I’m a regular
So I’ve been hitting up this small Chinese eatery next to my apartment regularly. I remember my first visits being a bit awkward- constant stares, staff struggling to understand the foreigner who sucked at ordering in Chinese, my food coming out slower than usual etc… It didn’t bother me though because:
1) food is cheap and pretty darn good, especially their dumplings and dim sum.
2) the eatery is conveniently located near my pad and
3) my Chinese isn’t too great so that didn’t help with the ordering (although that will change in a few months)
After a few weeks I noticed things were changing…..
The usual stares were gone and replaced with smiles, small conversation in Chinese, better, faster service and get this…. minimal English words such as hello and bye bye. What? For me? 😀 Even the workers outside the restaurant smile and wave at me every time I pass by even when I’m NOT going in the restaurant. Nice.
This morning I woke up and decided to head over for some breakfast and the coolest thing happened. I’m walking towards the restaurant and from a distance I can already see the smiling worker outside waiting to greet me. I step inside, the waitress smiles and shouts out an order of Shao Mei!! (my usual order) WOW. I didn’t even make it to the table and already she’s ordering for me. Although, little did she know that I was in to order something different. I told her “Bu yao le shao mei” then we all busted out laughing, she started talking to me in Chinese and I just kept nodding my head. Didn’t understand her but I’m sure it was in the likes of “Oh I thought you were going to order your usual shao mei, you must of gotten sick of eating em’… yadda yadda yadda….” LOL.
Oh I’ll be back for my Shao mei – tomorrow or maybe for lunch 🙂
Tags: China
sdizon
LOL! What did you order instead then?
I ordered a bowl of noodles lol 🙂 good to hear from you Mike!
mmm…noodles…
Pretty soon you’ll be typing your IMs in Chinese! 🙂