Asia Trip Day 20: One Last Hot Pot (1/7/18)
On this afternoon, I opted to stay behind at the house again for the afternoon, since Xuezhu wanted to spend time with her family and I wanted to do some more writing while they were fresh in my mind. Some random details on China that I forgot to mention on the previous days. China and Japan both had differences between each other and the US, but they're all quite comparable. They're all well-developed countries with modern utilities and luxuries. We weren't visiting an underdeveloped country in extreme temperatures or poverty, which would have been a more difficult experience (not to mention living there).
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| Trees in the city had their bottom 3 ft painted white for some reason |
The car traffic in China is quite orderly, however there are many pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycles (mopeds?) that occupy both the sidewalk and the bicycle lane. Motorcycles don't strictly follow the rules of cars or pedestrians, and would often weave through either. Since it was colder, many motorcycle riders would wear a Snuggie-like cloth that protects their arms and face from the wind. Not too many of them were wearing helmets.There are many motorcyclists that have carriages on their motorcycles for passengers, and they'll park by busy streets to pick-up anyone who needs a ride. We used them several times when we were feeling to tired to walk back to the metro station. The ride would only be 1-2 miles, and take less than 10 minutes. The cost of this usually around 5-6 RMB, which is less than $1 USD. We usually paid with cash, but each driver also had their own QR code that could be used with WeChat to pay.
There is a myth on the internet that Chinese driver's are reckless, and would "finish off" any pedestrian they hit to avoid dealing with covering their hospital bills. This doesn't make sense because China would probably sentence the murderer to death. I think people online see some footage of an accident in China and assume it'd be like that everywhere. This is like assuming every school in the US has a shooting monthly, just based on news coverage. In general, news only reports the bad stuff, but never reports when nothing happens. And what's more harmful is making assumptions of the people based on the hearsay. Does it seem reasonable to assume that over 1 billion people all are a certain way? I think people will believe what they see, and remain ignorant unless they care enough to actually look up any counterpoints.
One last notable difference I noticed was customer service in China compared to Japan or US. In China and Japan, there's no tipping, which creates two different approaches. In Japan, I have written about how tirelessly respectful they are to customers. However in China, customer service in restaurants has a less cordial and more dutiful approach. It's generally perceived that Chinese restaurants have rude waitstaff, but I think its just a result of the different cultural dynamics.
When we needed something, it was expected to yell out "Fúwùyuán!" to get their attention, rather than waiting for them to pass by or gesturing to them. This is because Chinese restaurants can get really loud; when it got crowded some people would get loud, so other people would get louder so they could hear each other. Restaurants can end up sounding as loud as a bar on a weekend night. After yelling for the waiter and telling them what is needed, they would go out and perform the task, without any formalities. It wasn't expected to say the "please" or "thank you" to the waiter, nor was it expected back.
Most people would spit out bones or uneaten parts directly on the table, rather than a napkin or plate. In addition, some people would smoke in the restaurant and drop their butts on the floor. This means at the end of a meal, a party of diners would leave quite a mess for the waitstaff to clean. As a past-waiter, I empathize with the Chinese waitstaff being terse and efficient, since there are no formalities and a different set of expectations.
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| Hot pot restaurants usually give aprons to shield from oil splashes |
That evening, Xuezhu and her parent's came back to pick me up, and we walked to a fancy hot pot restaurant. A hot pot dinner would be a great last dinner, since its the signature "dish" of Sichuan. Hot pot is also a very social meal, since the seats are all arranged towards the center, which encourages conversation and interaction. Since each piece requires some time to cook, which puts a limit on how fast people can eat, which extends how much can be eaten and the length of the meal. A hot pot dinner with good company and an excess of food can last hours.
This hot pot had the strong flavors that I was expecting. I don't think we ordered the spiciest hot pot, but it wasn't too spicy. The Sichuan cuisine has dishes filled with chili oil and the peppers, however looks are deceiving. Sichuan doesn't use anything like ghost peppers or California reapers (I don't think any cuisine does, only the niche consumers), where it's an insanely painful amount of heat. The dishes aren't in the millions of Scoville units, because the Sichuan peppercorns provide a more savory and numbing spice. At the same time, its important not to eat any of the peppercorns directly or too much chili oil. Sometimes I would swallow I bit too many peppercorns or oil, which causes some to be caught in the throat, which can be quite unpleasant.
We ordered plenty of vegetables and meats, all of which were very delicious with the hot pot broth and sauce. We almost finished everything we ordered, but by the end we were all so full and we had to leave behind some tofu. Like sushi, too much of a good thing can result in becoming uncomfortably full. I think I was almost there, but I still had some room for dessert. It was important to have something fresh after all the robust and oily flavors, so we had some oranges and red bean soup.
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