Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 493, Ordering at a Sandwich Shop.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 493.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode, an 8-10 page guide that contains all of the vocabulary definitions, sample sentences, additional definitions, cultural notes, comprehension questions and a complete transcript of everything we say on this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between someone who works at a sandwich shop, a restaurant that sells sandwiches, and a customer named Jared.
Let's get started.
Welcome to Grubway.
What can I get for you?
I'm trying to lose weight and I hear that eating a sandwich for lunch every day will help me do that.
Do you guys have a BLT or a club?
We don't have a BLT, but we do have a ham or turkey club.
Okay, I'll take the club.
Ham or turkey?
Can I get half and half?
Or, better yet, can I get double ham and double turkey?
Sure, no problem.
I'd like cheese on that, too.
Would you like your bread toasted and the cheese melted?
Uh, sure.
What else would you like on your sandwich?
The works?
What comes with the works?
It includes lettuce tomatoes onions, bell peppers, olives and pickles and any spreads, condiments or seasonings you'd like.
Oh, okay.
I'll have the works, but hold the pickles and olives.
I'd like mayonnaise on the side, too, please.
You know what?
I'd like to add some chicken to that.
That'll be $1.20 additional.
That's fine.
I'd also like extra cheese, and why don't you add some roast beef, too?
Okay, I can do that.
Will that be all?
Yeah, but while you're at it, Throw in two bags of chips and a couple of cookies.
Okay, I can ring you up down here.
Hey, tell me, how long before I start losing weight?
Well, that's hard to say.
You may want to look at the nutritional information chart to determine that.
Nah, I can already feel the pounds coming off.
Our dialogue begins with the employee at the sandwich shop saying to Jared the customer Welcome to Grubway.
There's a famous sandwich shop here in the United States called Subway.
It's a chain.
That is, there are many different restaurants like this where you can go and order a sandwich.
You can either eat it at the restaurant or do what most people do, which is have it to go, meaning you take it with you.
The employee asks Jared, what can I get for you?
What kind of sandwich do you want?
Jared says, I'm still deciding.
I'm still thinking about it.
He says.
I'm trying to lose weight and I hear that eating a sandwich for lunch every day will help me do that.
A few years ago, this chain of sandwich shops Subway, had a famous commercial where they had one of their customers whose name was Jared.
Come on and say that he lost weight because the only thing that he ate for a month or two months, or however long it was, was the Subway sandwiches.
So Jared is, in our dialogue, thinking about the same thing.
He says, do you guys have a BLT or a club?
Guys here is informal, meaning do you people who work here.
He's talking to a woman, so we use the term guys plural to refer often to both men and women, boys and girls together.
A BLT is a sandwich with bacon, lettuce, and tomato.
B-L-T, bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich.
Obviously, there's bread with the sandwich.
A club sandwich is a sandwich that is made from three slices, three pieces of bread and two or more different kinds of meat.
Usually there's lettuce and tomatoes and mayonnaise and perhaps other food in there, but it's three pieces of bread and then two different types or more of meat inside the sandwich.
Usually it's something like ham or turkey, perhaps chicken.
The employee says we don't have a BLT, but we do have a ham or turkey club.
Jared says, okay, I'll take the club, meaning that's what I want to order.
The employee says ham or turkey.
Jared then says, can I get half and half?
Half and half means 50% of one thing and 50% of another.
If you're going to dinner with a vegetarian and you're going to have say pizza you, you might say well, let's get a pizza half and half, half vegetarian and half pepperoni.
I'll eat the pepperoni side.
Well, Jared wants the sandwich half and half, half turkey, half ham.
And then he says, or better yet, can I get double ham and double turkey?
Double means twice as much as normal.
Double has a couple of different meanings, however.
You can take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations of those additional meanings.
The employee says, sure, no problem.
Jared says, I'd like cheese on that, too.
The employee then asks, would you like your bread toasted and the cheese melted?
To toast bread means to make it brown and slightly hard.
You put it next to a source of high heat or you put it in a little machine called a toaster.
Melted means that something is solid that becomes more like liquid.
If you take a piece of cheese and put it on a sandwich and then heat it, the cheese will melt.
Jared says, sure.
The employee then says, what else would you like on the sandwich?
The works?
When you order a sandwich or a hamburger and somebody asks if you want the works or a hot dog, thinking of fast foods, What they mean is that they will give you everything possible, everything that you could get on the hamburger, sandwich or hot dog.
Well, Jared says, what comes with the works?
Meaning, what does that include?
The employee says it includes lettuce tomatoes onions, bell peppers, olives and pickles.
Any spreads, condiments or seasonings you'd like.
A spread is a soft food or a thick liquid that you put on bread in a thin layer.
For example, you can use strawberry jelly or strawberry jam.
That could be used as a spread.
You can make your own spread out of mayonnaise and perhaps some other food and put that on a sandwich.
A condiment is a powder or a liquid that is added to food to give it more taste.
The word seasonings is a powder or a dry herb, which is a small plant that you add to something to give it more flavor.
So for example, basil and oregano are two common seasonings in food.
Jared says oh okay, I'll have the works, meaning I want to order a sandwich with everything on it.
The works.
But, he says, hold the pickles and olives.
When you are ordering food and you use the expression hold, such as hold the pickles or hold the lettuce, You're telling the employee, the waiter or waitress that you don't want to have something that is normally part of that dish, that is normally part of that meal.
So if you are having say, a cheeseburger that normally comes with lettuce, you might say I want one cheeseburger, hold the lettuce, meaning don't give me the lettuce.
There was a famous television commercial when I was young, before the Internet was born, that had a song that was part of the commercial and for some reason I have this weird memory of songs that are part of commercials or television programs.
I'm not sure why.
Anyway, the song for the commercial, what we would call the jingle was hold the pickles, hold the lettuce.
Special orders don't upset us.
All we ask is that you let us have it your way.
Have it your way.
Have it your way at Burger King.
Thank you.
Have it your way means you can have your sandwich however you want.
It was an advertisement for a hamburger restaurant called Burger King, which is still in existence, although they don't use that commercial anymore, and haven't since the 1970s.
Jared, continuing on with our story, wants the works, but he wants the pickles and olives held.
He He says, I'd like mayonnaise on the side, too, please.
Mayonnaise on the side, meaning separated from the rest of the food.
If a sandwich normally has mayonnaise or mustard on it or any other kind of food, you can ask for it on the side, especially if it's a liquid.
That's the most common use of that.
Then Jared says, you know what, I'd like to add some chicken to that.
The employee says, that'll be $1.20 additional, meaning extra.
Jared says that's fine, I'd also like extra cheese.
And why don't you add some roast beef too?
Meaning, please add some roast beef, an additional kind of meat.
He says, while you're at it, throw in two bags of chips and a couple of cookies.
The expression while you're at it is a phrase used to ask someone to continue something they are doing, but do something additional.
Since the employee is getting Jared's food, he says well, while you're at it, since you are doing it anyway, also throw in, meaning include add two bags of chips, potato chips and a couple of cookies.
Then Jared asks, how long before I start losing weight?
Well, of course, Jared has added all this extra food to the sandwich, so he probably won't be losing any weight.
The employee says that's hard to say, that's difficult to determine.
You may want to look at the nutritional information chart to determine that.
The nutritional information is the information about how many calories, how much fat, how much sodium a food contains.
Jared says nah, meaning no.
I can already feel the pounds coming off.
To come off means to, in this case, reduce or become less.
So he's saying he can already feel the pounds, his extra weight in his body coming off, disappearing.
To come is used with lots of different prepositions as a phrasal verb.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Welcome to Grubway.
What can I get for you?
I'm still deciding.
I'm trying to lose weight and I hear that eating a sandwich for lunch every day will help me do that.
Do you guys have a BLT or a club?
We don't have a BLT, but we do have a ham or turkey club.
Okay, I'll take a club.
Ham or turkey?
Can I get half and half, or better yet, can I get double ham and double turkey?
Sure, no problem.
I'd like cheese on that, too.
Would you like your bread toasted and the cheese melted?
Uh, sure.
What else would you like on your sandwich?
The works?
What comes with the works?
It includes lettuce tomatoes onions, bell peppers, olives and pickles and any spreads, condiments or seasonings you'd like.
Oh, okay.
I'll have the works, but hold the pickles and olives.
I'd like mayonnaise on the side, too, please.
You know what?
I'd like to add some chicken to that.
That'll be $1.20 additional.
That's fine.
I'd also like extra cheese, and why don't you add some roast beef, too?
Okay, I can do that.
Will that be all?
Yeah, but while you're at it, throw in two bags of chips and a couple of cookies.
Okay, I can bring you up down here.
Hey, tell me, how long before I start losing weight?
Well, that's hard to say.
You may want to look at the nutritional information chart to determine that.
Nah, I can already feel the pounds coming off.
Giving you double the fun with her dialogues is Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
