As a visitor or guest of a family or restaurant in China, you will find that table manners are essential, and the unique manners displayed will definitely increase your dining pleasure and keep you in a high mood!
1. Although customs and food types are different in different regions, it is most common for families in China to get together for three meals a day.
Personal tableware for daily meals includes a bowl of rice, a pair of chopsticks, a flat spoon and a saucer. At the beginning and end of a meal, diners are usually provided with hot towels instead of napkins to wipe their hands and mouths.
The real difference is that in the west, you have your own plate of food, while in China, all the dishes are put on the table for everyone to share. Meat dishes and vegetarian dishes are placed in the center of the table at one time, and diners eat directly from the common plate with chopsticks. Soup is also eaten from ordinary bowls. Dishes are not used to hold one for yourself, but to hold bones and shells, or to put a bite of food from a common plate when the plate is too big to eat at once.
It is totally acceptable to reach across the table and take a bite from a distant dish. For the convenience of taking all the dishes, the dining table in China is more likely to be square or round, rather than long like the dining table in the west.
Perhaps one of the most surprising things for western tourists is that some China hosts like to put food on their guests' plates. Usually at formal dinners, there are always "public" chopsticks and spoons for this purpose, but some hosts may still use their own chopsticks. This is a symbol of true friendship and courtesy. It is polite to eat food. If you don't want to eat, please leave the food on the plate.
6. Eating usually starts in the order of seniority, and each diner starts with his or her immediate boss.
7. In order to cool the soup a little and better spread the taste in the mouth, sip it with a spoon and inhale at the same time. Of course, this method will produce a squeak that is forbidden in the west.
8. Rice is the staple food. When eating vermicelli, diners hold the bowl to their mouth and put the vermicelli into their mouth with chopsticks. This is the easiest way to eat and shows proper enjoyment. Diners must eat the whole bowl of rice, otherwise it will be considered impolite behavior-lack of respect for the labor required to produce rice.
9. People in China tend to order too much food, especially at banquets or parties, because they will feel embarrassed if all the food is eaten or not enough.
Is the service attitude good?