During the doctor lesson, Kendall decided since they were going to be in Africa they only needed to know the essentials such as I have a fever, My stomach aches, and I have diaharrea. So of course the latter was their favorite phrase. A lot of class was spent role-playing, "Hello, I'm the doctor, what seems to be the problem?" Inevitably, the response would be, "I have diaharrea" (which interestingly enough translates into Chinese as la duzi, "spicy stomach"). During the restaurant role-playing, we discovered that they did indeed know a few words of English. In response to "What would you like to drink?" We always got, "I want whiskey!" No matter what other drinks responses we told them. It took them 3 weeks to learn "My name is....", but they picked up on beer and whiskey pretty quickly.
(Front Row: The two leaders, Dan Brown, Doris (she assigned the class to us))
(Back row:Cheng, Yin, Darbie, Kendall, Alex, Driver, Cwui, and Gavin)
Mercifully, the class ended last week, and they were nice enough to invite us to a banquet dinner in celebration of their efforts. As always, we brought the camera along. Banquet dinners are a unique and enjoyable experience. Upon entering a nice Chinese banquet-friendly restaurant, one is greeted by the large, over-populated staff, and undoubtedly, rows upon rows of aquariums holding what could potentially be dinner. Watch your step! It gets a little slippery in and around the aquariums when the restaurant is busy. The tanks include different types of fish, of course, but also crabs, lobsters, eels - you name it, they'll likely have it.
(Darbie, Cheng, Yin, and the Leader)
Instead of being a large, open dining room like a Western-style restaurant. Nice Chinese restaurants usually have a lot of private rooms, so their guests don't have to worry about what others think about their dining etiquette or behavior. The rooms usually have a sink (some even have a bathroom), and a large round table with matching lazy-susan. The hosts of the meal usually choose all the dishes, and the guests have no prior knowledge of what they might be until the fuwuyuan (server) places them on the lazy-susan, and wheels it around to the host to inspect and approve. At first, this was pretty scary, but now we've adjusted and actually enjoy the anticipation of seeing and trying new dishes. Most of the time, our hosts never fail to impress us with their selections. The average banquet meal usually consists of somewhere around 20 dishes for an average table size of 12. The dishes are always ridiculously large, and it isn't rare for a dish to not be completely finished (despite being shared by 20 people). As the dish is spun to your vicinity, dig in with the chopsticks and either go straight to the mouth, or your plate. The Chinese wouldn't have gotten the classic Seinfeld episode where George double-dips the chip. "You dipped the chip. You took a bite... and you dipped again. "
The dishes usually start with some veggies and a Chinese staple, peanuts in vinegar. This might sound revolting, but I can assure you, I never miss this dish when it is in my area, simply brilliant. After the appetizers, the real Chinese dishes begin their parade onto and around the lazy-susan. Our favorite for this particular meal was what appeared to be deepfried bacon and spring onion in
what is basically a soft-shell taco. Other dishes that made appearances were sweet-and-sour fish (yes, the whole fish makes an appearance), Nanjing bread (the closest thing to donuts in China!), in-shell mussels, broccoli in garlic sauce, squid, and a host of other unidentifiable, but delicious, dishes. At one point the servers cleared our dishes and I thought the meal was over suspiciously early. It turned out that we were being presented with fresh plates, each with a large she-crab staring back at us (sorry about the picture above, the flash was a little overzealous). Our hosts instructed us on how to pop it open, but then left us to our own devices. I began to hear a lot of sucking and slurping, so I just followed suit. Darbie was a little turned off by the tiny hairs and the suspicious color of the innerds she was supposed to be sucking. It turned out to be pretty good, though it takes a little too much work. If Chinese cuisine does have an achilles' heel, it is their soups. Each meal typically consists of two soups, and more often than not, these are our least favorite dishes. The soups are very thin, watery, and end up tasting like hot, dirty water with spicy tofu or fish balls in it (not those kind of fish balls).
what is basically a soft-shell taco. Other dishes that made appearances were sweet-and-sour fish (yes, the whole fish makes an appearance), Nanjing bread (the closest thing to donuts in China!), in-shell mussels, broccoli in garlic sauce, squid, and a host of other unidentifiable, but delicious, dishes. At one point the servers cleared our dishes and I thought the meal was over suspiciously early. It turned out that we were being presented with fresh plates, each with a large she-crab staring back at us (sorry about the picture above, the flash was a little overzealous). Our hosts instructed us on how to pop it open, but then left us to our own devices. I began to hear a lot of sucking and slurping, so I just followed suit. Darbie was a little turned off by the tiny hairs and the suspicious color of the innerds she was supposed to be sucking. It turned out to be pretty good, though it takes a little too much work. If Chinese cuisine does have an achilles' heel, it is their soups. Each meal typically consists of two soups, and more often than not, these are our least favorite dishes. The soups are very thin, watery, and end up tasting like hot, dirty water with spicy tofu or fish balls in it (not those kind of fish balls).(The driver, Gavin Wang, Alex, and Kendall)
Chinese banquets are very loud, fun events. It is a time to celebrate, be with friends and family, and eat very good food. Another neccessity for banquets is alcohol. The most popular alcohol at banquets is a grain alcohol (55-65% alcohol) affectionally called, baijiu, or white liqu
or. Thankfully, they let us choose the drinks, and wisely, we stayed away from the potent libation. Instead Tsingtao and Great Wall Wine were the drinks of the night. At banquet dinners, it never fails that Chinese engage in drinking contests. This might come as a surprise to some of you that heard that is shameful to be drunk in Chinese society, but they say, the point of the game is to not get drunk. The contest consists of numerous toasts to friends, family, China, business, and the future. One toast might directly follow another. Sometimes it is hard to give a toast because another toast starts as another is ending. After each toast, the toast-er decides whether or not it is a ganbei toast. If the toast-er finishes his/her drink and says "ganbei!", then everyone else must too. Women are the only exception because they are considered ladies, but Darbie and Doris were even prodded to ganbei once or twice.
or. Thankfully, they let us choose the drinks, and wisely, we stayed away from the potent libation. Instead Tsingtao and Great Wall Wine were the drinks of the night. At banquet dinners, it never fails that Chinese engage in drinking contests. This might come as a surprise to some of you that heard that is shameful to be drunk in Chinese society, but they say, the point of the game is to not get drunk. The contest consists of numerous toasts to friends, family, China, business, and the future. One toast might directly follow another. Sometimes it is hard to give a toast because another toast starts as another is ending. After each toast, the toast-er decides whether or not it is a ganbei toast. If the toast-er finishes his/her drink and says "ganbei!", then everyone else must too. Women are the only exception because they are considered ladies, but Darbie and Doris were even prodded to ganbei once or twice. Our table successfully went through about 20 bottles for the evening which is surprisingly little
for that size of a group. I contribute this to the fact that Cheng stopped drinking after the second or third toast and slyly poured tea into his glass. When foreigners are at the table, toasts are even more prevalent because each chinese man want to out drink the foreigner. But as everyone knows, Asians are not known for holding their liquor. After the third toast, the leader was as red as a tomato and couldn't set his glass down straight. Due to the multiple toasts, by the end of the meal the english was flowing more easily. The men began shouting english words for the things on the table. So a chorus of "Cup!", "Tomato!", "Beer!", "Tea!", etc. ensued all around the room, though they couldn't quite remember complete sentences.
for that size of a group. I contribute this to the fact that Cheng stopped drinking after the second or third toast and slyly poured tea into his glass. When foreigners are at the table, toasts are even more prevalent because each chinese man want to out drink the foreigner. But as everyone knows, Asians are not known for holding their liquor. After the third toast, the leader was as red as a tomato and couldn't set his glass down straight. Due to the multiple toasts, by the end of the meal the english was flowing more easily. The men began shouting english words for the things on the table. So a chorus of "Cup!", "Tomato!", "Beer!", "Tea!", etc. ensued all around the room, though they couldn't quite remember complete sentences. As the meal came to a close, we thought the food had ended but to our astonishment we not only got platters of fresh fruit but also a bowl of noodles with eggs and no less than 3 kinds of dumplings. By this time, it was nearly impossible to even smell food without gagging we were so full. But out of hospitality, you must try everything. Of course, the chinese had no trouble finishing off the bowl of noodles with one big slurp and downing a few platters of dumplings. I will never understand where they put all that food and still remain so thin.
So with very full bellys, Yin's eyes swimming, and lots of red faces we exited the restaurant and a very pleasant evening came to a close. We did manage to get a video of the evening which gives you an idea of the english level of these men. It was too large to load onto the blog but click on the link below to get a taste of a chinese banquet for yourself. Warning: it may take a while to load, its a bit lengthy.
Enjoy!
DB&KM
http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=4709732&share_id=8841457811#s8841457811 , hopefully that will work for you. Sorry for those of you w/out facebook.
1 comment:
Now THAT's what i'm talking about!
(not those kind of fish balls..)
I love you two!
Post a Comment