Friday, January 2, 2009

Speak Mandarin, be "ignored"

Brought my bro and his family to eat an assortment of local delights and restaurants. My brother's fav remained as Rong Si Chicken rice in causeway bay, and a near second is the Taiwanese minced pork rice (which used to be my work lunch hang out). We went to China club on Xmas eve but somehow, food didnt taste as good as it ususally was.

Despite the non stop eating, my brother lost at least an inch from all the walking. That is good news of course and I hope that stays or he wont fit into the columbia jacket he bought!

Our fav time, including the kids were dessert time. My brother indulge in the durian dessert from "发记" Lucky dessert, while my sister in law had her fav Mango Pomelo from Honeymoon Dessert. Of course, we all love our Steam Milk and Egg Custard... Hmmmm...

Of course one incident stuck firmly in my brother's mind. While I'm so use to disliking the hoards of rude China people passing through, I didnt think for a min that some locals may actually feel the same as I do.

One night at the Times Square food court, I asked my brother to order the dessert himself since the locals would understand Mandarin as well. However my brother was pretty worked up and I found out that he received bad treatment and service from the guy at the Honeymoon dessert store there. The other woman colleague in specs had to intervene to sort out the mess her peer had created. My brother said the guy was obviously having an issue with my brother who spoke mandarin. When I went a second time instead ordering in Cantonese, the guy was very nice to me and everything went without a hitch. However, this bunch of China people of course cut and jump Q and make their request loudly. The dessert guy just ignored them while serving some other HK customers. The china woman was undecided about teh dessert choice and asked the guy loudly. The dessert guy just shoved a piece of paper options to her without a word, and ignored her. the china woman took off (thinking she got ahead of us from her conversations with her partner) and went to cashier.

However, she came back upset saying that the cashier told her the dessert guy had to indicate her order. I thought it was funny. The dessert guy took the pencil without a word, ready to write, but the china woman went "Err... is this better or that...?" The dessert guy rolled his eyes and put the order paper down and went to serve other people, leaving the china woman alone.

I went back to my brother grinning. Obviously the dessert guy had an issue with China people. So he apparently was very cold to anyone who speaks mandarin but service was good if you speak cantonese. I thought it was funny but my brother wasnt of course since he was still slighted by the dessert guy's attitude.

2 comments:

littlecartnoodles said...

Well, HK's retail and tourism industries are counting on mainland travelers to tide them through ... and they know it.

Nomad said...

Well..just because they got money doesnt give them the right to be obnoxious, and cutting Q and invading the personal space of everyone else.

I go "Good for you" for anyone who snub the rude chinese tourists. U see, even when snub, these stupid people will still PAY and buy the goods because their insignificant pride are based on "Lao Zi got $$" which will propel when to spend to get that 一口气. They think they $$ will "kill you"