Customs...

[Scottish_Rob]

I was speaking to my lady the other day and told her about the custom of 'Rabbie Burns' (famous Scottish Poet, in case anyone does not know) and the 'Haggis', how it is piped into the dining hall and the speech that's said over it etc.

and this is one of the customs of China...It concerns the first time the lady takes you home to meet her family...

"when people have meals together, there would be ten people plus us to have the first dinner together, we call it the first reunion dinner, the even numbers in China means lucky, so we will cook ten dishes for you at the first time means beautiful , when we are eating, others will help you to refill your bowl..."

Please try not to ask questions on here, maybe other tips could be put on this thread...

[Neil]

I loved the fancy restaurant we went to one night.  The table had 8 chairs but unlike Canada where the 8 chairs would be evenly spaced around the round table, these 8 chairs are in pairs in the 4 quadrandts of the room so couples sit together.  

I wasn't paying close attention but tea was interresting the first time.  Tea is served to the 4 of us, piping hot and very very weak.  Too hot to drink (I've learned to follow others lead so I don't touch anything until someone else does).  Well, good thing, they take the tea and pour it out into their rice bowl, rinsing the big white spoon and cleaning the tea cup.  Nina's best friend even used her spoon to scrape out some imaginary something from her tea cup.  All the dumped tea is then poured into a bowl in the center of the table and taken away.  The next round of tea is to drink.

The tea house was even cooler.  The tea comes delivered to the table with a gas fired heater and a tray with 3 small tea pots and one small tea pot with no lid.  We each got a tiny little tea cup.  The tea pot is filled with water and the first round is dumped directly into the tray which has a false bottom to allow for spills.  When filling she made sure to pour hot water over the sides of the tea pot to rinse it off.  Then more hot water is poured in and that's the tea we drink.  Nina would fill our cups (mine first) then grab her cup, I'd grab mine, we'd toast and sip, sip, finish the cup, then put it down (on a cute little wooden tray) and she would refill the cups.  Repeated nearly a hundred times over the course of supper.  Tea with supper is hands down the best thing in the world.  Spicy hot food, no problem, rinse with tea.  Yucky slimy noodles, no problem, rinse with tea.

[Arnold]

I have alway's noticed , that when my wife's Parent's .. her Borther .. her Uncle , took us out for a Family Dinner and the time to Pay the Bill would come . That this was never done at the Table . Whoever was the "LUCKY" one (haha , maybe I was ? Never yet was I allowed to pay for a Dinner ,  except at the american Restaurant ) would gently just leave the Room for a few minutes to take care of it and return . BTW , that is eating in the big Private rooms at each Restaurant's only , not at the Mom and Pop places .
Very discreet , nobody questions the Bill except the one Paying and that is done out of the Room . I like that Costum very much .

[feisnik]

Yes, in a banquet room, this is how it is done, but at the mom & pop's restaurants, there is the ceremonial 'arguing' over who will pay, even if everyone already knows in advance who will pay.

[JimB]

Right, in the big places, that is how it is done.  However, in our family, the one who invited the others is expected to pay for the meal.  And your right, you are supposed to argue over who pays. Since in Wuhan, I have only paid for two lunches.  My Brother inalw has paid every time.  I cannot get him to actually let me pay.  However, he orders so much food that he takes home about 6 bowls full of foodstuffs.  i think that is why he always pays.

[David5o]

Jim B,

If this is the same ''secret service'' brother -in-law, ... he probably isn't paying, or only paying a small percentage of the real cost of the meal.  Hell, ....that's basically the same all over the world, where police eat in local restaurants. In fact i have a police friend here in Cyprus, ....I've never seen him pay for a single meal yet !! ..haha!!  And there exactly like the Chinese at a restaurant over here, ...they talk at the top of there voices, even to the person next to them. Anyone that was a stranger over here would honestly think, the whole table were involved in one big argument, except there all laughing and giggling amongst each other. ...hahaha!!
Just like in virtually every restaurant in China!!

David....

[Danny]

Yes, in a banquet room, this is how it is done, but at the mom & pop's restaurants, there is the ceremonial 'arguing' over who will pay.

It's the same here in Australia, when you go out with Greeks or Italians, they argue over who will have the honour of paying for the meal.

When you go out with Australians (I am entitled to bitch and moan about them, since I am one) they are tight as can be. You have all these people arguing that they shouldn't have to pay as much as everyone else because they didn't have desert, or some other stupid reason. And there's never enough money in what people throw into the middle of the table, so the person who ends up paying the restaurant on behalf of the table always ends up making up the difference *laughs*

It is shameful situations like this that give me encouragement about finding a woman from another place entirely.

[Scottish_Rob]

Here is a custom that I have just read from Keren's letter today....I wonder if it would work in the West???:blush:

"Baby, you know in China, every one who has a formal job will have the holidays for marry, if the people get married before 24 years old, they would have seven days off, but if the people get married after 24 th years old, they will have the 15 th days off, so Yuki will have 15 days off, there will come the National holiday which will be eight days in China, so she will have the extra eight days off ! : ) Lucky , right ?...":dodgy:

Yuki is 'our' translator...and a comment from her to Keren about going on holiday/honeymoon...

"Yuki said she will find the second best translator work for us, hahahaha..."

So it seems that 'I' have the best translator from Chnlove...:icon_cheesygrin::icon_cheesygrin: