On 6/21/2022 at 10:32 PM, Duvel said:I went to a "Italian" restaurant once in one of the larger hotel chains in Shenzhen (I think it was an InterContinental). We had negotiations there and decided to take the lunch buffet, much to the delight of our Chinese negotiation partners who went beserk on the offerings.
It wasn't all bad - what I vividly remember was the overcooked pasta & 10.000 sauces bar (that was very popular), where actually some of the sauces were ok (basic tomato sauce for example), yet most suffered from a heavy hand of sugar and almost all had an incredible amount of black pepper added. They had a minestrone, that was very decent and also some grilled meats, that - while not specifically Italian - could stem from a Western buffet, too. Plenty of cold boiled seafood (like in any Chinese buffet restauran), but with balsamic vinegar and olive oil as the dipping sauce options. And a table with plastic cheeses. And - as probably the only restaurant in my time in China - they served drinks (including wine) cold without any prior request.
Well, as you know, Western people add tons of black pepper to everything. We have black pepper sauce on our cornflakes! Everyone in China knows that!
They have gotten much better at serving cold drinks (sadly including the red wine!), although you do still sometimes have to specify that's what you want. I've trained them well!
冰的 (bīng de), meaning iced is the magic word.