My husband has had some Chinese prospective joint venture clients in town these past few days. He has been the one to take them around, take them to dinner etc. I guess that would be because he is the only employee who speaks chinese. lol These men first went to Chicago to meet with another client of theirs'. By the time they got to San Francisco, they told him they couldn't stand American food! He offered to take them out to eat chinese food. But the chinese food in the East bay isn't nearly as good as the food by the bay. It's too bad he can't just drive them to the city every day to eat. The chinese food they have eaten is more palatable to them than the American food they have eaten, but it certainly isn't up to their standards. While ordering food last night, some of the men asked for vegetables. They said, "You know, the kind with leaves!". I hate to inform them that not a lot of restaurants here cook the kind of food they are accustomed to eating. In fact, Asians eat vegetable greens that we aren't even familiar with here.
When I was a missionary, one of my Taiwanese companions told me that she needs to eat rice and vegetables every day or her digestion gets messed up. These men felt the same way. They all said they were having stomach problems from not eating enough rice. My husband said, "Many Americans like to eat steak." They said, "We can't eat that! It's too hard to digest."
I feel sorry for these men who thought of America as the land of milk and honey, only to find out that they couldn't even find a healthy meal here. I have to admit that when I cook American food, the main dish doesn't involve many vegetables. When I cook Chinese food, the dishes I cook don't involve much meat. When I look at how fat we Americans are, I think the Chinese have it right.
3 comments:
Do you have any of the large, Chinese supermarkets up your way? We have Ranch99, Lion City and Marina all within about 5 minutes, together with a bunch of Indian supermarkets, Halal meat markets, and one Mexican market ...
Looney, We have...Let me think of what the name is....I can't remember the name. China something.... It's a big grocery store. They have one in Pleasant Hill that is even bigger, but I was so happy when they opened one here. Occasionally if we are in the area we go to the Ranch 99 store in El Cerrito at the Asian mall. We have one tiny Indian market, but it is really small and doesn't carry much. The Mexican store in Pittsburg is really expensive. I wish we had better shopping out here. But that one China grocery store is pretty good for fresh vegetables.
Hey D,
Poor guys! I had no idea that American cuisine lacked veggies that much (our cuisine is full of vegetables, although it has a lot of meat too: lamb, chicken, veal, pork [for those who eat it]. We also eat a lot of fish and seafood).
Thinking about your Chinese guests: I am not sure that they'd find the food they are used to here either (we eat a lot of rice too, but it is different from what they are accustomed) *nodding*. Our Chinese restaurants are not very good...
Cheers
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