I have just read a sign on the breakfast buffet "Please don't eat this on an empty stomach!". I only paid it a momentary glance when I was in the restaurant. Added to that, the description of the contents of the omninous looking black pot was in Chinese so I am none the wiser as to what might have jumped out at me if I had been brave enough to lift the lid. However, I have been pondering on this black pot and its accompanying sign ever since I returned to my hotel room. What is it that can not be eaten on an empty stomach? Why would you have such a thing on a breakfast buffet where it is likely that most people have not eaten in the last eight hours or so? Surely something like this should have a guard stationed next to it to ensure correct usage.
However I have started wondering whether there is the merest chance, the smallest possibility that in my desire not to see something that I did not want to see, that my brain added in two little words that made the sign more acceptable to my squeamish Western brain.
Could the sign perhaps, just perhaps, have actually said "Please don't eat this empty stomach!". Maybe it had been reserved for some guest much higher up the social ranking than me? Well, what else should I expect, I am in China after all.
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