Happy New Year!

Today is the first day of the lunar new year and we went to our go-to dim sum place for lunch: Great Eastern in Chinatown on Jackson. During our one-hour wait, not only were lots of Chinese people shoving their way towards the host to constantly check on their table status, but we also noticed something else going on... with just the slip of a lai see to a waiter, parties that arrived after us were already being seated! Whaaaaaatttttttt.

According to Gigi, this is totally common in HK (my parents had never heard of this either). There, everyone does it so it won't guarantee you a table right away, but possibly better service. Here, nobody really does that so those in the know get set up pretty nicely. Blast! That's OK though... I'm above bribing... even if it means starving for an hour. =P