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My Turn by Wayne Chan

I’m writing this column while on a Royal Princess cruise ship making our way around New Zealand and on to Australia. It’s a beautiful cruise so far and all of the crew members have been incredibly nice and willing to make our trip a pleasant one.

But to tell you the truth, I was originally a little apprehensive about the trip. Why? The food.

In all honesty, the food has been terrific … and more than plentiful. It wasn’t the quality of the food I was worried about, it was the variety, or lack thereof.

To be specific, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find a decent Chinese meal during our 21 days at sea. On trips like these, I tend to experience withdrawal symptoms if I don’t get some soy sauce or sesame oil into my body at least every three days.

And it’s not like there isn’t a lot of variety on board. You name it, they’ve got it. Fish tacos? Perfecto. Italian? Abbondante! Even sushi? Hai! But look for a steamed dumpling or anything kung pao? Nothing.

I was aware of this going in. I knew there wouldn’t be any Chinese food available on this cruise.

Lucky for me, I planned ahead.

Before the cruise, we stayed in Auckland, New Zealand. New Zealand and Australia are so much closer to Asia than we are in the U.S., so I didn’t think it would be an issue finding Chinese food. And boy, was I right.

We soon discovered that right in the heart of Auckland, there’s Dominion Road, which is just row after row of Chinese restaurants. Chinese barbeque, hot pot, dim sum, seafood — whatever your heart (and stomach) desires.

Of the three nights we stayed in Auckland, we had Chinese food for three of our meals. I wasn’t even the one insisting on it. Apparently in our group, I was not alone in going through MSG withdrawal syndrome.

We ate more than we really should have. Peking Duck, crab, steamed fish, dim sum. You name it, we ate it. It was like we were camels, but instead of storing water in our humps, our humps (or bellies) were filled with noodles and dumplings. I’m not sure the human body really works like that, but after four days on the cruise, I was perfectly fine eating another croissant, pizza, or a burger and fries. It was almost a welcome change of pace compared to the abundance of Chinese food we’d been eating.

And I had an opportunity to try a few new things, too! It turns out I love crumpets! I also like meat pies! Not so crazy about muesli, though.

You may ask, did I make it through our time at sea without any Chinese food? I’d thought that through as well. With a bit of research, I discovered that at our stop in Sydney, there was a Din Tai Fung dumpling restaurant right around the corner. Am I an experienced traveller or what?

I may need to talk to my therapist about this. Maybe he can meet me at a dumpling house.

Humor writer Wayne Chan lives in the San Diego area; cartoonist Wayne Chan is based in the Bay Area.

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