美国人吃午餐和吃晚餐之前通常要喝点鸡尾酒，但在加利福尼亚州，人们大都喝葡萄酒。吃主食之前，一般都要吃一盘色拉。炸磨茹和炸洋葱圈可作为开胃食品，牛排、猪排和鸡（腿）为主食，龙虾、贝壳类动物以及各种鱼类甚至包括淡水鱼被统称为海鲜。炸土豆条是深受人们喜爱而且几乎成了必不可少的食物。另外应特别注意的一点，如有吃剩的食物，一定要打包带回家，以免浪费。

　　Cocktail¹   鸡尾酒

　　It is quite usual to drink cocktails² before lunch and dinner in America and somewhat less usual, except in California, to drink wine with a meal. You can either have a cocktail in the bar, if there is one, while you wait for a table or for friends, or you can have one served before your dinner comes. At some restaurants the waiter/waitress will come to your table as soon as you sit down to ask if you want a cocktail, and you can then drink this while deciding what to order to eat. At others, there may be a separate cocktail waiter or waitress. In this case, you do not normally order wine from him or her but from the normal waiter- or the wine waiter is there is one.

　　Do not hesitate to order Californian wines. They can be excellent and in many parts of the country are cheap.

　　Salad　色拉

　　It is usual to have a salad with your meal, and a separate plate is provided for this purpose. The normal practice in America is to eat the salad before the main course. A wonderful American invention is the salad bar. In restaurants that have these salad bars the waiter does not bring your salad. You go to the salad bar and help yourself, usually to as much as you want. This is normally done after you have ordered your meal; you eat the salad while the main course is being cooked.

　　Choosing from the Menu　选菜

　　American menus can look rather confusing at first sight, for they may use some terms which are unfamiliar³ to most vistors. Here are some points which may be useful.

　　Fried mushrooms, fried onion rings (洋葱圈) and fried zucchini (小胡瓜) are sometimes served as starters (第一道菜).

　　Potatoes most often come "French-fried" or baked. If you order a baked potato, the waiter will ask you what you want on it. The choice is butter and/or sour cream and sometimes chives (细香葱).

　　Very often vegetables do not come automatically with the meal, and you have to pay extra for them.

　　"Scrod" (小鳕鱼), "red snapper" (啮龟) and "mahi hahi" are all name of fish. "Seafood"means lobster⁴ (龙虾), shellfish and fish, including,funnily enough, freshwater fish! Prawns⁵ (对虾) are known as "shrimp⁶".

　　American beef is usually good and often wonderful.

　　American salt and pepper (糊椒粉) pots are confusing until you realize that the salt pot may look like a pepper pot except that the salt pot's holes are bigger. Pepper is normally black rather than white. American mustard (芥末) is mild and normally eaten with hot dogs or hamburgers rather than meat.

　　And that stuff in a dish that looks ice cream is actually whipped (搅拌过的) butter.

　　Leftovers⁷　吃剩的食物

　　You have probably heard that in American restaurants, if you can't finish your meal, you can put the remains⁸ in a "doggy bag" and take them home. This is quite true. If you leave some meat, in particular, your waiter may ask you if you'd like him to put it into "a little bag", or you can ask him to do this.

　　随着美国人生活节奏的加快，快餐食品便应运而生．其快餐连锁店遍及世界各地，其中影响最大的当属麦当劳快餐连锁店．供应的快餐食品有：汉堡包、烤牛肉、牛排、火腿、三明治、肯德鸡、油炸土豆片、烘馅饼、冰淇淋以及各种碳酸饮料等．

　　Fast Food 快餐食品

　　Fast-food chains, American-style, are currently on the increase all over the world.Most of these places work on a similar principle. There is a long counter, above which is displayed a list (often with pictures) of the items available, and behind which several people(often students working for the minimum wage) are serving. Individual queues form in front of each assistant. You receive what you order more or less immediately and take it on a tray to a table, picking up thing like straws(吸管), peper, salt, ketchup⁹(蕃茄酱), pickles(泡菜)and napkins (usually paper napkins) on the way. If yo can't see any knives and forks, this means you are supposed to eat with your hands. If you can't see any straws, that's because they are hiding in the straw dispenser(分配器) that you have to fiddle(拨弄) with the bottom of it to get a straw(one at a time)to emerge. When you've finished, you yourself throw away everything except the tray.

　　Many fast-food places have drive-in facilities.You place your order from your car via(通过)a microphone and then drive round to a special window to pay and pick it up. You may even encounter places where a waitress bring your meal out, and you sit and eat it in the car from a tray hooked over the door through the open window.

　　You may be asked if your order is "for here"or "to go"(i.e. to take away). In some states there is no sales tax on food consumed.

　　Types of Fast Food Restaurants 快餐店的种类

　　The most widespread type of fast-food restaurant is that serving hamburgers, such as the chains of MacDonald.All the different chains have their own specialties¹⁰. Arby's restaurants serve large roast beef, ham and cheese, and turkey(火鸡)"sandwidhes". Some restaurant chians specialize in serving steaks quickly and cheaply. And then there's Kntucky Fried Chicken.

　　Chips  油炸土豆片

　　Chips in Amercis are called "French fries"or "fries" for short. (Note that in the USA "chips" mean crisps). "French fries" are normally thinner than chips. Amercians generally put ketchup on their chips, and you will not normally find vigegar(醋).

　　Pizzas  (意大利式)烘焰饼

　　There are many specialty¹¹ pizza restaurants in America, and many of them take telephone orders and deliver pizzas to your home, which can often be convenient.They come in different sizes, and  a large one can be big enought for a party of four people.If you want ot share a pizza but can't agree on the ingredients, it is possible to order two different sets of toppings, one set on each half.

　　Ice-Cream  冰淇淋

　　Shops selling large number of different flavors of ice-cream are very common in America. If you are  not sure what flavor you want, generaly you can sample a small spoonful of a particular flavor to see if you like it. You can either have your ice-cream in a "plain cone"(普通型锥形物) or in a "sugar cone"(甜脆型锥形物).

　　Soft Drinks 软饮料

　　Fast-food restaurants do not serve alcohol.The soft drinks most often sold are Coca-Cola and Pepsi——Cola, plus fizzy drinks (which are like leminade)and root beer(which is like cough medicine).Fizzy drinks are known as "carbonated beverages"(碳酸饮料) or, more colloquially¹², "soda¹³", "pop", "soda pop", and "soft drinks".

　　All these drinks come wiht lost of ice. In fact, you will probably find as much ice as drink in your drink.If you ask fo a soft drink without ice, they will think yu are funny but will probably oblige.(They may charge yu a bit extra, for ice is cheaper than Coke.)

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