Amy's Travel Diary: July 2012

So as I havent been updating enough, here is another post! I've done a lot since I last posted; going to disneyland, sorting out my visa (which I may write about later on), seeing ballet and a chinese orchestra, eating many delicious foods, spending all my money in arcades, beach, etc etc. What I think I want to write about just now, however, are some of the many cultural lessons I'm starting to learn over here! Some are very small and specific, and some are broad differences between British (or western people) and the Chinese, or simply thing I've noticed about myself. There will surely be more to come as I move to the mainland and start to live through life here without my Chinese family to cushion the 'culture shock'. These ones are mainly to do with eating out.

Random picture of lemon tea

1. MIX YOUR LEMON TEA!! Although this is really a Hong Kong thing (I'm told it's not so popular in mainland China, we shall see), this was a very important lesson for me! The first couple of times I drank this I found it to be super syrupy and not pleasant at all to drink. I didn't really enjoy the stuff and would gulp my way through it just to get some liquid in me while eating. When I mentioned that I didn't like it to my boyfriend, I soon discovered why, and felt like a complete idiot. You see in that picture there is a straw? Well beside that straw there is nearly always a spoon. And funnily enough thats not there for decoration. You're meant to crush the lemon yourself a bit and stir it. That's literally it. When they make it I guess the tea flavour just settles at the bottom of the glass, so if you drink it straight away its just pure tea-y-ness. Now I realise I love the stuff. I suppose it also taught me a lesson about food here in general too, give stuff a chance and discover how you're "meant" to eat stuff and it will probably pay off and taste pretty good after all.

2. Washing your dishes before eating. One thing you see a lot here which would probably be considered really rude in the UK is washing dishes before you eat in restaurants. Often when you sit down at a table here, especially in small restaurants, there will already be chopsticks in a container on the table and they'll give everyone a bowl and cups of tea (and often a teapot too). It's perfectly fine to get your chopsticks and stick them in a cup of hot tea to clean them a bit before you eat and pour tea on the bowls. I suppose this is to make sure their dishes are clean, in case the restaurants aren't thorough enough behind the scenes (the service is super quick here, and the number of customers is crazy, so I don't blame them :P). Also, it seems like people in general are really clean when it comes to spreading germs and stuff and this is one place where you see this. So if you go to a restaurant in China and you get a cup of tea, stick your chopsticks in it to impress your waitress with your inside knowledge!.. or y'know, to save yourself from potential germs and stuff.

The ouch-free way to hold a teacup
Also makes you look super classy.

3. How to drink tea. Drinking tea is a big thing in China, and there is a whole culture around making, serving and drinking tea. Eventually I will probably learn enough to write a whole post about this, but there are a few things I have learned so far which may help another 'tea-novice' like me fit in a bit more. First thing to note is that wherever you go to eat, they will probably give you tea to drink, and its going to be very hot and it's served in small teacups, so it's important to hold it by the top rim and bottom ring so you don't hurt your fingers! If you try to hold it round the sides and it will just hurt. It's also important to get used to the feeling of hot hot tea with hot hot food. For some reason, in the words of my boyfriend, the Chinese love to torture themselves with hot stuff, so don't think you can just wait for it to cool down before drinking because any polite Chinese person at your table will refill your cup as soon as it starts to get a bit empty, so you'll only have to wait again. This leads on to the awkward "thank you" every time someone fills up your cup, especially if you or someone else is mid sentence. This actually isn't really necessary, and the common way to thank someone is to casually tap the table lightly three times. Apparently
this comes from an old story about an undercover emperor and his

Asking for a refill

servent that were trying to blend in with normal people (I guess the emperor enjoyed going to see the life of 'normal' citizens, or something). But since the emperor would be refilling his servent's cup as well as his own while they were eating, the servent needed a way to show his thanks which wasn't a super obvious "THANK YOU MY GLORIOUS LORD!". So he settled on this 'code'. So this is the best way to acknowledge someone refilling your cup without having to stop the flow of conversation or anything. Another useful tip is knowing how to ask for more tea in your teapot. You might start seeing waiters filling up everyone's teapot but yours without being asked to and wonder why yours has been left empty. Wonder no longer! When your teapot is empty you just put the lid on top like in the picture above and that signals to the waiter to fill it up when they have a chance. Easy as that!

If you struggle with chopsticks, I'd invest
in one of these. They're often aimed at
school kids though and you might need
to look about a bit for a non-cutesy one.

4. What to do if you can't use chopsticks. Of course it's a great help if you can, but fear not if you haven't quite got it yet! Chinese people don't expect non-asians to know how to use them, so can give you a chinese style spoon or possibly western cutlery (if possible) if you ask. It's also really easy to find a cheap portable set of cutlery to take around with you (although it might have Hello Kitty all over it). Also, when eating rice out of a small bowl, there is not point trying to scoop up every grain. Just pick up the bowl, hold it close to your face and, for want of a better verb, shovel it in with chopsticks, or your cutlery of choice. Much quicker, plus you don't drop food all over the place. It's going to feel awkward at first if you've never eaten like this before, but it's totally normal here, so don't feel embarrassed.

5. Expect some burping and slurping. If you're sensitive to noisy eaters, it's probably best to get over it before coming to China. It's not that it's more or less polite to eat noisily, but it seems like for Chinese people, depending on what you're eating, for example soup noodles, it might be bit slurpy-sounding, so there's not much point trying to be delicate about it. Just get stuck in to your food and try to not get it all over your face. Also some people, especially older guys, will let out a burp occasionally. Chinese people eat very quickly, so there's bound to be a lot of extra air getting in there! You don't have to force yourself to burp if it's just not something you do, but at the same time it's definitely not as much of a taboo thing as back in the UK.

6.Don't be afraid to try everything! To be honest, I'm a bit of a picky eater; I've never really liked eating fish and seafood among other stuff, so I've had to adapt. There are a lot of adventurous people out there, so this one is mostly for people like me, that don't actually realise how picky they are until they leave their comfort zone! Chinese food uses such a range of ingredients that it really is a shame to come here and just eat the same food you're used to! One of the best things about Chinese food in my opinion is that its often shared in a group, so you dont have to worry about ordering the wrong thing, theres a few dishes to choose from so there will always be something. If you're not sure what you'll like, ask what the restaurant recommends, order a few and try a bit of all them. There is also the stereotype of Chinese people liking to eat "weird" food, and to be honest there's a lot of things here you just can't get back home, but it's mostly down to the fact that people are less wasteful here. To be honest, chicken feet just taste like chicken, and pig intestines just taste like pork, so give them a try. I have also found that the best thing to do, especially if you're out with Chinese friends, is not to ask "What is this?", "Can I eat this?" etc. and just take some and see if you like it. The worst case scenario is that it tastes bad, so then just spit it out.Of course sometimes it backfires, like when I started munching on a chunk of ginger, thinking it was pineapple. But it's a lot quicker than asking what everything is and judging whether it will taste good or not, you'll miss out on a lot.

Understand, Appreciate, Absorb. This is the best advice I've got so far, and I think it applies to anyone travelling to somewhere with a different culture. Understand why people are doing what they're doing. For example, eating feet, heads, intestines might seem weird to you, but some people can't afford to eat expensive cuts of meat all the time, so they learn to how to make tasty dishes with everything and it can become a delicacy. Appreciate these things, different cultures can find different solutions to problems which are sometimes very smart, for example chopsticks are much more effective than a fork for eating noodles and picking up pieces meat from a shared dish, whereas a knife and fork are better for cutting up a big steak. And finally, let yourself absorb these things. Not to pretentiously show off how authentically you can hold your chopsticks or pronounce the food off a french menu, but just so you can learn to live with a slightly new mindset and with an understanding of how to fit in more effectively with the people around you.

And, to finish, some of my favourite food so far with the chinese names, for easy menu access ;D... nom nom nom. (Yes I have very simple tastes, and Hong Kong bias, as I haven't made it to the mainland yet :P)