Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast, number 769, Trying Unusual Foods.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 769.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
If you like listening to ESL Podcast, consider becoming a member by going to eslpod.com.
This episode is a dialogue between Antonio and Candice.
We're going to be talking about eating strange, different, unusual food.
Let's get started.
What is that smell?
It stinks!
This is a dish my roommate taught me to make.
It's really good.
Wanna bite?
You've got to be kidding me.
You actually eat that?
You can stomach something that smells that foul?
Don't knock it until you've tried it.
I admit that it's an acquired taste, but once you develop a taste for it, you'll not only like it, you'll crave it, like I do.
I would never crave something that unappetizing.
You've gone over the edge.
I've always known you were weird, but this takes the cake.
You need to open your mind to new culinary experiences.
You need to wake up your taste buds.
Your palate will thank you for it.
If you try it, you might like it.
If I try it, I may puke.
Antonio begins by saying, what is that smell?
It stinks.
To stink, S-T-I-N-K, means to smell very bad, to have a very unpleasant odor or smell.
Candace says, this is a dish my roommate taught me to make.
Your roommate is a person that you usually share an apartment with or a house with.
Candace says that the food, the dish that Antonio smells, was something her roommate had taught her to cook.
She says, it's really good.
Want a bite?
A bite.
B-I-T-E is a small piece of food, a small bit of food that you give someone just to taste something.
So she says, want a bite?
Antonio says, you've got to be kidding me.
Meaning, you're joking, right?
You actually eat that?
He can't believe that Candace is eating whatever this food is.
He says, you can stomach something that smells that foul?
To stomach S-T-O-M-A-C-H is to be able to eat something, something that is very perhaps, unpleasant.
It smells bad or it tastes bad.
To stomach it means to be able to eat it without getting sick.
Antonio asks Candice if she can stomach something that smells that bad, that foul, F-O-U-L.
Foul has another meaning in English, as does the word bite.
Both of those can be found in our learning guide.
Candice says, don't knock it until you've tried it.
This is an old expression.
Don't knock it until you've tried it.
It means to ask someone to keep an open mind, not to say no to something just because it's different or weird.
First you should try doing it yourself, and then you can decide whether you want to criticize it, to knock something.
Here means to criticize it.
So don't criticize it.
Don't knock it until you've actually tried it yourself.
Candice says, I admit that it's an acquired taste.
The expression an acquired taste means something that perhaps you don't like the first time you try it, but eventually, after a while, you learn to like something.
This happens a lot, I think, with food.
When you try new food, maybe at first you don't like it, but eventually you learn to like it more and more.
Well, that's what Candice is saying about the food she's eating.
She says, once you develop a taste for it, you'll not only like it, you'll crave it like I do.
To develop a taste for something means to gradually begin to like it.
Slowly, after each time you eat it, you like it more and more.
You develop a taste for it.
Once you do that, she says, you'll crave this food like I do.
To crave C-R-A-V-E means to have a very strong desire for something.
We use this especially when talking about food.
I crave a piece of apple pie.
I really want a piece of apple pie.
The noun is craving.
We say I have a craving for something.
I have a But Antonio doesn't think he will like this food.
He says, I would never crave something that unappetizing.
Something that is appetizing makes you want to eat it.
It looks good.
It smells good.
The opposite would be unappetizing.
Antonio says that he would never crave something that unappetizing or so unappetizing.
He says to Candice, you've gone over the edge.
To go over the edge E-D-G-E here means to go crazy or to do too much of something, to take an idea to the extreme point.
For example, you may like to gamble and you decide you're going to go to Las Vegas, a famous place for gambling in the United States, and you're going to bet your entire house.
You're going to say, I want to bet my house in a poker game.
Well, that's going over the edge.
That's going too far.
You don't want to lose your house in a poker game.
Antonio thinks that Candace has gone over the edge by eating this weird, unusual food.
He says The expression to take the cake means to be the most unbelievable or crazy example of something.
You may have a friend who likes to wear strange clothing.
And one day he decides to go to work wearing his swimming trunks nothing but the clothes he would wear to go swimming.
You might say, well, that really takes the cake.
That's the most bizarre, extreme example of this person's weird behavior.
Candice says, however, you, Antonio, need to open your mind to new culinary experiences.
To open your mind means to be willing to consider or think about all possibilities – all different options, without saying no right away.
You're going to think about many different possibilities.
That's to have or to keep an open mind.
Candice says Antonio needs to open his mind, which is the same as to keep an open mind.
To new culinary experiences.
Culinary, C-U-L-I-N-A-R-Y, is anything related to cooking food.
Candice says, Antonio needs to wake up his taste buds.
Your taste buds, B-U-D-S, are small... little things on your tongue that are used for tasting.
It's how you are able to taste something on your tongue through these little dots, called taste buds in English.
Candice says that Antonio needs to wake up his taste buds, meaning he needs to do something different, as if they were now sleeping.
She says, your palate will thank you for it.
Your palate.
P-A-L-A-T-E here means your sense of taste, your ability to enjoy different tastes, different flavors of food.
Candice says, your palate will thank you for it meaning, if you decide to try different foods, you will like it.
You will like the taste.
She says if you try it, you might like it.
Antonio says if I try it, I may puke.
Puke, P-U-K-E, puke. is an informal word for vomit, to throw up.
When the contents of your stomach come out through your mouth, that's to vomit, to throw up.
A little more informal way of saying that would be to puke.
And that's what Antonio says will happen to him if he tries some of this unusual food that Candace likes to eat.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What is that smell?
It stinks.
This is a dish my roommate taught me to make.
It's really good.
Want a bite?
You've got to be kidding me.
You actually eat that.
You can stomach something that smells that foul.
Don't knock it until you've tried it.
I admit that it's an acquired taste, but once you develop a taste for it, you'll not only like it, you'll crave it, like i do.
I would never crave something that unappetizing.
You've gone over the edge.
I've always known you were weird, but this takes the cake.
If I try it, I may puke.
If you listen to ESL Podcast, eventually I think you will crave the wonderful scripts written by our own Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
