Ordering dim sum in Chinese?!
I have a decent understanding of Chinese tones so I don't need help on that.
Does anyone have a list of common dim sum foods that will come up? Pictures would help too. I know what dim sum looks like but I want to know the CHINESE names not the English names - like shrimp dumplings are ha gao and whatnot.
Also, when you want to order one dish of something, how would you go about saying "I want one dish"? I know I can probably say "wo yao mai yi __" but how would you say dish? (You know, the little circular dishes they have that have like 3 pieces of food in each one)
Answers:
Hi Liza, I am a freelance translator (translating between English and Chinese) native in Cantonese and educated in Mandarin...AND I love dim sum!!!
Check out Wikipedia for a well illustrated list of dim sum's - they provide the Chinese names (acutally in both Cantonese and Mandarin).
Here is the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dim_sum
As for the word you need for dish in the context of ordering dim sum...I know you must be referring to the round container that is typically brown or off-white...it's normally made of bamboo or wood or looks/feels like it. In both Mandarin and Cantonese we pronounce it "long" (writtent as 笼, literally meaning cage). Note that the sound is not exactly how you say "long" in English. Don't say [l?:?] - instead, say [l?u?].
You do seem to understand Chinese well and it is polite of you to say a complete sentence like "Wo yao mai yi ___" but when you actually want to win the "competition" of ordering dim sum, I suggest that you change your expression to be shorter and therefore more helpful. You may do it by dropping the word "mai" (buy) because "yao" already means "want" and people know you pay for what you want to buy/eat. Even more simpler way is that you only name the foods you want and complete your order by saying thanks, which is Xiexie 谢谢 (Mandarin) or Mmm Goi 唔该 (Cantonese). Dim sum is of Cantonese origin but the cooks, waiters, waitresses, bosses, etc. could be people who are not native in the language. Today, more and more Hong Kong people and many other Cantonese-native people understand Xiexie 谢谢 (Mandarin) .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dim_sum
and myself
愛万多
First of all, I am not sure if you want Cantonese or Mandarin names, you know "ha gao" which is Cantonese, but you say "wo yao mai yi" in Mandarin. Because dim sum could come in all sorts of containers, and sizes, to simplify you can just say "yi ge, liang ge, san ge..."
See the following link for all the popular Cantonese dim sum:
http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/jsp/…
Flipping over the menu, I find you can just use mostly the last 3 or even 2 words, e.g. the 2nd item pan fried taro cake, no one in reality would say the 5 words, we always go by "wu gok" "taro cake" only, everyone would leave out "pan fried".
Enjoy your lunch!
You don't order dim sum - they bring the cart around and they show you want they have in that cart and you point. At the most all you would need to know is how to say "one" or "two" in Chinese.
And how do you know what language the server is going to be speaking? Maybe they aren't cantonese, maybe they are Mandarin - or not even from China.