We decided we would try the Chinese French restaurant for diner that is just a block away from our apartment between the boulangerie (bakery) and the boucherie (butcher). DeAnna was going to walk up and bring it home to eat. When she arrived at the restaurant which has no tables and the food is served cooked but cold she shared her normal phrases that she is learning French and man behind the counter responded moi aussi (meaning me too!) He then asked if she spoke English and she said yes and he spoke enough English to tell her what was beef, chicken and poisson. He didn’t know the English word for fish so DeAnna made the international fish face sign and pretended to swim which made him smile and he said Oui (yes) fish. He then gave her a French lesson on the proper pronunciation of beef and chicken in French with a Chinese accent and had her practice, until she said it correctly to his satisfaction (with the Chinese accent of course).

Then she looked at the containers and asked for 100 grams of beef and chicken (in French) which would have filled one of the small containers, small like less than 2 cups of food. He told her no, too much food (in French of course). She understood and said it was for more than just her. He asked how many people and she told him and he gave her a small amount of both, small like we each got a few bites of the beef and chicken but not even an entire chicken breast if you combine all the meat together. She then asked for rice and he gave her the same small amount. We had just learned in class how to express different degrees of how much you like something so DeAnna gave a compelling argument that she truly adored the rice and she would really appreciate a full container. After he corrected her on how she said rice and she had another mini French lesson he filled her container since she liked it so much. But he couldn’t imagine why anyone would actually need 2 cups of cooked rice. The few bites I did have though were very tasty.