Adventures in dining

Earlier this week I went to the coffee shop next door and tried to order lunch. I was unable to read the menu, but luckily there were photos of some of the dishes. I pointed to a plate of steamed vegetables and tried to make it clear to the waitress that this is what I wanted. She didn't understand, so I somehow miraculously conveyed to her that I would like her to simply pick something and bring it, anything. By this time I just wanted food, any food, and would have been happy with anything. I'm still not sure how I was able to communicate that, while completely unable to point to a picture to say that is what I wanted. I'm getting pretty good at miming, or so I thought. I point to picture of vegetables, then to me, then to vegetables, then to my stomach, then to vegetables, then to my mouth and make chewing motions and go mmm mmm mmm and rub my belly. Still, no luck.

Anyway, she understood that I just wanted her to pick something. So she pointed to some Chinese characters on the menu and looked at me as if to say, "Is this ok?" and I nodded and smiled and off she went. I was excited to see what she would bring.

And to my extreme delight, she brought this...



I love eggplant! How did she know?! I was ecstatic! I had set my expectations really, really low, just in case she brought something with chicken feet sticking out of it. I was thrilled that she brought one of my all-time favorites!

So later when she came back to refill my water, I mime-asked her if she could please write down the name of the eggplant dish in Chinese so I could use it later when trying to order. Somehow she understood my mime question, and she gave me this (I wrote the English of course)...



So today I went to the coffee shop just to get out of the apartment, get some sunlight and do some reading. And when I got there I started craving the eggplant dish. Luckily I had the above note with me, and I showed it to the waitress. She looked a little confused, but then went "ohhh, ah ha!" and I nodded and smiled (something I'm getting really good at doing) and off she went. She brought me the same eggplant dish, so I was very happy. But this time there was no rice with it. When she came back, I tried to ask her for a small bowl of rice. First, she just brought an empty bowl. Oops, my bad. I tried again, and this time I really thought I did it right. But this is what came...



Wha? Huh? Oops. These eggs were really good, btw.

Then finally I remembered that I had my iPad on me and that I had downloaded a mandarin ebook of flashcards. I quickly pulled up the flashcard for cooked rice and showed the waitress...



Success!!

Here are the receipts for my eggplant and coffee, so now this is what I'll bring with me in the future. I'm sure at some point I'll want something other than eggplant...



Baby steps.