restaurant outting numero uno

nimen hao!

Last Thursday during the late evening Chen Tao and I went out the south gate at Beida to seek out our first interviewee in a little restaurant across the street. After some hesitation, one of the owners of the restaurant allowed us to ask 3 questions under the agreement that if she was not interested after 3 questions we would end the interview. Luckily, the apple computer I used to take notes during the interview was intriguing enough to keep the questions a'coming. Here's some of the basic things I learned about this little restaurant just off campus. Now that I know about how long an interview will take I intend on changing questions accordingly to get to the depths of the food industry in China.

The restaurant was opened in 2007 by this couple who owned a couple of other successful restaurants in the past. From experience, they knew that the location just outside of Beida's gates was prime with a clientele consisting mainly of young adults between 20 and 35. The restaurant serves hot pot style with some supplemental dishes. The most popular dish is called ma la shong gua meaning something like spicy and scented hot pot. The recipes are all family recipes but they said that they did not feel comfortable advertising this because the lack of credibility being such a young restaurant. They seemed to have few fears for the future and actually discussed the possibility of expanding their restaurant in other areas of China.

During the interview I was surprised at how interested in me and my studies in China the restaurant owners were. They really wanted to know what I thought about China. I was really not expecting these sorts of questions, so I will be prepared for next time. Unfortunately, since the restaurant was so young they could not shed very much light on the comparison from present time to the past 30 years, but future restaurant interviews look more promising in this aspect of the project. Since Chen Tao and I went to interview them so late in the evening we were unable to sample their hot pot dishes, but since I am about 98% sure they put up a picture of me in their restaurant on the wall, I think I'll be returning to try some tasty hot pot. I'll tell you how it turns out.

-many boiling pots of meat, fish balls, tofu, vermicelli noodles, potatoes, Chinese broccoli, and spices that will burn your mouth for hours to come!-

lìn lìn