Lunch for tree?

As Erin mentioned, I have been hosting a gentleman from China for the past week at work. He's 26, easy going, and digging getting to spend some quality time relaxing in the slushy wasteland that is central Indiana in December. Yesterday another colleague from Japan arrived to join our little party for the remainder of the week.

Quickly becoming the intro to a bad joke, myself, the Chinese guy, and the Japanese guy headed for lunch yesterday at Panera. (I tried to take them to our favorite Chinese buffet here in town, but it's closed on Mondays. The Asian guys we host always marvel at our Chinese buffets, and more specifically, my ability to eat a four plate lunch.) Panera was nearby and relatively quick, so I thought it would be an easy choice.

I immediately knew I'd made a potential mistake when we entered, and I took a look at the menu. Before you could say "bok choy," I heard the following:

"Bacon.....turkeeeeey....bravo? What bravo?"
"Crrrr....Crrrr.....Crispani?"
"Panini? What a panini?"

This final question was followed with "What a turkey?"

It occurred to me at this point that virtually nothing on Panera's menu reads "chicken sandwich" or "salad and fruit" or "fried duck livers." It's all in this suburban-washed, Americana styled lingo that makes no sense to me, let alone two guys from Asia.

In the end I asked them what basic ingredients they wanted and then ordered for them. It all turned out alright, but I'm not sure it was their cup of tea. (Perhaps they were missing the added flavor of food being cooked in a lead-lined pot.)

Tomorrow night we're going to a Pacers game. That should be equally entertaining.