Our family sits in a new restaurant, one we had never been to before. It was originally located in Chinatown under the name New Shanghai; now it’s located in a suburb called Wellesley just off of Route 9 bearing the name CK Shanghai. Aside from the employees, there are almost no other Chinese people. The ones I saw earlier have left, and the mass of people at the entrance continue to grow due to lack of waiting space.

Employees bustle about delivering dishes to tables, taking orders, retrieving empty plates, and refilling glasses. I take a sip of my water while eyeing the environment. The yellow wallpaper, the hanging ceiling lights, and the small bar make me feel like I’m in a different restaurant. The decor doesn’t feel typical for a Chinese restaurant, at least not the ones I’ve been to, but the random Oriental adornments around the wall make up for the contemporary look.

I place my napkin on my lap, and set my chopsticks in hand. The first set of dishes arrive at our table. My family digs in to the food. Chopsticks reach across the table. Plates are passed to help gather food into a meal. A communal sharing of what lies before us. This is the way Chinese people eat. This is what “family style” eating is.

I make a quick glance to the neighbouring tables. The people on my left are talking about colleges with some mention of MIT and patents. The two tables to our right keep staring in our direction. I don’t know if they’re staring at us, our food, or at something else. Paranoia sets in. I keep my head focused on my plate to ignore them, yet all I can think about is how delicious the food is.

More dishes arrive. People at the big, round table on our right continue to look at us with an alien expression. To me, the way everyone else is eating is foreign. They are ordering single dishes as their own. Eating real Chinese cuisine isn’t like the single-serving combo that you get at the small, dirty-looking, local place on the corner where you go when you’re too lazy to cook. To them, the way we eat is different despite the fact that this is normal, instinctive, and second nature for us.

That’s not to say that people couldn’t order their own dishes like they typically would in other restaurants. They just don’t get any real perspective of what Chinese food culture is like. I’m not saying it’s bad that non-Chinese people are eating Chinese food. Everyone is just oblivious as to how Chinese people eat, but restaurants won’t tell you that. My point is just that food is more than just what’s on the table in front of you. It’s how you eat it that also counts.