Would you like fortune cookies with that?

When I was a junior in high school, I got my first part-time job...at my favorite Chinese restaurant, of course! I pretty much grew up eating at this restaurant, so it was only natural that I should work there too. And the biggest perk was free meals every night I worked there!

I started off in carry-out, as most people did if they were underage (as we couldn't serve alcohol). I went through a training and picked it up pretty quickly after that. I had some pretty crazy customers every now and then. Some even drove my managers crazy. I think it was right after I started working there that a woman who reeked of horrible body odor came in and took forever to place her order at the counter. Then she would ask stupid questions like "what is beef on a stick?" After her order was placed, she decided to pay in coins and took even longer to count them out. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, it was so awful!

After a while, I got to know the regular customers and would have their order written down before they even gave it to me. It sounds like something out of "Sex and the City" (when Miranda calls the Chinese take-out and the person answering says her order before she does), but it's true. I'm even guilty of ordering the same thing at a Chinese restaurant every time I go (and this one was no exception). There were times where I had some really nice customers who would even give me tips. In the winter, I'd offer tea to customers as they were coming in out of the cold. One of them told me to dip my finger in the tea to sweeten it up. Then he proceeded to tell me that he thought I was really nice. I was surprised because he seemed out of sorts when he first came in to pick up his order. I'd also give cocktail umbrellas or fans to children to keep them busy, which the parents appreciated. (My manager didn't appreciate it as much because the kids would tear them up and make a mess.) Once I gave a fan to a little girl who had a lot of disabilities. Her whole face lit up and I got emotional from her response.

During the summer between my junior and senior year, I got trained to be a hostess. It was something I was excited to do, as I got to dress up nice and didn't have to answer the phone as much. However, hostessing can have its drawbacks too. If it was a busy night, it got completely overwhelming. I was told not to "slam" a server's station, but that was hard if their station was the only one available and there were a lot of hungry customers waiting. I learned that the worst time to host is Valentine's Day. I don't think I even got to sit down that evening! The one time I did want to host was on Halloween, but more out of vanity. I had a really cute French maid costume and thought it would be perfect for hostessing in that night. However, another girl was being really obnoxious about refusing to come in unless she could host and she dressed like a cowboy! I still had fun that evening, but I was annoyed over what happened.

In my years of working there, I learned to break away from just eating beef and gravy and try some new dishes. It couldn't hurt as it didn't cost me anything. I tried a lot of new dishes and started liking egg rolls for more than just the outer crust. My favorite dish to come out of this experience was what they called "chicken garlic lo mein." After I stopped working there, I would still come in to eat and order it every time. One night when I was working, one of my coworkers was trying to be funny and put duck sauce (usually meant for egg rolls) all over my lo mein. The joke was on him because it tasted really good that way!

I worked with some interesting people during the time I was there. Mostly it was other people with whom I went to high school. I got to know some better that way and became incredibly annoyed with others. I liked the wait staff though and enjoyed talking to them...well, most of them. When I was checking out my future college, one of the servers was attending that school and I got to meet up with her while I was there for an orientation. Her brother was also really nice and I'd request to be in his section when I was just there for a meal (when I wasn't working there anymore). There was one server who drove me crazy and we'd pick on each other all the time. We'd just say "duh" to each other a lot and then he'd talk about me in Chinese to one of the other servers. I tried to get back at him by talking about him in Spanish, but that backfired when I learned that "loco" meant "husband" in Chinese. Oops! There was a nice lady who washed dishes there for a while. I'd try to teach her English by using fortune cookie messages. She read one out loud and made it sound really funny by the way she pronounced it. I'm glad I wasn't the only witness to that. The managers were interesting. It was a husband and wife and their two sons. I got along well with the husband, as he was very mild-mannered. The wife was a different story. She tended to get in peoples' faces but she also had her nice moments. She brought back jewelry from China during one of her trips there and she gave it to all the staff. I also liked one of the sons better than the other, but everyone has personality differences and you can't please them all. The husband manager would sometimes let me help with bookkeeping, which allowed me to sit for a while and I'd even get to watch TV. I was doing bookkeeping when the OJ chase was going on in 1994. I got to watch on the little black and white television in the office.

The other interesting part of my job was getting to work in the kitchen and help package orders. I learned some Cantonese words and commands and also got to munch on chow mein and pan fried noodles when it wasn't too busy. I could wear t-shirts and shorts since it got hot in the kitchen. It was amazing to see how quickly food could get whipped together. The guys I'd work with liked to joke around and it was more laid back that way. The one thing I didn't like was making hot mustard. We had to stir water and mustard powder together. The worst was when some got in my eye! I wish they had distributed packets like every other Chinese take-out seemed to do! I think they eventually switched, but long after I had left.

As you can see, I have a lot of memories of working at a Chinese restaurant. This post is just a select few. I am sure there are so many more! I haven't eaten there since 2008 (when I was in Chicago for a visit), but I still think about the food and still crave chicken garlic lo mein on occasion. If you know which restaurant I am talking about, stop by there some time and enjoy some egg rolls and lo mein for me!