Had a reunion lunch with some work colleagues today. People who I mostly haven't seen since the office closed. And most of whom I haven't spoken to since the office closed because we don't work on the same things. I was asked to provide some suggestions for where to eat. And I did some research and came up with a fairly decent list of restaurants that could cater a group lunch, covering the likes of Italian, Mexican, Indian, American. And where did we end up going? A Chinese dumpling restaurant. Great. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised when of the approximate 18 people there, 16 were Chinese. And only really a handful of these I know well enough to converse with. I don't particularly enjoy these get-togethers because more often than not people end up speaking Chinese to each other and I feel left out. And the food is ... not great. I don't mind dumplings - and these were supposedly the best soup dumplings in the area - but they just didn't do it for me. And, again when I go to a Chinese place with a bunch of Chinese people, there are just too many foods, preparations and tastes that are "weird" to my western palate. For my Chinese food fix, I'm happy to stick to Panda Express here or a good Chinese takeaway back in the UK.
