Sidebar - Dining in China

I want to take a few minutes to talk about the meals here.  I have, at every turn felt a very warm welcome from everyone that I have spent any time with.  Every group I have met with (and it seems there are virtually never one on one meetings, they all seem to be large groups of people with 2 or 3 from the Ministry of Agriculture (central government level); the Department of Agriculture (Provincial level) and the Bureau of Agriculture (county level.)  When our visit is in a village, we are also joined by village administrators as well.  The normal course of events is a tour of something (a production field, a lab, a village itself, etc . . .) followed by a formal briefing with a presenter reading from a written report giving background about what we have just seen.  After the briefing there is some discussion, mostly me asking questions of them.

Then, without fail, it always happens to be just about lunchtime, or dinnertime. We all climb into vehicles, and head to the nearest hotel.  The hotels have "VIP" dining rooms, large rooms with a sitting area on one end, and a large table at the other.  Everyone generally mills around in the sitting area - some people have a cup of tea, almost everyone smokes a cigarette, and people sneak off to use the bathroom.  During this time the restaurant staff are starting to bring out food.  The table here is maybe 10' in diameter.  There is a round glass rotating platform in the center that is roughly 7' in diameter.  Every place setting looks the same, except for one located as close to the center of the wall farthest from the door.  That one usually has something a little different - normally the napkin is standing up instead of laying flat, we'll call that the "head" chair.  As the guest I've learned that almost always, I will be invited (made) to sit to the the right of this seat, nobody every argues about that.  The host (not always the one paying, usually the highest ranking person from whatever government body is hosting me that day) sits in that chair.  For the next ten minutes they all argue about who should sit where.  Everyone wants to deffer to other people and are always honored and shocked to be told by the host to sit so close to him/her but always suggest someone else who is obviously much more suited to that prominent spot.  The order of importance is in descending order correlating to the distance from the "head" chair.  The drivers always sit across from the host as they are the lowest on the pecking order.  Now I am always to sit down right away in my chair.  I then sit there while they all argue for 5 minutes about who should sit where.  This may not feel like much, but when you are in a room with a dozen arguing Chinese  all refusing to sit where they are being told, the only one sitting at this huge table, it can be a bit awkward.  But all that usually gets worked out.  They usually put someone with pretty good english to my right, either Peggy or someone else who can speak english.

The whole time this has been going on, the staff have been bringing out more dishes until there are perhaps 10 on the table, all arrayed nicely and spaced out evenly.  There are many glasses in front of each place setting, and now that people are seated, the staff quickly starts to fill them.  There is usually a milky dink of some sort, but not certainly not "american" style milk, some of the ones have been:  hot soy milk; a milk that tastes like yogurt; yam milk, sweet potato milk, and 2 or 3 more that I haven't been told what it is (my rule here is I never ask what something is, I just eat it or drink it, they virtually always tell me what it is at some point, often before I eat it, sometimes after.)  The drinks have all been remarkably good. To the right of that is usually a tall glass of hot tea, and then a small shot glass with a larger (say 200ml) pitcher next to it.  They always as politely if I would like red wine, or "Chinese liquor" (rice wine that is 50% alcohol by volume) with my meal.  I know they all want me to say the Chinese liquor and so I do.  Note that they DO NOT ask if I would like some wine or liquor as a three possible outcome question - A. wine, B. liquor, C. neither, only A and B are the choices.  Who has to have alcohol is on a continuum - the host has to of course, and it seems I have no choice.   Women, although it takes much arguing, are often able to convince the staff, and the others at the table that just a small glass of wine (maybe one ounce) is more than enough for them. Thankfully the drivers are not even offered any.  For everyone else, it takes considerable fighting to have anything short of a full pitcher of Chinese liquor.  This processes takes another 5 minutes.  So if you are counting, we are now all "ready" and we are about 20 minutes into the process.

The customs from here on vary a little from province to province, but here are the parts that always hold true - you never just have a drink of alcohol at the table, regardless of if it is beer, wine, or Chinese liquor. You must always toast someone in order to take a drink.  The tea and milky drink are free game, sometimes there is even water and you can drink these whenever you want, but you can only drink the alcohol if you are toasting someone.  So once you have your Chinese liquor in the pitcher you fill your little shot glass about 80% full.  The host then makes the first toast and everyone joins in with this, you all say "gambay" (?sp?) which means "bottoms up" and drink it down.  The toast has always been to me and the entire groups effort to give me a very warm welcome (welcomes here are always described as "warm" never gracious, or heartfelt, or any other word, they are always warm.)  You then dive in.  While people will make an effort to put the best dishes in front of you, anyone, at anytime is free to just stick their chopsticks into the bowls in the middle and pull something out.  If you can help it, you never put anything on your plate, it just goes from the platter to your mouth.  If it is too large for one bite, most people (except for many women, it seems fine for them to be a little more dainty) just bite off what they can fit in their mouth, holding the rest on the chopsticks, and finishing it off in the next bite.  Anything can be eaten with your fingers if that is easier.  Except for the first and last, the toasts are not generally in groups.  In tamer more subdued crowds (very rare) you will get a subtle gesture - someone raising a glass to you to get your attention.  You then (since you only refilled your glass about 75%-80%) top off your glass and they say something nice about you, you say an honest thank you (shishi) and you both toast.  Normally they say "gambay", but sometimes, especially if you are women, they say "cheers" which means that you can drink as little as you like.  in rowdier groups (normally the case), unless the person you are toasting is beside you, you take your little pitcher and glass, get up go over to the person, top up their glass (the fuller it is, the more honorable the toast is, so they are really good at using the capillary action of the drink to fill it just over the rim) say something kind, usually say gambay, and you drink it down.  If your pitcher gets low someone will rush to refill it.  It is acceptable, but very difficult to refuse the refill.  The trick is that at the end of the meal for the final toast (usually done by the host, but I have found if I ask they are very appreciative if I offer to make this) you must drink what is left.  If there is more in the pitcher than will fit in the glass you just empty the glass into the pitcher and toast with the pitcher.  You have to have something left for the last toast, and if you don't, chances are someone will give you a full, or nearly full pitcher.

It seems like I've spent a lot of time talking about the alcohol and frankly that because it has been a major part of the meals with almost half the time taken up by it in one way or another.  I've been able to refrain from getting drunk but I surely wouldn't drive after any of these meals.  Frankly if it were up to me I'd have none with lunch and maybe just a little with dinner, but the meals and the accompanying revelry are such a key part of my being welcomed by them that it just isn't possible. To the shock of my hosts at virtually every meal (but except in one case I think they were all fine with it, just very surprised) I have politely refused the cigarettes with each meal.  Simply put, the food is great.  I've had a great variety of it and while I have had things that are of great surprise in their taste, I have yet to eat anything that I haven't liked.  China has a great diversity of food throughout the regions, and while I have often had the same basic good elements (beef, pork, cabbage, noodles, etc . . .) I think there are only 2 or 3 times that I have ever had a "repeat" - the same dish, cooked the same way twice.  Now this is no small task as at each lunch and each dinner, as I have said, there are roughly 15-20  different dishes.  After sitting down with the first set of dishes, throughout the next hour of the meal the staff regularly bring out more and more dishes until the glass turntable in the middle is in many cases literally stacked with dishes, having long since run out of room to cram just one more on.  Here is a short list, from memory, of some of the animals I have eaten while here (I tried cataloging the vegetables, but far too many have inadequate translations for me to really now what I am eating.)  I am sure I have left many out, but:

I've always said that we should have more
meats on sticks in the US.  Then I came to China.
They put everything on sticks.  That's right
folks, this is a quail on a stick - gut it, pluck it,
stick it and roast it.

Water:  salmon, mackerel, halibut, oyster, clam, shrimp, lobster, yellow cod, pompano, tuna, octopus, eel, mussel, crayfish, turtle (not sea turtle, I made sure), frog, crabs and 6 different mystery fish referred to only as "a kind of fresh water fish"

Land:  beef, pork, lamb, chicken, venison, and snake.

Air:  duck, goose, chicken, and quail

When I was in Guangzhou for a very short period of time back in 1995 I remember traveling to food market and seeing many, many more types of land based animals for sale to eat (possums, rats, dogs, cats, etc . . .).  While there has been a great diversity of aquatic animals, and in general a large diversity in the dishes here, the land based animals have been pretty "tame."  When one dish came out, a large pot of steaming something or other that looked like a stew, there was a lot of whispering and glances.  Peggy was sitting at my right and I whispered to her - what is it?  she whispered back "I can't tell you, they won't let me."  So with a smile I grabbed my chopsticks, and went in for a big chunk of meat.  If it was dog or cat she would have told me, and that's kinda the only think I would have a really hard time having eaten without knowing it.  Most other things I would at least have a polite sampling of.  It was good, if a little gamey.  I nodded my approval and grabbed another piece before it moved on.  They all lit up smiling and nodding.  Turns out it was venison.  I didn't have the heart to say that venison was actually not that uncommon in the states, and while you won't often see it in the store or a restaurant, anyone living in the country, and many living in the city have eaten it.

China, like Mongolia is a relationship based society.  Deals are not done with strangers, and frank conversations are not had over a conference room table.  The tours are good, and the briefings are informative if a bit artificial at times, but the meals are where the real exchange of information happens.  The people open up, and will answer anything you ask, although work is generally avoided.  Religion and politics are happily discussed, but they are discussed not argued about.  People actually want to know what you think about something, and they would like to share their view - they are not looking to get you to see something their way (like many such discussions deteriorate to in the US) or show you why what they think is the right way, only to exchange views.  It's welcoming and inviting and it is where I have learned the most important things from my trip through China so far.