Independent vendor at Wu Dao Kou.
Walk into the restaurant and select a table. When the waitress welcomes you, request a drink – “Qing gei wo shui (Please give me water).”
Then plop a finger anywhere on the Chinese-only menu. You’re illiterate, of course, but that makes dining out fun. Sometimes you get stir-fried shrimp, sometimes you get sea slug. No matter what, take a nibble — for manners, yes, but mainly for bragging rights.
Once James and I received the dilemma of a cooked fish, lips to tail. Just how does one consume a whole fish without fork or knife? We must have looked odd huddled over that plate, James using his chopsticks to steady the fish while I excavated under the scales.
Near the end of that first week I stumbled on a dish I loved. I asked the waitress to repeat its name several times so I could practice it. Thereafter, better safe than hungry, at restaurants I ordered gong bao ji ding: stir-fried chicken with peanuts and vegetables. Nothing fancy, but definitely a safe tummy pleaser.
I ate a lot of gong bao ji ding that year.
Independent vendor at Wu Dao Kou.
January 11, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Another little connection! I discovered the chicken dish moo goo gai pan when I was young and have ordered it in Chinese restaurants ever since. But I have no excuse for playing it so “safe” all these years.
January 14, 2008 at 7:54 am
Funny! I wonder how many of us stick with what we know when ordering ethnic food. I know I’m guilty with Thai food — pad thai is so good I haven’t strayed from it.
Thanks for sharing!
January 14, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I’m guilty too, but at least I have a solid repertoire of about half a dozen Thai dishes! Look for any kind of stir fry with basil and green beans. Or anything “rad prig” (a tangy tamarind sauce).
February 19, 2008 at 10:01 pm
The whole fish thing happened to me here in the states when I was about 11 or 12. My parents are not ones to venture out of the norm, especially back then. But one night they decided to take us to a Chinese restaurant. I ordered this fish dish and like 45 minutes later after everyone ate I received the lips to tail platter as you described. We all still talk about this today…I think I was afraid to touch it.
February 22, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Great story! I wish every menu had a picture next to each item so you’d know what you were ordering. I once ordered a stir fry dish from a restaurant in the Florida Keys that sounded good on the English menu, but tasted like swill. Three years later we went to the Keys again, dropped by the same restaurant … and I ordered a stir fry dish that sounded great on the menu. Wouldn’t you know it, the moment the waitress plopped it on the table in front of me, I recognized it as the same swill. Never woulda happened if the menu had pictures.