看懂中餐菜单

A Chinese menu is not a list of names to memorise. It is a grammar. Most dishes are described rather than christened, and the description follows a small number of patterns:

[flavour or method] + [main ingredient] + [cut]

Once you see that, a page of forty dishes stops being forty separate facts. 青椒肉丝 is green pepper + meat + shredded. 蒜蓉西兰花 is garlic paste + broccoli. 红烧牛肉 is red-braised beef. You are not reading names; you are reading recipes in shorthand.

Here is the shorthand.

The ingredients

肉 ròu — meat, and on its own it means pork. This is the single most important fact in this article for anyone who does not eat pork. Other meats are always named: 鸡 jī chicken, 牛肉 niúròu beef, 羊肉 yángròu lamb or mutton, 鸭 yā duck, 鱼 yú fish, 虾 xiā prawn, 蛋 dàn egg.

Vegetables and the rest: 豆腐 dòufu, 白菜 báicài Chinese cabbage, 土豆 tǔdòu potato, 茄子 qiézi aubergine, 西红柿 xīhóngshì tomato, 青椒 qīngjiāo green pepper, 蘑菇 mógu mushroom, 木耳 mù'ěr wood-ear fungus, 黄瓜 huángguā cucumber, 四季豆 sìjìdòu green beans, 西兰花 xīlánhuā broccoli.

Staples: 米饭 mǐfàn rice, 面 miàn noodles, 饺子 jiǎozi dumplings, 包子 bāozi steamed buns, 饼 bǐng flatbread, 粥 zhōu congee, 汤 tāng soup.

The cut

Four characters, and they appear at the end of the dish name:

• 丝 sī — shredded, matchsticks
• 片 piàn — sliced
• 丁 dīng — diced, small cubes
• 块 kuài — chunks
• 末 mò — minced

肉丝 is shredded pork, 鸡丁 diced chicken, 牛肉片 sliced beef. That is it.

The method

• 炒 chǎo — stir-fried. The default.
• 炸 zhá — deep-fried
• 烤 kǎo — roasted or grilled
• 蒸 zhēng — steamed
• 煮 zhǔ — boiled
• 炖 dùn — stewed slowly
• 焖 mèn — braised with the lid on
• 拌 bàn — dressed, tossed (cold)
• 煎 jiān — pan-fried

The flavours, and the ones that lie

• 红烧 hóngshāo — "red-cooked": braised in soy sauce, sugar and wine. Dark, sweet-savoury, not spicy.
• 糖醋 tángcù — sweet and sour
• 酸辣 suānlà — hot and sour
• 麻辣 málà — numbing (Sichuan pepper) and spicy (chilli). 麻 is a distinct sensation, not a synonym for hot.
• 蒜蓉 suànróng — with crushed garlic
• 孜然 zīrán — with cumin
• 凉拌 liángbàn — served cold, dressed
• 干煸 gānbiān — dry-fried until the surface blisters
• 水煮 shuǐzhǔ — literally "water-boiled", and one of the great traps of the Chinese menu. 水煮鱼 and 水煮牛肉 are Sichuan dishes: the meat is poached, then buried under chilli and hot oil. They are among the spiciest things on the page.
• 鱼香 yúxiāng — literally "fish-fragrant", and there is no fish. It is a Sichuan flavour profile built from pickled chilli, garlic, ginger and vinegar, originally used for fish. 鱼香肉丝 is shredded pork, not seafood.

A menu, read out loud

Take a page of ordinary dishes and walk it:

• 西红柿炒鸡蛋 xīhóngshì chǎo jīdàn — tomato stir-fried with egg. The most domestic dish in China.
• 青椒肉丝 qīngjiāo ròusī — shredded pork with green pepper. Contains pork.
• 宫保鸡丁 gōngbǎo jīdīng — diced chicken with peanuts and dried chilli.
• 鱼香茄子 yúxiāng qiézi — aubergine in fish-fragrant sauce. No fish; usually contains a little minced pork, so ask.
• 麻婆豆腐 mápó dòufu — tofu in a numbing, spicy sauce. Classically made with minced beef or pork.
• 红烧肉 hóngshāo ròu — red-braised pork belly.
• 干煸四季豆 gānbiān sìjìdòu — dry-fried green beans. Often has minced pork in it.
• 蒜蓉西兰花 suànróng xīlánhuā — broccoli with garlic. Reliably vegetarian.
• 凉拌黄瓜 liángbàn huángguā — smashed cucumber salad.
• 孜然羊肉 zīrán yángròu — cumin lamb.
• 酸辣汤 suānlà tāng — hot and sour soup.
• 蛋炒饭 dàn chǎofàn — egg fried rice.
• 牛肉面 niúròu miàn — beef noodle soup.

Notice how much you can now decode without ever having seen the dish.

The rest of the page

Menus are sectioned, and the section headings are worth ten minutes:

凉菜 liángcài cold dishes · 热菜 rècài hot dishes · 主食 zhǔshí staples, the rice and noodles · 汤类 tānglèi soups · 素菜 sùcài vegetable dishes · 荤菜 hūncài meat dishes · 饮料 yǐnliào drinks · 招牌菜 zhāopáicài house specialities.

And the small print: 时价 shíjià means market price, so ask before ordering. 大份 / 小份 dàfèn / xiǎofèn are large and small portions. 例汤 lìtāng is the soup of the day. 微辣 / 中辣 / 特辣 wēilà / zhōnglà / tèlà are mild, medium and extra hot.

Saying it out loud

• 服务员，点菜。Fúwùyuán, diǎn cài. — Waiter, we'd like to order. Calling out 服务员 across a room is normal and not rude.
• 你们的招牌菜是什么？Nǐmen de zhāopáicài shì shénme? — What is your house speciality?
• 这个辣不辣？Zhège là bu là? — Is this spicy?
• 请少放辣，谢谢。Qǐng shǎo fàng là, xièxie. — Less chilli, please.
• 不要香菜。Bú yào xiāngcài. — No coriander. Worth learning even if you like it, because you will want it one day.
• 这个菜里面有肉吗？Zhège cài lǐmiàn yǒu ròu ma? — Is there meat in this dish? Ask this about vegetable dishes too — minced pork turns up as a seasoning in many of them.
• 我不吃猪肉。Wǒ bù chī zhūròu. — I don't eat pork.
• 请问，这附近有清真餐厅吗？Qǐngwèn, zhè fùjìn yǒu qīngzhēn cāntīng ma? — Is there a halal restaurant nearby? 清真 qīngzhēn is the word to look for on a sign, and Lanzhou beef-noodle shops (兰州拉面) are common across the country.
• 这个汤是什么做的？Zhège tāng shì shénme zuò de? — What is this soup made from? Stock (高汤 gāotāng) is frequently meat-based even in vegetable soups.
• 米饭要两碗。Mǐfàn yào liǎng wǎn. — Two bowls of rice. Rice is ordered separately and by the bowl, and in many restaurants it arrives after the dishes, not before.
• 打包，谢谢。Dǎbāo, xièxie. — To take away / please box up the leftovers. Taking leftovers home is completely normal.
• 买单。Mǎidān. or 结账。Jiézhàng. — The bill.

Two practical notes

The QR code menu. In a great many restaurants you now order by scanning a code on the table — 扫码点餐 sǎomǎ diǎncān — which puts the whole menu on your phone. This is good news for a learner: you can read at your own speed, tap to translate, and see photographs. If you cannot make it work, 我们可以看纸质菜单吗？Wǒmen kěyǐ kàn zhǐzhì càidān ma? asks for a paper menu.

Ordering for a table. Dishes are shared and ordered for the group, not per person. A rough working rule that Chinese diners use is one dish per person plus one, with a balance of meat and vegetable, one cold dish to start, and a soup. Nobody expects a foreigner to get this right; saying 你帮我们点吧 Nǐ bāng wǒmen diǎn ba — "you order for us" — to a Chinese friend is a normal and appreciated thing to do.

Where to start

Photograph the menu of a restaurant near you and spend twenty minutes with a dictionary and this article. You will not learn the dishes. You will learn the forty characters they are built from — and next time, in a city you have never been to, you will read a menu you have never seen.