Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Dining Debacles

Ok...so I have two stories to share with you about dining experiences we have had here at our hotel. They aren't about the food...just more about the embarrassing experiences we have had. Enjoy. :)
I am not the most adventurous eater...let me start out by saying that. HOWEVER, you can ask Andre...I have become MUCH more adventurous. You pretty much have to be here. I will pretty much try anything these days with the exception of sushi and most other fish. I am still not a fan, but hope to be one day. So anyway, there are only like 3 or 4 restaurants in this hotel. There is a Japanese place, a buffet, a "European" Cafe where you get dishes a la carte, and then there is a Chinese place. One day we are deciding where to eat, and I suggest that we could TRY the Chinese place. We walk across the lobby to the place, which is on the opposite end (away from all the other places). As soon as we pass through the threshold I see a sign that says "Seafood and Shark Fin Restaurant." I haven't seen these words associated with the Chinese restaurant in any other place in the hotel...so this is news to me. As we walk by the sign I say to Andre..."Uhhhh...are you sure they have other things to eat besides seafood here??" "OH YEAH!! Of course they do." He says. Ok. We proceed to a room filled with tables and I notice that across the hall there are like 50 fish tanks. Filled with fish. Sorry little fishes...someone is going to eat you later, but it won't be ME! So we enter the dining room and the whole place comes to a screeching halt. Silence descends on the room as everyone stares at us. We get as quickly as we can to the table and life resumes in the restaurant (for the most part). They do careful work to set up our place settings and then bring us our menus. I quickly page through the menu to find that it IS all seafood. I was right!! My heart drops as we have already ordered tea, and our place settings were so meticulously cared for. I frantically whisper to Andre that they not only have just seafood...it is WEIRD seafood. Nothing I had ever heard of. Ok...so we decide to leave. In any other country you would just get up and walk out...but not here. We call a waiter over and Andre tries to explain that we have to go because I don't eat seafood and we did not know that was the only thing they serve. Huh? He doesn't understand so he gets someone else, who gets someone else, who gets someone else and eventually we have like 10 waiters at our table and the whole restaurant has come to a standstill once again. Finally we find someone who appears to understand. She escorts us out of the restaurant and then walks us halfway across the lobby while explaining that the other restaurants are across the lobby. Ha. We know. We have been staying here for like 5 days. Oh boy. Dumb Americans.
Our other experience occurred in the European restaurant. Andre decided he really wanted a ham & cheese sandwich and that is one of the 3 American things they have on the menu. So he orders that and I order some rice. We make it through most of the meal when all of the sudden...I hear Andre crunching on something really hard. Ham & Cheese, fries.... what would make that crunching noise??? He makes a horrible face and tries to retrieve the object(s) from his mouth. He pulls out a little tiny piece of something and then keeps crunching. Finally, after making many attempts to get the substance out, he takes a large drink of water. He tells me that it felt like SAND in his mouth. Yuck...that is gross. Then he begins to study the little pieces he pulled out. Glass! He has glass in his food!! Did it come from the fries? Who knows? My guess is that is came from the ketchup...maybe a chipped bottle or something. He decides to tell the waiter...we don't want this to happen to someone else!! Again, like 10 waiters gather around our table as we try to explain that this glass was in either his ketchup or his fries. He confers with all the waitstaff, makes several phone calls (on his cell phone and the hotel phone) and comes back to offer us his apologies. He wants us to have some coffee or complimentary juice. We say no thanks...we are pretty turned off by this situation and just want the Mai don (bill). He leaves and does some more talking with staff and on the phone. Meanwhile all the waiters keep walking by our table and staring at us. The guy disappears. After waiting like 5-10 minutes we think maybe he didn't understand that we wanted the bill. So we ask another waitress for Mai don. She leaves and picks up the phone...I guess she is calling the guy who disappeared. "Just a moment," she says when she comes back. More waiting. Eventually the guy reappears with an enormous plate of fries and fresh ketchup. Oh my. We really do not want this...we were almost finished with our food anyway. Andre declines. He shakes his head and says..."You must accept it." Okay, we do. They all stand around and stare at us...waiting for Andre to eat the fries. He eats one...very tentatively and with no ketchup. :) I tell him to mess the rest of them up (so it looks like he ate more than one), and let's get out of there. We finally get the bill and leave. Every single waiter and waitress says "Thank you bye-bye." as we leave. We haven't been back since.

4 comments:

Andre LaRouche said...

Yes, that was not a pleasant experience. I was not sure what to do when he showed up with a large plate of fries when i was already full.
strange.
Andre

Anonymous said...

Hilarious. It sounds like a Seinfeld episode.

Anonymous said...

Ouch, this could turn out to be the best diet plan ever! lol.

Anonymous said...

Might want to check to see if Hickory Farms delivers to China...