Saturday, June 7, 2008

Bonus appetizer at China Town

We've been living overseas too long. Nothing surprises us anymore.

We went to lunch today at China Town in CitiCentre. The restaurant replaced Zyng Asian, which we all liked and lasted all of three months in that location.
We ordered our appetizers and meals. The appetizers came, and Katherine picked up her napkin and under it was a 1.5-inch long cockroach. (Its antennae were another two inches long, but I'm not sure how one properly measures cockroaches.) It scampered under the table. It had been there at least since we arrived, and was very content at its hiding place -- and very discontent about having to move. It stayed there under the table, while Michele kept an eye on it and I flagged down a waiter. Alerted to the issue, the waiter took a napkin and grabbed the cockroach, squished, and took it away. It had clearly been there a long while, since there were 2 or 3 pieces of cockroach droppings on the plate.
We, on the other hand, waited for our main courses and ate.
Now, in the US it would be common for us to get comped the meal, right? This is India. I only got the steamed rice taken off the bill when we pointed out a couple pieces of cockroach droppings in it. I suggested that the restaurant get the situation looked at, but the waiter insisted that there were no cockroaches in the kitchen. "No, absolutely not, sir. Very hygenic." This would be the rare plate-eating cockroach, that is not drawn by actual food, I guess.
None of us have died yet, so I guess it'll be OK.

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