Learn how to decide what to order at a restaurant
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to TurkishClass101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 8 - What's Your Favorite Turkish Food? Eric here. |
| Elif: Merhaba. I'm Elif. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to decide what to order. The conversation takes place at a restaurant. |
| Elif: It's between Alice and Zeynep. |
| Eric: The speakers are friends, so they'll use informal Turkish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Alice: Menü çok zor görünüyor. |
| Zeynep: Merak etme ben yardımcı olurum. Nasıl bir şey yemek istersin? |
| Alice: Sıcak bir çorba istiyorum. Sonra da etli bir yemek. |
| Zeynep: Tamam. Mercimek çorbası ve tas kebabı söyleyebilirsin. |
| Alice: Tas kebabı? |
| Zeynep: İçinde hem et hem de mevsim sebzeleri olan bir güveç çeşididir. |
| Alice: Kulağa güzel geliyor. Peki ya tatlı? |
| Zeynep: Buranın aşuresi çok lezzetli. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Alice: Menü çok zor görünüyor. |
| Zeynep: Merak etme ben yardımcı olurum. Nasıl bir şey yemek istersin? |
| Alice: Sıcak bir çorba istiyorum. Sonra da etli bir yemek. |
| Zeynep: Tamam. Mercimek çorbası ve tas kebabı söyleyebilirsin. |
| Alice: Tas kebabı? |
| Zeynep: İçinde hem et hem de mevsim sebzeleri olan bir güveç çeşididir. |
| Alice: Kulağa güzel geliyor. Peki ya tatlı? |
| Zeynep: Buranın aşuresi çok lezzetli. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Alice: The menu seems difficult to understand. |
| Zeynep: Don't worry, I’ll help you. What kind of food do you want to eat? |
| Alice: I want hot soup. And then something with meat. |
| Zeynep: Okay. You can order lentil soup and tas kebab. |
| Alice: Tas kebab? |
| Zeynep: It's a kind of stew made of meat and seasonal vegetables. |
| Alice: Sounds good. And how about the dessert? |
| Zeynep: The Ashure pudding from this restaurant is very delicious. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Elif, Turkish cuisine is known and appreciated all over the world, so could you tell us about some popular restaurants in Turkey? |
| Elif: Restaurants that specialize in serving kebab, döner, and fast food are a common sight in Turkey, just like in other countries. |
| Eric: What’s the difference between those two? |
| Elif: It isn't that hard to guess that a kebapçı is a "kebap restaurant" that generally serves various types of kebap. The spicy Adana kebap and beyti, which is a kebap wrap with yogurt and tomato sauce, are especially popular. On the other hand, a dönerci is a "döner restaurant" that serves döner made out of either beef or chicken. |
| Eric: What about something that is not so well-known? |
| Elif: Another popular but relatively healthier and cheaper option for diners is esnaf lokantısı, where homestyle dishes are served. In an esnaf lokantısı, you are free to choose what you want out of the many options on the display. An average menu consists of pilav, or "pilaf," soup, a main dish, and dessert. |
| Eric: How about prices? |
| Elif: Well, fast food joints serve ıslak hamburger, "wet hamburgers," for around 4 TL and patso, which are “fries and sausages in a bun,” for around 6 TL. |
| Eric: So dining out in Turkey is quite cheap? |
| Elif: Yes, but there are also some exceptions, like the famous restaurant chain named Nusr-et Steakhouse that became famous for its expensive steaks. |
| Eric: Can you suggest any useful phrases? |
| Elif: Sure. Afiyet olsun. |
| Eric: This is a useful phrase with lots of meanings; it can be used before, during, and after a meal by both those who are eating and those who aren't. "Enjoy your meal" and "Bon appetit" are the two main translations. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Elif: menü [natural native speed] |
| Eric: menu |
| Elif: menü[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: menü [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: yemek [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to eat |
| Elif: yemek[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: yemek [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: çorba [natural native speed] |
| Eric: soup |
| Elif: çorba[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: çorba [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: söylemek [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to say |
| Elif: söylemek[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: söylemek [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: sebze [natural native speed] |
| Eric: vegetable |
| Elif: sebze[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: sebze [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: tatlı [natural native speed] |
| Eric: dessert |
| Elif: tatlı[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: tatlı [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: bura [natural native speed] |
| Eric: here |
| Elif: bura[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: bura [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Elif: lezzetli [natural native speed] |
| Eric: delicious |
| Elif: lezzetli[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: lezzetli [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Elif: etli yemek |
| Eric: meaning "meat dish." |
| Elif: The noun et, meaning "meat," becomes the adjective etli meaning "with meat," when you add the -li suffix. Yemek means "dish" in this context, so altogether etli yemek means "meat dish." |
| Eric: Restaurant menus often feature this phrase and it might also come up when making lunch or dinner plans. |
| Elif: Right, if the dish in question is mostly made of meat, then et yemeği should be used even though the meaning is the same. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Elif: Sure. For example, you can say.. Abim etli yemeklere bayılır. |
| Eric: ..which means "My brother really likes meat dishes." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Elif: Nasıl bir şey yemek istersin? |
| Eric: meaning "What kind of food do you want to eat?" Elif, can you break this down? |
| Elif: Nasıl is a question word meaning "how" but when used together with bir şey, meaning "something," the grouping means "what kind of." In this sentence, yemek is used in its verb form meaning "to eat." İstersin, meaning "you want," is the second person singular form of istemek, "to want," as we saw in last lesson. So the combination of yemek istersin for "you want to eat" with the question word grouping results in "What kind of food do you want to eat?" |
| Eric: You might be asked this question when you’re eating out or making lunch or dinner plans. |
| Elif: A waiter might ask Nasıl bir şey istersiniz?, dropping the verb yemek and using the polite second person singular. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using a similar phrase? |
| Elif: Sure. For example, you can say.. Dedene sor, nasıl bir şey yemek istiyormuş? |
| Eric: .. which means "Ask your grandfather, what kind of food does he want to eat?" Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to decide what to order. Let’s start by learning how to ask about someone else’s preferences. |
| Elif: We’ve just seen the question Nasıl bir şey yemek istersin? |
| Eric: Which means “What kind of food would you like to eat?” |
| Elif: This question is alright to ask if the act of eating will occur very soon. But for general preferences, you can ask someone Nasıl yemek seversin? |
| Eric: Meaning "What kind of food do you like?" |
| Elif: Apart from these two options, which are open questions, you could choose a specific food and ask if the other person likes that food. For example, Sushi sever misin? |
| Eric: "Do you like sushi?" |
| Elif: It’s simple – you just have to add the noun of the food before the phrase sever misin? |
| Eric: Now let’s see how to answer these questions. |
| Elif: In the dialogue, Alice answers Sıcak bir çorba istiyorum. |
| Eric: “I want hot soup.” |
| Elif: There are many other possible answers, just replace sıcak bir çorba, “hot soup,” with any other food you’d like to eat. For example, salata or şiş kebap, |
| Eric: which respectively mean “salad” and “kebap on skewers.” |
| Elif: If you’re ordering at a restaurant, you don’t need to put the article bir before the food, it’s automatically assumed that you are ordering one for yourself. If you want to order something to share with the others at the table, just add ortaya. For example, Ortaya salata istiyorum. |
| Eric: “I want a salad to share.” When the question is about a specific food, how can we answer? |
| Elif: For ___ sever misin? type questions, you can answer with Evet, çok severim |
| Eric: which means "Yeah, I like it a lot.” |
| Elif: or Evet, çok lezzetli |
| Eric: "Yeah, it's so delicious." How do you give a negative answer? |
| Elif: You have to consider the other person's feelings and not be too critical of the food—even if you hate it more than anything!—in case it's their favorite. So you could say something like Çok da değil. |
| Eric: meaning "Not that much." |
| Elif: or Pek yemem. |
| Eric: "I don’t eat it often." Ok, now let’s take a look at how to make the sentence more complete using adjectives related to food. |
| Elif: Here are the some basic ones. soğuk |
| Eric: “cold” |
| Elif: tatlı |
| Eric: “sweet” |
| Elif: kızarmış |
| Eric: “fried” |
| Elif: tuzsuz |
| Eric: “without salt.” In the dialogue, Alice tells Zeynep that she wants hot soup by saying... |
| Elif: Sıcak bir çorba istiyorum. In this sentence, sıcak means “hot” and bir means “one.” As you can see, it is possible to combine a qualitative adjective with a quantitative adjective, but the rule is that quantitative adjectives cannot come first in a string of adjectives. Here’s another example – Sonra da etli bir yemek. |
| Eric: which means “And then something with meat.” |
| Elif: In Turkish, the noun clause of “something with meat” becomes an adjective clause since etli is an adjective which implies that a dish is made with meat. Next Zeynep says Buranın aşuresi çok lezzetli |
| Eric: “The Ashure pudding from this restaurant is very delicious.” |
| Elif: Lezzet is a noun which means “taste” in English and when -li suffix is added to it, lezzetli comes to mean “delicious.” Çok is once again a quantitative adjective. |
| Eric: Okay. Let’s wrap up by giving more adjectives. |
| Elif: Berbat is an adjective used for awful tasting food, while zeytinyağlı describes cold dishes that don’t contain meat. For the four basic tastes, tatlı means “sweet,” tuzlu means “salty”, ekşi means “sour,” and acı is used for spicy food. As you can see, when it comes to food, there are plenty of Turkish adjectives to use. |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Elif: Hoşçakalın. |
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