Not having a kitchen means I get to eat out all the time. When I get hungry I don't have to labor in front of the fridge trying to decide what to eat, I grab my umbrella, check my wallet, put on my sandals and I'm off to dinner.
I have been choosing a place pretty close lately, even closer than the stinky tofu, I could probably yell my order to them out my bedroom window if I spoke better Chinese. Today I ordered the same thing that I ate the other 3 times I was there, two of the 4 things that I can even read on the menu, there are no pictures. I think I want to describe the ordering process: come in, sit down at an empty table, the menu-forms are at the table in a wire basket mounted on the wall all ready to go, a pen is there too, as well as a bunch of chop sticks, put your table number at the top of your form, draw a horizontal line for "one" next to the items you want, then take your form to the kitchen. Usually someone will pause whatever they're doing to take your form and glance at it. Then you go sit down and wait. They bring your food to you, when you're done eating you go back to the kitchen, which is always in the front of the shop so people can order directly from the kitchen while standing on the sidewalk, dining is in back, they usually know which table you are since you're only sitting a few feet away, hand them the money, they hand you change, then you leave, and they bus the table. There isn't much if any eye contact during any of these interchanges, everybody has "I'm busy eyes".
Tonight I ordered pork fried rice and a pile of a green leafy vegetables. Their pork fried rice has a cool taste to it, I like it.
Today I brought my little orange electronic dictionary, I bought it here, with a little white stylus I can write Chinese characters on it's little hard to read screen and it'll find them about 1 out of 3 times, I usually only look up the easy ones. Today, while I was waiting for my food and watching an amazing Discovery video about crazy looking sea horses, I pulled out another menu-form. This menu is a dense little thing with at least 50 items crammed onto it, I want to test my dictionary so I look up the character for pork. But instead I get "sheep." I've been eating sheep fried rice all this time, now I understand the funny taste. It's my new favorite.
After I got my sheep fried rice and green leafy vegetables, I was watching penguins on Discovery, minding my own business, when two American girls walk in and sit right next to the TV where I can't ignore them very well. "What is happening to this town?" I ask myself. "It's over-run with foreigners! There are three just in this restaurant alone." Maybe I need to pick a new restaurant. (edit 326) Permalink