¿Cómo?—
Say What?

An egg is un huevo. One dish you’ll find in many Mexican restaurants is huevos rancheros, which are fried eggs with salsa. Salsa, by the way, just means “sauce” in Spanish, even though in English it refers only to the spicy tomato sauce you find in Mexican restaurants.

¡CUIDADO!

Mistake to Avoid

Depending on where you are, limonada might mean a lemonflavored soft drink like Sprite or 7-Up. If you want lemonade made from actual lemon juice, ask for limonada natural.

Here are some dairy products:

English	Spanish
butter	la mantequilla
buttermilk	el suero de leche
cheese	el queso
cream	la crema
cottage cheese	el requesón
ice cream	el helado
milk	la leche
yogurt	el yogur

Drinks—Bebidas

Now you just need a drink to go with all that great food! Here are some delicious drinks you might enjoy:

English	Spanish
hot chocolate	el chocolate
iced tea	el té helado
juice	el jugo, el zumo
lemonade	la limonada
milk	la leche
milkshake	el batido
orange juice	el jugo, el zumo de naranja
smoothie	el licuado (de frutas)
soda/pop	el refresco
tea	el té
water	el agua

Your parents might have one of these drinks:

English	Spanish
beer	la cerveza
coffee	el café
espresso	el café exprés
wine	el vino

Dessert—Postres

If you still have room after all of that great food, you can have some dessert. Here are some yummy choices:

English	Spanish
cake	el pastel, la torta
candy	el dulce, las golosinas
chocolate	el chocolate
cookie	la galleta
custard	las natillas, el flan
donut	la rosquilla, la dónut
fritter	el buñuelo
fruit	la fruta
ice cream	el helado
muffin	la magdalena
pie	la tarta, el pastel
rice pudding	el arroz con leche
vanilla	la vainilla

Consejo
IMPORTANT TIP

Ice is el hielo in Spanish. To ask for ice in your drink, say con hielo. If you don’t want ice, say sin hielo. Con means “with” and sin means “without.”

Consejo
IMPORTANT TIP

While Spanish speakers do enjoy the same desserts you do, like ice cream and cake, they also have some of their own favorites. Some desserts you might find in Spanish-speaking countries are flan (baked custard) and plátanos al horno (baked bananas).

Here are some different kinds of nuts you might find in your dessert:

English	Spanish
almonds	las almendras
cashews	los anacardos
peanuts	los cacahuetes
pistachios	los pistachos
walnuts	las nueces

Now it’s time to practice all the food words you’ve learned. Create a menu with what you’d like to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for one day—in Spanish, of course! Don’t forget to include healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. Fill in the blanks to make your menu:

El desayuno (breakfast)

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

El almuerzo (lunch)

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

La cena (dinner)

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

El postre (dessert)

________________________________________________________________

Hidden Foods

Can you find the five Spanish food words hidden in the following sentences? Look for words in the word list, but be careful—some words are not used!

Gramática —
Additional Grammar

Vegetarian is an adjective and just like all adjectives, it will change to agree with the gender and number of the noun it modifies. So if you’re a girl, you’ll say Soy vegetariana. If you’re talking about more than one person, you would say Somos vegetarianos (We are vegetarians).

¿Cómo?—
Say What?

¡Buen provecho! is a useful expression and is used a lot more than “enjoy your meal” is in English. It’s a polite expression used just before everyone starts to eat.

At the Restaurant—En el restaurante

When you go to a restaurant, you need to know more than just the names for food. You also need to be able to order what you want and maybe even explain that you can’t eat certain things. This section will serve as your restaurant survival guide!

To order, you can either say Me gustaría or Quisiera. Both of these mean “I would like” and they are very polite. If you want to ask how much something costs, say ¿Cuánto cuesta...?

If you need to explain what you can and can’t eat before you order, you might find these phrases helpful:

English	Spanish
I can't eat...	No puedo comer...
I don't like...	No me gusta...
I'm allergic to...	Tengo alergia a...
I'm a vegetarian.	Soy vegetariano.

If you order meat, you might need to specify how you’d like it cooked.

English	Spanish
rare	poco cocida
medium	medio cocida
well done	muy bien cocida

Here are some other useful restaurant phrases:

English	Spanish
menu	la carta
check/bill	la cuenta
tip	la propina
tip included	servicio incluido