ones that are so popular with rock climbers. You can see about a minute and a half of the show if you go to UCTV.

As a child we never actually visited Koh Tao, but I remember daydreaming about what it would have been like had I grown up to be the Queen of Turtle Island. As I recall, my imaginary Turtle Island was quite a bit larger and much more impressive. Still, I wish we had kept Koh Tao in the family as it is not everyone who gets to own an island.

A story about a missing purse

OK, this is kind of weird. Kelly, the driver who delivers our beer was downtown making a delivery. As she was unloading an order she thought she saw a wallet laying on the sidewalk across the street. She made her delivery and came back out and the wallet was still there, even though there was a lot of foot traffic on that side of the street.

Kelly ran across the street, picked up the wallet and found a $100 bill and a check for $1,000 in it. The check was from True Thai Restaurant, her next delivery stop!

Sort of a big deal, right? So when she made her next stop at True Thai she told us about it. It turned out that the member of our kitchen staff who lost her wallet didn't even know it was missing yet!

I think that is an amazing true story!

A final post about the mugging

Because WCCO made a big deal out of calling me a "victim," I decided to submit this post to the Star Tribune's Your Voices section. That was two weeks ago and despite a follow up email, they never acknowledged receiving my submission.

Here is what I sent them:

I was mugged, but I am not a victim!

Just before midnight on Friday night, August 20, I was mugged while walking from my restaurant to my parked car. It was a horrifying experience in which I was struck repeatedly on my head and back from behind. I suffered many bruises and spent nine hours in a dentist's chair having my teeth repaired.

I have blogged about my experience (All You Need Is Love and I Was Ambushed!), but because a local television station exploited my mugging, I feel obliged to speak to the greater community about what really happened.

I own and manage True Thai Restaurant, a successful business. Restaurant owners carry cash on them because many of our vendors do not accept checks or credit cards. Thieves know this, and I knew that they knew. But it is only a few feet from the back door of my restaurant to my car, and I thought I was safe. I was not.

That was my mistake. If I was victimized, it was by my own indifference to my safety. If you carry large sums of cash, whether it is in Minneapolis or Bangkok, you need to take precautions. Because I did not, countless neighbors in the Seward Neighborhood are now walking their dogs past my restaurant at closing time, and customers volunteer to walk me to my car each night.

I am lucky to have so many friends and supporters. When the TV station news crew ambushed me on Saturday, September 4, I thought they wanted to do a story about the neighborhood and their support for me. No, they just wanted to show my face on the news with the word "victim" under it. No one knew how much money had been taken, but the police report categorized the theft as over $1,000 (it was $1,100, an unusually large amount for me to be carrying) and to my horror the TV station shared that number.

Now I do feel like a victim. This TV station just told tens of thousands of people that I carry large sums of cash on me late at night (in fact it is usually much less than that). They also acted like the crime had just happened when in fact their coverage ran over two weeks after the crime occurred.

Some people would say, "Anna, you need to protect yourself!" I work out but I only weigh 93 pounds so I think martial arts will not work for me. A customer gave me some pepper spray, but I am scared to carry it with me. I was attacked from behind and had no opportunity to grab anything from my purse to protect me. A gun would not have helped.

My best protection is to make sure we keep the back alley well lighted and that True Thai continues to work with Seward Redesign and other business and residential neighbors to make Seward a safer neighborhood.

Actually, Seward is a pretty safe neighborhood — contrary to what you hear on TV. Yes, we had a shooting last spring but the shooter is in prison and will stay there for a long time. The shootings at Seward Market and Halal Meats were much more terrifying to me than my own mugging was, but the courage of my Somali neighbors in keeping their business open impressed me. Shortly after they re-opened I stopped in to buy something to show my support. The market was empty except for five young Somali men behind the counter, one to wait on customers and four friends who were there to show their support.

In recent weeks I have learned how important support is. Better lights and more police presence are good deterrents to crime, but nothing beats the support of your friends and neighbors, all of whom have done so much to remind me that I am just one of many people in Seward, and that Seward watches out for its own. The cards and flowers and personal reassurances have made it clear to me that I am not a victim. Seward residents are not victims. No one is a victim unless they wish to be, no matter how hard TV stations may work to try to scare us.

Anna Prasomphol Fieser is a full-time Public Health Nurse for Ramsey County Public Health Department. She and her business partner Charles Whitney own and operate True Thai Restaurant on East Franklin Avenue in the Seward Neighborhood of Minneapolis.

I don't know why this didn't interest the Star Tribune, but maybe True Thai should start advertising with them. That does seem to be how things work.

Too tie!

Sorry for the lack of posts. You have been so wonderful and supportive that I've been too busy to write for my blog!

I do not have any news about True Thai but I do have some reading for you.

Angharad is an English woman who lives in the Twin Cities and who tweets and blogs as Eating4England. She recently visited one of my favorite places, the Hmong Marketplace at 217 Como. She was very fond of the red Thai bubble tea which is just one of the many very tasty beverages there.

You might also want to see "We Dare You Not to Laugh at 31 Foods With Misspelled Names." If you do much shopping for authentic Asian groceries, you probably have noticed that Asians do not always do a good job of translating what's in the box into English. Here is an example:


As you might have guessed, there are 30 more mislabeled pictures waiting for you at URLesque.com.

I was ambushed by WCCO-TV!

It is every restaurant owner's dream to be on television. We all want to be famous for our food. If I had known a TV crew was coming over today I would have had everyone cleaning and putting out extra flowers. I would have worn my best clothes and jewels and my hair and makeup would have been perfect.

But I did not know WCCO was coming over and they caught me coming out of the gym after an hour-long hot and sweaty workout. I looked terrible! How terrible? Watch WCCO News tonight at 10 pm to see how bad I look after working out.

Not only did I look bad, they didn't talk to me about True Thai's food. All they wanted to talk about was my mugging and the support the Seward neighborhood has shown me. I like to talk about how great my neighbors are but I am getting a little tired of talking about the mugging all the time.

I'm working tonight so I would be very grateful if someone had a way to record WCCO's clip of me and True Thai. It's the 10 o'clock news but I don't know when they'll show it, just that I will look sweaty when they do.

True Thai will be closed Labor Day

Yes, True Thai will be closed on Monday. That's the bad news. The good news is that we are open today (Saturday), tomorrow (Sunday), and will re-open on Tuesday, September 7.

How are you going to spend your Labor Day? I am pretty sure I will spend mine sleeping in and going to bed early. You can't catch up on sleep, but I like to try.

I will probably also do some housecleaning. I think I have just the outfit for cleaning the kitchen:

All you need is love

What a week! Since I was mugged last Friday night, True Thai has been jam-packed with neighbors and friends every night. The restaurant is full of flowers, I've received dozens and dozens of get well cards, I've been gifted with two new wallets and almost all of True Thai's closest neighbors have given me their phone numbers (just in case).

Last night a couple from Seward stopped by with their dog Billie, and offered to come back every night to walk me to my car. The police have been stopping by every night to make sure everything's OK. In my life I have never felt so safe!

The bruises are getting better and in another day or two I might let people hug me again (but I'm still sore so a handshake is just fine!). My dentist fixed my dental work Tuesday and I should get my new credit cards in a day or two.

Thank you to all of True Thai's supporters — yes, I know you're out there! Among other clues, you're responsible for Anna's True Thai News' blog traffic spiking:

The mugging happened at midnight on the 20th and two days later blog traffic started going up almost as fast as True Thai's tables filling up at dinner time this week. Actually, not just dinner time. Many of you have been stopping by for a late dinner so as to boost late night foot traffic, further discouraging other muggers.

I'm not mad at the mugger. I think he hit me from behind so many times because he was scared too. Now that Seward residents have come out in force, I'm sure he's thinking about trying another line of work. I'm not.

Running True Thai is the best job I've ever had because it brings me into daily contact with some of the best customers in the world.

Thank you Seward

Friday night after closing the restaurant I was mugged. It is a part of the American experience I do not recommend and I spent most of Saturday feeling very low and depressed.

Then I went in to True Thai and discovered that all day long our Seward neighbors had been stopping by the restaurant to drop off get well cards and to express their sympathy. I was stunned. The robbery was not in the newspapers but apparently the neighbor who called the police also posted about it to some kind of neighborhood electronic bulletin board.

I am still overcome by the overwhelming support Seward residents have shown in the wake of my mugging. Sitting up front last night it seemed as if every time I finished reading a get well card I'd look up and there would be yet another neighbor with another card.

Seward is a wonderful neighborhood filled with caring, loving people. One stupid mugger didn't change that.
Thank you Seward for being the best neighborhood in the Twin Cities. I am proud to own a business in Seward and grateful to my neighbors for their love and support, coming as it did at a time when I really needed it.

Garden fresh

I've referenced Anna's Garden before, blogging about the Thai chili peppers and basil we grow behind the restaurant. I also have a garden in my backyard at home, but I want to assure all of True Thai's customers that our locally grown produce comes from the Chang Family gardens, and not my backyard!

Why is this important? Because this is a picture of what one of my homegrown tomatoes typically looks like:


Some friends have speculated that there is nuclear waste buried in my backyard. Others blame it on the three cats buried there. All I know is that I am very grateful to the Chang family for selling their garden fresh produce to us for use at True Thai.

The Chang family has sixteen acres of peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, gailan and other produce growing at four locations just outside St. Paul. Their tomatoes do not look scary like mine do. They taste better too. If they didn't, we'd stick with our usual vendors but to tell you the truth, many of our vendors buy locally during the summer months. Most of True Thai's jalapeños and Thai peppers are locally grown, even in the winter.

I don't know who Lewis Grizzard is, but I've always like this quote from him:

It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.

Fortunately, Mr. Grizzard never had to eat a tomato from my backyard, and I promise that if you dine at True Thai, you never will either!

Oy vay!

From Bob Von Sternberg at the Star Tribune:

Here we go again.

Another summer weekend, another bunch of traffic-snarling freeway closures.

The most aggravating -- again -- will be the shutdown of the westbound lanes in St. Paul of Interstate 94 between Interstate 35E and Hwy. 280, just like last weekend.

The good news: This is the last closure of the road construction season on that stretch.

Fortunately True Thai's customers are clever and resourceful people who still manage to find their way to East Franklin no matter how much weekend construction there is.

Given the wonderful weather these past few days, I suspect the patio will be full this weekend, no matter how much construction there is.

Construction season continues

Starting tonight at 10 p.m., a big section of I-94 in St. Paul will be closed. The Pioneer Press has maps:


If you live in St. Paul, this is your chance to come to True Thai the way I do every night. Just take University Avenue almost all the way to 280 but then turn left onto Franklin just a block east of 280.

Follow Franklin across the river and you'll arrive at True Thai in just a few minutes.

We'll be there, waiting for you.