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Ordering tacos, reading a salsa lineup, surviving spice levels — the Spanish you use when you eat.
Food & drink
About Food & drink
The Spanish you use when you eat, which in Mexico is a lot of Spanish. Ordering tacos, reading a salsa lineup, admitting you can't handle the red one, and the specific vocabulary of a taquería at eleven at night.
Ordering is also the interaction you'll repeat more than any other, which makes it the fastest thing to get comfortable with. Nail con todo and ¿pica mucho? in your first week and the rest of the language feels less steep.
The menu is the smallest part of eating here
Reading a menu is the part learners prepare for and the part that matters least. A great deal of Mexican eating happens where there is no menu at all — a taco stand, a market fonda, a comida corrida with two options called out loud. What you actually need is the ability to catch a spoken question and answer it in under two seconds.
The questions are predictable, which helps enormously. Whether you want everything on it, which salsa, whether it is to take away, whether you want it to arrive with the rest of the order or now. They come fast because the person asking is cooking at the same time, and the whole exchange is built to be short.
Spice deserves its own warning. Asking whether something pica gets you an honest answer calibrated to a Mexican palate, which may not be calibrated to yours. Asking to have the salsa served separately is completely normal and nobody minds. What draws a reaction is refusing to try anything at all, which reads as a judgement of the food rather than of your tolerance.
Food & drink — common questions
How do I order at a taco stand without a menu?
Say me da, the number, and the meat. The follow-up will be ¿con todo? — onion and coriander — and then a salsa question. The whole exchange is four short turns and it is the same every time.
What does con todo mean?
With everything, which in practice means onion and coriander. If you want it without, say sin cebolla or sin cilantro at the moment you order rather than afterwards.
Is it rude to ask for less spice?
No. Asking for the salsa on the side is ordinary and nobody minds. Bear in mind that no pica is judged against a Mexican palate, so a small taste first is sensible.
What is comida corrida?
A fixed-price set lunch, usually soup, a main with rice, and a drink, served in the early afternoon. The options are often recited rather than printed, which is why listening matters more than reading here.