Just as she finishes speaking, a waiter walks up, putting down a plate of peanuts and pours tea into their traditional cup.
They watch the waiter leave before turning their heads back to the table before them. The finely sanded wooden table with intricate designs gave off a dominating cultural feeling.
Delta reaches a hand forward before hesitating.
'???'
'What is this?'
Slowly she picks up the two wooden sticks that lie before her. Her face shows a look of utter confusion as she tries to figure out just what these two simple sticks were used for.
'Are they like that 'zan' hairpin thing? Why are they giving us hairpins instead of eating utensils?'
She turns her head around and spots the other tables of people using these two 'sticks' quite skillfully.
Her jaw drops.
'How in the world do they do that?' Delta stares, admiring the smooth use of these tools.
A burst of laughter comes from Violetta who just looked up from chatting with Chris.
"Those are chopsticks."
She demonstrates, taking up the two sticks skillfully and aiming at the peanuts on the plate set before them.
Violetta smiles to herself before picking up the chopsticks familiarly, successfully picking up the peanut skillfully. After putting the salty peanut in her mouth, she looks up at the bewildered and admiring expressions in front of her. She pauses for a second before chuckling.
"Okay, okay I'll help- pfft," she says as she looks at the hopeful expressions.
How to use chopsticks:
"Honestly it's somewhat like using a pen, pencil, quill, etc writing stationery. Your middle finger will go in between the chopsticks, and here- try moving the top chopstick alone. You'll get used to it after a while. Just like how we can all write neatly now because we have control over our writing utensils."
She slowly guides them through.
The three students look at their chopsticks miraculously, clashing them together like alligator mouths. Then, they turn their eyes towards the peanuts…
"Ah, that'd be a bit hard. You'll need to use the right amount of force on the chopsticks so not to drop it."
They concentrate on the peanut, focused on not dropping it. Delta used a bit too much force that the chopsticks passed the slippery peanut and it rolled on the floor.
She grunts in frustration. Chris licks his lips before picking it up. The peanut also flies up out of the chopsticks, however Chris bolts up fast, catching it in his mouth. He licks his lips again before looking at the three companions with a look that said, "I totally planned that."
On the other side of the table, Kate rejoices. Violetta looks over at her where she finds her with a … piece of tissue? ... in the middle of her chopsticks.
"Uh…"
Violetta looks at her, speechless. She sighs to herself. She really doesn't know what to do…
Right at this moment, the waitress comes back with platters of food in her hand. No wonder it was so popular; the great service of the restaurant and alluring smell.
First served is Violetta's piping hot beef ramen which is placed in front of her. She looks down at the beautifully plated colours in her bowl while licking her lips. Next are Delta and Kate's sweet and sour pork, shrimp with fried rice, and dumplings.
And finally were the tomato and eggs and soup dumplings.
The four of them look at the steam wafting off the foods while feeling a little drool coming out of their mouths.
"Let's dig in!" says Violetta.
In a moment, four pairs of chopsticks dig into their respective bowls. Violetta pulls up her slippery shining noodles before blowing and slurping it down.
Delta stabs her chopsticks in the dumplings while Kate, who sort of gave up on using chopsticks, picks up a spoon for the rice.
"Big sister… I don't think I can finish all this," Chris speaks out.
Violetta stops and wipes her mouth.
Then, she looks at the two plates of food before laughing, "Ah I should've said this sooner. The culture here is to eat all these dishes together and share. You don't need to finish it all yourself so don't worry!"
Chris brightens at the idea of sharing his food with them all. They call the waitress again for a couple of extra bowls for each of them so they can share.
They merrily chat while eating their food.
After a while, Chris turns to the untouched soup dumplings at the side.
"Can I try this?"
Violetta nods before explaining how people usually eat the small soup dumpling.
Note: Many of you may know 'soup dumplings' as xiaolongbao; they're the same thing.
"First, take a small bite and sip the hot soup out. If it's too hot, you can pour it out and leave it at the side for a while."
The blue haired boy takes a little bite in the perfect white and pours the soup into his bowl.
"Then you can eat the rest!"
As Violetta explains, she remembers that one video online in her past life…
Apparently there was someone who was saying that the correct way to eat soup dumplings was to dump out the soup… she remembered being mad about it for a week, screaming things like:
"Why would you dump out the soup that people used so much effort to put in?! The soup was deliberately put in - what are you doing?!"
Absent minded, she slurps her ramen.
Meanwhile the two other girls look at the soup contained in the dumplings, miraculously. Just how was it made like that?
"C-can I have some, Christopher?" Kate asks.
"Mm! You can too, Delta," Chris adds looking at Delta's hopeful expression.
The four of them enjoy their meal in the loud lively restaurant.
In addition, Violetta also achieved another goal she had in mind. Of course, the new Empress was a hot topic, but so were some topics on Concubine Lotus, and scandals of minister families.
"Hey, have you heard that Thousand Scent Herb Hall went against them?"
"Yeah, and they got scared away haha! That felt so good!"
"Pfft… but hopefully Thousand Scent can get away unscathed… you know how violent those guys can get…"
'Indeed news travels fast,' Violetta thinks. The event happened just this morning.