THE DINING-ROOM
Many of our students have dinner at our Institute dining-room.
Ours1 is a self-service dining-room. It means there is no waiter or waitress to wait on us, and we get the dishes ourselves.
First we buy tickets at the cash-desk.
Then one of us. goes to the buffet to get some appetizers (entrees), another gets the soup, a third—the second course.
We needn't buy bread since there are platefuls of brown and white bread on each table.
At our dining-room we can have dinner table d'hote-usually cheaper than a la carte-when you order each dish separately from the menu card.
Sometimes we dine table d'hote, but as a rule we choose different dishes.
For appetizers we take salad, sauerkraut, sometimes herring or caviar.
Of all possible soups I prefer cabbage soup with meat or sour cream.
My friend usually has noodle soup, or rice soup with meat or potatoes.
There is a great choice of second courses at our dining-room: fried fish with potatoes, roast meat, cutlets, beefsteaks, rumpsteaks, chops, pancakes with sour cream, and what not.
I always have buckwheat porridge with whatever dish I order.
My friend, on the other hand, prefers vegetables, espe. cially potatoes.
For dessert we usually take cranberry jelly, compote, tea with lemon, ice-cream or fruit: apples, tangerines etc.
Sometimes wrhen we stay at the Institute quite late We go down to the dining-room or up to the refreshment room to have a bite (to have a snack) - it is usually a sandwich with tea, or milk, or coffee, or cocoa.
Some students have their breakfast at the Institute too.
As a rule they have buckwheat porridge, rice porridge, sausages, eggs, cream, milk, coffee or tea.
Our dining-room is quite neat and clean; the tables are covered with white table-cloths.
On the tables there are knives, forks, spoons (tablespoons and tea-spoons), glasses, salt cellars, pepper and mustard pots.
CONVERSATION
- Let us make haste and buy tickets for dinner.
- All right, but don't let us run.
- Please read the menu card aloud.
- Shall we dine a la carte or table d'hote?
- What have they got for table d'hote?
- Cabbage soup with meat, fried fish with mashed potatoes and cranberry jelly.
- No. That won't do for me1.
- I don't think I'll have it either. I could do with a beefsteak, chicken soup with noodles and ice-cream for dessert. What about you?
- I'll take cabbage soup with sour cream, boiled meat with buckwheat porridge and compote.
- Very good. Let us be going (get going).
- You go and get the soup and I'll go over to the buffet to see what they have got there. Would you like an appetizer?
- I shouldn't mind.
- Here I got some sauerkraut for myself. Will you have any?
- No, thanks3. I don't care for sauerkraut. I'll get myself some vegetable salad.
- The chicken soup is delicious to-day.
- The cabbage soup is delicious too. Will you kindly pass me the salt.
- Here you are.
- Thanks.
- My meat is quite tender to-day. Yesterday it was rather tough for my taste and I had to exchange it for cutlets.
- There is no more white bread on the table. Let us ask the waitress to bring us some.
- I'd like to have another helping of jelly.
- Go ahead. We have another seven minutes to go before the bell goes. As for me I am perfectly satisfied (full).
- No, I'd rather not. We must have some time for a smoke. Besides if we are hungry we can go to the refreshment room for a bite at five o'clock when we are free before our last lecture.
- Help yourself to cigarettes!
- No, thank you, I will not smoke now. I must drop in at the library.
WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS
NOTES