I
have come to Star Kitchen for morning tea with my friends on Sunday. Morning
tea is a special meal that people in south China like to eat; it consists of
different kinds of dim sums. By the time I arrived at the restaurant, there
were so many customers waiting outside. It cost me about 15 minutes to wait
before I finally enjoyed morning tea with my friends. In that day, we had
Steamed Beef Meat Ball, Mango Pudding, Shrimp Dumpling and other dim sums. They
were all very delicious, my friends and I did really enjoy the morning tea on
that day.
Star Kitchen is a traditional Chinese
restaurant in Denver; it mainly provides morning tea and seafood. Morning tea is available between 10:30 am to
2:00 pm. After that, customers could order by menu for seafood and other
Chinese dishes. As a familiar of this restaurant, in my opinion, morning tea is
more attractive than seafood.
The decoration of this restaurant is in
traditional Chinese ways. There is a red stage in the middle of the restaurant.
When there is a birthday party, wedding and other activities like this, the
stage will take effects. In the corner of this restaurant, there are tanks with
seafood. If customers want to order seafood, they can go to these tanks
directly and choose the seafood they like. Otherwise, there are also some
Chinese paintings and calligraphies hanging on the wall.
Customers in this restaurant are mainly Chinese, however, some
non-Chinese customers will also choose to eat morning tea there. When you are
having morning tea in this restaurant, you can hear people using English,
Chinese and Cantonese to ask the food they want, and talking with their
friends. Customers use chopsticks when they are having their dim sums. Even
people who do not come from China are learning to use chopsticks. In my mind,
this shows their respect to Chinese food culture, because chopsticks do
represent an important part in Chinese food culture. Chinese people would like
to talk and laugh loudly during morning tea, so it makes the restaurant very
lively and noisy. Although some non-Chinese customers may consider the
environment of this restaurant is very bad, actually, this is also a reflection
of Chinese food culture. Unlike people from other countries who regard the
behavior is the most important when having a meal, Chinese people mainly focus
on the atmosphere. The more lively the atmosphere, the happier they feel. After
having eaten up morning tea, Chinese customers may not choose to leave directly.
Most of the time, they would like to order a pot of tea, and talking with their
friends. On the contrary, non-Chinese customers would like to leave directly, the
reason may be that they know a little about Chinese tea culture, and they may
not get accustomed to the taste of Chinese tea.
To different customers, they have different reasons for coming to this
restaurant. Chinese customers could enjoy the taste of their familiar food as
Star Kitchen could provide very authentic dim sums. As everyone knows that it
is very hard for Chinese people to enjoy the taste of American food because it
is totally different from the food in China. Another attraction this restaurant
could provide for Chinese customers is that they can order the menu in Chinese.
Sometimes, Chinese people may make mistakes in order the food in an American
restaurant because they are not able to understand the menu. Otherwise, Chinese
customers could feel as if they were at home because by the time they enjoy
their morning tea, there are also so many other Chinese customers eating in
this restaurant. Most of the non-Chinese customers come to this restaurant may
just for an ethnic food experience. But we cannot ignore a fact that the delicious
taste of Chinese food may also attract some non-Chinese customers.
In China, morning tea is popular mainly in Guangdong Province and Hong
Kong. The dim sums there are very delicious. Nicholas Lander once wrote an
experience of a wine merchant, “While he was enjoying Chinese food in Hong
Kong, nothing he had so far eaten had touched the heights of the very best
Japanese food in Tokyo. Fortunately, the possibility of a diplomatic incident
was averted by the arrival of several waitresses with the first wave of dim
sum.” Hong Kong and cities in Guangdong Province develop very quickly so people
there are under great pressure coming from their work and life. It is necessary
for them to have a period time and a way to rest, and then morning tea becomes
very popular in these parts of China.
Wherever Chinese people are having morning tea, mostly, they will come
to the restaurant with their friends and their relatives to rest themselves.
Sometimes they will also choose to have morning tea with their business partners;
deals may probably be made during their morning tea.
To most of Chinese people who choose to have morning tea in Star
Kitchen, this restaurant is not only a good place for them to enjoy the
delicious morning tea, but also a wonderful place to rest themselves and
communicating with their friends. Star Kitchen does well in attracting both
Chinese customers and non-Chinese customers. The menu in this restaurant has
two visions- Chinese and English, and the waitresses are able to speak English,
Chinese and Cantonese. In my mind, Star Kitchen is really a good Chinese
restaurant in Denver.
Works Cited
Nicholas Lander. “Hong Kong dim sum.” FT.com 23 Mar. 2012: ABI/INFORM Global, ProQuest. Web. 16 Apr. 2012.
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