Eric's Beijing Diary

Restaurants. They come in many different varieties here. Some of them are very neat, and tidy. I have seen several where the tables have several layers of thin plastic, and they peel of a layer at a time each time the customers from that table leave the establishment. But, as I said, they come in all varieties. A week ago I was eating in one of those little out of the way places--the kind people tell me I shouldn't be going to--and I dropped a chopstick. Lily jumped up and got me another pair. It was a nice gesture, but I wouldn't have bothered. I didn't drop my chopstick on the floor, I dropped it on the table. But the table is where you spit the bones. 'Course they do come along and wipe it off between customers. Somehow, though, one gets the feeling that perhaps it isn't the epitome of cleanliness. The food is real good, though.

The other day, we were at a restaurant that is just a little more upscale. Eric Wu, Lily and her boyfriend, and myself. We had a large hotpot with a divider in the middle. Beef on one side, spicy mutton on the other. Boiling hot water, into which we put the sweet potatoes, spinach, and noodles. Grab some meat, run it through the sesame dip, and down the hatch. It was an absolutely delicious meal. Cost? Twenty-five yuan for each of us. Just about exactly three US dollars. The students were upset. They thought the price was exorbitant. Lily said matter-of-factly, "We're not coming here again."

Well, I had to admit that the price was about a dollar more for each of us than we usually spend. But I was dealing with it. Actually the meal we ate could have fed one other person, maybe two. That is one thing unique about restaurants in China. You can't go to dinner by yourself. Well, you can, but you'll have to pay for every dish, and you can't possibly eat it all. When you go to a restaurant in China, you don't order individual portions. There are exceptions, of course, like the Lush, where I sometimes go to get bacon and eggs. But at most Chinese restaurants, you order the dishes, they put them in the middle of the table, and then everyone helps themselves. No serving spoons. Just grab your chopsticks and go for it. When I say, "you," I use the term in a general sense. I don't order. I never have. I don't know how. Students tell me, "just look at the pictures." But the pictures mean nothing to me. I have no idea what I am looking at. When it comes to main dishes, of course, you do develop a sort of repertoire of dishes you are familiar with, such as boiling fish, peking duck, etc. But basically, when I go somewhere to eat with a bunch of students, I am at their mercy.