Western food is usually five courses. The first course is appetizer, salad, soup, main course and dessert, but few people can eat them all, just three courses. The first course, salad, soup (one or two of them, generally speaking, few people eat salad after eating the first course, and vice versa), then the main course, and finally the dessert. Of course, some people want to have some coffee or tea at last.

Fish dishes are generally regarded as the third course of western food, also known as side dishes. Species include all kinds of freshwater and seawater fish, shellfish and molluscs. Aquatic vegetables, eggs, bread and crispy box vegetables are usually called side dishes. Because fish and other dishes are tender and easy to digest, they are placed in front of meat dishes and have different names from the main course of meat dishes. Western fish dishes pay attention to the use of special sauces, including tartar sauce, Dutch sauce, hotel sauce, white cream sauce, archbishop sauce, American sauce and sailor fish sauce.