Oman: Chinese food for beginners

My good friend Ahmed, like many people in Oman, is building his own house. Often such ventures include a trip to China to locate materials to finish the property. When Ahmed announced he would be going for two weeks with his wife, I enquired as to what he was going to eat. This raised some alarm owing to the common local belief that the Chinese eat anything with legs.

I therefore suggested a training exercise at the Golden Dragon in MQ, At 8.30pm, the place was not exactly oozing vitality from the four customers or the less than dynamic staff. Shouting over the cheesy music (Genesis on the flute), I ordered a selection of the basics: sweet and sour chicken, Mongolian beef, special chow mein and vegetable rice. I provided an introductory chop-stick handling course and after a few minutes, Ahmed was showing some creditable chop-stick skills. However, this soon gave way to the use of a more productive spoon. The rice and sweet and sour were very popular, the beef and noodles were not (at all).

Perhaps I should have paid more attention to the menu. The bill for this activity came to over 16 OMR. For mediocre food in a mediocre restaurant, this was an expensive exercise. Compared to the wonderful atmosphere in restaurants in China, this was less than exciting introduction to the joys of Chinese food. I didn't mention the spiced donkey.