If you ask most foreigners for random trivia about Tianjin, they'll probably mention the foreign concessions, or Herbert Hoover fighting in the streets during the Boxer Rebellion, or the pivotal role the city played in the student protests during the May Fourth Movement. What you won't hear is anyone rave about the pizza....

So let's note that if you've stumbled into Tianjin and are looking for a nice place to have lunch, this lesson is going to be totally useless to you unless you've "gone native" and have a thing for fruit and pak-choi smothered in a loving serving of ketchup and served up on toast. We give the city full points for trying, but you should probably hold off on practicing this vocab until you're in either Beijing or Shanghai, where it will come in really useful.
 said on
March 22, 2011
The street side pancakes (煎饼 jian1bing3) in Tianjin are really really good actually. I always miss it. Yum yum yum.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
March 22, 2011
@Echo

There's a chance I'll be moving to Beijing in the Fall, and if I do it'll be my first time outside the US. I expect you to show me where to eat, Echo.
 said on
March 22, 2011
@palafx,

Wow, that would be fantastic! Sure thing! 没问题!Drop a post online if you come.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
March 22, 2011
Hey, sweet! Beijing is a great town for food -- basically all of China's cuisines are well represented here, frequently at dirt-cheap prices.
 said on
March 22, 2011
Lol @ Brendan

@palafx,

We can ask Brendan to show you his favorite Sichuan hotpot fanguanr... It's hoooooot!

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
March 23, 2011
@Brendan,

How dirt cheap are we talking? Over here in my 地盘,一份鱼香肉丝要14块钱左右。在这里在外边吃川菜便宜得很。而吃其它的地方特产,比如鲁菜,粤菜,苏菜,湘菜,京菜什么的都很贵。更何况国际特产贵得不得了!在这里吃得到国际特产算是奢侈事情。北京的小吃情况怎么样?

@Echo,

哈哈,你一说四川火锅我就流口水了。我好想念李外婆,这里的一次性火锅好的很!特别是李外婆家的哦!

我很好奇,那家的四川火锅的味道怎么样?很辣吗?你不是曾经说你不太能吃辣的吗?那合毖大哥可以吃辣的吗?如果你们像我的爸爸似的,吃太辣的东西的话,吃不到什么味道,因为全部都是辣的口味,感觉除了辣就是辣!我爸爸去过北京他觉得最美味的中国餐就是北京烤鸭。他觉得在那里吃烤鸭很有特色。唉,现在我肚子很饿了!
 said on
March 23, 2011
@Xiao Hu,

在北京,基本上你想吃什么都能吃到,中国菜、外国菜、不同的中国菜......

我喜欢吃辣的,但吃不了特别辣的,何毖同志声称他比我更能吃辣的,我们没真正较量过 :P 不过他喜欢的那家四川火锅饭馆真的很辣~~

哎哟,你的留言让我的口水都快流下来了,我想念烤鸭、炸酱面、小肥羊火锅、金鼎轩的点心、担担面......呜呜呜呜呜呜......

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
March 23, 2011
@Brendan, Echo

I'm a huge fan of Vietnamese food. If the impossible happens and it turns out I don't like real Chinese food, I assume I'll have that as a fallback.

However, I have yet to meet a cuisine I don't like.
 said on
March 23, 2011
@palafx,

You can find all kinds of foreign cuisines in Beijing, but I think soon you will find yourself addicted to at least some Chinese dishes (like hotpot, dumplings, kong pao chicken...)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
March 25, 2011
@palafx - I'm with you: Vietnamese food is probably the only cuisine I can't imagine getting sick of. Vietnamese offerings here used to be uneven, but things have gotten a bit better lately. There's even a banh mi place, and it's reasonably good. Not up to South Philadelphia standards, but good.
 said on
February 26, 2012
@Brendan - Now if Shanghai just had a place to rival Pat's Steaks...
 said on
August 7, 2015
Are these words for sizes and combo universal or just for food? For example, can the sizes be used for clothes?
 said on
August 8, 2015
@nobulljive,

They can be used for anything that comes in those three sizes -- we have an Elementary lesson on cup sizing at Starbucks that is a higher level but might be an interesting follow-up, since Starbucks has slightly different sizes but you'll hear much the same thing:

http://popupchinese.com/lessons/elementary/the-starbucks-dance

For clothing or shoes or anything complex, people will normally just give the number and then 号. So size 32 would be 32号, etc.