Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 1130, Eating Breakfast Foods.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 1130.
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 a dialogue between Emil and Tammy about things you might eat for breakfast.
Let's get started.
Look at this breakfast buffet.
Wow, I've died and gone to heaven.
I think I'll just grab some cereal, fruit, and a bagel.
What?
How can you pass up this amazing buffet?
I don't normally eat a big breakfast.
If I'm still hungry after this, I'll have some pancakes.
Pancakes?
Pancakes?
I'm going to have some pancakes when I'm done with this first round, plus some waffles and French toast.
Well, more power to you.
I can't imagine anyone eating more than what's already on your plate.
I've only just begun.
After the pancakes, waffles and French toast, I think I'll have an omelet and some biscuits and gravy.
I might even have room for one or two of those donuts.
You're not serious.
I'm dead serious.
You sound like you're planning to stay here all morning.
That's right.
Do you want to meet me back here for the lunch buffet?
Emil says to Tammy at the beginning of our dialogue, Look at this breakfast buffet.
Breakfast, you probably know, is a meal that you eat in the morning.
It's the first meal of the day.
If you look at the word, you can see why we use it.
The word fast, F-A-S-T, means quick, but it can also mean not to eat food.
So break fast would be to break or end your fast.
And of course, when you're sleeping, you're not eating.
So when you wake up, you have, in a sense, been fasting.
A buffet, B-U-F-F-E-T, is a meal in a restaurant where you can take as much food as you want.
Usually the restaurant will have a number of different dishes, a number of different kinds of food, and you can take your plate and put as much food as you want onto your plate to eat.
These sometimes are called all-you-can-eat buffets, because typically you can eat as much as you want.
Emil is telling Tammy to look at the breakfast buffet where they are.
He says, wow, I've died and gone to heaven.
That expression I've died D-I-E-D and gone to heaven means that you are very happy, as if you were to die and then go up to heaven and be happy forever and ever.
So when someone says, I've died and gone to heaven, he means I'm extremely happy.
This is the best possible situation.
Usually, we say this when we are given or have the opportunity to do something or, in this case, eat something that you really love.
Tammy says, I think I'll just grab some cereal, fruit, and a bagel.
Cereal, C-E-R-E-A-L, is very popular as an American breakfast.
There are lots of different varieties of cereal.
Usually cereal comes in small little pieces that you put into a bowl and put milk into and then you eat the cereal with a spoon.
It's a very common breakfast because it's easy to make.
You don't have to cook anything.
Tammy says she's going to grab or take...
Some cereal fruit and a bagel.
A bagel, B-A-G-E-L, is a round piece of chewy bread.
It sort of looks like a donut because there's a hole in the middle.
However, it is hard, that is, it's not soft like a donut.
It's what we would call chewy C-H-E-W-Y bread, because you have to move your mouth up and down several times in order to chew it.
Bagels are usually served with something on top of them.
You put on something like cream cheese.
Emil says, what?
How can you pass up this amazing buffet?
Emil is surprised that Tammy just wants to have a little bit of food.
Because, of course, when you have a buffet, you can eat as much as you want.
So Emil doesn't understand why Tammy would just want cereal, fruit, and a bagel.
He says, how can you pass up this amazing buffet?
The phrasal verb to pass up means to decide not to do something, not to have something.
Emil says, I'm starting with some bacon, scrambled eggs, and hash browns.
Bacon, B-A-C-O-N, is meat from a pig that is very fatty.
It has a lot of fat in it.
It's cut into very thin strips or slices that usually you cook in a pan.
It's really good.
I love bacon myself.
Scrambled eggs is a way of preparing eggs.
You take two eggs that are raw, that are not cooked, and you blend them together.
You could also take three eggs or however many eggs you want.
You blend the eggs together and then you put them in a frying pan to cook them.
That's called scrambled eggs.
Hash, H-A-S-H, browns are basically potatoes that you chop up and cook in a frying pan.
Hash browns are usually served at breakfast along with eggs and bacon.
It's basically a potato dish that you eat for breakfast.
Tammy says I don't normally eat a big breakfast.
If I'm still hungry after this meaning after she eats her cereal, fruit and bagel I'll have some pancakes.
Pancakes, P-A-N-C-A-K-E-S, are flat cakes made of flour that are cooked in a hot frying pan.
Emile says pancakes.
I'm going to have some pancakes when I'm done with this first round, plus some waffles and French toast.
The word round R-O-U-N-D here refers to one of many different events or different parts of an event.
In the sport of boxing where two people get up and basically hit each other, we have rounds.
Those are parts of the competition.
Usually there are a number of different rounds, each of which are a couple of minutes long.
Emile is referring to the number of times he's going to go up to the buffet and get more food.
He calls these rounds.
He's going to have waffles and French toast.
A waffle W-A-F-F-L-E is a square piece of basically sweet bread that usually is served with butter and a liquid kind of sugar called syrup.
It's also very popular for breakfast in the United States.
French toast is a breakfast item made by taking a piece of toast And putting the toast into a mixture of eggs milk, cinnamon and sometimes vanilla.
You take a piece of bread and you put it into this mixture and then you heat up the bread on both sides in a hot pan.
That's called French toast, although I don't know if it's French or not.
Tammy says, well, more power to you.
More power to someone is a phrase we use to express our good wishes and perhaps admiration toward another person.
You're basically saying, well, good for you.
That's just great.
Tammy says, I can't imagine anyone eating more than what's already on your plate.
Tammy is surprised that Emil is going to want even more food than what he already has.
Emil says, however, I've only just begun, meaning I'm just getting started eating breakfast.
After the pancakes, waffles and French toasts, I think I'll have an omelet and some biscuits and gravy.
I might even have room for one or two of those donuts.
An omelet, O-M-E-L-E-T, is a breakfast food made from eggs that are mixed usually with some other ingredient.
It could be vegetables, it could be meat, it could be cheese, or some combination of those three.
You mix the eggs together, usually with milk, and you put that mixture into a hot pan and the eggs begin to cook.
Then you put the other ingredients, the other things you want in your omelet on top and you fold the omelet over so it looks like a half circle or semi-circle.
Biscuits.
B-I-S-C-U-I-T-S are round rolls, a kind of bread Gravy.
G-R-A-V-Y is a thick, usually meat-based sauce, a thick liquid that is made from some kind of meat.
In some places, especially in the southern United States, having biscuits and gravy is popular for breakfast.
Finally, Emil says he may also have some doughnuts.
A donut, D-O-U-G-H-N-U-T, is a round piece of sweet bread that has a hole in the middle.
But unlike a bagel which looks like a donut, it is fried and covered, usually in some sort of sugar coating or frosting.
Donuts are also very popular with some people for breakfast.
American cities have lots of what are called donut shops places where you can go and buy all different kinds of donuts.
I'm really getting hungry right now talking about all this food.
Tammy says to Emil, you're not serious.
She doesn't really believe that Emil is going to eat all this food.
Emil says, however, I'm dead serious.
When someone says he is dead, D-E-A-D serious, he means he's very serious.
He's not joking.
Usually we use this expression when someone doesn't believe we are being serious.
If you say to your coworker you're not really going to leave the office right now and go to the beach, are you?
Your coworker might say, I'm dead serious, meaning yes, I'm not joking.
That's really what I'm going to do.
Tammy says you sound like you're planning on staying here all morning, meaning you're going to stay at the restaurant all morning and eat.
Emil says, that's right, meaning that's correct.
Do you want to meet me back here for the lunch buffet?
Emile suggests that Tammy come back later in the afternoon so that she can join him for another buffet for lunch.
Buffets are very popular for lunch as well as for breakfast, perhaps even more popular for lunch.
There are here in Los Angeles restaurants that serve Indian food.
There are lots of Indian buffets.
There are lots of Chinese buffets where you can go and get all sorts of Chinese food and eat as much as you want.
These are all-you-can-eat buffets.
Maybe this is one reason why Americans, on average, are so overweight.
They go to all of these all-you-can-eat buffets all the time.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Look at this breakfast buffet.
Wow, I've died and gone to heaven.
I think I'll just grab some cereal, fruit, and a bagel.
What?
How can you pass up this amazing buffet?
I'm starting with some bacon, scrambled eggs, and hash browns.
I don't normally eat a big breakfast.
If I'm still hungry after this, I'll have some pancakes.
Pancakes!
I'm going to have some pancakes when I'm done with this first round, plus some waffles and French toast.
Well, more power to you.
I can't imagine anyone eating more than what's already on your plate.
I've only just begun.
After the pancakes, waffles and French toast, I think I'll have an omelet and some biscuits and gravy.
I might even have room for one or two of those donuts.
You're not serious.
I'm dead serious.
You sound like you're planning on staying here all morning.
That's right.
Do you want to meet me back here for the lunch buffet?
Never pass up the opportunity to listen to one of the excellent dialogues by our excellent scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
