必胜客：No Pizza Here

I went to Pizza Hut (必胜客) Friday night, drawn by the idea of quick and easy non-Chinese food just downstairs from my apartment. I ordered an iced coffee and a 9-inch Supreme Pan Pizza, washed my hands and waited a few minutes before the waitress arrived to tell me "没有" (mei you--don't have). She then opened a menu to point out to me all the other pizzas I didn't want (many of which--like the crab stick, lobster, shrimp, sausage and corn--I can't eat) that were still available to me. I pointed to the page of the menu that shows the pan pizzas, said, "Wo zhi xihuan zhege bisa" (I only like this pizza).

"A, women you dade," she told me: "We have large pizza." Yes, they had large pan pizzas, just no small pan pizzas. This may seem confusing, and in fact it's one of the things that puzzled me my first year in China: if they have the crust and toppings to make one size of pizza, then surely they have the crust and toppings to make the same pizza, only smaller. At first, I supposed that all the pizzas were shipped to China pre-made, so that all the cooks had to do was pop them into the oven. Then I got a peek into a kitchen one time and saw the cooks making the pies themselves.

Now I've figured out why 必胜客 runs out of pan pizzas--and specifically pan pizzas--so often. Since they serve pan pizzas still in the pan, if they have a busy night, they often run out of pans and have to wait until one table finishes eating before they can make more. Friday I tried asking, "Ruguo wo deng yi xia, jiu nimen you meiyou xiaode?" (If I wait a bit, will you have small pizzas then?) The waitress hurried off, grabbed another waitress to bring her to my table.
I thought for a moment the first waitress might be a Guangdonren and not able to speak Putonghua, thus her reason for enlisting another worker. No, she brought the other waitress over just to tell me again, "没有."

That night, I left and went to the Papa John's that recently opened near my apartment, where (believe it or not) they had pizza. I'll probably be doing so more often. Perhaps a Pizza Hut executive back home might try and think of a solution to this problem (as can be seen below--keeping in mind that I only try Pizza Hut about once a month now), which is remarkably common in China, such as buying more pans for each restaurant.

Architecture
Originally posted: 08:20, 2007-09-14
I've finally taken the measurements of my apartment. Not including balcony space, my apartment is about 450 square feet. The sitting-cum-dining room is about 220; the bedroom floor is about 140; bathroom, 49; kitchen, 41. These numbers have a little give or take to them; not all of it is usable space (such as storage areas), but 450 square feet is probably about the interior footprint as it would show up on the as-builts. The main balcony is about 60 square feet and has a tall ceiling, so it's very likely I'll be getting a little Weber grill.
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In other architecture news, I tried eating at Pizza Hut this week. Alas, "meiyou": yes, Pizza Hut was out of pizza. However, I managed to get some pictures of salad bar architecture (an artform born out of China Pizza Hut's "one trip, one small bowl" policy for salad bar visits).
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I've been documenting the progress of a footbridge under construction near my apartment. It looks as though it will include four elevators and four escalators. I'm anxious to see how long it will take to complete. Between that and Pizza Hut, I should have plenty of pictures to post once I get my Internet access straightened out.

"Sit Down, Please/Sit-Down Fee"
Originally posted: 08:48, 2007-08-31

There's a tricky little thing about eating good food in China that I'll have to call a sit-down fee, for lack of a better word. Though it doesn't happen at every restaurant, it's a common thing for bills to arrive larger than expected. Sometimes this is because of an actual sitting fee charged for the privilege of being at a table in a restaurant; I don't know the Chinese word for it. Such charges usually occur at K-TVs, cafes or Japanese-style restaurants.

Tonight, I ran into the sneaky version of the sit-down fee. Since I couldn't find anything I really wanted to eat (even after trying Pizza Hut, where--"meiyou"--they didn't have any pizza), I finally bit the bullet and went to a Japanese restaurant for some chicken kebabs. Having been stung at Japanese restaurants before, I made sure to gesture at the table and ask, "Duo shao qian?" (How much?) The server responded, "Meiyou [something that sounded like gongfei, or public expense]." I sat down, drawing attention to the action, said, "Ling kuai?" (No money?) "Duiduiduidui." (Rightrightrightright.) The meal was good.

When the bill came, an extra five kuai had been added. The reason? They'd given me a bowl of shrimp and mayo noodles that I said I hadn't wanted, didn't eat, and which they'd refused to take away. Elsewhere, it's one, two, even thirty kuai packs of napkins. At this place, you don't have to pay to sit, but you do have to pay something you didn't order and don't want.Apparently, even the Chinese have trouble getting a straight answer about hidden gongfei. It's not the only thing Chinese do that the Chinese can't stand.