Chinese Food

There is a show on Nickelodeon called Ni Hao, Kai-lan that Connor loves.  I've never really watched it but it's about a Chinese girl.  I don't know if it takes place in China or what, but it's Chinese themed.

A few weeks back we were in the pool and some older boys mentioned the show.  Connor just lit up!  He loves that show.  But then before he could say anything to them one of the boys said "That show is for babies."  Which just crushed Connor.  I was interested to see how this would play out. 

I kinda half forgot about it but I noticed recently that now when he watches the show he sings the theme song but adds the word "stupid" into it.  And then the other day he was in the living room with me and it came on in the family room.  He said "UH! Ni Hao, Kai-lan is on." kind of angry about it but then rushed in there to watch it. Like he was mad at himself for liking it. 

So I followed him in there and said "Oh, this is such a good show." and watched the whole thing with him.

Well!  Since then Connor has gotten interested in all things Chinese.  He knows a couple Chinese words.  He can count to three in Chinese.  He knows the Chinese characters for a couple of numbers.  "The symbol for the number 8 looks like a moustache." he says. I think he has been taking notes this whole time but keeping them to himself since he didn't want anyone to know that he's been watching this baby show. 

He told me the other day that he wanted to go to a Chinese restaurant.  Ok, well... that's new.  We never eat Chinese.  I thought we could go down to Panda Express or something.  No.  It had to be a real Chinese restaurant with Chinese lights hanging from the ceiling.  This was going to take some research.

I found a place that I was hoping would fit the bill.  It got good reviews and was reasonably priced. I just had to cross my fingers that it had Chinese lanterns on the ceiling.  They didn't mention any authentic decor on their website. 

We headed down there on Saturday afternoon.  Much to our delight they DID have some Chinese lanterns.  I was supposed to ask the waiter if he spoke Chinese so that Connor could practice his Chinese words but I didn't.  I felt kinda weird about it and Connor didn't bring it up so I let it slide.  Besides, I think he would have been too embarrassed anyways.  Maybe next time.

The food was very good and Connor did a great job and tried everything.  We got him sweet and sour chicken with fried rice.  It came with Egg Drop soup and an egg roll.  He liked the outer shell of the egg roll and said he liked the soup but didn't eat much of it.  He ate all the fried rice and a bit of the chicken. 

I was so proud of him!  He really stepped out of his comfort zone on this one.