CW: How long have you been working as a waiter? More than four years.

CW: How do expatriate customers behave differently from local customers in the restaurant? I've noticed that foreigners like restaurants that have an exotic Chinese "flair" and they're exceedingly polite. Some expats tend to order big dishes and eat them as entrées, where locals like to share them family style. A few times, we've had expats come in with magazines introducing one dish, and then they'll order a big dish for each person. Also, [expats] tend to eat one dish at a time in order, and they never touch the food when it gets cold; however, locals pick at all the dishes. It sounds like a lot of expat eaters are still inexperienced with Chinese food.

CW: How do you spot a Chinese food savvy expat in the dining room? There are a couple of signals. For example, most foreigners never order soup, something I'd really like to see change actually. So, when a person orders soup, you can tell that this isn't the first time they've ordered it. One time, a manager of an Italian football team came in and ordered the salt-and-pepper lobster. But afterwards, he requested for the meat in the claws and legs be stewed in porridge and I was very impressed by his request and immediately brought his savory lobster porridge to him. Only real foodies think to do this.

CW: What advice do you leave expats with? My biggest advice is to trust your waiter–it's a faux pas to recommend a bad dish because it has a high price point. Trust us, and explore Chinese cuisine a little more.

CW: Since the restaurant is located in the Shanghai Stadium, do you see any celebrities? I have many: Jackie Chan and Zhang Yimou and Zhang Ziyi. There was also a funny experience when President Clinton came. Our chefs delivered a special version of a crab roe and tofu dish especially for him. Coincidentally, when he came to China, it was right after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, so we had an inside joke that we were serving tofu to a president who liked to chi tofu.

CW: We'll let the readers look that one up for themselves.

Find It 1-3/F, 1500 Zhongshan Nan Er Lu 中山南二路1500号1-3层, Tel: 6427-5177, 6428-0079