Would You Like A Drink With That Grain Of Rice?

food continued...

One thing pointed out to me before leaving for Taiwan, by many a person, was the need for chopstick skills. On multiple occasions, whilst dining on fine Asian cuisine in the States, someone pointed out that the real test to knowing whether or not you are good with chopsticks is how well you can pick up a single grain of rice. "Try picking up that grain of rice by itself," they'd say. "Let's play a game and pass this grain of rice to each other using chopsticks," they'd joke. And I was under the same impression. Chopstick skills require attention to detail, right?

Wrong. This, in retrospect, was quite possibly the dumbest notion ever to have crossed my mind, and I have done some sublimely idiotic things in my day. Really, who the hell eats rice one grain at a time? I mean, after a long days work on the job hunt and skipping a meal because I was at an interview, the first idea that crawls around between my ears is usually something along the lines of "I can't wait to eat this rice one by one by one by one." Cast under a spell of Western ignorance, and now brought into the light, I see the folly in my previous thought processes and gleefully shovel as much rice into my mouth as humanly possible. And then, with a mouth full of rice I reach over to have a drink and swash it all down, right?

Wrong. There are no drinks with meals here. If you're lucky enough to find a place that serves drinks, good luck getting a refill. The first night in Taiwan, Uncle Fred took Johnny and I out for dinner. We were having soup and I took a bottle of water out of my bag to have a swig of something cold. I received a good number of looks that all said the same thing, "What's with this guy?" As Uncle Fred explained, "Why do you need a drink if you've having soup?" I guess it kind of makes sense. You have your entire breakfast, lunch or dinner right in front of you, all in one bowl. Beverage included with the price of the meal. And what if you're having dry food that doesn't have soup in it, like a plate of noodles, you ask? Well, you just order a bowl of soup to go with it, of course.