Etiquette at the Chinese Dinner Table

The quick and dirty of showing the Chinese Dinner table some respect:
The dishes don’t like to sit around and get cold. It’s a fast-paced meal with food that wants to be eaten hot. Serving tea is a sign of affection and respect. Pointing chopsticks at other people is a taboo best left for mob movies.

-Eat family style- share plates.
-Always allow your elders to start eating first.
-Do not use your chopsticks to pick out select morsels from communal plates- use a serving utensil, get in, get out, deal with what you got.
-If the fish head is pointing at you, you are the guest of honor. (just saying)
-Unlike at the Korean dinner table, it is okay to pick up your rice bowl.
-politely, and with a smile, slap anyone drumming with their chopsticks.

How to Eat mu shu pork.
The players:
Pancake
Hoisin sauce
Slit end Green onions to be used as brushes
Filling

Take a pancake place on plate.
Brush a dainty slathering of Hoisin onto the pancake just below center (use the green onions or a spoon)
Take a serving spoonful of filling in the just below center of the pancake over the Hoisin.

Fold:
There are three schools of folding. The open end (lazy!) the single open end packet or the doubly closed packet (anal!). I like the single. The trick is to fold with just the right amount of tension without ripping the pancake. Treat the stuff like cheap plastic wrap — pull until you sense strain.

Fold the bottom of the pancake.
Fold the right side of the pancake.
Fold the left side of the pancake.
Turn packet over and let rest.



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