Okay, I know it's stupid

... but I'll admit to it anyway.

While working on a month-long project out of town (and, not incidentally, on an expense account), I took advantage of a small storefront Chinese restaurant a few blocks from the hotel.* Just for fun, I always make it a point to eat Chinese food with chopsticks, as it was intended, and try to ask for them in Mandarin (Duì bù qì -- gěi wo kuài zi?). I'll confess, I'm not much good with rice, so I'll cheat and use the fork for that.

Unfortunately, eating Chinese four or five times in two weeks wore a groove in the cultural processor in my brain. One evening, I ran across a Greek restaurant** and settled in for another exotic meal ... and all the time, my brain was saying, "Chopsticks ... need chopsticks ..."

Apparently it couldn't deal with "Greek" and settled for "foreign".

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* If you're interested, it's the Shuang Xi Kitchen in North Charleston, SC, just off Montague Avenue and near the airport ... it's good, too.

** This was the Zeus Grill and Seafood in Mount Pleasant; it is tucked in behind some crepe myrtles so it's hard to see from the highway, US 17, but it adjoins the parking lot for the Outback Steakhouse. It was really good, and I highly recommend the lemon chicken soup.