Have you eaten yet?

With a population of over 1.3 billion people, it is little wonder that there's such significance placed on food in China. One of the most common greetings among the Cantonese is "Have you eaten yet?" In fact, the Cantonese are known to be the most finicky of gourmets whose insatiable quest for the freshest and most exotic of dishes earned them the reputation of "eating everything that has four legs except a table and everything that flies except an airplane."

It is therefore the ultimate irony that I cannot find a decent Cantonese restaurant around Nanshan Hospital. Not only are restaurants specializing in the local cuisine far and in between but the variety of the dishes on the menu dismal and inadequate. By contrast, there are Szechuan restaurants, Mongolian restaurants, Shanghainese restaurants, Peking restaurants, Shandong restaurants galore. I was told that it is because Nanshan has a large migrant labor population so the restaurants tend to cater to non-Cantonese palates.

Since arriving at the hospital, we've been ordering out our meals. There is a communal kitchen but the logistics of shopping daily for food and preparing it in an unfamiliar kitchen proved too daunting. We've found that by sticking with Chinese food, our per diem (lunch and dinner for two) amounted to no more than 70 to 80 Yuan (US$10) which is unbelievably inexpensive. Lunch is usually a plate lunch of rice or noodles, meat, and vegetables. This usually costs around 10 to 12 Yuan (US$1.50). Another of our lunch favorites is jook (Chinese porridge or congee) favored with chicken or fish. This is augmented by Deep Fried Devils (Chinese crullers) and a plate of fresh greens seasoned with oyster sauce. Dinner is a bit more elaborate. I usually order the soup of the day, a meat and vegetable dish, a tofu dish, and white rice. Sometimes, we order from the beef noodle place. The meals there come with small side dishes like tea marinated eggs, and preserved bean curd.

For a change of pace, we ordered a pizza from Papa John's last Friday. We usually see 3 to 4 empty Papa John's pizza boxes in the kitchen trash here everyday. So Papa John's is very popular at the Stem Cell Ward. Imagine our surprise when we found that a 14 inch pizza ran 100 Yuan! (US$13) By U.S. standards, the price is not outrageous, but for the locals, the same amount of money will buy a nice dinner for 8 people.

For non-Chinese speaking and reading patients, there are three alternatives in feeding themselves :

1. Shop for food at the local supermarkets and prepare the meals in the communal kitchen.

2. Go out to local restaurants (including the restaurant on the first floor of the hospital) and order from the menu which may or may not be in English. Western fast food outlets like McDonald's and KFC also have a big local presence.

3. Order from Papa John's or the restaurant on the first floor of the hospital and have the food delivered to your room.

I have a bone to pick with regards to the restaurant on the first floor. The first time we tried eating at the place, we had a fairly good experience. The food and service were OK if not memorable. The second time we went there, we sat at the table for half an hour. The staff ignored us, never bringing us even a glass of water or the menu. Needless to say, we left without eating.

Today, the heavens opened up just as we returned from Richard's morning acupuncture and PT session. I decided to give the first floor restaurant another try and ordered some food (a noodle dish for Richard and a club sandwich for me) to be delivered to our room. After an hour and a half, the food failed to appear. Every time I called the restaurant, the line was busy or the call went answered. At this point, I decided to hedge my bet and called my usual Chinese takeout place across the street. This order arrived at our room in under 25 minutes even though it was pouring rain outside.

As we were hungrily shoving down our food, there was a timid knock on the door. It was the delivery from the restaurant on the first floor. The elapsed time was slightly over 2 hours. It was almost 2pm. Our nurse happened to walk by at that moment. She told me to send the food back and not pay for it. Although I felt sorry for the delivery person I complied. Richard is having his stem cells injection by IV this afternoon. Had it been through lumbar puncture, the situation would have been serious as he would not be allowed to eat or drink after 12 noon. It would mean that he has missed his time window for lunch and would not be able to eat again until after 10pm.

The poor weather also caused the plane carrying the stem cells to be diverted from the Shenzhen airport to the nearby Guangzhou airport. Consequently, we were told by Dr. Guo moments ago that the stem cell treatment will not commence until after 8pm. We had planned on going out with another group of patients for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant but it looks like we will have to reschedule for tomorrow night.

Since I'm bilingual, (and love food) I've started to collect takeout menus from local restaurants to translate them into English so that future patients will have a choice of foods during their stay at Nanshan. I'm planning to represent this book of menus to the Beike staff before we leave.