I used to hop around Chinese restaurants in Cebu....
One thing I learned which might be interesting to you is the Chinese way of thanks for refilling one's tea cup.
It is considered courteous to keep your tablemate's teacups filled. How many times did I get my tea cup refilled until I was ready to burst? :-) I kept on thanking them see ...hehehe!
To thank the kind person for refilling your cup, simply tap your first and index finger together on the table.
The story was that there was this emperor who liked to travel or tour around his country incognito. Once upon a time, the Emperor arrived in a teahouse, and took his turn to pour the tea. His companions who should probably have been kowtowing to press their foreheads to the floor, instead tapped their fingers in a mini-kowtow because the emperor wanted to maintain his disguise. Pretty neat eh?
It soon involved to a simpler form of just tapping the two aforementioned fingers above on the table from the two fingers bending and kowtowing....
Tip: if you don't want to keep on drinking bottomless cups of tea - then don't drink it so your cup becomes empty - because the cycle will keep on repeating itself :-)
I don't mind. I like Chinese tea.
ReplyDeleteThanks, worth knowing I guess.
ReplyDeletesame here...I've been buying and drinking it for a long time...though I like matcha too..
ReplyDeleteI was curious the first time I saw it, and asked impulsively my friend why the heck he was tapping away on the table :-) I thought he was getting impatient or something...
ReplyDeletehmm i didnt know that..i'll try to do that next time. normally, they'll serve you the tea before your meal and they will leave the tea pot for your next refill.Thanks for the info ms. Cat!!
ReplyDeletei like Chinese tea, too. same here. they keep refilling the tea cup.
ReplyDeletesana refill din sa dishes to accompany it *wink*
ReplyDeletethats what is happening in the restaurants...so if you have lots of Chinese friends dining with you, please observe and you will see one or the other will top off your teacup :-)
ReplyDeleteI was reminded again of this in this recent trip...imagine the poor courtiers...they were in the damned if you do-damned if you don't situation....
ReplyDelete