Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast.
I'm Connor with Polyglossa.com and you're listening to episode 11 of the Listening Time Podcast.
If this is your first time here, welcome.
I'm happy to have you here.
This podcast is for English learners who still can't understand native speech when it's spoken very fast, at normal speed, and you're having trouble with that.
But you can already understand a lot of English.
If that's you, then this podcast is perfect for you.
This podcast should help you reach the level of comprehension that you need to listen to real podcasts made for english speakers.
In each podcast I talk about different topics and I speak in a natural way.
I don't have any script.
I'm not reading anything.
I'm just talking as the words come to my mind.
So I speak naturally, but I speak a little bit more slowly and a little bit more clearly than the average native speaker.
So in today's podcast, in today's episode, we're going to be talking about desserts.
So this is one of my favorite topics because I love desserts.
I have a sweet tooth, as we call it.
In English, when someone says they have a sweet tooth, this means that they really like sugary sweet things.
So I have a sweet tooth, so today I want to talk about desserts.
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All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
Okay, so let's start talking about desserts.
So, what is a dessert?
A dessert is some kind of sweet food that you eat after your meal, typically.
Typically, people eat dessert after dinner or after lunch, just depending on your preference, or maybe depending on your culture.
In the US it's common to eat dessert after dinner, so a lot of people eat sweet food at night after their big meal, which is dinner in the US.
I know in other countries the big meal is lunch, but in the US dinner is our biggest meal, so a lot of people eat dessert at night.
So let's talk about some typical desserts in America.
So one of the first things that comes to mind is pie.
Now, this is not an extremely common dessert, meaning that we don't eat this a lot or very frequently, but it's very emblematic of American cuisine.
When something is emblematic, that means that it is a good representation or a good symbol of something else.
So pie in the U.S. is an emblematic meal or emblematic food of American cuisine.
A lot of people think of the U.S. when they think of pie or when they see pie.
So, one of the most common types of pie in the US is apple pie.
This is perhaps the most popular pie.
This pie is delicious.
It's probably my favorite type.
I think it is my favorite type.
And it's a really good dessert to eat on holidays or, in my opinion, at any time throughout the year.
It's delicious, really.
And there are certain regions of the U.S. or cities or towns that have really good apple pie.
For example, one of these places is called Julian in Southern California.
This is a town that is really well known for its apple pie.
Many people drive an hour or two hours just to go to this town and eat apple pie.
So it's very popular there.
And they make it in a very delicious way.
They make it perfectly there.
So I love their apple pie.
And Whenever I get the chance I eat their pie, either in Julian or if they sell that style of pie at grocery stores in other California cities.
It's very good.
So another type of pie that's very popular is pumpkin pie.
And this pie is especially popular around the autumn time.
So during the months of October, November, December maybe, this pie is very common.
So during Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie is one of the classic desserts that's served.
There are many other types of pies too, like key lime pie and Boston cream pie and many other types of pies.
But as I said before, for me, apple pie is the king.
You can't beat apple pie, in my opinion.
So, as I mentioned before, pie is not eaten very frequently in the U.S.
Pie is eaten on special occasions and usually during certain seasons, but it's not usually eaten on an everyday basis in the US However, there are other types of desserts that are eaten more often, more frequently.
For example, cookies.
I think that most of you or all of you know what cookies are.
I'm sure they're popular in almost every country, I imagine, but in the US cookies are especially popular, and in particular chocolate chip cookies.
So one of the reasons why this type of cookie is so popular is because people love to bake homemade chocolate chip cookies.
When we say the phrase homemade, we're saying that you make it at home.
It's not from a store.
So in the U.S., it's a very common tradition for families to bake chocolate chip cookies together.
Children usually love participating in this process.
And when I was a child, I loved this and I loved licking the spoon when my mom was done using it, because there was always delicious cookie dough on the spoon that I wanted to eat.
The word dough refers to the material, the edible material that is used to make things like cookies or bread right.
This is called dough.
So I love the taste of cookie dough.
And so chocolate chip cookies are really popular, and especially with milk.
So chocolate chip cookies are very frequently served alongside milk, cookies and milk.
This is everyone's favorite combination, mine included.
So cookies are very popular, not just to eat, but also to bake.
And then, of course, ice cream.
I think that Americans eat a lot of ice cream, but I also think that people in other countries eat a lot of ice cream too.
So my favorite flavor of ice cream is probably coffee flavored or some kind of coffee cappuccino.
I like that flavor of ice cream.
I also like chocolate as well.
And one of the other flavors I like that many people don't like is mint chip.
So mint chip is a flavor of ice cream. that looks green because it is mint based, right?
And then the chip part refers to the chocolate chips that are added to this ice cream.
So it has mint and chocolate.
And to many people, this seems disgusting.
But for me, it tastes great.
I love mint chip ice cream.
But this is a flavor that a lot of people don't like.
How about you?
What do you think about mint chip ice cream?
Do you think it's delicious, like me?
Or do you think it's disgusting?
So besides ice cream, there's another similar dessert in the U.S. called frozen yogurt.
So this is supposed to be healthier than normal ice cream because it's made from yogurt.
And when people think of yogurt, they think of a healthy snack.
When I say the word snack, I'm referring to some kind of food that is usually sweet or salty and you eat it between meals.
It's not included in your normal meal, your lunch or your dinner.
So between lunch and dinner you might eat a snack like a cookie or a bag of chips or yogurt or something like that.
So frozen yogurt is supposedly more nutritious and healthier than ice cream.
I don't know if this is true or not, but everyone says this.
So I think that's why this dessert has become very popular throughout the US.
Because people don't want to feel bad about the food they're eating.
They want to feel better about themselves.
So instead of eating ice cream, they opt for frozen yogurt.
When I say the phrase opt for, this just means that they choose this option.
So, for example, I could say, I opted for the cheaper option.
In this case, I'm saying that I chose the cheaper one.
So, besides cookies, pie, ice cream, frozen yogurt...
Another very common dessert in the U.S. is brownies.
I love brownies.
This is by far one of my favorite desserts.
If someone makes a really good brownie, it might even be my favorite dessert.
Maybe.
It's at least in the top three if it's really good.
So if you don't know what a brownie is...
This is a chocolate type of bread, kind of like a cake, but not really.
It's very thick, right?
It has a lot of density to it, and it has a very rich chocolate flavor.
And people bake this in the oven.
So it's baked just like cookies are baked, but it's different.
It's not a cookie.
So for me, brownies are one of my favorite desserts, for sure.
And then, of course, cake is another popular type of dessert, but usually just on special occasions like birthdays.
That's why we have so many birthday cakes.
People customize them and create different styles and flavors of birthday cakes to match the birthday person's tastes right.
So there are all different kinds of birthday cakes in the US, So let me give you a few examples of some of the more interesting desserts in the US.
These aren't necessarily really popular, but they exist.
For example, one classic American dessert is the root beer float.
Root beer is a type of soda.
It's kind of like Coke or Pepsi, but it's made in a different way and it has a very different flavor, but it's like a soda.
So a root beer float refers to a dessert where you put root beer and vanilla ice cream together.
So it's a strange combination to put ice cream with root beer with soda, but it's actually somewhat popular in the US.
It's not the most popular dessert, but throughout the history of the US I'm sure many, many people have tried this.
And I think that nowadays most Americans have probably tried some sort of root beer float at least once in their life.
But it's pretty strange.
It's not my favorite thing, but it's okay.
And another interesting dessert is the banana split.
The banana split is a dessert where you put a full banana in the bowl and you cut it in half and you add ice cream, usually chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.
These are the main flavors of ice cream that people add.
And usually one scoop of each.
So the word scoop refers to one ball of ice cream.
When you order ice cream, you usually order one scoop, two scoops, three scoops, etc.
So people put one scoop of chocolate, one scoop of vanilla and one scoop of strawberry on top of this banana scoop.
And then they put some chocolate sauce or some kind of sweet sauce.
And then they put cherries on top.
So this is the classic banana split.
But I don't think that most people eat this on a regular basis.
I think I've tried this once or twice in my life, but it's definitely not my favorite dessert.
And then one other thing that's interesting is the fried desserts that exist in the US, specifically when you go to fairs.
A fair is some kind of event outside where there is food and rides like roller coasters and Ferris wheels and games for kids.
So when you go to fairs in the U.S., you sometimes find interesting fried desserts.
For example, you can find fried ice cream or fried butter or fried candy bar or fried banana.
These are just some of the types of desserts that exist in fried form at these fairs.
Pretty interesting, huh?
For most people, this might be a little bit weird.
It might sound strange to you, and really it is.
It's pretty unnatural, but it's a tradition that exists in the U.S. at fairs.
So that's one other interesting type of dessert.
And talking about desserts in other countries.
Some notable desserts that I really like are, for example, tiramisu from Italy.
This is a really tasty dessert.
It has coffee flavored.
And as I mentioned before, I like coffee ice cream.
I like coffee flavored anything.
So this is definitely a good dessert for me.
And I can think of many egg-based desserts.
For example, flan.
And in Portugal, they have pastel de nata or pastel de baleine.
And in Brazil, they have pujin.
And in Mexico, there's a famous dessert called jericaia, which is also egg-based.
And I love all these kinds of desserts.
I love egg-based desserts.
Egg-based anything, really.
I really like egg.
So I like all of those.
And one other interesting type of dessert from Mexico, where I live, is the Mexican candy that you can buy in stores here, which is spicy.
So there are a lot of different types of spicy candy.
So first, when you Put it in your mouth, it might be spicy, and then it becomes sweet afterwards.
This sensation is very strange for a lot of people that come here and try this for the first time.
Many foreigners hate this type of flavor.
I actually really love it.
I really like the combination of spicy and sweet but it can definitely take some getting used to.
When I say the phrase, it takes some getting used to.
This just means that it takes some time for you to become accustomed to this flavor.
So if you come to Mexico, you should definitely try spicy candy, but just be careful, because you might not like it at all.
So lastly, about my favorite desserts in the world, I would say that I really like brownies, as I mentioned.
I wouldn't say that ice cream is my favorite dessert, but I like ice cream.
Cookies are also near the top of my list.
And definitely a good apple pie.
I really like a well-made apple pie.
So I might put those three things at the top of my dessert list.
Brownies, cookies, specifically chocolate chip, and apple pie.
So a pretty American-looking list, I think.
But yeah, those are some of my favorite types of dessert.
So we'll stop there for this episode.
Hopefully this was interesting for you and hopefully this was good practice for your ears, good practice for your listening.
And of course, remember to access the transcript for this episode if you need it.
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Help this podcast grow.
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All right.
Well, thank you for listening.
And I hope you'll come back for episode 12 of the Listening Time podcast.
