A few observations uttered...

Penning down a few of my observations in USA....

Observation 1 :

Most of the Chinese people out here don’t speak good English. Just like Keralites, they also have a unique accent for English. It can probably be termed as "Chinglish". Below is a conversation between me, my friend and a Chinese bearer in an authentic Chinese restaurant. That was the first time I went to a Chinese restaurant after landing in the United States.

The menu was totally different. I was hugely surprised by the fact that there were no “Manchurians” in the list. When I asked about it, my friend told me that they’ll be available only in Indo-Chinese restaurants. When I quickly ran through the menu, I could hardly find any vegetarian side-dishes in it. Most of the names were like titles of Chinese movies. We were trying to order fried rice and some vegetarian side dish. A lady bearer attended us. Here goes the conversation…

Bearer : Hi…

Me : Hi, We’ll have two mixed vegetable fried rice combo. But, we don’t want beef with it. Can we get something else instead of beef?

Bearer : No, No, No….. It’s a combo.

Me : Alright. What vegetables do you put in it?

Bearer : Mixed Vegetables.

Me : Ya, I know that. What vegetables are they?

Bearer : Mixed Vegetables.

Me : Mixed means?? What vegetables do you mix?

Bearer : Mixed means, mixed.

Me : I don't want certain vegetables. That's why am asking. Can you tell me what vegetables are they?

Bearer : (Pauses for a while and then) All vegethabels...

Me : Goyyaale…. (I was really frustrated)

Bearer : Whath???

Me : Vaathum illa, *****um illa…

Bearer : You wanth vegethabel friedh raaise?

I stopped talking to her and my friend took over from me....

My friend : Ya. But we don’t want beef. We want something else. Can we order fried rice separately?

Bearer : Oh, ok….. (She walked away from us quickly. We were wondering what she understood!)

After a couple of minutes, she came with some other lady who could speak better English. Both of us heaved a huge sigh of relief and explained her what we want. We learnt from her that they don’t serve fried rice separately. She also told us that we have to order a side dish and we get either fried rice or noodles(unlimited) free with it. The only veggie thing available was “Tofu” and we decided to order it. They use it as a substitute for meat. It looked like a big size paneer. Later I came to know that it is made out of the milky liquid extracted from soya beans. However, I didn’t like the taste. Rather than saying that it tasted bad, I should say that it didn’t taste anything at all!

In Chinese restaurants, another common thing is, they give you something called “fortune cookie” along with the bill. When you break it, you find a small strip of paper inside, which has a fortune or a luck message printed on it. The cookie tastes pretty good as well.




I’ve been to quite a few Chinese restaurants now and I see that their English is very unique and also, most of the Chinese people don’t know to speak proper English.

Observation 2 :

Coke vs Pepsi

I’ve tried out almost all fast food centers in my place – Carl’s Jr, McDonalds, Subway, Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC, Chipotle, Panda Express, etc. As far as I have seen, Coke is the predominant drink in most of the places. It’s a 80:20 ratio, with Coke being the highest. Here, they generalize all drinks as soda. When you ask for soda, mostly you get only coke. I could see Pepsi only in a very few places. I guess it’s the other way round in India.

Rest in next…

Signing off