Our third day back was, again, another day dedicated to nothing else besides food.
My parents wanted something quick and simple for lunch, so they stopped by a Thai restaurant for curry and sweet and sour pork, dragging me along with them.
My parents wanted something quick and simple for lunch, so they stopped by a Thai restaurant for curry and sweet and sour pork, dragging me along with them.
 |  |
Me, being the late-riser that I am, had just woken up at that point and decided against ordering anything. The waitress, obviously unaware of my circumstances, proceeded to give me strange glances when I whipped out my digi-cam despite not having chosen anything off the menu.
Later that evening, my parents had scheduled a large family dinner at The Jade.
Later that evening, my parents had scheduled a large family dinner at The Jade.
If there's one thing I can't understand about Chinese family dinners, it's how painstakingly LONG people take to eat.
We booked the room for 6:30 PM, but, of course, guests don't all finish assembling until 7:00 PM. And once everyone finally sits down, the waiter proceeds to slowly make his way around the table to take drink orders, remove unneeded glasses, etc.
And when we finally ask him to start serving up our 10-course (YIKES. I know.), it takes him another 20 minutes to ask the kitchen staff to prepare.
Each dish comes out at an alarmingly slow speed, and the following dish is not served until all the guests at the table have finished with current one. These dishes continue to pile up on the turntable in the middle of the table and is not removed from the table and packed away until space to accommodate more dishes from the kitchen ceases to remain.
Of course, amidst all of this is nothing but typical casual banter about vacation experiences and reminiscing about "the good ol' days" among the older members of the family and the constant use of handheld electronic devices by the younger generations that can't relate to these said experiences.
Including cake-cutting and a (decently) swift wrap-up session to thank the guests in attendance, this entire meal took 3 hours.
Nope, you read that correctly. A family dinner took a full THREE HOURS to finish, and then another 20 - 30 mins to reach home.
Despite being extremely exhausted and having already finished eating after the third plate was served up, I did not end up returning home until 10 PM. As other members of the household observed, unbearably long Chinese family dinners did NOT make me a happy being.
P.S. In case this wasn't made clear in the above semi-rant, it's not that I dislike eating meals with the entire family in attendance. Rather, I dislike unnecessarily spending a large amount of time on something such as eating and returning home to incomplete chores and unchecked social networking sites.
We booked the room for 6:30 PM, but, of course, guests don't all finish assembling until 7:00 PM. And once everyone finally sits down, the waiter proceeds to slowly make his way around the table to take drink orders, remove unneeded glasses, etc.
And when we finally ask him to start serving up our 10-course (YIKES. I know.), it takes him another 20 minutes to ask the kitchen staff to prepare.
Each dish comes out at an alarmingly slow speed, and the following dish is not served until all the guests at the table have finished with current one. These dishes continue to pile up on the turntable in the middle of the table and is not removed from the table and packed away until space to accommodate more dishes from the kitchen ceases to remain.
Of course, amidst all of this is nothing but typical casual banter about vacation experiences and reminiscing about "the good ol' days" among the older members of the family and the constant use of handheld electronic devices by the younger generations that can't relate to these said experiences.
Including cake-cutting and a (decently) swift wrap-up session to thank the guests in attendance, this entire meal took 3 hours.
Nope, you read that correctly. A family dinner took a full THREE HOURS to finish, and then another 20 - 30 mins to reach home.
Despite being extremely exhausted and having already finished eating after the third plate was served up, I did not end up returning home until 10 PM. As other members of the household observed, unbearably long Chinese family dinners did NOT make me a happy being.
P.S. In case this wasn't made clear in the above semi-rant, it's not that I dislike eating meals with the entire family in attendance. Rather, I dislike unnecessarily spending a large amount of time on something such as eating and returning home to incomplete chores and unchecked social networking sites.
SUMMER 2014 LINKS
- JUNE 28, 2014 - Mill St. Brewery, Toronto Pearson Airport
- JUNE 29, 2014 - NorthWest Fan Fest 2014
- - Red Star
- JUNE 30, 2014 - Photos N/A
- JULY 1/2, 2014 - Vancouver to HK Part 1 (Vancouver International Airport)
- - Vancouver to HK Part 2 (Flight to Seoul)
- - Vancouver to HK Part 3 (Incheon Airport, Arrival in Hong Kong)
- JULY 3, 2014 - Mong Kok
- JULY 4, 2014 - Macau Day Tour
- JULY 5, 2014 - Shopping in Causeway Bay
- JULY 6, 2014 - Tsui Wah Restaurant, I SQUARE
- JULY 7, 2014 - Arriving in Taiwan + Akazubo (Hankyu)
- - Exploring Eslite
- JULY 8, 2014 - Food and Family Dinner
- JULY 9, 2014 - Ximending
- JULY 10, 2014 - Taipei 101, Ding Tai Fung
- - ATT 4 Fun
- - Birthday Buffet
- JULY 11, 2014 - SOGO, Taipei Underground Mall
- JULY 12, 2014 - Exploring the Area + Shinkong Mitsukoshi
- JULY 13, 2014 - Breakfast + Taoyuan Airport + Flight Back to Vancouver
- JULY 14, 2014 - Mega Sushi
- JULY 15, 2014 - Maji Taiwanese Cuisine
- JULY 16, 2014 - Thai Food + Family Dinner @ The Jade
- JULY 17, 2014 - New Hair + Cattle Cafe
- JULY 18, 2014 - Photos N/A
- JULY 19, 2014 - Garage Sale + MiniComi
- JULY 20, 2014 - Photos N/A
- JULY 21, 2014 - Cattle Cafe + Bubble Tea at Yaohan
- JULY 22, 2014 - Vancouver Aquarium
- JULY 23, 2014 - Lost in Burnaby + Afternoon Tea at Adonia
- JULY 24, 2014 - Journey via Canada Line + Pinkberry
- JULY 25, 2014 - Richmond Night Market (Part 1)
- - Richmond Night Market (Part 2)
- JULY 26, 2014 - Back to Toronto
RSS Feed