Clueless Americans Dine Out

We decided we didn’t want to eat in the hotel tonight, nor did we have time to catch a taxi someplace so we headed out by foot to find a restaurant tonight. Down the block and around the corner and Jeannette immediately ducked into the first restaurant she saw. We were in a bit of a hurry but, still, I was interested to find out what the menu and prices looked like.

It was a very nice, fairly formal restaurant of (to us) undetermined Asian origin. Chinese? Japanese? Something else? All I knew was that we were the only white faces—well, except for MelodyJoy—and that there were chopsticks on the tables. They handed us menus . . . all in some foreign language. Didn’t matter which foreign language really since we don’t read anything except English. We felt a sense of panic.

Tea? Do we want tea? I understood the word “Jasmine.” Even though I don’t like tea, I ordered tea all ‘round. But what to do about the menu? We were just about to make a run for it. No one spoke more than a few words of English. But we could tell that one of the supervisors was running to get something . . . perhaps someone who spoke our language. She came back with something almost as good: A menu with pictures. Just like Denny’s.

After quite a bit of confusion, even with pictures, we finally ordered Fried Salty Fish, a chicken dish, a pork dish and four bowls of rice. Based on our guide’s advice, we knew better than to order “tiger,” which usually is cat, or “dragon” (snake). We still didn’t even know what type of restaurant we were in, though! Then the supervisor suggested we get broccoli with wasabe sauce. Ah, we’re in a JAPANESE restaurant!

I pulled out the card that AWAA gave us that explains in Chinese what we are doing in the country and shared it with the waitresses. They read it with great interest and then Laura showed them pictures of Jordan, Phillip and Jameson. Laura took a photo of us with the supervisor.

The food came and it was great—especially the pork and the fish, tail and all. The entire meal came to 225 yuan, or less than $30, and we felt like triumphant explorers who survived a great adventure.