You are learning ordering more: you will read the scene it happens in, take apart the pattern behind them (ordering more vocabulary), hear them in a conversation, rehearse them, and finish by saying one thing out loud to be graded.
A shared dinner at a family-style restaurant — perhaps Han Dynasty in the East Village for Sichuan, or Barbuto for Italian. Ordering additional dishes, sharing food, and the NYC culture of continuous ordering.
At Han Dynasty on St. Mark's Place, everything is designed for sharing — the spicy dan dan noodles, the Sichuan boiled fish, the cumin lamb, the garlic green beans. Ordering for two people here means covering the whole table with small plates and reaching across each other constantly.
The stranger is with a new friend — Marcus from the Smorgasburg encounter, who suggested this place. The food has been arriving in waves.
"Can we order the garlic eggplant too?" the stranger asks.
"We're going to be stuffed," Marcus says. "Let's do it."
When the eggplant arrives: "Oh my god, this is incredible." Four dishes have already happened. He is, in fact, completely stuffed.
"I'll get this one," Marcus says, reaching for the check. The stranger protests exactly once — correctly — then accepts.