On October 28th, we had dinner at Lucky Lou, an authentic Cantonese style restaurant, with Kwan and Professor Braid. Although I have Cantonese style foods all the time back at home, it was still fun and exciting to try some new foods that I had never had before.
One of the first things to have happened was everyone arrived at the table was we were all asked whether we wanted a cup of tea or water. For those that said tea, they were given a teacup in which they would pour their tea with the teapot that was already at the table. Those that asked for water were given a cup of water. We were also asked if we wanted a fork because they only had chopsticks at the table and many of us didn’t know how to use it.
All the dishes were placed on a flat circular glass structure that was at the center of the table. The glass spun so nobody had to ask to pass anything across the table. Rather, you just spun the glass till your desired dish was at a reachable distance in front of you. It was something that I sort of grew up with, but I know that some of the other had never seen something like that, so it was fun to see their reaction to it.
One of the first dishes that we got was cucumbers with garlic sauce. This wasn’t my first time trying the cucumbers, but I hadn’t eaten it in a while, so it was nice to have it again. The next dish we had was a peking duck dish. The plate came with thin strips of cucumbers and green onions, peking duck, thick dough, and a dark sauce. The dough was circular and folded in half. Kwan showed us that to eat this, we had to open the dough and use the given spoon to spread the sauce on it. Then we put the strips of either cucumber or green onions, or both in it. We lastly put a piece or two of the peking duck in it before folding it back up and eating it like a taco.
Next, we had soup. The waiters had brought out the bowls and porcelain soup spoons to the table earlier on. No one was really sure what to do, because waiters would typically place the bowls and spoons in front of the customer that it was for, but this was not the case. Instead, what they do is they bring the big bowl of soup out and they scoop the soup into all the bowls in front of you before handing them to each of the customers.
After the soup, the rest of the dishes slowly made their way out. The dishes included stir fry lamb with cumin, deep-fried shrimp with salt and pepper, sliced pork peking style, fish fillet hot style, king mushroom with tofu, garlic water spinach, dry fried green beans, and pan-fried rice noodle with beef slices. At one point, they also brought out a big bowl of rice. In the past, the waiters gave bowls for the rice too, but they didn’t do that this time which just seemed odd to me. For dessert, they ended up giving us each a sesame ball with a red bean paste filling.
I am typically a fan of red bean foods such as red bean mooncake or red bean ice cream, but oddly enough, when it comes to this dim sum dessert, I’m not the biggest fan of it. I didn’t end up having the shrimp or fish fillet because they were spicy, and I have really bad spice tolerance. I had a couple of the green beans which were also spicy. It was not as spicy as the fish fillet or the shrimp, which everyone else had, but it was still considered spicy for me. I also wasn’t too big of a fan of what I believe was the sliced pork peking style. I think it just had too much sauce for me. Out of all the dishes that I ate, the “taco” peking duck was probably my favorite. It was just something new and different, and it also just tasted good.
Throughout the whole meal, we had a very casual conversation. Some of the things we talked about, which I remember talking about in class, was Confucius and how he emphasized the important of knowledge and education, and because of that, he taught anyone and everyone regardless of their wealth status. Another topic that Kwan talked about was dim sum. He described dim sum as the teatime for Chinese. He stated how it was more of a snack with bite-sized foods rather than a full-on meal with dishes and plates like we had.
Another thing that Kwan mentioned brought up was that in some places, eating loud is considered a compliment to the chef saying that the food is really good. That was interesting to here because in the US, it is considered rude and impolite. Also, he mentioned how they don’t typically eat with a knife because it is considered as uncivilized. He also brought up how the food tends to be served in smaller bite-sized pieces rather than bigger pieces that need to be cut or bitten into. I never noticed that, but looking back on it, I remember having to ask for a knife every time I ate this one pork that I typically ordered at a restaurant back at home.
One of the last things we did before leaving was watching a 10-minute video about the five major Chinese cuisine. The five types of cuisine are Cantonese, Si Chuan, Shan Dong, Canton, Huai Yang, and Northeast. If I remember correctly, Si Chuan food tends to be on the spicier side, while Northeastern food tends to be on the sweeter side.
Oddly enough, I think I have only ever eaten Cantonese food. There is a possibility that I have had some of the other forms of Chinese cuisine, but I am not completely sure. Kwan ended up telling us a story about how a friend of his made him some Si Chuan food which was really good, and whenever he went to a Si Chuan restaurant, the food never matched what his friend made.
There were points during the dinner when Kwan was talking to the waiters and owners of the restaurant in Chinese, and I thought it was kind of funny that I was able to understand what they were saying. There were also moments where I had to help translate what they were saying because what they were saying or asking involved us, the students, but they were asking Kwan about it in Chinese.
It was interesting to see the interactions between the waiters and the students and Professor Braid who didn’t speak Chinese. The waiters knew English, but with their accents, it was kind of difficult to understand what they were saying or asking, but overall, it was really fun to try some new Cantonese foods and learn so much more about Kwan and Chinese culture.
Thank you for sharing this experience in so much detail!