En el restaurante: pedir, probar, pagar
This is a vocabulary lesson with a little grammar bolted on, and it pays for itself the first afternoon you sit down anywhere between Tijuana and Ushuaia. The spine is four verbs — pedir to order, traer to bring, probar to taste, pagar to pay — and two sentences that open and close every meal: ¿Qué me recomienda? at the start and La cuenta, por favor at the end. In between, ordering is one template you fill in forever: Para mí, … Almost everything here is pan-regional, but food is exactly where the region splits hardest, so a handful of words below change meaning at the border — and one of them will get you a glass of wine when you wanted coffee.
The meals of the day
Morning is el desayuno, and the verb is desayunar: Desayuno a las siete. The midday meal is the big one across most of Latin America and it is called el almuerzo, verb almorzar (o→ue: almuerzo, almuerzas, almuerza, almorzamos, almuerzan). Mexico is the exception worth memorizing: there the main midday meal is la comida, eaten around two or three, and el almuerzo is a mid-morning bite. Everywhere else la comida means food in general — la comida peruana, ¿Trajiste comida? — so the word does double duty and context decides. Evening is la cena, verb cenar, and it lands earlier than in Spain: seven or eight is normal, not ten. The afternoon snack has no single name: la merienda is understood everywhere, Chile says la once (tomar once), Colombia las onces, Mexico reaches for la botana or los antojitos, Venezuela los pasapalos, Argentina la picada. A dish is el plato, and el plato del día is what the kitchen made a lot of today.
What is on the table
Staples: el pan, el arroz, los frijoles (los porotos in Chile and Argentina, las caraotas in Venezuela), la tortilla in Mexico and Central America, la arepa in Colombia and Venezuela. Meats live under la carne: la carne de res is beef — say res, not vaca, which is the animal in the field — el pollo is chicken, el cerdo or el chancho is pork, el pescado is fish on a plate while el pez is fish in the water. Vegetables are las verduras: el tomate, la papa, la cebolla, la zanahoria, la lechuga, el ajo, el maíz, el aguacate (la palta in Peru, Chile and Argentina). Fruit is la fruta: la naranja, la manzana, el plátano or la banana, la piña, el durazno, la fresa (la frutilla in the Southern Cone), el limón. Drinks: el agua, el café, el té, el jugo, la cerveza, el vino. Two of these carry a trap that section seven will spend more time on, so keep an eye on el tomate and la papa.
Saying how it tastes
The all-purpose compliment is rico: La sopa está rica. ¡Qué rico! The Caribbean and Colombia say sabroso just as often, and Mexico stretches sabroso to mean 'enjoyable' about almost anything. Stronger: delicioso, riquísimo, buenísimo. The specific flavors are dulce sweet, salado salty, amargo bitter, ácido or agrio sour, picante spicy. Bland is desabrido or simple — the peninsular soso is not what people say here. Temperature words behave like flavors: caliente, frío, tibio, fresco. All of these go with estar, because a taste is a state you found the food in: El pescado está delicioso. Está muy salado. Switch to ser and you change the claim about the thing itself — Ana es rica is not a comment on how Ana tastes, it means she has money. Dessert is el postre, and el dulce as a noun is a candy or a sweet: ¿Quieres un dulce?
Spicy, and how to ask about it
picante is the adjective, but the everyday question is a verb: picar. ¿Pica? ¿Pica mucho? Este ají pica bastante. Mexico has its own adjective, picoso, and its own complaint, enchiloso, for food that lit you up. The heat itself has two regional names: el chile in Mexico and Central America, el ají in the Andes, the Caribbean and the Southern Cone. la salsa sits on the table in Mexico and is not optional; el pico de gallo is chopped raw, el guacamole is avocado. If you cannot handle it, the sentence you need is Sin picante, por favor or Poquito no más, and if you want more, ¿Me trae salsa? One useful warning: un poquito from a Mexican cook and un poquito from your own kitchen are not the same measurement.
Ordering — the templates
You walk in and say how many you are: Una mesa para dos, por favor. Then you ask for the list of dishes: ¿Me trae el menú? or ¿Nos trae la carta? Both words work; la carta is the safer of the two in Peru and Chile, where el menú usually means the fixed lunch of the day. When it is time to order, the template is Para mí, …: Para mí, un ceviche. Para mí, lo mismo. Softer variants: Yo quiero el pollo, ¿Me da una limonada?, and in Colombia the very polite ¿Me regala un jugo?, which is not asking for a gift. The server's half of the conversation is worth recognizing, and it comes at you in ustedes — the only plural 'you' in this region, friendly and formal at once: ¿Qué van a tomar? ¿Ya se decidieron? ¿Ya ordenaron? ¿Algo de tomar? ¿Para acá o para llevar? ¿Se les ofrece algo más? To get their attention: Disculpe, or Joven and Señorita in Mexico regardless of anyone's actual age. And Buen provecho — in Mexico people say it to strangers as they walk past a table with food on it.
El mesero, la cuenta, la propina
The person who takes your order is el mesero or la mesera in Mexico, Central America, Colombia and most of the region. el mozo and la moza in Argentina, Uruguay and Peru; el garzón in Chile; el camarero turns up in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Asking for the check is La cuenta, por favor, or the gentler ¿Nos trae la cuenta? and ¿Me da la cuenta, por favor? Then: ¿Aceptan tarjeta? Voy a pagar en efectivo. ¿Podemos pagar por separado? Tipping is la propina, generally ten percent and generally not on the bill — in Chile the server asks straight out ¿Con propina? and adds it, in Mexico you leave it on the table, and el servicio incluido is a line you should look for rather than assume. Set lunches are cheap and everywhere, under different names: la comida corrida in Mexico, el corrientazo in Colombia, el menú in Peru, el almuerzo ejecutivo in several countries. Finally, the sentence that ends an argument: Yo invito — this one is on me.
Verbs at the table
pedir is to order and also to ask for, and it changes e→i: pido, pides, pide, pedimos, piden, with pidió and pidieron in the past. Voy a pedir el pescado. In Mexico and among Spanish speakers in the United States, ordenar does the same job: ¿Ya ordenaron? recomendar changes e→ie: recomiendo, recomiendas, recomienda, recomendamos, recomiendan. probar changes o→ue: pruebo, pruebas, prueba, probamos, prueban — Prueba el mole. servir goes e→i like pedir. traer has an irregular yo, traigo, and an irregular past, traje, trajo, trajeron. For drinking, tomar beats beber by a wide margin in everyday speech — ¿Qué van a tomar?, Tomamos un cafecito — and beber sounds a little literary. llevar is the takeout verb: Para llevar, por favor. pagar is regular except for spelling in the past yo: pagué. And invitar means to treat as well as to invite: Te invito un café.
Words that change country
This is the section to reread before a trip. el tinto: el vino tinto is red wine everywhere, but in Colombia un tinto on its own is a small black coffee, sold on every corner, and ordering one in Bogotá will not get you wine. la papa is the potato in all of Latin America — the word is Quechua, and the fried ones are las papas fritas; watch the accent, because el papá is your father and el Papa is the Pope. el tomate is the red tomato almost everywhere, but in central Mexico the red one is el jitomate and el tomate is the small green tomatillo. la torta is a cake in most of South America and a hot sandwich in Mexico, where cake is el pastel; Central America and the Andes also say el queque. el jugo is juice across the region. la naranja is the orange, except in Puerto Rico, where the sweet one is la china. el plátano covers both the banana and the plantain in Mexico, while other countries split it into la banana or el guineo for the sweet one and el plátano for the one you fry. When you are not sure, point and ask: ¿Qué es esto? works in every country on the list.
