CHINA 2010 TUESDAY 24th AUGUST

‘Tesco’ opened last week in the ‘Robinson Galleria’ opposite the Railway Station and Walmart! My last resort for finding cornflakes which I have to say was successful although I could only get small packets of Kelloggs from the ‘Imported Goods’ selection and at a price but we have so much milk at home, not to mention nearly a full jar of honey, and Keith is getting bored with a cooked breakfast every morning so it’s a healthy alternative for both of us. The layout in ‘Tesco’ is spread in all directions but at least it is on one floor and aisle signs are in English which makes life easy. Also it was not very busy but overall it was just another supermarket. I was impressed with the greenery section where a ‘mister’ continuously sprayed water over the whole display keeping everything nice and fresh looking if a little damp. Down one of the aisles I hesitated to move forward as a young man came down pulling a pallet of unsecured ceramic hobs stacked very high on his trolley. I did right to stop as suddenly most of the large boxes went everywhere – oops! An older lady member of staff ran forward and must have heard me as she too said “oops” and then seemed to give the young man a severe telling off. I guess there will be a sale of damaged goods in the next day or two!
It was Keith’s long day so we didn’t venture out until going to eat at ‘The Soup Expert’ where a young waitress was doing well until we asked for ‘Beijing Duck’ at which point she had to call the young man over to deal with us. We still didn’t get the boneless slices of duck but it was very succulent accompanied by a sweet sauce or rather jam, and our usual fish in foil was really spicy so I thought the beef dish would cool my mouth only to discover that too had a hidden kick. Good job we had plenty of beer!
As we were finishing our meal a European man and woman came in accompanied by a Chinese girl, the woman wanting to sit right under the air conditioning unit in the ceiling above the table next to us. I said it felt quite cold but she wanted “the colder the better”. A rather large lady who spoke 14 languages, not all at once, took centre stage whilst the man received a phone call. He had managed to tell us he was going to be working at the University teaching religion and now gave his apologies and said he must leave. The group seemed to cause chaos and a couple sitting in the cubicle opposite began to enjoy the fun. Our large lady noticed them and then in Chinese and English had a go about laughing at the ‘laowai’ (foreigner) which I felt a little embarrassed about, as did Keith when I was discussing the situation on our way home. It turned out Danielle had only met Tony today! He was apparently trying to rent the apartment above hers. She insisted on having our phone number and we would ‘go walking’ and ‘we’ll go to Tony’s really good restaurant in another part of the city’, Tony being the Hong Kong owner of ‘The Soup Expert’ which now explains why we see don’t see him very often. Another phone call and her friend ‘Louise’ arrived. A small quiet lady starting her own web company and who I think for a quiet life decided to have the same dish as Danielle – duck with rice. It arrived at their table just as we were about to leave, the duck in slices as we would have liked! Perhaps next time we should order this duck dish from the separate duck menu but no rice! This menu is all in Chinese with just a picture of a cooked duck on the cover. It doesn’t really matter what we order it all tastes good and after all we find it a bit of fun not knowing what we are going to get or rather how we are going to get it!