There’s strategy involved in ordering cai fan, or economic rice, to get the best bang for your buck.
You know the drill: get in the queue (preferably not during peak lunch hours), quickly scope out the day’s options and try to do a quick mental calculation of which combination of cai (dishes) makes the most sense for your wallet and your tastebuds.
Apparently, though, some people have just got better cai fan game than the rest of us. Case in point: A post titled “How to order Cai Fan like a pro” uploaded by local Facebook page Lobang Siah this past weekend details some pretty solid hacks that, when applied correctly, could help you snag an extra nub of chicken or additional heaping of rice in your order.
The post has been shared over 2,400 times since the time of this article’s publication.
Some examples include ordering expensive items first to give your server a good impression of your spending power, and pointing at the dishes as many times as possible instead of rushing your order, which supposedly causes stall owners to dole out larger-than-usual portions without the additional charges.
On top of that, it’s also all about the phrasing, apparently. For instance, the post also recommends that instead of asking the server to “add extra rice,” (jia fan) in Chinese, using the phrase “little bit more rice” (duo yi dian fan) works in scoring a larger serving.
In the comments section, Facebook users chimed in with tried-and-true tips of their own.
One user suggested ordering “uncountable dishes” first, like vegetables, then the “countable ones” — like pork ribs or fish balls — so that the server will likely end up giving a larger portion size of both.
Another user recommends ordering dishes that are about to run out, since the stall owner will most likely give you all the remaining contents of that tray to clear it out in order to make way for newly-cooked dishes. (This is true).
Economic rice stall aunties and uncles, we are coming for you.
