Here's a letter one of my friends received from his assistant... It is worth to read it.. Of course to respect his privacy I have hidden the name ;)
June 1st, 2007
Dear XXXXX,
I have aroused all my courage to write this letter to you. At first , I am going to say in front of you. However, it’ s better in this way.
You don’t know how painful I am now. Everyday you are the very man I want to see. I feel nervous and exciting at the moment when you appear to me. I want to say something, but I can only say “morning”, “hi ,XXXX" and “bye-bye”. I eager to express my feeling but I don’t know how to use the words. Sometimes I may use the wrong words and expression, but what I do is just to understand you.
Probably you will think how silly and foolish I am. But I don’t care. I just want to express my feeling. I feel I am ill. I can’t stop thinking of you. That’s too terrible.
I know there is a big difference between us. Thanks to the cultural shock that arouse my interests. Everyday I see most is your back and I like the smell of your smoking when you pass by me. Though I hate people smoking.
Only two months will you stay in
I just hope you are happy everyday, especially in
Wish you have a good future.
Je t'aime
Yours faithfully,
Her Name
This was written by Jules Verne, in the volume 144, 1865, of Littell's Living Age an american magasine. It's called "A Chinese Banquet"
As a substitute for table-napkins, every one was supplied with a considerable number of squares of paper figured over in various devices. The chairs arranged round the table were made with marble backs, not so luxurious, perhaps, but more suitable to the climate than the padded lounges in general use elsewhere. Nothing could be more perfect, or served in better style, than the entire banquet. The bignon of the district, as if aware that he was catering for connoisseurs, seemed to have been anxious to surpass himself in the preparation of the many dishes that crowded the menu. For the first course were handed sugared cakes, caviare, fried grasshoppers, dried fruits, and Ning-Po oysters. Then followed successively, at short intervals, ducks’, pigeons’, and peewits’ eggs poached, swallows’ nests with mashed eggs, fricassees of ginseng, stewed sturgeons’ gills, whales’ sinews with sweet sauce, fresh-water tadpoles, fried crabs’ spawn, sparrows’ gizzards, sheep’s eyes stuffed with garlic, radishes in milk flavored with apricot-kernels, matelotes of holithurias, bamboo sprouts in syrup, and sweet salads. The last course consisted of pineapples from Singapore, earth-nuts, salted almonds, savory mangoes, the white, fleshy fruits of the long-yen, the pulpy fruits of the lit-chee, chestnuts, and preserved oranges from Canton. After the dessert rice was served, which the guests raised to their mouths with little chop-sticks according to the custom of their country. Three hours were spent over the banquet. When it was ended, and at the time when, according to European usage, salvers of rose-water are frequently handed round, the waiting-maids brought napkins steeped in warm water, which all the company rubbed over their faces apparently with great satisfaction. The next stage of the entertainment was an hour’s lounge, to be occupied in listening to music. A group of players and singers entered, all pretty young girls, neatly and modestly attired. Their performance, however, could scarcely have been more inharmonious; it was hardly better than a series of yells, howls, and screeches, without rhythm and without time. The instruments were a worthy accompaniment to the chorus: wretched violins, of which the strings kept entangling the bows; harsh guitars covered with snake-skins; shrill clarionets, and harmoniums all out of tune, like diminutive portable pianos. The girls had been conducted into the room by a man who acted as leader of the Charivari. Having handed a programme to the host, and received in return a permission to perform what he chose, he made his orchestra strike up, "The Bouquet of Ten Flowers," a piece at that time enjoying a vast popularity in the fashionable world. This was followed by other pieces of similar character, and at the close of the performances the troop, already handsomely paid, were enthusiastically applauded, and allowed to depart and gain fresh laurels from other audiences. After the concert was over the party rose from their seats, and having interchanged a few ceremonious sentences, passed to another table. Here were laid six covered cups, each embossed with a portrait of Bôdhid-harama, the celebrated Buddhist monk, standing on his legendary wheel. The cups were already full of boiling water, and each member of the party was provided with a pinch of tea, which he put into the cup, without sugar, and at once drank off the infusion. And what tea it was! Europeans would have exclaimed in wonder at its flavor, but these connoisseurs sipped it slowly, with the air of men who duly appreciated its quality. They were all men of the upper class, handsomely attired in hunchaols, a kind of thin shirt, macooals, or short tunics, and haols, long coats buttoned at the side. On their feet were yellow slippers, and openwork socks, met by silk breeches that were fastened round the waist by tasselled scarves; on their chests they wore a kind of stomacher, elaborately embroidered in silk. Elegant fans dangled from their girdles.
Well as most of you know Chinese cuisine is probably one of the most diverse cuisine on earth (at least that I know of). Every time, I go to the restaurant, the waitress will hand us over a massive menu with hundreds of different meals.
Dozens of different pork, beef, and chicken preparation and it’s the same with fish, crabs, pigeon, ducks, vegetables, noodles… Well you get it. It is therefore quite difficult to make your mind every time especially when you have that waitress waiting by your side with her face ten centimetres away from yours so she believes that she understands what you’re looking at.
Off course, when ordering the drinks the waitress (or waiter let’s not make sexual discrimination here…) will always ask you whether you want it cold or warm (they actually mean at room temperature as long as you’re not talking about yellow wine or other specific alcohol that can be warmed up). This is slightly annoying because it comes back every time... Why would I want a warm beer? Please let me know…
But anyway, let’s keep on talking about food and restaurant. So when you sit at the table you will see two small bowls, one small plate and a ceramic or porcelain spoon, a pair of chopsticks and a wet tissue. Don’t worry, you can clean your face with that cloth, there are “usually” clean and no one will be shocked that’s why it’s there. The smaller bowl is usually for tea and the big one is used as a recipient when you want to store food somewhere between the dishes and you mouth.
As you probably know you should always avoid playing with you chopsticks, sticking them in a plate of rice, crossing them and hold them too low. When you are not using them, you should place them on you small plate in parallel (so they touch each others or at least are close to each other).
The small plate: this is the “spitting plate” well not that you have to literally spit on it but just that you’ll spit all the little bones and cartilages, that you have in your month, on it.
You have no knives? Don’t worry a second, the food is always cut into really small pieces so you should be able to put everything in your month in one shot, however be always careful with the bones (there are everywhere)
A Chinese meal is usually composed of two main components: on one side you’ll have the主食 ( say zhǔshí) and the菜 (cài). I nerver found a good word to describe the first one but it means the staple which enclose everything related with any sort of grain such as rice, noodle (because made out of flour) or any kind of “dumplings”. This would usually be served last as “fillers”. The rest will be anything from vegetables to meat or seafood and poultry.
Off course, meals are always to be shared and everyone picks on it with its own chopsticks. I have seen some people feeling slightly uncomfortable with that but I don’t see why anyone should be.
If you think you like Chinese food outside china, then come over here leave that crap you’re eating home and have some real food here.
