this English lesson might make you hungry.
And it's because we are going to talk about food today.
And this is great English listening practice.
And you're also going to learn some really interesting facts and differences between food in the UK and food in the USA.
We'll go through some very interesting American breakfasts.
We'll also talk about grocery shopping, the time that people eat in different countries, and lots of other interesting facts.
And you're going to really learn lots of phrases along the way.
So listen to this until the end. My name is Jack from To Fluency.
If you're new here, then subscribe to the YouTube channel Or if you're listening on Spotify or an Apple podcast, then follow this podcast for more lessons like this.
So let's start with typical meal times because a lot of people especially around Europe, think that people in the UK and people in the US eat really early when it comes to dinner.
Now this is sometimes true, however, Most families that I know and a lot of my upbringing, we normally ate dinner around six to seven o'clock.
Now, I would often come home from school and get a big snack and then have dinner later.
And I also know some people who have dinner quite early at 5 p.m., maybe 6 p.m. but generally speaking it's around 6 or 6.30.
It's probably the average time. Now here is an interesting difference because in the UK
In Northern England, where I am from, dinner is often called tea.
So you'll hear people say, what's for tea tonight?
What's for tea tonight? Or what are we having for tea? what are we having for tea instead of what are we having for dinner.
American schools start earlier than British schools so In American schools, you have to start at 8am in most places that I have known.
And in the UK, it's more around 9 a.m. So oftentimes, people in the US will have an earlier breakfast.
They'll have to get up earlier and have an earlier breakfast.
And then the typical time for lunch in the UK and the USA is around midday, around 12 o'clock.
Now from my experience, Americans tend to eat more snacks throughout the day.
So they tend to snack more throughout the day instead of just sticking to the meals that they have, breakfast, lunch and dinner.
So, whenever people go out for the day, it's always, where are the snacks?
Do we have enough snacks? Shall we get some snacks? and snacking is big in the US.
It also happens in the UK. And when I was growing up, it would often be tea and biscuits when you get back from school.
So something like that, something sweet, something nice in between mealtimes.
Now, breakfast is often called the most important meal of the day, but it looks very different in the UK and the USA.
So a typical British breakfast would be cereal and milk for children. which is common as well in the USA.
And some adults like to do this as well.
But in the UK, people growing up would often have beans on toast.
So you would make toast and have some baked beans on there.
And if it's the weekend or if you have more time, people often have Eggs, bacon, baked beans, mushrooms, tomatoes. and other things which is called an English breakfast.
An English breakfast. And people will often have toast with Marmite or jam.
Now, Marmite is a very strange food item that you put on toast. or other things too and it's said that you either love it or you hate it you either love it or hate it In the US, in America, you would often have something like pancakes and waffles with syrup.
Now, obviously this changes where you are and who you are, but pancakes and waffles is often very popular, especially with some type of syrup.
You also see people have bagels with something like cream cheese, which is a spreadable ingredient. cheese, bagels with cream cheese.
You might have eggs and toast as well. So I know a lot of people who have eggs and toast.
And like we said before, cereal is coming and so is oatmeal. let's talk about lunch now and there is one lunch item that is very popular in the u.s And I've never seen it anywhere else in terms of popularity.
And it's this, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
So think about peanut butter and jelly here means jam, jam, and it's a sandwich.
Now listen to this fact. It's estimated that the average American will eat nearly 3,000 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in their lifetime.
Now, I imagine a lot of these come when people are in school. because it's the classic sandwich for children when they go to school.
It's tasty for the child, although I'm not a massive fan of it.
It is also easy to make and it is fairly affordable too.
So it's a very simple solution for a child's meal at lunchtime.
In the UK, something like a sandwich, crisps and a drink is often packed in a lunchbox for either school or work.
So this is very common in the UK where people will have a sandwich, maybe a chicken sandwich, maybe a tuna sandwich, and they'd also have crisps and a drink.
This is very common when it comes to school and also when people pack their own lunch for work.
If people are eating at home in the UK, it's quite often to have soup and bread for lunch too.
People in the UK often like something a little bit lighter when it comes to lunch.
And if they're having something from a takeaway or they're eating out and They'll like to get something like sausage rolls or pasties or a pie.
Okay, and this is often from somewhere called Gregg's.
Now, dinners are often fairly similar in the UK and the USA.
But in the UK, it's often times you'll have roast dinners on a Sunday.
Fish and chips are still popular. Something like shepherd's pie is popular too, and also sausage and mash.
In the US, it's more common to have things like macaroni and cheese, which is called mac and cheese. and things like barbecue ribs or different types of barbecue.
Now here's a fun fact. In the USA, portion sizes are much bigger.
And when I first visited America, this is something that I noticed that portion sizes are much, much bigger.
So they often have massive servings if you go to a restaurant.
Really big servings if you go to a restaurant.
And it's quite daunting. It's quite incredible when you see this for the first time.
Now, speaking about bigger... Let's talk about grocery shopping and also what's on a food label and eaten out.
So, UK supermarkets are much smaller than US supermarkets.
And in the US, you'll go into a supermarket.
Here it is called a grocery store and you'll be amazed at the size of it.
And in the US is also supermarkets that have anything you need.
So there's one called Walmart. Another one is Target, which is more of a store, but it's becoming more of a grocery store these days.
And you can just buy massive food items too.
So things come in bulk. Chip or crisp packets are much bigger.
Ketchup bottles are much bigger. People have bigger fridges. in the US, like we talked about in the last podcast episode, so they can fill their fridge full of food.
They have pantries where they can fill their pantry full of food.
So everything is bigger in the US, including serving sizes, grocery stores and everything else you can think about when it comes to the size of food items.
Now, eating out is a big part of American culture.
And although people love to do this in the UK, what strikes me is what I notice is that people prefer to eat out in the USA more than the UK.
Now, in England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland, the UK, People tend to prefer to go to a pub when they go out in the evening.
So they'll often go to a pub, have some drinks and then sometimes get some pub food.
But in the USA, it's more likely if you're going to go out and socialize and meet up with friends, you're going to go to a restaurant.
Now, I'm sure you know this as well, but tipping culture is very different.
In the UK, tipping is optional. Most restaurants add some type of service charge, so an extra charge, especially if you're in a big group.
But in the USA, tipping is expected. It's one of those things that you have to do And most people tip between 15 and 20% of the total bill.
So you have to take the bill, calculate what 20% is for example, and add this on to the bill. because in the uk waiters or servers they earn a fixed wage so tips are just a bonus to them In the USA, everyone has to rely on tips as their main income because the wages are lower.
So it's just one of those things where it's different, but it ends up being the same more or less how much those servers get paid.
Now, in American restaurants, they're very service focused and waiters check on you frequently.
As soon as your food comes out, they'll say, how is everything?
How is everything? And you can say in these situations, everything's great.
Yeah, everything is fantastic. British restaurants take a more hands-off approach, which means they don't check on you frequently. and they won't interrupt your meal often.
A lot of drinks in the USA are free when it comes to refills.
So let's say that you have Coca-Cola or a lemonade.
The server will come over and ask if you want some more.
They'll always bring you water too, whereas in the UK that's not as common.
And also you'll get free refills of coffee too.
So you can always ask for more coffee unless it's a cappuccino or an espresso type drink.
Here is a question for you. Do you like waiters checking on you or do you prefer to eat in peace?
So do you like a waiter who often comes over and asks you how things are, how's everything going?
Or do you prefer just to get your food and eat in peace and get someone's attention if you need some help?
Before we talk about some famous quotes about food and some idioms, let's now talk about fast food and takeaways.
Because both the UK and the USA love fast food, but the options are very different.
Now in the UK you can think of fast food like fish and chip shops Also, kebab shops.
So people love kebabs in the UK. There are also things like McDonald's and KFC.
Whereas in the US, things like Chick-fil-A.
McDonald's and Taco Bell are very common.
And these will have drive-thrus. So in the UK, often if you go to get fish and chips or you go to a kebab shop, you have to enter the shop.
In the US, people often go through the drive-thru.
And this is more common than going inside the fast food store.
Now takeaway or takeout has changed over the years because a lot of people use apps now to get food delivered.
But in the UK, Indian and Chinese takeaways are probably the most popular.
And in the past, what you would do is you would call the restaurant directly, place your order, then someone from that restaurant would deliver that order and then you pay for the order when it comes to you.
So that was the most common way to order a takeaway in the past.
This might have changed recently with different apps that allow you to do this.
And in the USA, it's much more common now just to use an app in order to get your food delivered, to get takeout.
However, you can still place an order at a restaurant and pick it up.
This is common if you want to do it on your way home from work, for example.
Let's look at some famous quotes about food now.
The first one is from Julia Child. And she said, people who love to eat are always the best people.
Now, in the US, this is often called a foodie.
So somebody who loves food and loves going out to eat, and try new things and try new restaurants.
These people are called foodies. foodies now i am not a foodie i am not a foodie i enjoy that type of experience and going out to eat and try new foods but I'm not somebody who makes this a big part of my life.
Back to the quote, people who live to eat are always the best people.
This is saying like food is not just about survival.
It's also about the enjoyment, culture and social connections.
Now, do you enjoy trying new foods or do you like to stick to your favourites?
Are you adventurous when it comes to new foods or do you like to just eat what you like?
Quote number two, which I think goes back to ancient Greece, is this.
You are... what you eat. You are what you eat.
And this means that your diet affects your health, energy and even your mood as well.
And if you eat well, you feel better, And going back to fast food and junk food, if you eat junk food, you might feel tired and sluggish and unhealthy.
Now, do you believe that food affects your mood?
And what is something that you eat that makes you feel alive and energetic?
Let's go on to the idioms now, and these are fun ones.
I'm sure you've heard number two, maybe number four, but number one... is an apple a day keeps the doctor away.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. And this means eating healthy foods keeps you from getting sick.
So you'll often hear, an apple a day keeps a doctor away.
Number two is it's a piece of cake. It's a piece of cake, which means that something is very easy. so if somebody asks you how was that test you can say oh it was a piece of cake Number three is common in the US, and it's this.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
And it means to turn difficult situations into something positive.
So when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Number four is put all your eggs in one basket.
And this means to risk everything on one thing.
For example, I wouldn't invest all my money in that one company, don't put all your eggs in one basket don't put all your eggs in one basket number five is the proof is in the pudding the proof is in the pudding Meaning that you have to experience something to know if it's good or bad.
An example might be, he says he's really good at cooking, but the proof is in the pudding.
Let's see how the food tastes. Okay, so we have covered a lot in this lesson.
The next thing to do is to check the description for these idioms and key phrases.
Like this lesson and then also share it with a friend.
And once you have done that, go back to previous lessons and continue learning with me.
Okay, thank you so much for being here. Bye for now.
