Here is a question for you all. If you’re a native English speaker, don’t post your guess until the learners have had time to respond.
Yesterday I was in a restaurant, and lady came to the counter holding a baked potato. Then she said, “Where did the baked potato go?” even though she had that baked potato in her hand.
Why did she ask, “Where did the baked potato go?” if she was holding a baked potato?
I’ll give it a try. 
I think she meant to ask what category the baked potato was placed under while billing the food items. Or may be it was not billed at all.
Nope! You’re way off! 
Hi Jamie,
I think she didn’t know to whom the backed potato belong. :roll: Some customer in the restaurant ordered a backed potato and the lady may be a waitress. 
She knew who had ordered the baked potato.
May be the baked potato was ordered by someone but was served to someone else?
Nope! 
Perhaps she ordered the baked potato herself and pretended that she didn’t. :oops:
No.
I’ll tell you guys the answer.
She didn’t know the name of the man who had ordered the baked potato, so she was using “the baked potato” instead of his name. When she said, “Where did the baked potato go?” She meant, “Where did the man who ordered the baked potato go?” So, when she said “the baked potato”, she meant the man.
Restaurant workers do this a lot: “Go tell the roast beef that we don’t have the kind of rice he ordered today.” “The chow mein always leaves me a good tip.”
That’s funny! Thank you for letting us know that.
I was almost getting there. I was frantically searching for the meaning of ‘baked potato’. I thought it was an expression similar to ‘couch potato’
"Lacy, please tell Baked Alaska that we do NOT serve Sex On The Beach. He can go to Cancun for that. T-bone will back us on this if Double-Sausage-Double-Cheese (pizza) won’t. And if creampuff squeaks, tell her that El Burrito Grande will kick her ass.
Jamie, you da man! Great topic!
Infin1ty, here’s another restaurant question for you, since you are from China.
I went into a Chinese restaurant in my town, and the hostess seated me. Then she shouted to one of the bus boys, “Bei wo da! Bei wo da!”
What was she telling him? (I know the answer, by the way.)
Hi Jamie, could it be that the hostess told him to prepare for your meal? I guess and I’m not quite sure about that.
Think about it. They were in the United States speaking “Chinese”. What would “bei wo da” mean?
Hi Jamie,
As far as I know ‘da’ means ‘big’ and ‘wo’ means I or me. Not sure about ‘bei’ though.[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: A female lab technician[YSaerTTEW443543]
WAY off!
What about ‘bring water’?[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: A basket maker[YSaerTTEW443543]
Yes. “Bei” in Chinese means glass or cup, and “wo da” meant “water”.