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And if you’re a bodybuilder and down 10 eggs a day…
Once upon a time I would routinely go through 40 eggs daily. 😀
My somewhat prickly response was caused by me having become a bit oversensitive towards food safety reflexes in “The West”.
I totally hear you on that. I’m always coming from the ‘science/nutrition’ camp myself, even when I’m craving off limits foods like crazy. Unfortunately from a purely health/performance perspective, the food chain is largely f***ed in most countries. Here in China that’s magnified across the board.
When I have a chance I’ll have to come check out your place. That’ll be a cheat day.
40! I bike raced at a decent level in the past so I know what food discipline entails… In endurance like bike racing it’s mostly about minimising fat intake and counting your carbs to match what you’re using. I ate up to 8000 calories a day at some point whilst looking like I was starving :-).
If you give me your requirements, I’ll try to make you something within boundaries and still good :-). That’s the kind of thing that makes my day. Cooking without constraints is fun but throw in a bunch of seemingly impossible constraints and all of a sudden we have an interesting puzzle.
8000 calories a day
I know from experience how difficult it is to load carbs in that range. I will deplete for 5-6 days or more before a carb load, and when I then try getting all the carbs in I’m as sleepy as hell half way into the day. Did you ever dilute Glycerol?
Now if you could knock up some wheat free goodies…
😀
Friend Nuhi, since youre spruiking hard here, perhaps you could provide your customers with some info about your smoking policy. All this talk of fresh, free range ingredients kinda goes out the window when you allow your guests to smoke. Ah, but right, you explained that to me last night as “they pay the bills”. and that non smokers like myself and my girlfriend “don’t spend the money that they (the smokers) do”. And when I pointed out the non smoking sign on the wall, your emphatic response of “every Chinese restaurant has that sign” really made my night. Sir, would you like some 2nd hand smoke with your organic free range ingredients?
@Brendan well played, sir. Just be careful, i could set my sights on you, and then….
@ Dear Guest,
You call me your friend and yet you try to filet me in these pages. Not very friend like, is it?
Let me start depicting my side of last nights events by saying I am truly sorry you walked into Nuhi’s on one of the four, perhaps five nights since opening seven months ago that I allowed guests to smoke inside. A case of bad luck, I’m afraid. Our smoking policy is fairly simple: no smoking unless there are only smoking guests at a time where I don’t have much reason to assume other guests will walk in. As said, that has happened on maybe four or five earlier occasions in seven months time. That amounts to a risk of about 2.4% of happening. Given, a risk many Dutch people would insure if given the opportunity bit still not very large in my opinion. And yet I’m sorry it happened to you.
My referral to them paying bills was meant to purvey the concept of them being there earlier then you, several of them being regular guests and me trying to accommodate them to my best ability, as a good host should. I apparently chose my words poorly since you obviously misinterpreted them. Your custom, and hence money, is of the same value to me as theirs. My response to your complaints could have been more courteous I admit but when I walked over to your table to explain myself, I was met with this huge sense of entitlement and moral righteousness that also shows in your post above and that I find unbecoming of a guest. Instead of a friendly question “Could you please ask/tell them to stop smoking”, which would have solved it all. That triggered a less courteous side of my personality. A case of “you reap what you sow”, I’m afraid. Where I am from, guests get to give suggestions, tips and hints to which the host should be sensitive, which I was since I asked my staff to tell (not ask, tell) the other guests to please refrain from further smoking, but they do not tell their host what to do in a certain tone of voice and plenty of non-verbal judgement. Perhaps we encountered a classic case of cross-cultural miscommunication. For which I am also sorry since it is my duty as a good host not to mirror a guests un-guest like behaviour by becoming a poor host. I clearly failed. For which I am also very sorry and what I offer to try and make up for by offering you and your girlfriend a free, non-smoking dinner for two at Nuhi’s, with a bottle of house wine to accompany your meal, of which I shall have one drink to toast with you to leave this episode behind us.
Regards,
NuhiI think that’s a fair defense, but as an expat-run restaurant I would expect outrage from non-smoking patrons if you simultaneously allow smoking and have a no smoking sign on the wall. If the sign is on the wall there should be no tolerance for smoking, in my opinion.
Hi Charlie,
As far as I know the non-smoking sign is obligatory in all restaurants, which is what I referred to when I spoke to him. It’s not (yet) being enforced in Chengdu. Try to smoke in a Guangzhou restaurant and see what happens…
I understand completely the disappointment of above guest but I’m trying to balance the needs of many guests. That sometimes leads to people being disappointed. Most of the time the smokers are, yesterday unfortunately for them it was the non-smokers. I am truly sorry for that. If you want a guaranteed non-smoking environment, as they clearly demand, you should perhaps question if moving to China’s hinterland was a wise choice. Realities of life can be a bitch but they are… realities.
Nuhi, i respect your kind offer, which i will respectfully decline. Let’s not drag out this soap opera drama shit too far, but you are being somewhat disingenuous and even outright dishonest in your reply. Your response of “they pay the bills” was pretty clear: they spent more than the 185 my girlfriend and i spent. I get it, i’m not totally naive to the realities of business. I thought it was actually a pretty cool little exchange we had. Rude as fuck customer (me, as always), and feisty but totally douche bag -acting owner. Hey, we’re not kids here, nobody goes home crying, right? Cut to the chase? Your restaurant is a sometimes non-smoking, sometimes smoking establishment. Crap shoot, luck of the draw. Get lucky, you have a pretty nice place, reasonably priced food and what looks like a great coffee selection. Draw the short straw, and, as a non-smoker, depending on your sensitivity to this habit, your in for a pretty rough fucking time. That’s pretty much it, even with your somewhat dubious odds of encountering this again.
Bullet points: train your fucking staff better. The guy was cool and handled it with much more dignity than either you or I combined. he answered my gf’s questions with patience and politeness. But when asked if this is a non-smoking place, the poor sap is in the awful position of saying “yes” when behind him a table of 4 are puffing away.
*maybe invest in a decent ventilation system.*and please stop leeching free promotion and presenting yourself as a principled man of gastronomic integrity when you sell out the enjoyment of patrons to a table of obnoxious tu hao. Business really that bad, friend Nuhai?
*as a business owner and “chef” you let yourself down last night. That’s cool. I do that with metronome-like regularity. Luckily, i get called out on it.
*and for fuck’s sake never put your staff in that position again. Give that guy a fucking raise or a night off. Or the wine you offered me.
Damn, I miss the Stugan…..
@Brendan: sorry, in all this excitement i lost track of what’s important. You are the white cat in the video, obviously. Takedown defense was somewhat lacking, but you landed some nice shots from your back. But man, you’re totally telegraphing that right….
Hi Charlie, As far as I know the non-smoking sign is obligatory in all restaurants, which is what I referred to when I spoke to him. It’s not (yet) being enforced in Chengdu. Try to smoke in a Guangzhou restaurant and see what happens… I understand completely the disappointment of above guest but I’m trying to balance the needs of many guests. That sometimes leads to people being disappointed. Most of the time the smokers are, yesterday unfortunately for them it was the non-smokers. I am truly sorry for that. If you want a guaranteed non-smoking environment, as they clearly demand, you should perhaps question if moving to China’s hinterland was a wise choice. Realities of life can be a bitch but they are… realities.
I find your shirking the blame of not adhering to your own rules and blaming China to be quite off-putting. If you allow smoking, which you do, regardless of the frequency, a no smoking sign doesn’t belong on the wall. Yes, Chinese business owners do not enforce this rule, but the bar is higher for a foreign owned establishment among the expat community, especially one that prides itself on its excellence in quality.
It would be unreasonable for us to expect to not encounter second hand smoke in Chengdu, you are absolutely right. However, the expectation to not encounter second hand smoke in an expat restaurant that prides itself on excellence in quality is reasonable.
Also, if you are passionate about gourmet food you might want to educate your customers about how smoking kills tastebuds and basically no fine restaurants anywhere allow it. You’d be helping them and preventing this kind of conflict in the future. Smoke in the room really does destroy a fine dining experience.
You are the white cat in the video, obviously.
I think you might be colour blind, obviously if the skinny little white cat (you) is whaling on me I will have to do very little but watch. 😉
What’s the title of this comedy again? Eggs, eggs…
Nuhi I have to say looking over your posts, especially the recruitment thread: https://www.chengduliving.com/forums/topic/assistant-to-the-owner-at-nuhis-deli/ you’re being wholly inconsistent here. The forum has a habit of calling that out for a number of reasons, more so when an individual has been using it as a platform for business and/or ‘excellence’. You’ve conjured up images for me of your future 6/7 members of staff scrubbing away furiously with cleaning products amidst clouds of cigarette smoke. I’m not sure smoking goes hand in hand with ‘Western’ standards of cleanliness (as you so put), and neither for that matter does food service. There have been a number of restaurants in Chengdu for some time that absolutely do not allow smoking, and they can probably account their long term patronage to that fact, at least in part. Doesn’t seem to be doing Starbucks any harm either, whom incidentally had to actively enforce the no smoking rule when they opened here in Chengdu on account of customers who attempted to ignore the ban. I’m sure on occasion they still do, but that’s just it, they actively enforce the ban in order to offer all customers a smoke free environment. If I remember rightly Kaffe Stugan was also smoke free, which is perhaps why it was also so popular with students.
Such a dilemma. So much drama, now I’m thrown through a f’n loop: GO TO THE DELI OR NOT! Before this drama, had little interest in travelling so far, but now…..all the imagery in this conversation, damn.
BTW Vin is awesome and everyone should try it. The price is about same as grappas, and it’s a very nice environment, when wife and I went, we were literally the only two people on the entire floor, and the chef comes out to describe everything in detail……lots on the menu to try still.
To all who know best,
I’m not going to dignify this much zeal, lack of nuance and exaggeration (4 or 5 nights in 7 months, people, with 10 (!!) fans working around the clock) with much more of an answer then this:
The so called “tu hao” Mr Ray I suppose his name is mentioned “I sold out to” actually have quite a bit of education and one of them speaks at least three languages fluently. The only behaving like a tu hao that night was Ray himself (and me, actually).
To Ray(?),
Respectfully declining an offer usually doesn’t come with an essay filled with expletives. I tried to say sorry, my apologies are obviously not good enough for you so again I failed. Happens.
And Brendan,
Your depiction, which I should have induced by allowing smoking on a handful of occasions, of the deli is so far of mark that it would be hilarious if it weren’t damaging. You judge what’s going on here from behind your keyboard, not having been here once, based on the account of one disenfranchised ‘guest’ whilst completely discarding my side of the argument. Not very nice, nor just, nor right.
Regards,
Nuhi…whilst completely discarding my side of the argument
I wasn’t aware I was taking sides here, I thought I was engaging a topic that’s of relevance to myself and many other expats in Chengdu who seek non-smoking environments for socialising/eating out. I merely point out that (to me at least) there appears to be a discrepancy between your herein advertised ‘standards’, and the admission that you let (an educated man no less!) smoke in your restaurant. I make no judgement whatsoever to your place of business, I’ve never eaten there, though after a previous exchange on the forum I’d held it in mind to make it around to you at some point.
You’ve chomped at the bit a little here, and in turn made this thread somewhat personal. What I’m curious to know is that if you are indeed so intent on meeting a standard where your food is concerned, why would you not just uniformly enforce the non-smoking rule? Realities aside, the one place surely you can keep to a standard is within your own place of business. I have an art studio/gallery here in Chengdu and have been up against this issue time and time again. I’m regularly visited by various officials and the like, and I have to say even if they walked in waving wads of cash at me, there’s not one single soul will ever be smoking in my space. The idea of cigarette smoke drifting across artworks that may end up in the possession of another seems utterly abhorrent to me. I think also though, once you consistently make it known that it’s not permitted, it just becomes accepted as a non issue.
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