Daily Life in China: Part II, Eating Out

Bamboo cups of tea

When I first moved to China and Cheng Du Panda was still guiding us, we went to a restaurant called "Grandma's House", which is a chain of good quality, not very expensive Chinese food.  We were appalled at the line outside the restaurant and went searching for another place with no line, but the panda warned us that the Chinese think nothing of waiting an hour or more for a meal, and we would find that eating out is done by so many people in a country filled with people that on a Saturday night we weren't going to find our mythical "restaurant without a line".  She was right, damn it, as she so often is.

waiting for their turn

Last night we had a fantastic massage at one of the malls that has a "Grandma's House" restaurant in it, and we were hungry after all that relaxing, so I bravely went to the line, watched what the others were doing and guessed (inputting their phone numbers and how many in their party), then did it myself and got a ticket.  I was extremely proud of myself.  Next I grabbed one of the menus, and a steel stool and went to sit it out with S and about 70 or 80 other people.  I don't think they take reservations at this establishment; they want to see the whites of your eyes, THEN you get a ticket and wait.  It's actually a system I see more of in the U.S. in cities and it does make some sense.

studying the menu

There are a few differences to note in the crowds from here and the U.S., though.  First, there is some serious studying of the menu by everyone, as they encourage you to check off what you want before you get seated to speed the process along.  Brilliant idea, by the way, except this one didn't have any English. No problem, I put together some of my few words of Mandarin and asked for a menu in English, which I knew usually meant pictures.  They produced one and after that I was very cocky in my abilities to navigate this fun experience.  The Chinese menu features about 250-300 dishes, while ours was about 50 or 60, which is plenty.  We put bookmarks in the menu and waited. The others were still studying their menus and debating what they felt like eating; I felt exonerated completely from anyone who has ever complained I take too long to study the menu.  These people were memorizing it, debating it, changing it, and loving it all!
While waiting I notice several families had brought their snack boxes, and were distributing food to their group.  Genius.  Also, I saw more than one party with their 2-liter soda bottles tucked under their arms as they went in in case this place didn't carry their favorites, or to cut down on cost perhaps?  There is also a grand children's area with computers, a large bowl of cherry tomatoes, and a chandelier.

Seeing my neighbor's food made me peckish!

The wait was about 50 minutes, but then once we were inside, it was no more than 10 minutes before we had our first dish.  From then the dishes kept arriving in rapid sequence, and all without MSG since I used my remaining few words of Mandarin to explain I couldn't eat MSG and it would make me sick (Actually I think I said I was sick, and please no MSG, but tense is just a small detail.)
I finished the meal with a gorgeous fresh blackberry and pear juice, and all told the damage was only 76 quai, which is 12.33 cents USD.  And we have leftovers for S, and it was excellent quality food, not much oil and no MSG.  I need to get used to the lines and join the brigade for more of this excellent fare.  It's in the same mall as our gym, so I'm making some amendments to our gym schedule starting tomorrow.
The only aspect of the experience that was less than enjoyable was their electronic voice system for announcing whose table was ready.  There was a constant, loud announcement that said something like this, (again, guessing except the numbers) "Number A86, it's your turn to eat now.  It's your turn to eat now.  It's your turn to eat now."  A little grating.  I also was impressed by how quickly they left behind any slowpokes, erased their names from the LED display and went on to the next number.  We felt proud to have navigated the experience to such great success and had such a great outcome.  More beans, please!

My favorite dish in China:  Green beans sauteed with garlic and red peppers

Grilled Eggplant with spicy bread crumb-like topping: like buttah

Sweet Pork tenderloin and noodles