Moon Festival part II

Last week on the Moon Festival my co-workers and I went to dinner with our Boss and his other company. We went to a restaurant in another city.The restaurant has common room where guests eat and private rooms for bigger parties. We sat in the private room. There’s a big round table where abt 20 people can sit. In the middle of the table there’s a round platform that spins, so when the food is on the platform, you can spin it and take whatever you like. First when you sit down there’s a small bowl in front of you on a small plate and another small bowl with a spoon. Next what I write depends on the region you are in China. The waiter pours tea in the cup (sometimes its boiled water) and first thing you do is wash your chopsticks in the tea and wash your bowls and spoon, then you pour the wasted tea in a bigger bowl that is on the spinning platform. The next time tea is poured in your cup you can drink it. So far, in any place we went to eat we would first wash our chopstick, spoon and bowls. But when I talked to Sergiu (he lived in Wenzhou) he told me he never saw anyone do that.Then they bring the food. Mostly it’s different kind of meat and vegetables and a bowl of rice for everyone. Pork, roasted duck, chicken, we even ate a baby pigeon- which I’m not very proud of- now all pigeons in the world are gonna poop on me.Another ‘interesting’ dish: they brought a pig’s bone with basically no meat on it. Apparently you just stick a straw in the bone and suck on the bone marrow (rom: substața internă). All I can say I suck at sucking. Adding to that, imagine 20 people at a table making the “sucking” sound at the same time?!!!When you’re a guest at the table it’s even worse, cuz the most important person of the table will always serve you. My boss’s mom was always putting something in my bowl and when I said I liked it she would put some more of it. So I ended up having loads of food in my bowl- what can I say: I gained 2 kg in my first 3 days in China. It’s rude to say no!First shocking observation about Chinese table-manners: they chew very loudly. So loud, that if I chewed like that at home my dad would probably hit me with a spoon and then kick me out of the house. Turns out, chewing loudly is a compliment to the host, meaning that the food is delicious. Imagine 20 people at a table and you can hear everybody chew their food?!! Crazy, right?! At a moment there I thought like i'm the only homo sapiens at the table.So here's an usual dinner flow: meat, meat, meat, vegetable, vegetable, rice, meat, meat, meat, meat, vegetable and meat, vegetable, meat, meat, rice, rice, meat, meat, meat, meat, meat, rice, etc.And all this only with chopsticks and one small spoon, but Chinese people handle it very well and usually finish their meals first. I, on the other hand, try to master my chop-stick skills, try to chew loudly and always accept a “re-fill”! :)