Chinese Restaurant Extravaganda!

So, this weekend we had teaching off (yay) and so we decided to something fun!

 

On Friday we decided to go try a new authentic Chinese restaurant, and we picked one that is just about a block away from our apartments. It was pretty interesting.... haha. It's a really cute place- when you first walk in there is a cute coy pond and bamboo and chinese-y stuff. It really sets the mood.

 

The thing is, we don't speak ANY Mandarin, and only about 10% of the people in our city of Zhongshan speak English, so everywhere we go is an adventure.

 

The host finally mimed out of us that there were only going to be 4 people in our group, and took us to a table. As we walk through the restaurant, EVERYONE turns to stare. No joke. Mouths open, chopsticks still half way up, pinching their food and waiting patiently for their owners to remember to eat. They all turn around in their seats and seriously stare the whole time they are eating. Its kind of disturbing and entertaining at the same time.

 

Our waiter comes over with some menus, and of course breaks out into his Mandarin routine. We just stare with blank faces, not understanding a word of it. He finally realized we didn't understand him, and just gave us the menus. But unlike an American restaurant, he stood their waiting for us to order, instead of giving us some time and coming back later. So we open the menu, and thank goodness their were pictures or we would have had a HUGE problem. But the pictures still don't help that much. You cant really tell what it is. (except for the turtle and the fish heads.. those are pretty obvious haha).

 

Well the waiter REALLY wanted to us to order. But we couldn't decide. Plus, the menu was the biggest menu I have ever seen at a restaurant. I think there were at least 100 entrée's. Finally we got to the last page of the menu and 2 of the pictures looked good. So after that hassle the waiter put our order in.

 

So as we were waiting, our eyes wandered over to our neighbors table. They had a big dish of something that looked REALLY good, so we waived our waiter down and ordered that too.

 

Our first meal that we ordered came out and it was surprisingly good! Lindsay and I really liked it, but Becca and Chelsey didn't think to much of it. I think the pork/chicken dish we ordered was the closest thing to sweet n' sour pork we can get. We also got these really good bun/roll things that tasted kind of like a doughnut.

 

A little bit later the other meal came out and it smelled really good. I dove right it and picked up a piece of beef with my chopsticks and popped it in my mouth and BAM! It was SOOOOOO spicy! And if you know me, I don't do spicy. Mild salsa is spicy for me haha. So I hurry and pulled the beef out of my mouth and just sat there with it in my chopsticks. I didn't really know what to do. So I thought about it for a little bit.... "Hmmm... that was really spicy.. but it tasted good... but it was spicy... I'm REALLY hungry... " So I was brave and put the beef in my mouth again. And I realized something. You get used to the spicy flavor, and it is REALLY YUMMY! So me and Lindsay went crazy and ate a TON! I was really proud, because that isn't something I would normally do. Spicy is REALLY spicy haha.

 

The best part of the meal was when the waiter brought out watermelon at the end. Watermelon is like HEAVEN here! Nothing ever tasted to good haha.

 

So our first Chinese Restaurant experience went really well. We think we got REALLY lucky with what we ordered. We'll see if we can be that lucky again!

 

(Wow this is kinda long... sorry!)