Did My Local Chinese Restaurant Insult Me?

[Kenny同志]

Somehow the recent shift in the tone of this thread is no longer making me feel better :blink:

For the record, we speak in English. Their Mandarin has a really strong Zhejiang accent and I can't understand more than just a couple of words when they talk.

I am sorry, Jbradfor. I think the way we feel what the lady said might be due to our cultural backgrounds.

[jbradfor]

@kenny2006woo, no worries, I'm not insulted.

My OP was half-serious, half-joking. Half serious, as I am curious what she meant. Half joking, because I was not insulted at all; even if she meant "those foreigners, no taste in Chinese food" I'm not insulted, as I have no shame for my love of 餃子 of all kinds, even American-ized pot stickers.

And as for "Somehow the recent shift in the tone of this thread is no longer making me feel better", I was teasing anonymoose back for teasing me.

[Shi Tong]

I am a native speaker and I thought instantly that anonymoose was joking.. that's pretty clear:

He knows what she said - she made some highly inflammatory comments about pot stickers.

I find this hilarious (about pot stickers is the biggest clue)

TBH, I've never met any Chinese people who dont like pot stickers. Maybe it's because she knows your wife DOESN'T like them, and she thought therefore that you were the only one to eat them.. or maybe it's the Chinese thing to assume that some foods are more "man foods" than "woman foods" (dont know if you've come across this one before BTW.. always quite odd.)

[Kobo-Daishi]

Dear JBradfor,

I was picking up dinner from our local Chinese restaurant, and to confirm the order she asked if I ordered A, B, and C. I replied that I don't know, as my wife ordered. She then commented no wonder there are no pot stickers.

What did she mean by that? Was she implying that pot stickers are foreigner-only food, and that real Chinese wouldn't order them? [We eat there often enough that they recognize me and know my wife is Chinese.] That seems strange to me, as their food in general is pretty Americanized, and I have had pot stickers in China (just not very common).

And, for the record, I don't always order pot stickers, only about 1/3 the time.

This reminds me of an episode of the American television comedy series, "Sex and the City".

In this episode Miranda, a 30-something single lawyer is in her lonely apartment with her cat feeling down about herself when she decides to phone order her local Chinese restaurant to have some food delivered to her.

Half way through Miranda's order, the woman on the line giggles and completes Miranda's sentence and says "I know. Same thing all the time".

Miranda who was already down about herself and feeling that she was in a rut obsesses about the incident all day. She tells her friend Carrie and even gets into a fight because of it.

The next time she calls and again gets the giggles so she decides to go to the restaurant to confront the woman.

At the restaurant she finds that that's the way the woman behaves with everyone. That she's an effervescent bubbly type person who giggles at everything.

That she probably completed the order with an "same thing all the time" because it's the most popular item on the menu.

Are you going to obsess over this and ruin your enjoyment of what is a good dining experience for you?

I'll leave you with this snippet from a May 10, 2010 article titled "They Credit Learning Chinese in School for Settling Well in China" found at Singapore's Today magazine web site:

In the case of basketball star O'Neal, Mr Chow was picked over an American-born Taiwanese photographer because his competitor had problems conversing in Mandarin. The organiser's choice paid off from the first night of Mr O'Neal's visit.

"Everyone was jet-lagged and cranky. It was dinner time, and Shaq was asking for more food. As the servers panicked, they started speaking quickly in Chinese and "na ge" (the Mandarin word for "that") kept turning up in their speech. Shaq and his entourage thought they were saying "nigger" (a derogatory term for African-Americans), and started laughing," Mr Chow recalled.

"I was the only person in the room who could understand ... and I explained the confusion to both parties, including to the official translator who didn't understand. Shaq warmed up to me there after. We are friends on Facebook now."

Na Ge not n* ggah

And, no, I don't watch Sex in the City.

I only watched it because a female co-worker raved about it.

I've kept watching it only because it's one of the rare television shows with Chinese subtitles in "traditional" characters.

Kobo-Daishi, PLLA.

P.S. Are potstickers the same as jiaozi?

P.P.S. Shaq is an African-American basketballer.

[Shi Tong]

Kobo, potstickers are fried "dumplings" or jiaozi, but they're not exactly the same as just plain fried. They're called potstickers because they're the ones which stuck to the pot (where there was no water) and hence burned, or fried and stuck to the pan.

As was just said:

My OP was half-serious, half-joking. Half serious, as I am curious what she meant.

So I dont think it will spoil his enjoyment of his food too much. ;)

[randall_flagg]

When I was living in China, I actually had a "running bet" with my friend about 锅贴。 I argued that they are mainly for breakfast, while she claimed it was more of a lunch thing. We would walk up to random strangers and ask them about their 锅贴 habits. It was fun for a while, but it would have been more fun had I won the bet. I ended up having to drink that disgusting soft-drink that tastes like BBQ sauce (red plastic bag, name escapes me right now, not 王老吉).

[Shi Tong]

ack.. i think I know the stuff.. is it supposed to make you strong? some kind of "medical" quality?

I think 锅贴 are 点心, which i think is traditionally an afternoon/ lunch thing. Though of course, you can find 锅贴 24/7.

YUM!

[imron]

It made me laugh

[engrafted]

Why didn't you just ask her why? Anytime I'm not sure about what someone means I ask them right away why they said that. Then they're either taken aback that they have to explain their insult, or we have a good laugh over me not understanding. That goes for any language being spoken.

I'm shocked over the discussion of what time to eat 锅贴. I've found that almost any food out here is eaten any time. Much less than in the west where we have specific breakfast, lunch, and dinner foods. There are only a couple things I've heard are time specific foods, like that awesome soy based soup with fried bread on the streets in the morning.

[jbradfor]

I think they insulted me again! :angry: :angry:

Here is the text of the fortune in my fortune cookie over the weekend.

The greatest danger could be your stupidity

I know they saved this one and planned it just for me!

So what do you think that one means? Derisive answers are accepted (and expected).

[anonymoose]

I don't know about saving that one - they probably had it custom printed just for you.

By the way, where did fortune cookies originate? I've never even seen one in China.

[roddy]

I'd say they've pretty much got the measure of you is all. Watch out for upcoming fortunes: Your wife has been complaining about your snoring; and It's really time to buy some new shirts. Or at least wash that one.

[crazy-meiguoren]

where did fortune cookies originate? I've never even seen one in China

According to this Wikipedia article, they first appeared in California. It is an Americanized version of a Japanese cookie called "Tsujiura Senbei", introduced in Kyoto during the 1800s. There is a related tradition of omikuji, which is the giving out of random fortunes at Japanese temples. The American version of the cookie was introduced mostly by Japanese immigrants.

That is why you haven't seen them in China. It's not a Chinese thang. ;)

[Goujian]

I don't know about that. Potstickers are usually a snack during breakfast and lunch time, usually lunch. It's uncommon to hear of it eaten during dinner though. I usually have potstickers as a late night snack after dinner.

[blackmeow]

to jbradfor:

after read the story, i think she just try to be friendly. and why is that?

because she is trying to show u that she knows ur family well (at least the orders u taking), by this will make people think 'they are quite close!'

this is nothing about the food. it is just a basic chinese business tool of Guanxi, which makes ur customer feel that u are his friend.

[boxcar]

I went to a Chinese restaurant recently and placed an order. I can't remember the Chinese name of the dish, but the English is something like "Chinese style beef stew". The waitress replied, "No, that is not for your people."

[jbradfor]

LOL, that would make me want to order it all the more!

[blackmeow]

boxcar :

ehhh in this case.......the waitress sacks. :blink:

[Murray]

LMAO!

That's priceles; I would've died laughing. Did you order it anyway?

[boxcar]

It took some convincing, but she let me have it. She was actually the owner of the restaurant. I don't think she had any intention of insulting me; she just meant that Americans don't typically like it. The food was very good and she seemed impressed that I finished it. To be honest, even if it was a plate of vomit, I would have ate the entire thing just out of spite.