Lunch or Dinner in a Local Restaurant

May 10, 2014

While all of our breakfasts and some of our dinners are in the restaurant of the hotel where we're staying, most lunches and some dinners are in local restaurants.  When I first saw the itinerary, I envisioned the tiny two-or three-table restaurants that I had seen on travel shows, and that David had told me about from his trips to Tokyo and Shanghai.  Of course, our group is much too big to be accommodated in these places, so the local restaurants where we go are specifically set up for tourism.

In fact, our group is even larger than you might believe, because the Viking Emerald, which we will be boarding on Tuesday, holds 256 guests, and they are all a part of our larger group.  So in addition to Jack's Group, there's Peter's Group, Riqui's Group, Ray's Group, Arnold's Group, and probably a couple more that I don't remember.  (None of them their Chinese name).  The timing of our meals and tours is orchestrated so as to avoid our all being in the exact same place at the exact same time, and it's done quite well.  So while we're all eating in the same restaurant, we arrive a few minutes apart to avoid a huge crush.

Today we experience our first true lunch in a local restaurant.  These restaurants feature round tables that seat eight or ten, with a glass lazy susan in the center of the table.  Meals are served family-style, with bowls of food  placed on the lazy susan, which we turn to serve ourselves.  Jack has explained that etiquette requires that you take only "one piece" from the bowl the first time around, so that everyone has the chance to try the food, then you can take more the second time.  Servers are rapidly placing bowl after bowl of food on the turntable with something new, and sometimes remove the not-quite-empty ones before they make it around the second time.  To me, the atmosphere is quite rushed;  I'd like to take more time to savor the flavors of one item before I'm forced to try another.  But, that's the way it is, and there are nine other people at the table who feel differently.  OK, only eight...David agrees with me, of course.

In this particular restaurant, the lazy susan is just a bit too big for the table, and as it's turned around, the dishes or serving pieces hanging off the edge come precariously close to knocking over our one glass of soft drink.

I wonder if we could get a free refill if that happened.