I grew up in a rural town in the mountains in Arkansas and we didn’t have a lot of exotic culinary fare. In fact, as an example, I didn’t know what an avocado was until I left the village at age 19. We just didn’t have a variety of interesting foods passing through our stores and restaurants. When it came to Asian cuisine, I knew one dish: chow mein. There was a canned product that we could get at the store that had chow mein in the bottom can and some dry noodles in the top can, and the two cans were taped together. Yum! No, not really. When I went away to college, I befriended some young men from Malaysia and I was introduced to real Asian food and I’ve been hooked ever since. The joke below reminds me of how shocked I’d have been if I had visited an Asian restaurant as a child.
A couple decides to go for a meal on their anniversary and after some deliberation decides on their local Chinese restaurant.
They peruse the menu and finally agree to share the chef’s special ‘Chicken Surprise’.
The waiter brings over the meal, served in a lidded cast iron pot.
Just as the wife is about to start in on the meal, the lid of the pot rises a tiny amount and she briefly sees two beady little eyes looking around before the lid slams back down.
‘Good grief, did you see that?’ she asks her husband. He hasn’t so she asks him to look in the pot.
He reaches for it and again the lid rises, and again he! sees two beady little eyes looking around before it firmly slams back down.
Rather perturbed he calls the waiter over, explains what is happening, and demands an explanation.
‘Well sir’, says the waiter, ‘What did you order?’
‘We both chose the same’, he replies, ‘the Chicken Surprise’
‘Oh I do apologize, this is my fault’ says the waiter…..
‘I’ve brought you the Peking duck.’
