Language/Burmese/Vocabulary/Ordering-at-a-Restaurant
In this lesson, we will learn how to order food and drinks in Burmese, understand restaurant menus, and ask for the bill. Burmese cuisine reflects the country's diverse cultural influences and is known for its spicy and sour flavors. Burmese people take pride in their culinary traditions and often enjoy eating out with friends and family. So let's get started!
Consider broadening your understanding by checking out these related lessons: Feelings and Emotions & Daily Routines.
Basic Vocabulary
Before we dive into ordering at a restaurant, let's review some basic vocabulary related to food and drinks in Burmese:
| Burmese | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| ဟင်းသီး | hang si: | chicken |
| သဘာဝါ | sa ba wa: | beef |
| ဇီး | ji: | pork |
| ငါး | nga: | fish |
| ဟင်း | hang: | egg |
| ပဲ | pe: | prawn |
| ထမင်း | htam ngam: | salad |
| အသား | a: sa: | soup |
| ခေါက် | hkaawk: | rice |
| ဟင်းလောင်း | hang laung: | curry |
| အခန်း | a.hkan: | glass |
| အခေါ် | a.hkauk: | bottle |
| အစီအစဉ် | a.ci a.sam: | water |
| ဆီ | hsi: | beer |
| အရောင် | a.jaung: | wine |
| ဖော်ပေါ် | hpauk: pauk | tea |
| ကော်ဖီ | kaohpi: | coffee |
Take some time to practice these words and their pronunciation before moving on to the next section.
Ordering Food
When ordering food at a Burmese restaurant, it's important to know how to specify what you want. Here is a list of useful phrases:
- ကြော်စို့ကို ရွေးပါ။ (kre: soe ko: shwe ba) - I’d like to order
- အမျိုးသားက ကြော်လို့ရွေးပါ။ (a.myui: sa: ka kre: loi: shwe ba) - My friend would like to order
- အောက်ပါပြီ (aouk pari) - I'm done ordering
Here are some examples of how to order specific dishes:
| Burmese | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| ဟင်းသီးခေါက် ၂ ခု | hang si: hkaawk n' hni: | 2 plates of chicken rice |
| သဘာဝါခေါက်လေး | sa ba wa: hkaawk laung: | beef curry with rice |
| အသားပဲသုပ် | a: sa: pe: su: | prawn soup |
| ဇီးနှင့်ထမင်းစုံ | ji: n' htam ngam su:n | pork salad |
When the server brings your food, you can say ကောင်းပြီ (kaung pari), which means "thank you for the food" or "I'm satisfied."
If you have any specific dietary restrictions or preferences, you can use the following phrases to communicate with the server:
- ယခုထဲကို အစားအသောက်ပါ။ (ya.hku htai ko: a.ca a.tauk ha: ba) - I'm vegetarian
- ဒီဇီးအသုပ်ကို ခင်များစွာ မိတ်ဆွေတိုးတယ်။ (di: ji: a.su: kaingm hkyasw' maitshwe to:tai) - I'm allergic to peanuts in this dish
Restaurant Menu
When dining at a Burmese restaurant, you will typically be given a menu. Here are some useful phrases to understand the menu:
- ဤစာအမျိုးအစားကို မြန်မာလိုရမယ်။ (i.sar a.myui: a.sam: kre: myanma loi: ra. mai?) - Can I have the menu in Burmese?
- ဤဆိုပါကမှ အမျိုးအစားရွေးပါ။ (i.saiparhmei: a.myui: a.sam: shwe ba) - Could I have an order in this menu?
- ဒီစားသွယ်ရန် ပေးပါ။ (di: sa:pwei. mait: ywein ya ) - Can you recommend a dish?
Here are some common sections you can find in a Burmese restaurant menu:
ပဲနှင့် သုတ်သည်း (pe: n' su:nn-tinn) - Prawn and Crab
- အိမ်သော ပဲချက် (a.i: hpuhk) - Fried prawn cake
- အရောင်း သုတ်ကြောင်း (a.jaung: su:kre: n' ko:ng) - Crab curry
ကြော်ငြိမ်း (kre: ngriim) - Chicken
- ဟင်းသုပ်ထွက် (hang su: htwek) - Chicken curry
- ဟင်းရှောင်းခန့်ကျော် (hang: haungkneikau) - Chicken with ginger
သား (sa:) - Beef
- သားကြော်ခေါက် (sa: kre:hkaawk) - Beef curry
- သားလက်ခေါက် (sa: laik hkaawk) - Beef stir-fry
ဇီး (ji:) - Pork
- ဇီးကြော်ပါး (ji: kre:pa:) - Pork curry
- ဇီးကျော်ရွှေး (ji: kyaushwe) - Pork noodles
အခြေခံပဲ (a.hkhranghkanpe: ) - Spicy Prawn
- အခြေခံပဲသုတ် (a.hkhranghkanpe: su:kre:) - Spicy prawn curry
အင်းဝယ်များ (angwai mya:) - Drinks
- သုံးလင်း (su. lung:) - Orange juice
- အခက်ပေါင်း (a.hkakpauk) - Lemonade
Asking for the Bill
When you're ready to pay, you can use the following phrases:
- ဘေးနှိုင်းမှုကို ရှာမယ်။ (pai hnuing: hmui: shama) - Can I get the bill please?
- စားရင်းအော်ပေးမယ်။ (sa:ngan aouk pe:mai?) - Can I pay now?
It's customary to leave a small tip at restaurants in Myanmar, but this is not mandatory.
Conclusion
Congratulations! Now you are ready to enjoy a delicious meal at a Burmese restaurant. Remember to practice your pronunciation and use these phrases when dining out. You can also try to experiment with new dishes and find your favorites. Happy eating!
Finished this lesson? Check out these related lessons: How to say Good Bye? & Clothes.
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