Chinese Food

**Mister Nutty** · 01-Aug-2008, 03:10

Hi,

Can someone please, please look at the following passage for grammar? I have indicated the areas in blue where I myself suspect some changes.

China Town

Being the foodie type, we would have been to almost all the well-known restaurants in town during my vacation. One of the restaurants in the list is China Town. I am no die hard Chinese food lover, but opening eyes in a family which is fanatically addicted to Chinese food, I have no option left other than to accompany them.

I have nothing particularly personal against Chinese food or the restaurant. As the matter of the fact, the restaurant is pretty well adorned, the service is quite efficient, the food tasty and the environment comfortable. I quite liked the big beautiful white talking parrot that is kept at the reception to welcome the guests. We went there in the afternoon and had to wait for a quarter of an hour before we could get seats. My mom fixed me Chicken Corn Soup, Fried Prawns, andChicken with Chillies along with Egg Fried Rice.

I am not that a Chinese food addict, but I still played a good fork and knife. I think for all those who love Chinese food very much, it is the best place to serve their appetite!

Thanks so much in anticipation.

**David L.** · 01-Aug-2008, 09:13

Being the foodie type,

we would have been to almost all the well-known restaurants : whereas 'would' can be used when one is making a conjecture, or opinion or hope, this use is signalled to the reader in some way, as in, "I guess some people would have been...', or some use with 'imagine', or "I would have to agree". This use is made clear by the use of the additional verb. But when you just write 'we would have been to (preposition) + noun', the reader 'hears', "Ah, conditional mood" and anticipates an 'except' or 'but' or 'if...(something)...hadn't...' clause coming up about 'what stopped you going to all of them'.
You can express an opinion about something that is logically very likely, as in your sentence, by the use of 'must':

we must have been to almost....

all the well-known restaurants in town during my vacation. One of the restaurants on the list is China Town. I am no die hard Chinese food lover,

but opening eyes in a family : I presume this is an idiom meaning 'being born into' I haven't heard this before. If your OK in your familiarity with it...

but opening eyes in a family which is fanatically addicted to Chinese food, I have

no option left other than : your 'other options' have not been blocked so that you are left with only one option

no other option but to accompany them.

I have nothing particularly personal against Chinese food or the restaurant. As the matter of the fact, the restaurant is

pretty well adorned, : on first reading, you are saying, " is just about(=nearly) decorated"; and 'adorned' sticks out because the restaurant would be 'decorated' - the decor - and then, 'with walls adorned with clichéd Chinese motifs..." etc

nicely decorated, the service is quite efficient, the food tasty and the environment comfortable.

I quite liked the big beautiful white talking parrot that is kept at the reception to welcome the guests.: There is an archness in your tone of writing of this 'review' to this point, so that this sentence comes over as a beautiful piece of irony - saying one thing and meaning the opposite. It made me smile. So I hope that's what you intended!

We went there in the afternoon and had to wait for a quarter of an hour before we could get seats.

My mom fixed me Chicken Corn Soup, Fried Prawns, and Chicken with Chillies along with Egg Fried Rice. : Is this some new-fangled sort of DIY restaurant? You go to a restaurant and your mother does the cooking for your table? OR - is this a twist? You are actually talking about a home-cooked meal as if you went out to a restaurant? It can't be the latter since you have used words like 'at the reception'
Do you mean, your mother ordered for you? ?????????????

I am not that a Chinese food addict, : as it stands, this is just a straight repetition of your opening remark, "I am no die hard Chinese food lover"

but I still played a good fork and knife. : I'm not sure what you mean. That your knife and fork still got a lot of use? ????????????

I think for all those who love Chinese food very much,

I think for all those who really love Chinese food,

it is the best place to serve their appetite! : Is the 'it' here a reference right back to the China Town restaurant?

**Mister Nutty** · 02-Aug-2008, 00:18

Oh dear, I am forever in your debt for your great kindness in doing this. I just don't know how I should thank you. Thank you very, very much for such a great analysis. It really helped me a lot!