Lesson 1: food

The first order of business is to not die, and therefore food. After registering at BLCU today it was way past lunch and I was very hungry, so I went to a local restaurant. I asked if they had tofu (你有豆腐吗?, thank you Jun) but they didn’t. They did however realize that I wanted some vegetable dish and showed me the menu. Since explaining that I don’t eat meat or fish (which were swimming next to me) didn’t deter them, I ordered something that looked vegan enough. Tea was served with the food, but since I was thirsty and hot I asked to have some water too. Much to my surprise, the water was even warmer than the tea. I though this was simply the custom, but was later told it’s because the tap water is undrinkable, so they boil it first. After eating, I went to buy a bottle of water.

I tried my luck at the food game again some hours later and went to ask at a street stand if they had tofu. They didn’t, but once again this resulted in me being shown the vegetarian options. Paying was interesting... the price was 1 yuan, but I tried paying with a 1 jiao bill, which is 0.1 yuan. To add to the confusion, the jiao is called mao in speech, so reading on the bill is of no use. Anyway, a child explained to me and I was able to pay for the meal in full.

3 thoughts on “Lesson 1: food

  1. u are clever.. and remember everything i said.. I am proud to be ur teacher. I believe u can learn very much chinese during one year..
    Not surprise me when u are back.
    cause i will think that my swedish is sooooooooooo poor.
    any way... many txs to ur help to my little acer.

  2. 夸奖了 If you read lesson 2 about getting scammed and about my later failures at ordering food maybe you won’t think I’m as clever 😉 Nevertheless, I shall try my best!

  3. 哈哈google “how to cook pasta”,结果找到这里来了,要是你有空,可否介绍些你家乡菜的做法呢? 🙂

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