In my Chinese class this week we were looking at menus and food words and how to order. My teacher asked me 你会不会点菜？ (Have you learned to order yet?) I told her 对，我会点菜，但是有的时候我点真奇怪的菜。 (Yes, but sometimes I order very strange dishes.)
A couple of weeks ago my colleagues and I were out for our weekly dinner. I was put in charge of ordering because I have the best Chinese of the group (which doesn't say much about us – I think between us we have lived in China for 20 years!). We go by the tried and tested point method. You point at a photograph and say 这个 (that one!). Occasionally we check what it is 猪肉吗？牛肉吗？(Is it pork? Is it beef?) Or 肝脏吗？(Is it liver?). My colleagues are not huge fans of liver.
Well, I was pointing and choosing, and we all agreed that something different would be good. So I pointed at something we hadn't tried before. 牛肉吗？ 对，牛蛙肉。(Is it beef? Yes, Beef -WA) I didn't know what 'wa' meant, but I was pretty sure it wasn't liver (gan). So we ordered it.
A colleagues' Chinese wife arrived a bit later and said, "Who ordered frog?" Well I did. It turns out that the frogs that you can eat are called 'beef frogs'. Beef is 'niurou' and Beef frogs are 'niuWArou'. That 'wa' in the middle turned out to be quite important.
Oh well. I quite like frog. Tastes like a cross between fish and chicken. This dish was irritating because peas are very hard to pick up with chopsticks, but the frog itself was good. Lots of bones, but no worse than crabmeat! And certainly no more fiddly than chicken feet.
You learn something every day. My Chinese teacher was very impressed with my knowledge of niuwarou, and laughed and laughed when she heard the story. I can just picture her going home to her husband... "You'll never guess what that crazy foreigner did the other day..."
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