Those were the days...

Ah, the Kwai Lam, for nearly 40 years it played a part in my life. A poky little restaurant in Saddler Street, Durham City up a steep staircase in a very old building. Staffed by waiters in shiny soup stained black suits. Goodness knows what we ate in there but no-one ever died. The worst experience was finding a carpet tack in some rice and complaining, whereupon the unphased waiter said it was “No ploblem, it just from the wooden bar that ties the sack of rice”. In the early days it was very popular so much so that you had table sharing. Sitting next to a stranger now would be unacceptable but as customers were queueing up the stairs it was the done thing. Not very pleasant on rainy days when the place would steam up, full of wet people. Peter, the Kwai Lam manager tolerated us when we entered noisily from the ice rink; we were spending money and that was all he cared about. The dishes were never wonderful but it was a fun place to go. In 1966 I ended up working at the Durham Advertiser across the road and the Kwai Lam became my lunch time retreat. Cliff, one of my colleagues rented a flat above the restaurant from Peter the owner. He told Cliff that money from Sunday goes on the horses on Monday, no wonder we were welcome. Peter went back to Hong Kong and the restaurant changed hands a couple of times. Over the years I frequented the Kwai Lam with friends, relatives and wives so it has many memories, some good, some hilarious and some not so good. I haven’t been in since the early 2000’s and alas it is no longer. The last time I looked it was a coffee shop.