Maybe one day he’ll come to Britain to learn how to use a knife and fork properly 
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Right, if he spent time in America he almost certainly never learned how to use a knife and fork! 
I will say technology has your back on this one. Use Google Lens with translate…it’s spooky how well it works. It may not be 100% accurate but it’ll get you pretty far (assuming your smartphone can do it…if people want I could provide an example…post a Chinese menu in Chinese (with good resolution) and I can share a pic of Google Lens translating it…if you are in a restaurant it does this on the spot if you have a good cell phone connection).
Also, if you have a nice waiter and they are not too busy they might be happy to help you on the Chinese menu. But that can change place to place and time to time.
Will it? If you have never been to France, and I tell you there is a dish called “sapper’s apron” [after translation], would you know WTF that is? Similarly, if there is a Chinese dish called “triple delicacy bean skin” (I admit I’m not sure how it translates), that still tells you nothing except that one of the ingredients may be some type of bean.
There’s an area in Pittsburgh near Monroeville where many people from India live. I’ve eaten in an Indian restaurant there where 80% of the diners appeared to be Indian.
A friend from India told me that Indian restaurants in the US are authentic but there is so much variation between regions that some people would argue the point. But, overall, he thinks that Indian restaurants are closer to what you’d find in India than Chinese restaurants are to what you’d find in China by far.
Correct !
(I only drink the type of tea that can take milk.)
I used to work with a lot of Chinese that were either on worker visas or green card holders (and a couple that had fully naturalized). Quite a number of department lunches out were had at one of the many Chinese buffets in the area. Talking with coworkers it seemed most liked it as its own style to be enjoyed on its own merits even if it’s not what they might have cooked at home.
What’s the result of adding milk to tea that can’t take it? I looked for YouTube vids but came up empty.
Well, milk helps to counteract the bitterness / dryness of tannins, so any tea without
tannins (or low levels) doesn’t really need it (eg green tea, fruit tea & spice tea etc).
Would you be looked at askance if you added it just because you liked how it tasted that way?
Probably !
I don’t know anyone who drinks green/fruit tea.
(and i don’t know anyone who drinks black tea without milk).
I think the reaction is similar to someone adding Sprite to a single malt.
My wife is a tea enthusiast. Spends thousands a year on tea. She and her friends talk about which side of the mountain the tea was grown on, the impact of soil conditions on the flavor, etc. Basically like reading wine reviews.
I drink Twinings English Breakfast brewed from a tea bag in the microwave. With milk and Splenda.
Does she lock you in the attic when her friends are over?
Hmm, ask your wife to recommend a nice robust fruity yunnan for me, ideally one i can afford.
No. I have to bake and serve up the pastries and cakes for the gatherings.
Though sometimes I am confined to the basement with the dog, if some visitor is afraid of dogs.
Yeah…it will. It will help when looking at something printed in another language.
It’s not perfect, it helps. Not sure why that seems to bug you.
Before we moved 40 miles away, the best Chinese food I’d had was at a small family restaurant. Once we knew them we never ordered off the menu. Walked in and after greeting the lady said “I bring good food”. It was usually stuff they’d fixed for themselves. Asked what it was and the answer was “You eat”.
Definitely it helps, merely suggesting that one needs search engine functionality in addition to/instead of pure translation mode. Otherwise words like crêpes Suzette or Pavlova or wife cake may not tell one 100% of the story.
If we are talking about a restaurant, I assume I could also ask the waiter if I had no idea what something was.
It was 30 years ago; I honestly don’t remember, though I think that spice level was at least part of it.
I am not Asian.
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China is an enormous country with many different regions and available local ingredients. So of course there are many cuisines.
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Immigrants both needed to use local ingredients and could establish successful businesses catering to American sensibilities. Most Chinese-American food is quite salty and sweet, involves a lot of frying, and is not too spicy.
(Not to say everybody enjoys sweet, salty and some spices.) -
I was wondering the other day about Chinese cheese. It is not a prominent feature in their food, I know few Chinese dishes which use it and don’t know how easy I could buy it in Canada. Many other people have lactose intolerance or different livestock so this doesn’t explain much; not like you can’t find pizza, other dairy or Italian food in Chinese cities.
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Every small town in Ontario seems to have a much loved restaurant largely cooking Chinese American food and interesting histories have been written about it.
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Something about great cuisines attracts purists who bemoan any change from the classics and entrepreneurs and fusion chefs anxious to update them. This may be more true with Mexican and Tex-Mex and Chinese food more than, say, Indian, Japanese or Vietnamese food where presentations seem more traditional.