Yes, I had dinner last night with someone who had never been to a real restaurant. Weeks ago we talked about food and he said he loved the Chinese buffet since you can have all you can eat for $6. He loves the mashed potatoes, pizza and fried rice. Oy vey. I told him I don’t eat trash food and only eat at real restaurants, and he said he’d never gone to one. I figured he was joking.

We’ve gone out to eat half a dozen times, and each time I’ve taken him to a little tiny Chinese restaurant not far from him, where the food is freshly made right there and then and isn’t overly expensive — no atmosphere, get your own dinner — but freshly made with fresh veggies, no MSG and not a lot of sodium. He always gets French Fries and each time asks if they have mashed potatoes. I keep telling him no Chinese restaurant served that, but he then asks if they have pizza. So, he ends up with 2 egg rolls (he’s a vegetarian and won’t eat seafood, I don’t have the heart to tell him that there is pork and shrimp in the egg rolls), a small veggie fried rice, a small veggie lo mein.

He’s always so in shock that the food is SO much better than the buffet. I explain they use cheap quality at a buffet and it sits on a steam table for hours and hours.

Last night I decided to take him to a “real” restaurant not far from him, a Chinese restaurant. He looked around several times, then the waitress brought out the bread. He said, “they give you bread to eat?” and grabbed a roll. He didn’t know how to open the little packet of butter as he’d never seen one before. Internally my mouth was gaping.

The menu boggled his mind and he could not find mashed potatoes on the menu. He asked the waitress if they had any and she gave me a look! I ordered some soup and a small Chicken Teriyaki. He could not decide, then asked for Spinach with Garlic, but asked if they could make it with cheese. I got another look from the waitress and told him Chinese people don’t eat cheese. He asked if they could make it up anyway.

Oy vey. I finally told him to get fried rice and he got a small veggie fried rice and more bread — he could not believe it was free.

He also ordered a fruity drink with Vodka and got a little tipsy pretty fast, showing me he really doesn’t drink often. He was much more open once relaxed but I was glad he had just one drink.

So, he gets his fries and his rice but ate half of it. I asked if we could take the rest to go and he said “the bread, too” since it was free lol. He was amazed they gave you water to drink with the meal in glasses.

I grew up going to restaurants with my folks. I guess I just assumed everyone had been to a real restaurant in their life. Some day I’m going to take him to my favorite restaurant where dinner always costs at least $50 per person, or my 2nd favorite where $30 per meal is the norm.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 4:48 pm and is filed under Life In General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.