Monday, November 22, 2010

Chinese dining culture?

I was away in Adelaide last weekend. While there, I went to my favourite steakhouse in Hahndorf (a resort town) for dinner. I noticed that about half of the clientele were Chinese, unlike when I first visited the place. Back then, about 6 years ago, the customers were mostly Ozzies.

I can tell that the restaurant is now used to serving Asians. Back then, if we came in a group the waiter would write down what each person wanted to order, asking one by one in turn. We rarely finished the entire servings as they were enormous. This time when I placed the order, the waitress did not check to see if everyone had placed an order each. She just assumed that we would share everything. Looking around, I could see that the other Asian groups all share their orders (and they were still enormous servings), instead of ordering one meal per person.

I also ordered one soup for my mother. The waitress immediately brought bowls for all of us, assuming that would be sharing the soup. To cap it all, the waitress started talking to me about a popular Chinese actor. No doubt about it, Chinese clientele has pervaded Hahndorf.

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