Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 353, Describing the Taste of Food.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 353.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is called Describing the Taste of Food.
It's a dialogue between Steve and Elaine, where Elaine is going to talk about what she really thinks of Steve's food and also what she actually says to Steve.
They're not the same.
Let's listen.
Steve, my new boyfriend, decided to cook dinner for me.
I was really excited.
That is, until I tried his cooking.
What do you think of the soup?
I thought, this is so bland, and what are these little lumpy things in the soup?
Of course, I didn't say that aloud.
It's delicious.
It has a very interesting flavor.
When Steve served the main course, a baked chicken, he asked, What do you think of the chicken?
Is it too salty or spicy?
I thought, yes, it's too salty and it's so spicy I can hardly eat it without breathing fire.
The outside of the chicken is overcooked and the inside is raw.
But out loud, I said, No, not at all.
It has an interesting texture, and I'm enjoying every bite.
I thought, oh no, is there more?
Steve went into the kitchen and brought dessert.
What do you think of this cake?
I thought, this cake should be sweet, but it has a strange sour taste.
Could there be something seriously wrong with Steve's taste buds?
But aloud, I said, it's yummy.
It's the best cake that anyone has ever made for me.
And it was true.
I didn't care how bad the meal was.
It's the thought that counts.
Our story begins with Elaine saying that Steve, her new boyfriend I'm not sure how many boyfriends Elaine has had is going to cook dinner for her.
She says she's really excited.
That is, until I tried his cooking.
That is is a phrase we use to introduce additional information, usually new information.
It would be possible for Elaine to say, I was really excited until I tried his cooking.
The reason she uses that is, is it creates sort of a pause, a stop, a break.
Because what she's going to say next is sort of funny.
It's different.
It's the opposite, really, of the first part of the sentence.
So she says, I was really excited, that is, until I tried his cooking.
Steve asks what Elaine thinks of the soup.
And Elaine tells us what she really thinks in her own mind.
She's not saying this to Steve.
She's just telling us, the listeners.
She says, I thought, this soup is so bland.
Something that is bland, B-L-A-N-D, doesn't have very much flavor.
It's dull.
It's uninteresting.
To describe food as bland means it doesn't taste like anything very specifically.
It doesn't have a lot of flavor.
She also says, what are these little lumpy things in the soup?
Lumpy, L-U-M-P-Y, is an adjective.
It comes from the word lump L-U-M-P, which is usually a small hard ball that you find in some sort of liquid, especially for soup.
Lumpy, then, is not a good adjective.
It's usually considered a negative thing.
Elaine out loud says to Steve, It's delicious.
So she's doing what millions of people do when someone asks them how their food is, and it doesn't taste very well.
They lie.
She says it's delicious, meaning it's very flavorful.
It's very tasty.
It has a very good taste.
She then says it has a very interesting flavor.
A flavor is the way that something tastes.
It's the specific taste of a food.
The expression interesting flavor is sort of a joke.
When someone says it's interesting, that usually means they don't like it, but they don't want to tell you they don't like it.
Steve then served the main course, the main part of the meal, which was a baked chicken.
He asks Elaine, Something that is salty, S-A-L-T-Y, comes from the word salt.
It means having a lot of salt in it, usually too much salt.
Spicy is something that is hot, something that causes a burning or a hot sensation or feeling in your mouth when you eat it.
Peppers and chiles are spicy.
Elaine says once again to us, not to Steve Yes, it's too salty and it's so spicy that I can hardly eat it.
I can barely eat it without breathing fire.
To say you can hardly do something means it's very difficult.
You can almost not do it.
To breathe fire is a joke, meaning the food is so hot, so spicy.
It's like she had fire in her mouth.
She says the outside of the chicken was overcooked, meaning it was cooked too much.
And the inside was raw, R-A-W, meaning not cooked, raw.
Raw is the opposite of cooked.
Raw has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at our learning guide for some more explanations.
Once again, Elaine tells us what she thinks, but then she says something different to her boyfriend Steve.
She says, no, not at all, meaning it's not too salty or spicy.
It has an interesting texture.
And I'm enjoying every bite.
Once again notice the use of the word interesting here, because she doesn't want to criticize or say something negative to Steve about his cooking.
The texture T-E-X-T-U-R-E of cooked food would be the way that it feels on the outside of.
We use this word texture for all sorts of materials.
You can talk about a shirt, for example, that has a certain texture, a certain feel.
When you put your hand on it, it has a certain feel to it.
Food also can have a certain texture.
Elaine says she's enjoying every bite.
B-I-T-E.
A bite is the amount of food that you can put in your mouth to eat at one time, usually a small amount of food.
She says she's enjoying every bite, every piece of food that she's eating.
Then she says to us, is there more?
Meaning she doesn't want any more.
Steve comes out with dessert and asks her what she thinks of the cake that he's made.
Elaine says to us, the cake should be sweet, but it has a strange sour taste.
Sweet is the opposite of sour.
It's a way of describing the way something tastes.
Usually something that is sweet has a lot of sugar or something that is like sugar in it.
Sour is something that has a lot of lemon, for example, or some other fruit in it.
It's the opposite taste of sweet.
There is a type of Chinese cooking in the United States called sweet and sour.
It's a combination of both of these tastes, or at least that's the idea.
So the cake and most desserts should be sweet, but this one is sour.
Could there be something seriously wrong with Steve's taste buds?
Elaine asks.
Your taste buds.
B-U-D-S are the small areas on your tongue that allow you to know what the taste of something is.
It's the part of your tongue that gives you the ability to taste something.
Your taste buds.
She's saying, is there something wrong with his tongue?
Is there something wrong with his body that he doesn't taste things that are not very good?
Once again, that's what she says to us.
But to Steve, she says about the cake, it's yummy.
Y-U-M-M-Y.
Yummy is another term meaning tasty, delicious, very good to eat.
She says it's the best cake anyone has ever made for me.
She ends the story saying, and it was true.
I didn't care how bad the meal was.
It's the thought that counts.
This is an expression we use.
It's the thought that counts, to mean that our intentions are more important than our actions.
It's a phrase that expresses the idea that what a person means to do is more important than what he or she actually did.
So if someone gives you a gift and you don't like the gift, you say to yourself it's the thought that counts.
Meaning it was the idea that the person gave you a gift wanted to give something nice to you.
That is important, not the actual gift itself.
Except when that gift is money.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Steve, my new boyfriend, decided to cook dinner for me.
I was really excited.
That is, until I tried his cooking.
What do you think of the soup?
I thought, this is so bland.
And what are these little lumpy things in the soup?
Of course I didn't say that aloud.
It's delicious.
It has a very interesting flavor.
When Steve served the main course, a baked chicken, he asked, What do you think of the chicken?
Is it too salty or spicy?
I thought, yes, it's too salty and it's so spicy I can hardly eat it without breathing fire.
The outside of the chicken is overcooked and the inside is raw.
But out loud, I said, No, not at all.
It has an interesting texture, and I'm enjoying every bite.
I thought, oh no, is there more?
Steve went into the kitchen and brought dessert.
What do you think of this cake?
I thought, this cake should be sweet, but it has a strange sour taste.
Could there be something seriously wrong with Steve's taste buds?
But aloud I said, It's yummy.
It's the best cake that anyone has ever made for me.
And it was true.
I didn't care how bad the meal was.
It's the thought that counts.
The script for this episode was written by the sweet Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2008.
