Borneo - 5 Star Chinese

Posted by Matthew McEwen

Last night Carrie and I went to the fancy Chinese restaurant in the hotel and the whole experience was unsettling from the beginning. I guess ordering went well: hot and sour soup, crab dumplings, beef with black pepper sauce and a kung pow chicken. It's the way the waiters (all female and one to one ratio to customers) stood behind me or off to the side of us during the whole experience. At any one time there were three pairs of eyes waiting for anything to react to. I'm sure the service was great and they are very attentive but it was slightly creepy. Especially because my chop sticks skills leave something to be desired and I could hear them whispering to each other. When the main dishes came they put them in the middle of the table and left. The only implements on the table were a dessert sized plate and what I later learned was a rice bowl. I asked for a 'dinner plate' but instead she pointed to the small plate and served rice into the small bowl. Is it wrong to like want to mix the rice and main dishes together to get that saucy rice? It was all too comical trying to do this on the small plate and I felt completely conscious of all the eyes on me as I made a small mess. Do you shovel rice from a rice bowl in a fancy restaurant? The really strange thing is when we left I was checking out the rest of the patrons' tables and plenty were eating off large plates. I think it was some sociological experiment in dinning. Overall, it was the tastiest Chinese we'd ever had ... we are buying a new wok this summer.

I guess I'm glad I passed on the "double boiled winter melon with fungus".