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posted Sunday, 16 March 2008
I’ve been taking a trip down memory lane – and it was fun.
When, I first moved to China some eleven years ago, the standard of service was ridiculous. Today’s newbies still complain about bad service, but believe me it has improved a lot. Independent, privately owned and operated restaurants are generally not so bad.
So, I was delighted, last night, to wander into a throwback. In fact, I have been to the restaurant many times before, but just for a quick bowl of noodles. Last night my intrepid food investigation partner and I decided to go for the full meal experience.
We arrived and managed to sit at our favourite table. The menu arrived. It is huge. I don’t just mean that it has a lot of dishes. It is literally huge.
We had decided on the way to the restaurant that we wanted to try something new; something we hadn’t eaten before. So we perused the menu and picked out something strange. We asked the waitress what it was. Chinese restaurants like to give dishes mysterious names which give no clue as to what they contain. I may have mentioned Grandmother’s Fragrant Fluttering Bones before. Or were they Fluttering Fragrant?
Anyway, on being interrogated as to the provenance of the dish, the waitress completely panicked and ran off. We were left clutching the menu - orderless. After about five minutes she came back, still looking quite distraught but with a rather shabbily dressed young man, in dire need of shave, following her. This, I assumed, was her paramour, come to exact revenge on her slurred honour - until she introduced him as the chef.
He then gave us a blow by blow description of the dish in question – which bits of which various animals’ anatomy were involved; which flavourings he used; which market he purchased them in etc. Sounded really good!
“We’ll have that then.”
Waitress calmly answered “Mei You!” (Don’t have!)
We then asked about various dishes and it became clear that the waitress, lovely as she was, hadn’t the vaguest idea what was on the menu, what the dishes were or whether they had them or not.
Eventually, the boss was summoned. We asked her what yet another dish was and whether she was actually in a position to offer it to us. Within seconds, it became clear that she had no idea either and she went off to the kitchen to consult the chef.
“Mei You!”
Finally, after working our way through about a dozen Mei You dishes, we managed to find a couple which the owner and chef had vaguely heard of and which the waitress was able to carry, if not understand, and all was well.
After another half hour wait, the dishes arrived and they were very, very good. As usual.
We were about half way through eating when the waitress started eyeing us up. It seems that we were outstaying our welcome as they like to close at 8 pm when the rest of the city wakes up and hungry customers hit the streets.
I came over all nostalgic! I haven’t had so much fun for dinner for years. I’m glad to see that traditional China survives in odd pockets.
comments (3)
2. Bill left...
Monday, 17 March 2008 9:51 am
Looks like you walked into a Muslim restaurant - that's what it says on the
menu. Won Ton with beef is always good. Beef on greens is good. Any lamb
disk on kebab is great.
3. liuzhou left...
Wednesday, 19 March 2008 10:07 am :: http://liuzhou.blog-city.com
Yes, it's a Muslim restaurant. I go often. My review of the restaurant can
be read here.