Almost all Chinese restaurants have some secret menu that is only available in Chinese which usually lists the restaurant's best dishes.

I've always wondered about why this is the case.

My non-Asian friends are always furious about this, saying that the dishes they don't know how to order, are usually the ones that they really want.

A few weeks ago, I finally got that question resolved.

At that time, before going back to the US, I was in Osaka visiting my Japanese professor. As luck would have it, Haruna and her boyfriend Ronnie were also there for the New Year celebrations and we decided to meet up for dinner.

We went to a well-reviewed Cantonese restaurant right at Dotonbori which is by the famous Glico running man sign.

As we arrived at the restaurant, I entered first. The manager took one look at me and handed me the standard foreigner menu.... complete with English and pictures.

"How many?" asked the manager in English.

"老闆 三位. 唔該!" replied Haruna in perfect Cantonese ... (Growing up in London, she learned HK Cantonese)...

The manager, hearing her speak, suddenly grabs my menu. I knew what this meant. The foreigner menu disappears, and THE SECRET MENU COMES OUT.

As expected, this menu is all Chinese .. with no pictures. All it contains is text (which is written by hand) of the dishes along with their prices.

And you know what, those dishes WERE FANTASTIC.

Lion's Head Meatballs (don't worry this is made with pork) 獅子頭

Spicy Broiled Fish 水煮魚

Pickled Cabbage soup with pigs feet 酸湯豬蹄

and so forth.

Basically ALL authentic Chinese food that you would never find at Yokohama Chinatown.

Haruna chatted with the manager a bit. The guy was from Guangzhou and only recently came out there to open a restaurant with his wife and kids.

As we were about to be seated, I asked the question that I had been wondering about for quite a long time... WHY DO CHINESE RESTAURANTS HAVE A SECRET MENU? By having the menu all in Chinese, it seemed to me that they were hindering business that they could have with the gaijin foreigners.

His response was quite surprising. He said that this is EXACTLY the reason why Chinese restaurants have certain dishes on an ALL Chinese menu.

"我不懂 [I don't understand]." I asked.

He said that from experience, a lot of foreigners have problems eating the more local dishes as they have things which non-Chinese are REALLY NOT USED TO EATING (e.g. Chicken feet, coagulated duck blood, cow brains, etc). As a result, if they get these dishes, they almost always will end up complaining about the food and requesting a refund.

By putting the more "local" foods on an all-Chinese menu. The gaijin will be less likely to order it, and even if they do, they are less likely to complain as they know they ordered it from a "local menu."

I was amazed by this... and said thanks for that explanation.

So the secret is not some conspiracy to deny foreigners the "BEST CHINESE FOOD"; but rather it's a way to let the gaijin know that what they are about to order is a bit "STRANGE" by western standards so you should make sure you know what you are doing ....