Friday, July 31, 2009

Hubby And China Girls

This afternoon, hubby shared with me that two China girls approached him while he was having dinner at Subaidah last night.

(It is not what you think, ok. Remember, to the pure all things are pure.)

They asked him whether he knew Mandarin. Hubby confessed that he only knew "yi tian tian."

They probably thought his Mandarin was good enough for a simple assignment, which was to help them order two plates of "yin du mian" with "dan."

Hubby, thinking that he had interpreted correctly, asked the waiter whether they served Indo Mee. The waiter said "No" and proceeded to offer an alternative which was Maggi Mee.

So hubby asked the girls whether it was Maggi Mee that they wanted. They said, "No."

Hubby came to the conclusion that the girls, being foreigners, did not know what they want, so he went ahead and ordered two bowls of Maggi Mee with egg for them.

Somehow, after the order had been taken and the girls had thanked him for his assistance, hubby had a niggling feeling that something was not right. So he quickly finished his meal and drove off before the girls' orders came.

He was right to scoot off before the food was served.

I could just imagine the scene. The waiter would have brought two bowls of Maggi Mee Soup with egg to the two girls who were expecting mee goreng with egg! The girls would be insisting that the order is wrong while the waiter would be insisting that the order is correct. Meanwhile the person who created the problem is no where to be found.

The waiter had no reason to doubt that hubby did not know what he was doing. It goes without saying that the girls had complete faith that hubby knew what he was doing. The biggest joke was that hubby was the only one who did not know what he was doing.

Anyone who has heard of hubby's misadventures with Chinese dialects should know that they only "cari pasal" (his own admission) when they leave it to him to order food in any dialect other than Hokkien.

Hubby did not plan to trick them. When he told me the story he was under the impression that "yin du mian" referred to the instant mee that goes by the brand Indo Mie.

It was an innocent mistake but I doubt the others thought so.

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