I'm sure the food is fantastic. Cannot do worse than traditional western food. But should I be an annoying gringo and ask what each individual item are, or should I just shut up, be polite, and take a shot in the dark and tank the hit if I miss?
I'm sure the food is fantastic. Cannot do worse than traditional western food. But should I be an annoying gringo and ask what each individual item are, or should I just shut up, be polite, and take a shot in the dark and tank the hit if I miss?
Don't ask anyone what every individual item is on any menu. That's a pain in the ass, even if they spoke fluent English. If you're not super picky ask them what they recommend and get that. If they dont speak english you can do this with pointing, smiling, shrugging and thumbs ups. Always speak basic English while gesturing because they might be able to understand it OK even if they cant speak it, or don't feel comfortable speaking it.
If you're a little more picky do some prep so you have a little better idea of what to expect. Noodles/Soup/Rice/Veggies/Rice/Sandwich/Meat etc. Learn what those words are. If you know what you want but dont know how to say it, or are too embarrased, just say the number. Or point to it.
If you issues with spicy, make sure you bring that up. The this is too spicy face and hand wave to cool down your tongue is cross cultural.
People are generally pretty helpful if your polite.
Also lol on all the english on the menu. Especially at the bottom, literally "To-Go Orders" in english.