Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Dining out

Eating in restaurants and cafés, otherwise known as dining out, can be a daily activity, part of weekend socialising or something saved for special occasions. However, when we are in a foreign country we usually make the most of the opportunity to try new food and dishes and tend to dine out more, and even if we are not in an English-speaking country, English is often the common language spoken. This post takes you through the steps of reserving a table, commenting on the menu, asking for advice, ordering your food and drink, and making complaints in a restaurant. 

 

The First Step: Getting a Table

You don’t always need to reserve a table, but it is often a good idea. Phoning a restaurant to book (reservar) a table is usually a short conversation and will probably be something like the one below.

Restaurant:    Hello, FAB Restaurant.
Wendy:           Hello, I’d like to reserve a table for four, for tomorrow night, please.
Restaurant:    Certainly. At what time?
Wendy:           Nine o’clock, if that’s OK.
Restaurant:    That’s fine. So, that’s a table for four people, for tomorrow night at nine. 
Wendy:           That’s right. Thank you. Goodbye.


Step 2: Choosing your Food

It’s easy when you know exactly what you want to order, but sometimes the choice (elección) is so good that it is difficult to decide. Talking about what is on the menu is often part of the decision making process, since we get ideas and are influenced by what other people say. Look at the following structures that use look, fancy and feel like to exchange ideas and get information. 

look / sound + adjective
Look is usually used when you can see a picture or photograph of the dish while sound is usually used when referring to the description of a dish in a menu or a verbal recommendation.

Mmm, the lasagne looks very good.
The sirloin (solomillo) steak doesn’t look very appealing.(apetecible)
The Asian salad sounds delicious.
Hmm, ‘Prawns with Pineapple’ doesn’t sound very tasty.
 
fancy / feel like + -ing  and fancy / feel like + noun
Using  fancy is similar to saying like, but also has the idea of appeal contained in the meaning, which makes it a little different, and it is used more in Britain than in the United States. Using feel like is very similar to fancy and relates to your mood (estado de ánimo) or desire for something at the time of speaking.

I fancy having something with fish in it.
I fancy tryingMushrooms baked (setas asadas) with blue cheese and thyme’.(tomillo)
 
 

How do you Like your Food?

We definitely enjoy our food in a lot of different ways: we can have it raw (cruda), fried, seared,(vuelta y vuelta) grilled, baked, boiled (hervida), steamed (al vapor), poached (escalfada), roasted, toasted or barbecued. Almost everyone is interested in food, with the big question being: what does it taste like? So here is a list of adjectives to describe flavours, as well as a range of words with a colour guide for appearances and textures.

APPEARANCE &/OR TEXTURE

SPANISH
TRANSLATION

FLAVOUR

SPANISH
TRANSLATION
appealing A
apetecible
bland
soso
appetising AT
apetitoso
tasty
sabroso
chewy AT
fibroso
juicy
jugoso
crunchy / crispy T
crujiente
mouth-watering
hacer la boca agua
dry AT
seco
rank / rancid
rancio, fétido
greasy AT
grasiento
rich
empalagoso
heavenly A
maravilloso
scrumptious / divine
riquísimo
tough AT
duro
sharp / sour / tart
ácido, agrio
withered A
marchito
stale
pasado


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