In the past, the words "business" and "businessman" in northern dialects had completely different meanings from what we mean today. The modern Chinese words "business" and "businessman" translated into the language of that time should be called "buying and selling" and "businessman" - buy low, sell high, and make a profit. But without capital, neither buying nor selling, just "creating" an "idea" and an "art" out of thin air to make money from others, this is called "business", and those who engage in this "business" are called "businessmen" ".
Although the honest "businessman" ranks last among the "scholars, farmers, industry and commerce", he still ranks among the top nine. "Businessmen" are different. They travel around the world and are at the bottom of society. They have to rely on semi-public and semi-hidden industry gangs to protect themselves. Therefore, they create "black words" belonging to their respective "doors" for secret communication. . Martial arts people call this "incision", while entertainers who practice astrology, rap, and singing call it "spring point".
Food is a dish, and there are many "slangs" in North America. If you want to eat clearly and happily, you really have to understand a few things. My original intention of writing "English on the Menu" is to introduce the common sense of ordering food in the United States and Canada to tourists, business people and international students who come to North America from China. So of course this last chapter should cover the "black words" that I haven't had time to talk about before. Make a supplement.
1. Waiter
In restaurants, bars and restaurants in North America, the people who serve guests have several different types of work, each performing their own duties.
Except for fast food restaurants, there are very few restaurants in North America where customers can go in and find an empty seat by themselves. There is usually a small table at the entrance of the restaurant with a small sign saying "Please wait here to be seated" (Please wait here for us to arrange a seat for you). This leading role is called "zhike" or "front desk" in China, and in North America it is called host (male) or hostess (female). The waiter usually has a table in his hand with the reservation status for the day, so the first question you hear when you walk into the restaurant is "Do you have a reservation?"
After taking a seat, the usher will present the menu and wine list and say "Your server tonight is xx". This server (waiter), also called waiter (male) or waitress (female), is in charge of your table. All your needs, from drinks to ordering to checkout, are taken care of by him or her. You pay the tip Also goes directly into his or her pocket.
If the waiter in charge of your table is not available for a while, of course you can greet other waiters when you see them passing by, but most of them will tell you that they will help you find your waiter instead of directly respond to your request.
In North America, restaurant waiters are a good job, but their income mainly depends on tips (tips) rather than wages. As a rule, in most places in the United States, tipping is equivalent to 15 to 20 yuan for lunch and 20 to 25 for dinner. In Canada, it is slightly lower. The size of the tip depends on the level of the restaurant, whether you drink alcohol, the amount of additional requests made to the waiter, the attitude and quality of the service, etc.
For many diners, whether the food is delicious or not is the most important part of the dining experience. If the food is not delicious, the guests will certainly not be willing to tip more. Although the kitchen will also share a portion, the tip is mainly paid to the waiter. It is not fair to the waiter to pay less tip because the food is not delicious.
After the meal, the waiter usually does not take the initiative to send the bill because it seems to be rushing the guests. When you are ready to leave, you can signal to the waiter and make a gesture of writing with your hands, and the waiter will understand. If you communicate in language, the United States usually uses the word "check" for the word bill, while Canada follows the British custom and uses the word "bill".
Meal charges and consumption tax are listed separately on the bill. In some places, alcoholic beverages have different tax rates from other food and will also be listed separately.
There is a subtotal under these two items which is the total amount. If you pay in cash, there is no need to specify the tip. Just put the cash in excess of the total amount on the plate containing the bill. After the waiter hands the bill to the cashier, he will take the balance back to the guest and will not take the initiative to take away the tip. The guest does not need to speak at this time, just leave the tip for the waiter on the plate when leaving.
If the bill is paid by credit card, Tips will be written in the blank space below the total amount of the bill. This is left for the guest to fill in. Finally, add the total meal amount and tips and write it in the Total column at the bottom. Add the total number and sign. If you find it troublesome, you don’t have to write the Tips column. You can just write down the total after adding the tip. However, regardless of whether you write the Tips column or not, you can’t leave out the Total column because this is the settlement between the credit card company and the restaurant. basis. Of course, more and more restaurants now put handheld terminals in front of guests, and they just need to enter the amount or percentage of the tip on the terminal.
Some restaurants automatically add service charges to the bill. These restaurants usually have a line of small text on the menu stating the service charge requirements. Most of them charge an additional percentage of service charge for parties exceeding a certain number of people. Service Charge or Gratuities will be written on the bill. At this time, there is no need to add a tip unless you feel that the service is really good and you want to give extra.
In a few cases, such as when it is about to close, or there are many customers waiting outside and your meal time has been very long, the waiter will remind you politely. A common practice is for the waiter to hand over the bill and say: "No rush. Whenever you are ready." (Don't rush, tell me when you are ready.)
2. Menu issues
One of the reasons why tipping is a habit in North American restaurants is that North American diners often make requests beyond the menu, and waiters often need to communicate with chefs. Tailored to these special requirements.
One advantage of North American menus is that each dish lists the main ingredients. If you don’t like one of them, you can ask the waiter to tell the kitchen to replace it. China also has such a service. In the past, there were often "black words" such as "Kuan Tang" and "Zhou Qing" when eating noodles. This "slang" in English is called "sub", which is the abbreviation of substitute, such as "Can I sub lettuce with arugula?" (Can I replace lettuce with arugula?).
The dishes on the menu are often accompanied by side dishes, such as mixed vegetables. Sometimes there are no instructions for how to prepare these side dishes, so it's natural to ask "How are the vegetables prepared?" Even if the menu already explains the cooking method, such as steamed vegetables, you can still ask this question, because some restaurants serve the steamed vegetables directly on the edge of the plate, and some add butter, salt, pepper, etc. There are no fixed rules for seasonings.
Ask to replace a certain ingredient, such as replacing burger buns, pasta or pizza crust with gluten free (gluten-free), multi-grain (multi-grain), or changing a certain dish If the chicken leg (chicken leg) of the dish is replaced by chicken breast (chicken breast), the price may be higher. Sometimes the waiter will take the initiative to tell you. If not, you might as well ask "Is there an upcharge for that?" (Will there be an extra charge?)
If you are unsure about what to order, you can also ask the waiter for recommendations, such as "What's your favorite?" or "What are some popular items?" dishes are more popular).
After serving the food, the waiter will usually come over and ask "How does everything taste?" (How does it taste?), "Is everything ok?" (Is the meal OK?), or "Do you need anything" else?" (Is there anything else you need?) At this time, everyone often nods in agreement. If there is anything needed, such as adding wine, additional seasonings, etc., you can also ask the waiter at this time.
In rare cases, if the dish that is served is different from what you ordered, for example, if you asked for medium rare (medium rare) steak but it tastes like medium (medium rare), If you feel something is wrong at first taste, you can ask the waiter to return it or exchange it. You can say: "This is not what I expect medium rate to be. Can you replace it?" Of course, your expectations cannot deviate too much from most people's expectations, or it would be inappropriate to complain about the meat being overcooked after eating 1/3 of it. If the dish is served according to normal quality standards, but it is not to your taste, asking for a return or exchange is a bit excessive, unless the waiter strongly recommended this dish to you before ordering.
There is a saying among Chinese chefs: "The way you sing is the way you cook the soup." Soup plays a vital role in seasoning Chinese food. In Western food, sauce plays an important role, including dipping sauce for dipping after serving. If you feel you don't have enough dipping sauce halfway through your meal, you can of course ask the waiter for more: "Can I get one more dipping sauce?" (Can I get one more dipping sauce?). However, some dishes are sold with dipping sauces, such as hummus, so asking for one more dipping sauce means ordering one more dish.
3. Drinks
If you order drinks, the drinks are prepared by the bar instead of the kitchen, and the bartender is called a bartender. In many U.S. states and most Canadian provinces, bartending is a profession that requires a special license. Even in some places, waiters/waitresses are not allowed to serve alcoholic drinks to guests if they are not old enough or have not received special training.
Strict control over alcohol starts with age restrictions. US law stipulates that the minimum legal drinking age is 21 years old. In most Canadian provinces, it is 19 years old. In three provinces, Quebec, Manitoba and Albert, it is 18 years old.
Unlike China, not all restaurants in North America can sell alcohol. Some restaurants will have "fully licensed" written on the door, which means they can sell alcohol here. When you receive a liquor license, you also have the responsibility to check the age of your drinking customers. It is common in China for adults to dip the tips of chopsticks into some wine and give it to children to taste. But if you eat at a restaurant in North America, this operation will attract the police if someone sees it, because if the restaurant does not report it, the restaurant's liquor license may be revoked.
The bar is strictly controlled and no one under age is allowed to enter. Especially in places like university towns where there are many young people, it is common practice to queue up at the entrance to check IDs and age before entering. Especially Asians, who generally appear young to Americans. It is common for Chinese people in their thirties to be mistakenly thought by Americans to be under the legal drinking age.
In addition, even if a restaurant has a liquor license, the location of its business premises is strictly restricted. In these places, restaurants usually put a mark on the boundary in a conspicuous position, writing "No alcohol beyond this point". If you want to go out for a breather after staying in the restaurant bar for a long time, sorry, wine glasses are not allowed. Served out.
In some areas with strict alcohol control, any opened wine cannot be taken outside your home and a business premises with a liquor license.
In other words, in these areas, if a bottle of wine is opened but not finished in a restaurant, the law stipulates that the restaurant cannot allow the guest to take the wine home to drink. However, in most places, licensed restaurants can use specialized equipment to cork unfinished wine and add the restaurant's seal.
The cork of the wine bottle is called cork, and the opening of the bottle is called corking. This service of resealing the wine bottle is called re-corking, and the sealing is called re-sealing. Some restaurants may charge a re-corking fee. Some places go further and stipulate that resealed wine can only be placed in a place where both the driver and passengers can't reach, such as the trunk, on the way home.
For restaurants that focus on searching for fine wines from all over the world, many regulars go there for the wine tasting. These restaurants often also provide storage services, so you can drink unfinished wine next time.
By the way, most restaurants in North America do not allow you to bring your own alcohol, which is very different from the current domestic practice. Some high-end restaurants will allow guests to bring their own wine where appropriate, but they will charge a hefty corking fee, ranging from ten to twenty dollars per bottle to several dozen dollars at most. The corking fee is higher than buying a bottle in a store. Ordinary wine is much more expensive. Therefore, BYO wines are usually special, high-end wines that are not available in restaurants.
4. Labels
Finally, I have to talk about some of the labels on menus and supermarket food packaging. Once some food is labeled with a certain label, it will be "served" all of a sudden. Although the price may not be a hundred times higher, it is possible that the price will double. However, not many people actually know what these seemingly noble modifying words mean.
Organic food is such a "packaging" and is becoming a healthy fashion, similar to the so-called "green food" and "pollution-free food" in China. Because the cost of organic farming is higher than that of ordinary planting and breeding procedures, the price of organic food is also high. But what exactly is the concept of organic food? Is it really healthier and safer than ordinary food? Does it taste better?
In fact, the concept of organic agriculture was originally proposed not from the perspective of food safety or taste, but from the perspective of environmental and ecological protection, for the purpose of sustainable agricultural development, and to prevent fishing from drying up the lake. However, sustainable development does not have a direct and immediate relationship with every diner and consumer. In order to promote this concept, rounds of commercial operations have enabled organic food to be packaged as healthy food, and this concept has gradually gained popularity.
In North America, if you want to use the Organic logo, you must be certified by relevant agencies. The specific regulations and procedures are different in the United States and Canada. The same thing is that the certification content is mainly for the process of agricultural production and food processing, rather than for the inspection of the final product. To give a small example, everyone knows that chemical fertilizers cannot be used in the production of organic food, but there are strict regulations even on the use of animal manure. For example, it is required to use animal manure that is raised on the farm itself and meets the regulations of organic livestock breeding as much as possible. When there is not enough, you can Use organic animal manure from other sources, but these cannot come from animals raised in captivity and eating only feed.
Since certification focuses on the compliance of the production process, farms must consciously transform themselves in accordance with certification requirements, and spend a lot of manpower and material resources to record and preserve documents and evidence during the production process. These administrative rather than productive tasks make the cost of obtaining Organic certification very high, and only large farms of considerable size can afford to obtain this certification. Even if the vegetables, meat and eggs produced by small and medium-sized farms are ecological and organic, if they cannot afford the cost of certification, they cannot tell consumers that they are selling organic food.
What about small and medium-sized farms? One way is to develop a relatively simple certification system yourself and put a label on your own products. For example, Ontario, Canada, has a cold climate, and the scale of farms cannot be compared with places like California and Florida in the United States.
So Ontario's farms banded together to create a local agricultural product logo and made great efforts to encourage consumers to buy local products. For foodies, the biggest advantage of local products is that they are fresh, and because they do not need to be transported long distances, the vegetables and fruits can be grown in the ground before being picked, and the taste will be better. Therefore, the menus of some restaurants may deliberately emphasize that the ingredients are local (local) and the fruits used are tree ripen (tree ripe).
Another approach for small and medium-sized farms is to develop a more complex set of "slang" to describe their meat and egg product breeding processes. For example, some beef is corn fed or grain fed, and is more expensive than ordinary beef. Hormones are often added when ordinary beef cattle are raised, so hormone-free beef is naturally more high-end.
Chicken and eggs are also classified as corn fed. Furthermore, even the place where chickens are raised can be used as a condition for price increase. For example, free run means that egg-laying hens can run freely in the chicken pen, similar to what the Cantonese people call "free-range chickens", which is different from intensive breeding. But that's not all. Some farms have also launched free range labels. Not only can chickens roam freely in the chicken pen, but when the weather is good, they can also come out of the chicken pen to catch a few insects on the grass in the yard. Eat eat. Such chickens and eggs are naturally more expensive than captive "free-range chickens".
Non-GMO (non-genetically modified) is also a trendy label. Europe has strict regulations on genetically modified agricultural products, and when sold, it must be clearly stated that the product is genetically modified. Neither the United States nor Canada has similar legal provisions, and labeling of genetically modified agricultural products is not mandatory. Therefore, some businesses are doing the opposite and proactively labeling their products as containing no genetically modified ingredients.
Very similarly, the addition of hormones and antibiotics to food is also a concern for people. Therefore, hormone-free (hormone-free) and antibiotic-free (antibiotic-free) are often marked on packaging as selling points by food manufacturers and restaurants. and on the menu. However, the use of growth hormones is not allowed in all meat and egg poultry production in Canada, and hormones can only be used in the breeding of beef cattle. Therefore, you cannot see the "hormone free" label on all egg and chicken packaging in Canada. Similarly, all milk sold in the Canadian market does not allow the use of hormones and antibiotics during the production process, so Canadian milk packaging will not deliberately label "hormone free" or "antibiotic free".
Having said that, as a foodie, I am actually more concerned about the taste. After comparison, I personally feel that organic milk tastes better than ordinary milk, but organic eggs may not. As for fruits and vegetables, my foodie colleagues and I have conducted blind tests for a long time. The conclusion is that some organic fruits are more delicious, while others cannot taste the difference, depending on the variety of the fruit.