I have lived in China for three years, and usually ate my dinners at restaurants.
You come in and sit down, and a waiter will appear with a menu. They really are waiters, because they will actually wait patiently until you have read the entire menu and made your selection.
You eventually make up your mind and tell them what you want, and they will note it and disappear. Sometimes, as they take notes, you wonder why they are so busy typing on their phones, but after a few weeks in China, you’ll realise they are actually playing a gaming app and are bored.
You will choose at least two different dishes, more likely three to four per person. This is often a lighter dish or two to begin with, such as peanuts in vinegar and a beer, on a hot day (more of a Shanghai thing, I suppose), and then your main dishes, which, in my case, were often things like mapo tofu, aubergine, cauliflower and bacon, hot and sour soup, pot sticker dumplings… and these are also liked by Chinese guests, my Chinese wife assures me, so this is not an unusual selection.
Chinese menus usually have photographs, and the food has nothing to do with the stuff Chinese restaurants sell in western countries. The food is much more veggie based, oily, and full of garlic and chilies. And there will be things you have never seen before. It is absolutely amazing.
And after a while, your food and drinks are brought by several waiters, all at the same time. If you are a larger group, with many shared dishes, it is common to see several “waves” of dishes served. As in, you may have six dishes on the table, and as they begin to deplete, they are replaced with different dishes you had also previously ordered. So, if something is missing at first, don’t panic, it’s coming later, when there’s space.
Everybody takes a bowl of rice, and uses their chopsticks to reach for food items from the shared bowls.
Some of the less defined items may have serving spoons, because it would be unsanitary to mush around in them otherwise. When you watch the Chinese eat, you will see that they actually manage to extract exactly one thing at a time with their chopsticks, not touching other bits. So it is actually much more hygienic than it looks to us.
It is common to leave something. Not as a requirement, but there is simply no obligation to clean every plate as there is in the west. At a private home, it may be better not to eat everything on the serving platters or bowls, because that may be construed as “the guest is still hungry.” So, when in a home, stop in time. At a restaurant, do as you please, it’s yours, you’ve paid for it.
It is also common to follow the same order of appetizers, main dishes, and desserts as in the west, but it is not thought of as strange to go back to a previous food item at the end of a meal if it is still standing on the table.
To signal the end of the meal, you will usually be served sliced melon. As for drinks, beer and tea are common, as are hot water and sodas.
A proper, Chinese meal takes time to eat. An hour if you are in a rush, two is better, and if someone brought some baiju, better make it three.
I love Chinese dining, and if you are used to authentic Chinese food, anything else will start to look boring and crude. I remember coming to France after a year in China and ordering a wonderful, French meal, the type I used to like when I still lived in France; and I caught myself thinking, “is this all I get?” And I felt apologetic toward the waiter for taking up his time, and eating with a fork and knife felt barbaric.
Chinese dining is an experience of abundance and lightness.
Here some images of my personal favourites - I have no idea what they are, in some cases, because I always simply order them by pointing at the photo. But the first one is the vinegar peanut dish:
No comments:
Post a Comment