Restaurants & Food
December 7th, 2006 by stolisano
Ni Hao SJEDS,
Many of you have asked us about Restaurants here in China. So far we have been to several ones. You already read about our adventure at the Dim Sum restaurant in Hong Kong.
Yesterday we were taken by our Tour Guide, Mr. Li, in Shanghai to a restaurant that servers food from the Western region of China. The waitress kept bringing us more and more plates of food. A fish dish followed by pork, beef, chicken, soup, vegetables, and rice. It was a feast. We were not able to finish all of the food that they placed in front of us.
In the morning we usually have breakfast at the hotel. In Shanghai, it was very interesting to sit at the table and observe all the other people in this big room. People share the tables at the restaurant. When you walk up to a table with some free chairs you ask if the chairs are taken. We noticed something funny that caused some confusion. When we walk up and asked (with gestures, since our Chinese is not that good 
if the chairs were still free, the person sitting at the table would shake their head. It seemed to mean “No, they are not occupied”. We had expected to see a nod meaning, “Yes, they are free”. Interpreting gestures is even more important if you do not speak the language.
There was a breakfast buffet, where everybody just got up and served themselves what they wanted. We noticed that most Chinese customers would take a salad, rice, noodles and hard boiled eggs or even a sandwich. It is very different from the kind of food we consider “breakfast” food. It was also interesting to observe how hardboiled eggs are eaten with chopsticks. They are peeled half way down and then the chopsticks are used to push the inside of the egg into the mouth.
8 Responses to “Restaurants & Food”
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Sounds like the western food was more your style!!How are you handling the chopsticks at every meal? Do the Chinese seem to eat out as much as Americans do?? Gatling class
We are still talking about the food in china (due to the wonderful pictures)
1. Are you enjoying their food? If yes, what is your favorite dish?
2. What do you drink? (Green tea, black tea, water)
3. Are the chinese people nice to you at the table?
Some students would like to know if there are any worms or canine on the menus. If so, would either of you be willing to try it? Also, what kind of things do Chinese eat on their salad? What is YOUR favorite food that you have tried so far?
Hi Mrs. Tolisano and Mrs. St. Cyr, Mrs. Freyer’s class has a few questions for you:
Katie would like to know if they had regular silverware for you to use instead of chopsticks at the hotel and restaurant.
Jordan would like to know if the no gesture means yes what do they do for no?
Brandon J would like to know if the food was better in Shanghai than Hong Kong?
Elisabeth would like to know if you have only eaten in restaurants so far? Have you been able to cook your own food bought from the markets?
Garrett would like to know if the rice is like the rice from the chinese restaurants here in Jacksonville?
Lexi would like to know if the eggs taste the same?
Have fun!!!
Mrs. McGarity’s class would like to know if there are any French, Italian or Spanish restaurants in China? Have you had any delicious duck? What is the strangest food you have seen so far? Do they have salt and pepper shakers on the table like we do?
Mrs. Pickering’s class would like to know if the salads are the same as we have here.
Why are their gestures so different from ours?
Are you eating or less than you usually eat here?
Do they have donuts in China?
Mrs. Menger’s class would like to know…
Hannah asks: Do they eat American food in China like we eat Chinese food here?
Morgan asks: Does the Chinese food there taste like the Chinese food here?
Jenner asks: Have you tried chicken feet yet?
Lily asks: What kind of desserts do they have?
Will asks: What types of soda do they have?
Kourtney asks: Does your tour guide translate everything for you?
Caroline and Kaitlyn ask: Do the young children use a different kind of chopsticks than the adults?
Keep taking great pictures!
We are working on our chopstick skills. Mrs. St-Cyr was already pretty good at it before we came here and I am working on my ability. It is pretty hard
and makes me feel very awkward. I do feel like a little child, when the food falls down on my lap instead of going into my mouth. I am glad I have my napkin on my lap. I felt a little better yesterday when I saw a Chinese man eat with a fork and he had a hard time holding it the proper way. He stabbed a watermelon slice with the fork and lifted it straight up into the air and started biting off of it.
The Chinese don’t seem to get such big portions on their plates as we in America do. Everything comes on several plates and everyone on the table shares the food. You only pick the things you are going to eat.
So far we can tell, that people drink tea and hot water with their meal. We are drinking bottled cold water and Sprite. The Chinese people that have been sitting with us at the tables have mostly ignored us.
Until now we have not been offered any worms or dog meat. I would not try it, but Mrs. St-Cyr has been very good at trying mostly everything so far.
My favorite food I have tried so far was chicken with peanuts. Mrs.St-Cyr’s favorite food was a pumpkin cake with sesame seeds.
Wwe can always find silverware in the hotels, which are used to Westerners visiting . When we go to a typical Chinese restaurant we are only offered chopsticks.
The gesture for “no” is still a shake with the head, and for “yes” they still nod up and down. The misunderstanding was how it was phrased.
We can’t really say in which city the food was “better”. Keep checking our Top Ten list to read about some of our “Favorite” things.
We have not been able to cook our own food, since we do not have kitchens in our hotel rooms. We have bought fruits at the market before as well as chestnuts.
The rice seems to be very similar to the one we eat at the Chinese restaurants in America. The white rice is pretty sticky, which is good, since it makes it easier to pick up with chopsticks. The fried rice has some onions and other things in it.
So far I have tried an omelette and it tasted the same. A lot of people eat hard boiled eggs, but they do not look very appealing to us, since they look all brownish through the cracks of the shell. Mrs. St-Cyr thinks they must be dunked in soy sauce to change their color like that.
We are sure that there are many different restaurants from different countries in China. They are probably found only in the bigger cities. We have seen a few, but did not go there to eat. In Beijing we are planning on eating Peking duck, so we will let you know how that tasted.
In the hotels there are salt and pepper shakers on the table. We will check the next time we are in a Chinese restaurant if they have them there.
No donut sighting so far..
Younger people like to eat American style food. KFC is more popular than McDonald’s here. The food here tastes a lot different than the “Americanized” Chinese food in USA.
No we have not tried Chicken feet yet. We are too “chicken” for that.
The desserts (at the hotels) have been really good so far. The pumpkin cake and all the different kinds of fruits are really good.
We have seen Sprite, Coke, Pepsi, Fanta, etc.
The tour guide has to translate everything for us.
We really have not seen many children at restaurants. The only ones were babies and the pre-teens at the Dim Sum restaurant. They used chopsticks (not the baby of course.