americantakeout
tasty bytes from China
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03/26/11
When in doubt, doodle.
Filed under: General
Posted by: @ 5:31 pm

RatChicorWhat

Okay,…

They say only seven percent of communication is verbal.

In China, that seven percent makes one hundred percent of  difference.

Take for instance, last week at the open air market.  I wanted to buy meat  and couldn’t tell if a ground selection was beef or pork.

So, I did what any sane person would do.

I started to moo. Then oink.

I found out quickly that  a moo isn’t a moo in Chinese. And an oink isn’t an oink. But a white person imitating Porky Pig in China is spectacle.

 Who’d ever thunk that a moo isn’t the universal sound for beefy bovines. Definitely not the lady holding the meat cleaver behind the counter. She thought I was nuts.

Cock-a-doodle-doo isn’t universal either. In Korean and Chinese, the feather covered morning alarm clock goes: cokyo, like toyko with a “K”.

Since body language and making animal sounds are about as useful in China as an American Express card,  I call on my Pictionary skills when shopping. If you don’t have command of the Chinese language, you use the next best thing: an ink pen.

Like the time I saw this tasty selection.

I don’t even think Julia Child could tell was this is.

MysteryMeat

Being lost for words, I sketched a rabbit and showed it to the woman behind the counter.

No.

Next, I drew a rotisserie style rodent…

Luckily, that was strike number two.

Then I picassoed another poultry selection: chicken.

Nada.

I handed over my pen and the woman drew a mystery bird with a bill.

I think she doodled a duck.

However, when after examingng the crispy selection, I think she was involved in a little switch and bate.

The moral of this blog is?

When in doubt, don’t oink. Doodle.

Here are more tasty selections that uh don’t need explanation.

Whats4dinner

fish

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