In a Chinese restaurant

When there is company, the Chinese try to serve one dish per person, plus one extra. Chinese meals very often start with a cold plate. In American and British Chinese restaurants, Foodies almost always order number One or number Two, ‘Mixed cold hors d’oeuvres, Imperial Style’ or whatever corresponds to that. Soup is, to the Chinese, a drink rather than a solid food dish, and is brought fairly late in the meal so that it can be drunk hot until the meal ends. The very last thing to be brought to the table is usually a fish – the appearance of a whole steamed fish at a banquet signals dinner is about to end.