Good to eat
One character turns 'eat' into 'delicious.' Learn to say a meal is good — the small kindness that makes you a pleasure to share a table with.
Naming what you eat
Pointing works, but naming a few foods lets you order without a finger — and gives you something to actually talk about beyond just ordering.
Numbers that build themselves
Learn ten characters and you can read every number up to 99 — because Chinese numbers are a place-value system you literally read out loud.
How much money
You ordered by pointing. Now you have to pay. Three characters to understand the price question — and read it back.
The sentence that orders anything
Four characters that let you order literally anything by pointing. The first reading win that actually sticks.