03 Mar

ordering subs

Where: sub place like Subway or Quizno’s

Around 4 years ago, here I am at the Carnegie Mellon University, so proud of myself about going to one of the best universities in the world. Well, not really. So, one day, after I finished my morning classes, I was so hungry. I was more than ready for lunch. Looking around South Craig st, I found the Subway store. Well, it looks like it would be really fast and easy to order a sub. So, I went in, there was a long line. What?? How come people are waiting here? What the heck? I decided to line up. Then, I saw many people asking something about their subs. I spoke to myself, “Guys, it is just a sub. What are you asking for? Just get anything they give you.” Here comes my turn. I ordered something like Chicken….. whatever. And the employee started asking me so many questions.

1. Which bread do you want? sometimes, this is even shorter. “wheat or white?”

2. Do you want it to be toasted? or “Toast?”

3.What kind of cheese do you like? Here you need to know the name of the cheese. Oh! I like provolone cheese. But then I know Jake will make fun of my pronunciation of provolone. So, I will go for swiss cheese.

4. What do you want to put into the sub? This is the worst part. You should know all of the names of them. The easiest answer is “Everything!”  Then your sub becomes really thick like stuffed chicken. Can anyone comment about the name of the stuff? Seriously, I cannot remember all of them. Oh I know tomato and lettuce.

5. Then again, what dressing do you want? At this moment, I am like, “dude put anything you like”

Why is it so hard to have just a sub? Give me one! You know what! Now, I am so proud of me because I can order a sub without any issue and even more I can be picky about the stuff I want to have. Am I becoming an American?

10 thoughts on “ordering subs

  1. Oddly enough I just ran into this problem today. I went to Subway and they asked what kind of cheese i wanted, so I said “American”, but i guess they don’t call it that here in Oz…

  2. I had the same problem… when I went to Iceland! I spent a while trying to learn the names of all of the vegetables that you could put on, but I really only remembered lettuce and tomato, too 🙂

    Here are all of the vegetables that I can remember Subway having:
    cucumbers
    black olives
    banana peppers
    green peppers
    onions
    jalapenos
    pickles

  3. Green peppers???????
    People from India know this vegetable only as “Capsicum” My husband run’s a Subway store and everyday he deals with different customers.

    It is true Terry, if a customer is ordering sandwich for the first time for veggie’s they usually say “everything”. Also, few frequent customers like to order monster sandwich like double meat, double cheese, extra dressing, more veggies.

    Other names
    jalapenos – hot peppers
    banana peppers – mild peppers

  4. I cannot agree more, Terry. Keep the articles up. It makes me realize how slowly (but steadily) we are changing and adopting different cultures. =)

  5. Pingback: Super Salad | Learning English from Friends (LEfF)

  6. Pingback: Do you know why sub sandwich is called sub? People in Boston call it differently. | Learning English from Friends (LEfF)

Leave a Reply