Deciding on the Food for a Meal
We can suggest a dish by giving a positive comment on it.
- We can replace 呢個 ni1 go3 (‘this’) with a dish name. For example, we can say:
椒鹽鮮魷好似好吸引噉喎。
ziu1 jim4 sin1 jau2 hou2 ci5 hou2 kap1 jan5 gam2 wo3.
Salt and Pepper Squid seems very attractive.
Route A: Agree
- We can replace 叫 giu3 (‘to order’) with 嗌 aai3 (‘to order’).
- We can use the sentence particle 吖 aa1 without 不如 bat1 jyu4 to agree with a suggestion. 吖 aa1 adds the meaning of ‘let’s …’ to the sentence in this context.
Route B: Disagree
We can also suggest a dish by using the expressions we learned previously.
Route A: Agree
Route B: Disagree
- Both 苦瓜 fu2 gwaa1 and 涼瓜 loeng4 gwaa1 means ‘bitter melon’. 苦瓜 fu2 gwaa1 is more commonly used when referring to the vegetable in everyday conversation. 涼瓜 loeng4 gwaa1 usually appears in dish names because 苦 fu2 (‘bitter’) is considered an unlucky word and doesn’t look appealing on a menu.
If we don’t want to disagree directly, we can suggest another dish.
After deciding to order a dish, we can ask for new suggestions to continue the conversation.
Sometimes we may want to suggest ordering a specific type of food (e.g., soup, vegetables or seafood).
For food with different portion sizes, we can discuss which size to order.
Whole, half or customary portion (e.g., for chicken, goose)
Large or small (e.g., for platters)
If we don’t know what to order, we can ask the server for recommendations.
We can ask how many or what dishes we have chosen to see if the food will be enough.
Route A: Enough
- Notice the first 啦 laa1 is for indicating a decision, but the second 啦 laa1 is for forming a suggestion.
Route B: Not enough
Route C: Too much food