Talking of Chinese food not filling you up...and we all know it doesn't and we need to eat an hour later... what do the Chinese eat at home, which must fill them up ..I wonder ?
I can't speak directly to this, and I believe that in the cities an awful lot has changed over the past 3 decades.
But when I was a college freshman, I helped a Vietnamese guy with some lab work he was struggling with. We became study partners and sort of pals, and I think I helped him with improving his English. At a certain point he introduced me to his girlfriend, which seemed oddly formal. Later he invited me to a weekend home cooked dinner she was making.
I'm just a bumpkin. Just some American guy maybe 4th generation. I have no idea what to expect.
I arrive at an off-campus house with him, he leads me in, and it is crawling with people. Some sort of foreign exchange student house, all Asian. Not entirely Vietnamese. All talking like crazy. I'm the only white kid there. The rest are freshmen, upperclassmen, grad students, even a couple of young professors.
We were served quite a lot of things, I think the one being some kinds of brothy pork soup with fine white noodles and vegetables, which may have been Hủ Tiếu or something like it. It was met with great enthusiasm. But there were also many other items.
I don't think anyone was hungry an hour later.
What impressed me most was that when the meal was over nobody turned football on and vegged out. Instead the news was on TV and they all sat riveted, taking it in. Lots of conversation followed.
I thanked Hu and his girlfriend, then shook a lot of hands before leaving. It was all very warm and accepting, and I went away quite impressed.
I have no reason to expect other Asian peoples to be much different.
. Sunday morning, Christmas Eve, should be interesting.
. Inspiration hit, and I told them I'd pay for Uber. It's gonna cost big bucks
