DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

My German in-laws enjoy having family dinners at Chinese restaurants. This strikes me as funny somehow, as if German in-laws are only allowed to have family meals at the imbiss, over currywurst (sausage with curry sauce) and pommes rot-weis (french fries with ketchup and mayonaise). In fact, they probably have those too.

My wife is translating the menu to me. Her mother notices, and asks me whether she should request an English-language menu. “No, that’s not necessary,” I reply in halting German, “I don’t speak Chinese anyway.” This got big laughs. Fortunately my in-laws are easily amused.

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My first night here, we went out for dinner to a nice restaurant with a 100-item, 5-page menu (available in at least 2 languages). The “Vegetables” section was one of the smallest in the book, with only five items: vegetables with pork, vegetables with beef, vegetables with chicken, vegetables with fish, and vegetables with a fried egg. The word “vegan” does not exist here — and the word “vegetarian” seems to mean “the meat is cut into really small pieces.”

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posted to channel: Travel
updated: 2004-04-19 04:32:38