Eating out in Beijing 在北京“下館子”

徐賽穎 沈濤

Chinese like to eat out and there are restaurants on every corner of a Chinese neighborhood， from hole-in-the-wall to multilevel banquet halls. In Beijing restaurants you can explore authentic Chinese food （not what is served as Chinese food in Western countries） or fall back on the more familiar Western cuisine.

Most Chinese restaurants have a huge menu with hundreds of items from different Chinese cuisines. These menus resemble big books with pictures for each dish and sometimes also with English names.

The small local restaurants， often not bigger than a living room （actually smaller than the typical American living room） usually focus on a few signature dishes. Menus there are often written in characters without any pictures. Here you have to do your homework and research the names of recommended dishes beforehand. Reviews in Beijing expat magazines are a great source for that. You could also ask the waiter for recommendations， if you speak a little Mandarin.

If there is no English or “picture” menu and you want to try a specific dish that you read about， bring your source and show the waiter the name of the dish in characters. You can also look around at the other tables and see what appeals to you and order by pointing. Lastly， I recently came across an iPhone App named Waygo that translates menu items from characters into English.

Eating in small local restaurants is one of the situations where speaking at least some basic Chinese makes a huge difference. It makes you feel more independent and less of an ignorant idiot.

In most restaurants you will be offered water after being seated. Don’t worry， the water is safe to drink. Just be warned that in winter the water is hot， not cold. Chinese often don’t like cold drinks， especially when it is cold outside.

In winter， beer is usually served warm， at room temperature—not garage or basement temperature. If you want cold beer you have to specifically order it cold. Still， some restaurants may not have it. It is polite to refill other people’s glasses or teacups before filling you own.

Dishes are ordered family-style for the entire table to share， unlike in the West， where everyone orders his/her own dish. Every person has their own small plate and/or bowl in front of them and help themselves with chopsticks to mouthfuls from the shared dishes. It is not uncommon for a Chinese to put a nice piece of food onto your plate for you to eat.

Does the idea of everyone poking in the common food bowls with their chopsticks that they just licked off make you cringe？ You can ask the waiter for “common chopsticks” （gong kua） for the shared dishes and have everyone use those to load food onto their own plate.

Chinese meat dishes often have many bones. It is totally acceptable to spit the bones onto the table， although I prefer to place them with my chopstick onto or next to my plate on a napkin. Silly me.

Need a break from all the Chinese food？ Non-Chinese cuisine is readily available in the main expat areas and some other parts of town， with restaurants ranging from simple to high-end. Generally， the menu is also in English and English is spoken at least by some of the wait staff.

American fast-food chains such as McDonald， KFC， Pizza Hut， are ubiquitous. The service staff rarely speaks English but often pulls out a picture menu with English names from behind the counter to make the ordering process easier for the occasional foreigner stumbling into their store.

Tip about tips： Tipping is not common or expected in China， not even rounding up the bill a little. The waiter will come running after you with 2 kuai change… This takes the guess—and math—work out of settling the bill. Only in more upscale and Western restaurants， a service charge may get added to the bill.

中國人喜歡“下館子”，街頭巷尾也是餐館林立，既有不起眼的小飯攤兒，也有多層的宴會廳。在北京的餐館里，你既能品味到地道的中國菜（不是西方國家中餐館里供應的那些中餐），也能品嘗到那些熟悉的西式菜肴。

大多數中餐館都有一本厚重的菜單，上面印有不同菜系的數百種菜品。這些菜單常裝訂成冊，且每道菜都配有相應的圖片，有時也會附有英文菜名。

一些地方小餐館的店面，往往還沒有家里的客廳大（比典型的美國式家庭客廳還要小），這些小餐館通常會做幾道招牌菜。小餐館的菜單上只有中文菜名，不配任何圖片。去這些小餐館吃飯，你可得提前做好功課，事先搜索好招牌菜式的名稱。你也可以參考北京一些給外國人看的雜志上的美食評論，從中可以得到很多信息。當然你要是會講幾句普通話，也可以問服務員，讓他們推薦些菜品。

如果想品嘗一道你聽說過的特色菜肴，但餐館里的菜單既沒有英文菜名也沒有配圖，那你不妨帶上你讀的資料，給服務員看這道菜的中文名叫什么。你也可以瞧瞧周圍其他桌上的顧客點了些什么菜，看看有沒有吸引你的，有的話向服務員指一下來一份一樣的。最后還有一個方法，最近我無意中發現了一款名為Waygo的蘋果應用軟件，它可以將菜單上中文菜名翻譯成英文。

另外，在一些地方的小餐館里就餐，要是會說上幾句簡單的中文，你的用餐體驗就會很不一樣，你會覺得自己獨立、有主見，而不是像個無知的笨蛋。

在大多數中餐館里，服務員都會在你入座后就提供茶水。不要擔心，這些茶水可以放心飲用。提醒一下，冬天餐館里提供的是熱茶水，并不是涼的。中國人一般不喜歡喝冷飲，尤其是外面天寒地凍的時候。

冬天，供應的啤酒往往也是室溫的，喝上去沒有像儲存在車庫或地下室的那種涼意。如果你想喝冰啤酒的話，得明確和服務員說要冰的，但有些餐館里可能并沒有冰啤酒。在中國，要先將他人杯中的酒或茶水續滿，再給自己倒滿，這才是禮貌的做法。

在西方餐廳里，每個人只點自己的菜，但中餐館里的菜肴都是按家庭份來點的，供整桌的人一起享用。每一位面前都有自己的小碟子和/或碗，用餐時都是自己用筷子從盤中夾取一口想吃的菜。席間，中國人會夾上一份美味的菜放到別人碟子里供其享用，這很常見。

每個人用他們剛舔過的筷子在同一盤菜里撥來劃去，想到這個，你會很不舒服吧？所以，你可以向服務員要雙“公筷”，這樣每個人都可以用這雙公筷將食物夾到他們自己的小碟子里。

中式葷菜里往往有許多骨頭。大多數人吃完后都是將骨頭直接吐在餐桌上，但是我更喜歡用筷子將骨頭放到碟子上或碟子旁邊的餐巾紙上，雖然這么做有點傻傻的。

看了這么多中式美食，也許你想換換口味？現在許多外國人居住區和市中心一些區域都有西式餐館，從簡單的西式快餐到高端的西餐廳都有。這些西餐館通常都有英文菜單，服務員一般也會說點英語。

像麥當勞、肯德基和必勝客這樣的美國快餐連鎖店如今也遍布北京街頭。盡管這些店里的服務員很少有會說英語的，但好在柜臺里常有附有圖片的英文菜單。偶爾有外國顧客光臨時，服務員會拿出這些菜單，這樣點菜也容易些。? □

有關小費的小貼士：在中國一般很少給小費，也不會在結賬的時候多付幾個零錢湊個整數。即便多付了兩塊零錢，服務員也會追著你，要把這錢還給你……因此結賬的時候，你也不必猜算要給多少小費了。只有在更高檔一些的餐館和西餐廳，才會額外收取些服務費。

（譯者單位：寧波大學外國語學院）