Originally Posted by ajnaro

As it happens I love Chinese food, in a place like San Francisco, New York, Vancouver ... Anywhere I can read the menu and the food that comes to the table seems to correspond to what's written on the menu to a certain extent. Even Hong Kong is fine, although not in all restaurants. There seems to be a distinction between Chinese food for Westerners and Chinese food for Chinese. I can't pretend to know what it is -- technique, spices and other ingredients such as cooking oils, whatever it is it just doesn't amount to tasty food for me.

As for the beer, thanks for the phrase, which I will memorize. I just wonder what the tones are. I am alway afraid about trying phrase books in China because with the wrong tone I might wind up saying something insulting.