OMF Blog
Food
- Thursday 31 January 2008All Chinese are foodies. Mixing your food is even worse than mixing your metaphors. Each dish is served as a separate entity because the Chinese believe that every flavour is unique and should be savoured as such.
Chopsticks
We cannot hope to tell you how to use chopsticks here – the only trick is practice makes perfect. Once you have mastered chopsticks you will realise that some foods are harder than others. Tofu, for example, is so soft it breaks apart under the slightest pressure. Don’t try to pick up individual grains of rice. Instead, to finish your rice, bring you bowl up to your mouth and scoop it in.
In cheaper restaurants, you will have to break your chopsticks apart before using them. It is a good idea to rub them against each other to create a smooth edge; this is to avoid putting splinters in your mouth.
Traditionally, it is bad luck to drop a chopstick. Don’t put your chopsticks into the communal bowl more than is necessary to get the grub. Also, never stick your chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice. This symbolises death. It is frowned upon!
Entertaining
If you are keen on cooking, by all means invite a Chinese friend to cook a Chinese meal for you in your kitchen, but don’t invite him/her for a Chinese meal cooked by you – it is sure to be cooked wrong one way or another, and they will say so. There isn’t much point in inviting them for a typical McDonalds or Western restaurant meal either, they probably won’t like it. Apart from pizza (maybe), fruit salad and ice cream, and some Chinese like coffee. Buy some dishes of Chinese food at a takeaway, cook some rice, and microwave and serve it at home, with fruit to finish. They will enjoy that. Or you can have the food sent in from a restaurant.
Finishing a drink
If you do not want more tea or juice, leave your cup or glass half-full. Do not drain your glass too quickly. Better yet, it is more polite just to have one glass or cup of beverage. In a restaurant, you may not want to drink any more, but don’t try to stop the waitress from topping-up your cup, it’s her job and part of the service. When having their cup topped-up, you may see someone tap lightly on the table with the third finger. That says, ‘Thank you’, or, ‘Enough’, politely.
In a restaurant
If invited to a restaurant, it is not necessary to take a gift of fruit, but the next time you turn the invitation round and invite them. If you invite someone to a meal they will feel under an obligation to invite you to a meal or to do something in return. In general, the seat opposite the door is the place of honour and you should always let the host indicate where he wants you to sit. Don’t tuck into the first dish greedily – notice the Chinese will take a very little only - and there will be a lot more to come. If you are the guest of honour at a banquet you will be expected to depart before anyone else. So after the final course – usually fruit – wipe your hands with the towel provided and then excuse yourself. Everyone else will follow you shortly.
Suppose there is business to be discussed at a meal; don’t betray your ignorance of civilised behaviour by being in a hurry. The meal serves to establish a good relationship as the background for the matter. The right time for the business will be when your Chinese friend or opposite number raises it, which will be towards the end or even after the meal.
If you are the host at a formal dinner, you should escort your most important guests to the street door yourself. Don’t delegate it to a junior or leave them to find their own way out. When seeing guests off from your apartment, escort them to the lift, or stay waving goodbye until they are round the corner and out of sight, before you close your door. This is called ‘to song’. The further you song someone, the great the kudos you give them.
If you are trying to persuade your Chinese friend to let you pay for a meal, don’t wave money about, or try to press money on him. Try to get the waitress to give you the bill, or just give her the money. Or you can say you are going to the toilet and sneak by the pay-desk on the way. However, if he is determined to pay, there isn’t much you can do about it, except invite him back another day.
Leaving food
Many Chinese foods have bones. What do you do with them? Usually in a restaurant, you will have a bowl and a plate. Feel free to leave your bones on your personal plate, or even beside your plate where there is no tablecloth. You may seem Chinese people spitting their bones on the floor. It is not impolite not to do this.
Brits think that Chinese waste an inordinate amount of food when eating in restaurants, and tend to order only as much food as they will eat. But if entertaining Chinese to a restaurant meal, order more dishes than you really need, because the lavishness of the meal indicates your respect for the guests. An expensive Chinese meal will include so many other dishes that most of the guests will not want any rice as well, but rice (or noodles) is usually offered towards the end of such a meal, in case anyone is still not full. The napkin provided is to protect your clothes; use a tissue to wipe the mouth. If there is food left over, it is quite normal to ask for a bag to take it home.
Weird food
China has a head to tail eating policy. No part of the animal is ignored as Chinese chefs demonstrate their culinary expertise. They also provide foods that are most unusual to a Western diet. How should you respond to this?
You wouldn’t expect a guest in your home to pick up a bit of steak and laugh and say, “Yuk! What animal did this stuff come from?” So don’t make laughing or critical remarks about the food. If pressed to have something that you may not like, accept it courteously, without comment. You don’t have to eat it - you can pretend to eat a bit, and put it on your rubbish plate a few minutes later.
The big entrance
When you go into a small restaurant with your friends, don’t embarrass everyone in the place by going in as a noisy group, calling out to each other and laughing. Pause in the doorway and see if there is room for your party. Let one person go in first to check, then go in quietly. If you sit at a table which already has any Chinese seated there, they will usually get up and take their food elsewhere.
Don’t wave your arms about or shout if you want more tea or anything. When you see a waitress, just point to your cup. If you don’t know how to ask for the bill, one of you can go to the desk to pay.