Expect the Unexpected

Chapter 5: Is There A Garden in the Restaurant?

At the moment, we all were famished. So we decided to go to a Chinese restaurant, called the China Garden. We hadn't recently been to one, but as a non-native Asian, we were hungry for one. As we entered in the restaurant, a waiter greeted us, “Ni hao ma. Where would you like to sit?”

Mom asked if there was a garden inside the restaurant and questioned if we could sit near there. I could really tell that Mom was in the mood for 'sight-seeing' and taking photographs of flowers, specifically tropical flowers. The waiter shook his head truthfully and lead us to our seats.

When the waiter asked us for our orders, I noticed that Mom had an upset face about that whole garden issue. I felt bad for her and wanted to change the subject in her mind. I asked her, "Mom, what do you want to order?"

So  Mom ordered teriyaki chicken, Dad ordered chicken fried rice, James ordered sesame chicken, Katie ordered orange chicken, and I ordered General Tso Chicken. Basically, we all ordered chicken, except different types.

While we waited for the food to arrive, we practiced using chopsticks. Everything was perfectly fine, until James poked Katie's hands with his chopsticks. This is when the mess started. Katie felt annoyed and poked him back. To end it up, James started crying. Katie felt bad, so she joined with him, crying.

As soon as the food came, they zipped up their mouths, and made themselves busy by gazing upon the delicious food in front of them.

“Wow, they must be hungry.” I whispered softly to Mom.

Mom chuckled, “Yes, little kids can be confusing sometimes.” I guess now that her mood has changed, then she must've forgotten about the 'eating at the garden area' issue.

Dad gave them their food, and they ate like tigers who haven't for days. I, on the other hand, ate my General Tso chicken calmly. Never the less, we gobbled down our food and ended it up with some fortune cookies.

My fortune cookies said “Expect the unexpected”. I peeked at my brother’s fortune cookie. His said "You'll catch something big and feast on it". Umm, I don’t trust these fortune cookies, but they're sure delectable.  Afterwards, we went back to Holiday Inn and stayed there for the next two days.