Everything But

Today's meal was definitely "NG," or "no good."

At least I have a funny story about the salad, which was not very tasty.

You see, one of the girls I was sitting with wanted it, but I made her earn it. By the time she was able to correctly ask for it in English (I am an English teacher, after all!), I had practically eaten it all. Lucky for her, I did slow down toward the end, though, so that I could reward her efforts.

The main dish, which I will call "Chinese Chow," was for the birds. I nibbled on a few pieces of meat, picked out a few bits of bamboo, and gave the rest away.

Amazingly, before I even tried to give it away, though, the girl to my right asked if she could have the baby corn. "My pleasure, darlin'! It's all yours!" (No, I didn't actually say that.) A couple of the other girls took the rest and that was that.

The only part of the meal that I liked at all was the soup. Well, the soup itself wasn't so great, but the fish balls, which were actually meat balls (as opposed to "meatballs"!), were yummy.

What I didn't get about those meat balls, though, was why I only had two in my bowl, but the girl in front of me had seven, yes 7(!), in hers. She was kind enough to give me two of hers, though, since I had given her some of my food.

(Side note: I've noticed that, for the most part, very little food trading takes place. What I mean is, the kids are happy to take food off of your hands, but they generally don't automatically ask if you want something in exchange. What I have seen take place, however, is a kid being "forced" to take more than he wanted when he asked if he could have another kid's food. I guess the bottom line is, it's all a matter of supply and demand.)

Anyway, because I enjoyed those meat-not-fish-balls, I went to get seconds of the soup. Before I headed up to the counter, though, I bet a couple of the girls at my table how many balls I'd get. I bet two, one girl bet three, and the other bet four.

We were all wrong.

I got a big fat goose egg: Zero!

Say what?

Yesterday, a guy went to get seconds of the stuffed cabbage and came back with a bowl full of everything but, and today I went to get seconds of the soup (including the balls!) and came back with a bowl (ridiculously!) full of everything but.

NG!

At least another girl was kind enough to donate one of her balls to me so that the noodles in my bowl had someone to talk to and so that I wouldn't go hungry.

Thanks, Akari!

Total points: 3