Food habits are based on families and environment, I believe.

My family chose to be non-vegetarian. So did me. We struck with hen for Chicken and goat for mutton. Sea food, be it fish, prawn, crab or squid, have always been favourites. However, beef or Pork was not consumed.

Even while I travel, I avoid beef or pork. Not because of any aversion. Just that I haven’t tried them, yet. It’s a habit. That’s all.

I felt the heat of avoiding beef and pork, when in China.

Most restaurants in China offer delicacies in chicken, pork and beef. That’s good. What they refuse to do is, giving a name to those delicacies in English.

Be it chafer name plates in buffets or menu cards in à la carte, most restaurants consciously avoid English. Names of all the food items are mentioned only in Chinese calligraphy.

There might be two reasons for this. One, China is among those countries that feel English is not necessary. So, Chinese people, generally, don’t learn English. When people don’t know the language, why print a menu in it..? Secondly, people categorise food habits in to two. Either you might be a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian. When you are a non-vegetarian, why discrete between chicken and pork..? A meat is a meat.

However, being in India, I totally understand the cultural difference.

Pork is considered ‘Haram’, that is forbidden in Islam. There are people who consume dog meat in North east India, particularly Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur. The usually vegetarian Brahmins eat fish in Bengal calling it 'Jala pushpa' or flower of water. Some tribal folks in Tamil Nadu enjoy cat in their meal. Just like religion, food habit also depends upon where we are born.

Being Chinese illiterate, restaurants were giving me a real hard time. I was struggling to choose my food. Actually, it took me more time to order my food, than to eat it. I was not able to convey them what I wanted. Many waitress and stewards had English to Chinese translation software in their hand phones. That rescued me a few times; but, not before a long skirmish. Pronunciation was another hurdle.

Chinese have an own way of speaking English. I have a friend in Cambodia who calls me ‘Brada’. That’s not a pet name or anything. It’s his way of pronouncing brother. Why go across sea..? Even a few Malayalees calling a Boy may sound like buoy.

After a lot of struggle, I had no choice than to use my secret weapon, which I had kept in hiding since my school days. I decided to draw! Yes, it’s payback time.

I had no problem in depicting a pig face. After all, I had crossed so many levels of ‘Angry birds’. But drawing something near to a cow was the challenge. After managing something like a pig and cow, I would strike across. Then I had to open my small eyes as wide as possible and strongly shake my head to explain that, I don’t want those two.

Next step is drawing a hen and a fish and put a tick mark next to them. Chinese waitresses then showed me chicken and fish dishes from the menu, which I could select easily.

Now, this is my pictorial language. After all, Chinese calligraphy is pictorial. What difference does it make as long as you communicate..?

So, as long as we can handle a situation, Chinese is just a Language; not knowledge.