What do you call that?
dusg123
December 07, 2010, 01:28 PM posted in I Have a QuestionThe bowl they bring you to wash your tableware in China. When I ask restaurant staff for another one (to pour more tea out, wash a late arrival's tableware, or whatever), I never know what to call it. If I ask for a "bowl" (碗), I get another food bowl.
I'm talking about the bigger, plastic or glass bowl. This is a very minor question, but it's driving me crazy because I keep forgetting to find out... until I'm at a restaurant again. And then I just have to describe it to them until they figure out what I'm asking for. :-/
Thank you,
George
bweedin
I have seen this only in Guangdong, and to a lesser extent, in HK.
If I remember correctly, everybody gets his or her bowl rinsed out with the hot tea and the waste water gets dumped into a giant plastic bin that the 服務員 is holding.
I was impressed that they don't spit their bones on the the table in Guangdong either!
bodawei
Okay bweedin - that raises serious questions about what happens to the bones. :)
bweedin
LOL oh right, I forgot to include that they have a special plate just for spitting bones. Since people only use that plate to spit out their bones on, it's not properly washed, and no one ever eats off of it.
Schalander
Like bweedin said there is a small plate. I (and my friends as well) have always just called it 骨盘 (which also can mean a bone disk in your body ^^), or sometimes we call it 吐骨盘。 I was wondering if there is a "correct name", because it seems that everyone calls it something different :D
bweedin
who knows? In Wenzhou we just spat out our bones out on the table, so we had no such thing. I guess we'll leave it up to you to decide which is the correct one. =D
bodawei
Oh actually I was kind of joking - the bowls for bones are pretty common in canteens. There is a whole range of behaviours now I think but gradually people are getting more and more fussy about where to spit the bones. Just that dish-washing thing got me worried - I'm glad we can blame it on 广东人, :) I mean clearly it is a certain kind of restaurant - I wonder how would you describe the establishment? Dirty enough to not trust the bowls, but pretentious enough to come out with a bowl to rinse your bowl into - sorta middling? Thinking back to 广东, I think that I have generally been at the really bottom end (where they serve those instant noodles, yuk) or quite nice places where I had no problem with the bowls.
bweedin
when I think of HK I think of instant noodles. I can't help it. Needless to say, it left a bad impression on me.
what about putting out cigarettes on the table? They do that in Wenzhou, but out West? What say you?
bodawei
Surprisingly I haven't seen cigarettes on the table, I say surprisingly because tobacco is one of Yunnan's biggest industries. Maybe it is part of doing business in Wenzhou - famous for entrepreneurs?
Yeah, in HK I love the 粥 .. what else can I say?
bweedin
Of course with cigarettes and nibbled bones on the table, if any food falls on the there, no one will eat it. The "2 second rule" or whatever you call it does not apply.
粥 reminds me of a place in 溫州 called 溫粥 pretty clever！
點心 is good too, but I don't care much for Hong Kong style Western food/ 茶餐廳
I think I hate it more than Americanized Chinese food.
bodawei
'putting out cigarettes on the table'
Oh, the penny has dropped (out has two meanings, at least); yes, that would definitely override the two second rule. I haven't seen that out here myself; maybe it is acceptable at dog restaurants. :)
By the way, Chinese friends also apply the two second rule (and they didn't learn it from Westerners) - we have a joke about it. I wonder where that all started? Maybe in a cave somewhere.
dusg123
December 07, 2010, 02:31 PM... no, there is no detergent. No, I don't pour it on the floor.
My question is what I should call the bowl that the waitress brings you to wash your stuff in (yes, with tea). Sometimes they don't bring it or you need another one.
Any native speakers online? I just want a simple answer... and from a native speaker, preferably a teacher.
Cheers,
George
dusg123
December 07, 2010, 02:40 PMI just want a native speaker to help me finish this sentence: 服务员，请你给我们... (the plastic bowl you use to wash your bowl/teacup/chopsticks with tea)
Schalander
December 07, 2010, 07:08 PMI dont think there is any special name for that. We just call it 倒水盆or simply 水盆 so in your sentence it would be 服务员，请给我们一个倒水盆. I asked some native friends about it and they had the same answer as me. Maybe the teachers here knows. If they do I would like to know aswell ^^
dusg123
December 08, 2010, 12:36 AMThank you very much, Schalander! I found out today that you can also say 装水盆.
Okay, that's the answer, then. Cheers to you. ^_^
bodawei
December 07, 2010, 02:15 PMHi George
Tell us more - I have never had the experience you are talking about. Do you mean you wash your food bowls at the table in a larger bowl that contains clean water? Does it have detergent in the water, and if so how do you rinse the bowl? I have a problem with this - if it so bad that you need to wash out the bowls, how could you be sure of the water?
When in doubt I wash out bowls with the tea - simple as that. If you are in such a restaurant where doubt arises, and having washed the bowl with tea, you need to toss the tea outside. If you pour it on the floor you create a safety hazard (slippery floor.)
Also, sometime you get new chopsticks that need to be washed with tea (check to see if they have been properly washed.)
Oh, and I think that if you are able to describe the bowl okay, that is better than having a name for it. But if it is used for washing dishes (large enough) it is called 一盆 yi1pen2. or 一盆地 yi1pen2di4. But it is such an unusual request you would need to explain that you want to wash dishes in it. 用洗碗的盆 might do it; I have never used this expression myself.