Karen in America
互動天地
作者：By Karen Zhang
在中國的餐館點餐對我們來說已經駕輕就熟了，可是在美國點餐也是很有講究的，那一連串可能從來都沒聽過的關於食物的名詞，可能一早就已經讓你昏了頭腦。讓我們來看看Karen是怎麼說的吧。
A lot of Chinese friends ask me about what I think of dining at American restaurants. To tell the truth， I’m more used to the taste of food than the questions posed by the servers. （note： to equalize[使相等，劃一] gender in America， people who serve you call themselves servers instead of waiters or waitresses） As soon as you are seated in a restaurant， a server will come to you and ask： Hi！ How’re you doing today？
Of course， you’ll answer fine even if you had a terrible day. Then the server will ask you： What would you like to drink？
In my earlier restaurant experiences， I thought everyone had to order a drink. But I was wrong. The only free drink in almost all restaurants in America is iced water. So if you don’t want to spend money on drinks， just ask for water. You’ll certainly get plenty （along with blocks of ice）.
At an American style restaurant， you’ll find salads， sandwiches and burgers are the staples[主食]. When you order， be prepared for a chain of questions. This is one of the conversations from my early restaurant experience.
Me： I’d like to have a cup of soup and caesar salad. For entrée[進入，進來]， I’ll have a quarter pound burger on grill.
Server： OK. For soup， we have Chicken Noodle， Italian Wedding， French Onion， Broccoli[花椰菜] Cheese and Beef Chili. Which one do you want？