Tomorrow will be too late!

This morning I spent an hour trying to get to grips with Mandarin Chinese and, finding it hard on my own, sent an enquiry to the Ottawa Chinese Language Centre, to see whether they can help me. Still in the mood for things Chinese, I then rode off on my bike to the nearby Emerald Buffet, in Vanier, serving an enormous selection of "independent items" for lunch which you can eat in one of those vast dining halls typical of Chinese eateries and, come to think of it, not unlike the Lyons Corner Houses of my parents' day, in Britain. The Emerald Buffet was crowded with Chinese people, so I assume it's fairly authentic. I ordered a pot of green tea with my meal.

Because my son's fiancée wants Chris and me to tell her which Chinese dishes are palatable to us, I made a note of some of the items I chose:

• Pan fried pork dumplings
• Shrimp dumplings
• Stir fried honey peas
• Vegetable fried rice
• Bok choy
• Guy ding chicken
• Sweet crispy twists
• Sesame ball (deep fried)
• An almond cookie

I might not necessarily want all of those items again, at least, not all in one go. Taken as a whole the meal was rather more fried and glutinous than I am used to, so I must be careful. I couldn't locate the advertised steamed buns. Never mind, I'm learning.

By examining my placemat, I discovered that I was born in the Year of the Hare and my fortune cookie reminded me that

Tomorrow will be too late to enjoy what you can today.

That's very true.

Next door was a Chinese supermarket that I also walked around, though I was not hungry enough to want to buy anything; it seemed to be selling foods such as Lo Hung Fat pig's ear, Gung Ho chicken feet, Ping Pong Lychees and the like. (Actually not; I just made those up for fun.)

On the Internet the other day I learned that, in Beijing,

• Helping oneself in Cafeterias is a popular and free dining style favored by multitudes of people.

... plus some more snippets of information:

• When the curtain of darkness falls, the snack handcarts come alive.
• There is simply quite nothing like a perfectly roasted duck.

... and that

• most toilets in Beijing downtown area are free except for some mobile ones.

Where is the toilet? = Cèsuõ zài nãrli? (Now there's a useful phrase, but you have to know how to pronounce it.)