This is a common food

[Ren]

Hello,

I was at a restaurant in NYC, and I asked my waiter what the next table had ordered. He said he didn't know what it was in English, but he wrote it for me (see attachment). I always see people ordering this. I have a clue what it is, but I wanted to ask you if you can identify it for me, and is it good? Thanks!

[langfingerli]

I think he means Amaranth. The simplified character for Amaranth is 苋 (xian4). The 才 doesn't make sense to me, maybe he means 菜? Just a beginner's opinion

[creamyhorror]

It looks like 上湯?才, and I'm not sure what the 3rd character is. The 才 might be restaurant shorthand for 菜. Maybe the 3rd and 4th chars are short for 菠菜?

[xiaocai]

Probably 上汤苋菜.

[liuzhou]

I think it is meant to be 上海黄菜  but your waiter used the wrong character for the last character. 

黄花菜 would make more sense - that would be Day Lily but what the difference between Shanghai Day Lilies and anywhere else's is nothing I know about.

[abytong]

search for 上汤苋菜 and baidu returns about 210k results, i guess that is what it is. pic1 pic2

[Yang Rui]

Looks like 上湯莧菜 (shang4 tang1 xian4 cai4), written in traditional characters, with 菜 simplified to 才 as is often done in restaurants and markets.

You can do a Google image search to see if it looks like the right thing.

Edit: there were not so many answers above this at the time I posted - sorry to repeat the answers of others.

[abcdefg]

I have a clue what it is, but I wanted to ask you if you can identify it for me...

What is your clue?

You also indicated it was a common food in that restaurant, so it might help to know what kind of restaurant that is (Sichuan, Hong Kong, Dongbei, etc.)

[Ren]

YES! My clue was that "it looks like spinach"

I googled the characters that you gave me, and it seems to be this:

http://www.noobcook.com/spinach-in-superior-broth/

Although in the restaurant I go to, it doesn't look like a dish with so much broth

http://www.yelp.com/biz/hop-lee-restaurant-new-york

Thanks again!

[suzanna曉嵐]

上湯 means soup, 莧才 can be 莧菜 which means Amaranth

上湯莧菜means Amaranth with soup.