Table manners?

[Bobby]

So far none of my experiences in China have beaten teaching my soon-to-be sister in-law how to use a knife and fork. Sitting across from her in a restaurant, I thought she was going to put her eye out, so I reached across the table and adjusted her grip and repositioned the silverware. You'd think I'd shown her how to turn lead in to gold .. after that she dug-in with abandon. She and her husband are getting a new house, I think I'll get her a good set of silverware (that way I have a way to eat steak when I visit)

[frank1538]

I also thought "when in Rome" well that was until I tried Chongqing Hotpot with pig intestine after that I decided to leave animal innards alone    also those scorpions and sea horses on a stick.

If it comes from an animal, it's meat and therefore is edible. If it moves, it's edible. If it's green, leafy, grows from the ground, etc. it's edible.

 

If it's soured milk product - well, that's cheese - it's not meat, it doesn't move, it isn't green and it doesn't grow out of the ground - definitely not food.

[Mick]

After five years in Guangdong, I learned the cardinal principle of whether or not something is edible. The rule there is: "If its back faces heaven, you can eat it".

[Bobby]

... it's not meat, it doesn't move, it isn't green and it doesn't grow out of the ground - definitely not food.

Heh.. you haven't seen my fridge lately..

 

(on my list of things to clean/straighten-up before she gets here )

[tonyontherock]

where does blowing the nose and farting at dinner take fall?

[skibum]

I think it must depend on where your girl is from. People in the big cities seem to have good by American standards, table manners. My wife and in-laws have very good manners and I would not expect anyone here to be offended by them. But my mother in law was brought up in a wealthy family near the French consession in Shanghai and is a Doctor.

 

Would you marry someone who was brought up to spit bones on the floor?

 

We were in McDonalds in Nanjing and a man from the country side and his 7 or 8 y/o son were sitting near us. The kid spit a bone on the floor and my love was right over there telling them that they were not in the country and more and to clean up their act.

[Kaige]

This subject made my morning cheerful, I laughed my day was very good because of this subject THANK YOU

[Eric&Yuhui]

where does blowing the nose and farting at dinner take fall?

Goody. You ARE the romantic kind...

 

Actually, I am not sure.. WHERE does it?

[TimD]

My turn

 

What I find amuzing is watching a table of well dressed men and women eating and spitting bones and shells. It's a huge contrast.

 

My only problem is watching some of the men spitting on the floor, not just bones, but anything.

 

I made the mistake one afternoon of placing my two chopsticks in my rice bowl facing up. My sister in law told me this is a bad sign as it represents death....oooops.

 

The other comparision is how the crowds differ in restaurants here and in the States. In the states your rarely see public intoxication like you do here. More often than not I see men dragging other men into the bathroom because they are so drunk they can not walk there on their own. I also see a lot of obnoxious and loud behaviour from some of the larger tables of men eating and drinking after work. But again, what really annoys me is the spitting on the floor....

 

-Tim

[Robert S.]

My wife was trying to get me to change the other day to be like her and other Chinese people and instead chew with my mouth open and smack so I would enjoy the food better. She makes fun of me for chewing with my mouth closed.

 

It is amazing the way she can put a bony fish in her mouth and in just a minute spit out enough bones to choke a dozen people while getting all the meat. She has taught me how to do this a little bit.

 

I get a kick out of the way Chinese people will hold the bowl right up to their mouth and rapidly shovel in their rice.

 

Ping is always trying to get me to recognize the superiority of the Chinese way of thinking about food but I always argue with her and tell her that is crazy. I mean it is crazy that in China the gristle is more valuable than the meat, the feet are more expensive than the ham, the leg is more highly regarded than the breast, and on and on like this.

 

OMG, when we go to the fish department in the big grocery I am so afraid of what she will want to buy, always it is the weirdest thing they have got. One time it was skate wings (which actually were good) but this last time it was giant catfish heads. The look of horror on my face when she made me eat one bite was enough she did not try to force this on me any more!!!!

[tonado]

Read this article

[Guest Se_Lang]

well 1 thing I can say after getting over my nervousness of everybody watching me use chop sticks to see how I would do, meals were much more enjoyable there, I did not have to worry about being uptight about how I was eating and of course the regular food taste great, well even the strange food taste good but just is hard to remove mental image of what is being eaten or in my case not eaten

[Robert S.]

I'll never forget my embarrassment at the time when Ping and I went to eat at this restaurant near the consulate in Shenyang. We did not have much time and there are not many restaurants to choose from near the consulate. We went and sat down and ordered and Ping started to eat with the chopsticks of course but I asked her to ask the waiter for a fork. I can use chopsticks but it actually hurts the muscles in my hands to do so. This time the restaurant did not have a single fork in the place. Instead they brought me a huge serving spoon to eat with. I felt like Baby Huey.

[Robert S.]

Read this article

Wow!!! That is great!!! That writer has got some courage to come out and say what needs to be said, AND he gives the perfect answer for a justification.

 

Chinese cuisine is recognized - nearly every issue of Gourmet magazine has an article about Chinese cooking for example - but if this magazine's readers had the kind of horrifying dining experiences like Wei Wei says he sometimes has then they might develop an undeserved disregard for the food because of the unpleasantness displayed by some people when eating.

[Dave G.]

The other comparision is how the crowds differ in restaurants here and in the States. In the states your rarely see public intoxication like you do here. More often than not I see men dragging other men into the bathroom because they are so drunk they can not walk there on their own.

Well, I read the posted article. Here's a DIRECT quote from it:

 

"Untold thousands of dishes constitute the Chinese cuisine which may be cocked, fried, baked, grilled or prepared in any other way known to man."

 

Great. Just what I wanted to know. Cocks on my plate. As Jing Mei says, if it tastes good, eat it. Just don't worry what it was.

 

The other quote provided reminds me of yet another story. We were at a nice restaurant in Leshan....a two story joint. All of the sudden, two Chinese military officers slipped on the top floor (drunk) and rolled all the way down the stairs. In about 10 seconds, all the cute (damn gorgeous) waitresses gathered around them. Five seconds later, the passed out and bleeding officers were in an ambulance. Simply amazing to watch........

 

Sometimes, Gam Bei is not our friend. http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/_950/drunkard.gif