Chinese dishes

For what it's worth, 蒙古牛肉 is Mongolian Beef.

Menu-reading is indeed very useful, I'd suggest to start with the basics (面、牛肉、饭，蔬菜 etc.) I posted pics from Shanghai elsewhere with menus to that effect. I'd stick to simple restaurants and food stalls to begin with， 麻辣烫 (málàtàng), even 饺子 (jiǎozi) 馒头 (mántou) 面包 (miànbāo)... In restaurants proper, the wording can be elaborate, poetic and difficult to figure out

Reiterating what goulniky said: don't expect to understand too much, because you'll have names like "Spring comes early with the dewy blossoms" (ok, I made that one up) and the Chinese people will also have to ask what the heck it is. I was at a wedding banquet the other week and the stylized menu names confused the local people only a touch more than they confused me. I once went through a menu with a teacher and many of the items were "I don't know, I'd have to ask." But you can certainly get by with a few basics. What worked for me as soon as I first arrived in Taiwan: I learned the characters for rice (飯) and noodles (麵, 面 simplified), and tea (茶). That way I could always point at XXX麵 or XXX飯, point at a tea, and be fairly sure I'd get a meal. 咖哩, for curry, is also useful as a safe option. Curry or shuijiao (boiled dumplings / 水餃) or beef noodle soup (牛肉麵) have more than once been my selection when I don't have a clue what's going on and want to have something predictable. (Oh, and it'll probably by Japanese curry, not Indian/ British/ Malaysian/ Thai). Don't worry about accidentally eating more "exotic" animals (a la most of the bad jokes about Chinese food). Those are generally hard to find and you're not going to get them by accident. You may however get organ meats by accident. And then there are night markets, where what you see is what you get. Most important, enjoy yourself - ok, I've occasionally had rather unfortunate dishes in places around the world, but almost always there's some fun involved, and seldom can you not just find a bowl of white rice and add a couple of chillis and some soy sauce.

LostinAsia-"Spring comes early with the dewy blossoms"? Wow, you really got the Chinese poetic flavor down!

here's a list to get you started from a simple google 谷歌 （gǔgē）search, and another one. Do a search mixing English and Chinese, e.g. with Chinese menu and 菜单 (càidān) for more, there are many

I recommend www.howtoorderchinesefood.com. Excellent site with a lot of photos.

Looks like a cool site, Anne. Thanks!

All you need to know is: 炸馒头 (zha4man2tou2). :-) It is very very rare in Chinese restuarants in the US, so if you are in Nothern China, especially, you must get this for dessert. You dip it in condensed milk. I mean, what's better than that?

我很喜欢吃没有炒的蔬菜 没有炒的蔬菜 in chinese ,maybe u would say 凉拌蔬菜 没有炒的 means don't have cooked ,right ? In china there is a meal of dish called 凉拌蔬菜, that means the vagetable doesn't be cooked . Ｉdon;t know if I have told clearly or not .