How to talk about food in English

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, we are the 3 English Experts. I'm Rebecca. I'm Dave. I'm Birgit. And welcome to this episode. 3 English Experts is your English podcast to help you speak better English and create a positive and happy mindset for your English learning journey. Hi everybody and welcome to this episode. Today we are going to talk about everybody's favourite topic. Food. Yummy, yummy. It's always a good topic. I think when you're learning a language, it's a good place to start because everybody needs food. Everyone goes to a restaurant or goes to a cafe when they're visiting somewhere. It's sort of a place where you can have your first basic role play. You can order something and, you know, food is always on the typical when you start learning vocabulary, you always start learning about food. So today that's our topic. So Dave, how are we going to do this? How are we going to talk about particularly British food and some German foods? Yeah, right. I thought we could take Birgit to our pub and have some pub grub, as we say, so pub food with us and we will present the menu to Birgit and she can then tell us what she would like to eat in our pub. We would be the waiters. Waiter, Dave, and waitress. Do we get waiters in a pub? Well, maybe a barman and bar woman or whatever. Bar person. Bar person. Will you wear an apron? Of course. I don't know. We're not that posh. It is in Sheffield, remember. Oh, right. It's a Sheffield pub. Okay. It's a Sheffield pub. So we're going to go, yeah, and we're going to talk about some, obviously the food, but we're also going to talk about different vocabulary that you need when you're talking about food. When you're talking about ordering or the menu and things like that, right? Exactly. Okay, Dave. So. Shall we kick off with the starters then? Yes. I want a starter, please. I want the full, the full set up. Three course meal. Three course meal. Three course meal. That's another word that people often forget. The course, right? The three course meal. So for your starters on our menu, you have soup of the day, prawn cocktail, or scotch egg. Oh, that's difficult to choose because I do like scotch egg and I do like the prawn cocktail and I don't know what the soup of the day is today. Have you got? That means you have to ask me. It's on the, it's on the specials list over there. Oh, this is broccoli. No, no. It's scotch broth today. Oh, okay. Scotch broth. Okay. No, thank you. What is scotch broth then? Do we know? Can you, can you tell us what it is so that everybody finds out? Rebecca, please. I actually, I mean, I'm guessing it's just sort of like a, like a thin meaty kind of broth. Broth. What do you say for Germany? Yeah. Broth, bouillon, kind of like a stock. Has it got bits of meat in it? I don't know. It's got bits of meat. It's got lamb and vegetables like carrots, turnips, but obviously it's Scottish and in actual fact, it's quite thick. Oh, is it? Oh, it's not a thin soup. No, it's quite thick because obviously they like to be filled up with their food. So yes, scotch broth is the soup of the day. And what else did you say? Scotch egg and prawn cocktail. Prawn cocktail. I think I will go for the scotch egg because I'm in England now, I'm in Sheffield and I will have something typical. Typical. I don't even know if my Irish husband has ever had a scotch egg. I think it is really something. He was like, when I think when I first met him, he was like, what the hell is the scotch egg? So can you explain that, Birgit? What is a scotch egg? I think it's a boiled egg and it's got inside a crust. I don't know what the crust is made of. It's cooked in something. What is it? It's kind of surrounded with pork meat. Pork meat, yeah, with meat. Sausage meat. Yeah. And then it's in breadcrumbs and then it's normally fried. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the minced meat, you mince it? Met like? It's a bit like mash. We're going to come back to that topic. Yes. Oh, God. So you have a boiled egg and then I put some minced meat around and form it and you wrap it or you roll it in breadcrumbs. Yeah, right. Yeah. Okay. I'll have that then, please. Very good. Okey dokey. So now onto the mains, the main course. Okay. You have on the list, on the menu, we have ploughman's lunch, toad in the hole, steak and kidney pie, shepherd's pie and of course, fish and chips. Wow. That's a lot of choice. A lot of pies. And the first two, I wouldn't know what I would get. So sorry. You have to explain it to me. What is it? The first one was ploughman's lunch. Ploughman's lunch. I've seen that before. What is a plough? Do you know what a plough is? A plough is a pflug. Right. Exactly. So it's kind of a, it's a cold dish and it's normally, it's a bit like a sort of salad collection, but you normally get a piece of cheese, you normally get a piece of meat, you get a bit of salad, maybe a bit of coleslaw, some chutney. You might even get a bit of pork pie if you're lucky, which is like a little mini pie. Anything else that goes on a ploughman's day? Pickled onions, maybe like some pickles could be on a ploughman's. It's quite nice. It's sort of like a platter. It's a light lunch. Yeah. And it's cold and it's a typical lunch. Yeah. A cold platter. Yeah. Okay. And the second one, Dave? I think we said toad in the hole, didn't we? Yeah. Toad in a hole. That's cool. What is that? Toad is like a schildkröte. Where's the toad? I don't know. Well, it's actually basically sausages and they're in a big pan cooking in the oven. It's put in the oven and they're covered with Yorkshire pudding. And then the Yorkshire pudding batter rises and the sausages still stay there, but they sort of rise a little bit with the Yorkshire Kind of cooked into the pudding batter. Yeah. Like in Blätterteig, a backner sausage. Yeah. It's not really Blätterteig. Yeah, I know. It's kind of, yeah. Yeah. But it's kind of, they're just, yeah, it's very difficult to describe that picture. But it's very nice because the, and then the toad, the sausages are the toads in the hole. In the hole. Yeah. You see? In the hole. And then you would have it with gravy. Gravy, meat sauce with maybe onion sauce. Yeah, absolutely. Dave, I'll tell you what, I do like fish and chips, but I think I'll grab that somewhere else while I'm- Oh yeah, definitely. So I will go with the ploughman's- Lunch. Lunch. You haven't heard about shepherd's pie yet. You don't know. Oh, okay. Sorry. Shepherd's pie. Yeah. Shepherd's pie. I think I've heard that. So I don't know whether, a pie is always something baked in a- Yeah. So it would have a topping and inside the shepherd's pie might be, I'm not sure, probably minced meat again. Oh, very good. But he says shepherd. So it's sheep. It's actually lamb. It's traditionally, often you do get it with beef these days, but traditionally it's lamb mince. Mince, mince. And with vegetables and the kind of sauce and the topping is potato. Yeah, yeah. And sometimes people put cheese, grated cheese on the top. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Sounds quite heavy because I'm having a starter, this scotch egg. So I think going with the ploughman's lunch. Might be a good decision. So what about the dessert then, Birgit? You have a choice of trifle, scones, or scones, depending on how we say it, and sticky toffee pudding. Oh, that's difficult. All three are very nice. The choice of trifle, that would be nice. But if there's some cream with it, the scones, yeah? Oh yeah, clotted cream. Yeah, clotted cream. Absolutely. Oh, I have to have that because I don't get that here in Germany. Not the real one. Yes, that's true. Well, that's great. So you're now going to have to order at the bar. We've just read the menu to you, but you've got to order at the bar. Yeah, thank you. Will I have to pay straight away, or do I have to pay after I've eaten? Well, it depends. It depends, but often you pay up front. You pay when you order. Okay. That's typically in England the same with the drinks. You know, when you go to the bar, you pay, normally you pay as you go. Or you can do what? Sometimes they say, would you like to open a, no, a tab? A tab, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so sometimes they will say, would you like to open a tab? And that means they will keep, you know, every time you order it, they write it down or they put it on the computer at the back of the bar, and then they know what you've had. So, or you can just pay as you go. Yeah, and I have seen that if it's a typical pub or an inn, there might be tables that are set later out with cloth and table mats and cutlery. Yeah. Or I just get all that when I order sometimes. Yeah, sometimes they bring it to you or it's already on the table. Depends on the, on the pub. What about napkins? Serviettes? Normally, if you're lucky, no, normally you should, a serviette at least. I think actual material napkins could be pushing it, could be pushing it a little bit, but you should get some sort of serviette. Okay, and you said before the condiments, I forgot about that word. Oh yeah, the condiments. Condiments, explain what that is, please, to our listeners. Condiment is any type of sauce. So, this is the thing, British people, we are obsessed with putting sauce on things, no matter what it is. So, it could be ketchup, it could be mayonnaise, it could be mustard, it could be vinegar, and it could be some sort of chilli sauce. It depends where you are, what they've got, but they will often ask, although in Sheffield they were saying, have you got any sauces? Would you like your sauces? But really they mean, would you like condiments? But we say sauces, yeah. So, anything to add on to your meal, there's always a little collection of them in a little kind of little basket that they put on your table. It sounds a bit, sauces sounds like saucer. I said the other day, a cup and saucer, and he didn't know what a saucer was. Yeah, that's quite a tricky word. Untertasse, so we don't use that very often. So, but if you have a tea, I will have a tea, a cup of tea with my, with my scone. And a scone. I will hopefully get a saucer. Yes, I only learned that word in Germany for the fliegende Untertasse. Yes, exactly. And we do say that, and you can say the flying saucer for UFO. So, yeah, that's when I learned the German word for saucer. Untertasse, yeah. Yes. Okay, David? Okay. But there's all kinds of, for example, if you have a Sunday lunch, yeah, there's all kinds of sauces to go with it. So, with beef, we normally have horseradish sauce. Yeah. For example. Oh, lovely. With lamb, we usually have mint sauce. With, what else have we got? There's lamb. With pork, you get applesauce sometimes. And then with... Apple or white, or like a bread sauce or something like that. Yeah. And then also with fish, you've got tartar sauce, which is... Right, yeah. Tartar. So, yeah. Tartar sauce. Oh, I think I have to explain horseradish, maybe. Meerrettich, yeah? Yeah, yeah. So, that's a difficult word. Because of the mare. What's that about? Why do we call it that? Meerrettich. Yeah, funny. I don't know. And yeah, I have to think about that. And people are sometimes not sure what to say, Guten Appetit in English. You see, I've had this discussion before. And to be honest, we don't really do that in English. You don't? You don't? We don't really do it. You do. No, I know in Germans it's Guten Appetit and Bon Appetit. But maybe the waiter or the waitress or somebody who brings you food will say, enjoy your meal or hope everything's okay for you. But you don't look at each other and all say, enjoy your meal. We just don't. We don't do that, do we, Dave? No. Well, we don't. At home you might say, dig in. Dig in. Quick, be quick. No, we don't do that. It's getting cold. Yeah. And the other thing, if the waiter comes and asks, how is it? So, and what would you say? What would you answer as a customer? It depends on how it tastes. Well, be polite. You are polite, aren't you? It's awful. Yeah, no, we go, oh, it's lovely. And then 10 minutes after we finish going, that was awful. We're never coming. We're never coming here again. Even though we've told the waiter, it was, oh, it's lovely. And then we go, no, we're never going back. Okay. So, but you could say it is nice. It's delicious. Even if it was delicious, it's tasty. It's very tasty. It's great. Delicious. But the negative of yummy is that often people don't know the yucky, the yuck. Oh, I had never heard that. Yucky, yeah, disgusting. Baby talk, kids talk. Yucky. Absolutely. So, I mean, like I said before, guys, I used to take, I used to have this travel company where I used to take mostly German clients on holiday to the UK and Ireland. That was called Walk and Talk. And we often ate in pubs because we were in these little villages in the middle of nowhere. And so, and one thing I noticed that the difference between like eating in a German pub, you know, like a typical Gasthof type place and eating in a British pub is also the menus. So like British, we tend to very over exaggerate what we're selling. So it's never just fish and chips. It's locally caught, organically battered, crispy, crunchy fish served with home-cut fries with, and it's just the longest description you've ever seen in your life. Or it's, you know, a tasty, organically, slightly browned chicken served with a light mustard dressing on crispy leaves, a bed of crispy leaves. You know, we have the biggest description. It's just fish and chips. And it's just chicken. It's a podcast episode for itself, isn't it? Yeah, I know. And then you see, when you go into a German pub, it's just schnitzel and pommes. It doesn't tell you what it is. It just, it just assumes, you know, and there's very little description. And that doesn't mean it's bad. Schön ausgeschnitten, da gelegt. No, you wouldn't get that. It's just a schnitzel, you know, it's a schnitzel. You get what you get. Yeah, you get what you get. And I noticed that some of my clients said, the waitress would come and say, what would you like? And they would go, I would like the organic crispy chicken. They would like read every word from the menu. And they made it sound like they were kind of making fun. But they were just reading what was on the menu. So that would be my advice. You just say, oh, I'll have the chicken, please. And you can use I'll, like I will, because it's like a spontaneous decision. So you don't always have to say, I would like. You can just say, oh, I'll have the chicken, please. Or I'll take the chicken. Yeah, good point, yeah. You know, you don't have to say, I'll take the organically grown, naturally fed. You know, just the chicken. Unless there's two, there might be two types of chicken. So I'll take the chicken with the beans or something. But yeah, you don't need to read it all out and keep expectations low, because despite the massive description, it might meet your expectations, but it might not. What was the other thing? I mean, desserts, I would say that's one thing we do well, actually, in the UK. We really do desserts well. And my clients always wanted to order desserts because and they never had a starter because it was just there wasn't space. It was like, have a main course or have a starter and a dessert, even because we do have always a big list of desserts. And I'm always disappointed in Germany when you eat typical German food. I mean, first of all, you never get to dessert because it's so big. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Or like, so boring. You know, the German desserts are really boring and it's just not worth. I've just been to France. You know, we've had amazing, you know, this amazing selection of desserts. Spain is good for desserts. I agree. Germany, not so much. The only other thing I would say in the UK, never order salad. You will be disappointed. British salads are awful. Sorry if anyone's disagreeing with me, but I don't know what it is, but we just don't really know how to make good dressing. You know, when you order salad in France or in Germany as well, you can get really nice Spain, you know, fantastic salads. And I don't know, UK salads are just rubbish. So if I was in a pub, maybe in a really good restaurant, if I was in a pub, I would never order this. I know I say to my clients, don't order the salad. That would be my advice anyway. And also with the bread as well, be careful if you order bread, extra bread is not necessarily going to be the nicest of bread either. Well, it's not your German bread or your baguette. It's not necessarily crunchy. And as you may expect it, it's maybe softened. But Rebecca, I know you also have a very funny story about very typical German food. Yes. Mette. Mette. You couldn't really translate that to mince meat. Well, it's pork mince. It's raw pork mince. And I have to say, when I came to Germany, it was the first thing that I saw. I was just like, what is this? I was walking past like a butcher. I think it was a butcher shop and they were selling sandwiches. You could buy like hot sandwich, you know, a sandwich with schnitzel in it or bratwurst. And I was like, oh, that is good. And then I saw this raw meat on this sandwich and it was just raw pork mince. It wasn't like, you know, smoked ham or something. And I thought, oh, maybe they slap it on the grill before they give it to you. Maybe they actually cook it. And my husband was like, no, no, because he used to play rugby and they used to have Mette Brötchen at rugby. And he was like, no, they actually just eat it like that. And then moving on from Mette, then I developed the Mette Egel, which is literally a raw pork mince. Everybody knows what a Mette Egel is here. No, not everybody. Not everybody's a German or a listener, but yes. And that just horrified me. I was just, what on earth is this? You know, we formed this pork mince into a little animal with bits. It has little pretzels sticking out of it, does it? It has ears and it's got, I think, onions on its back. Yeah, you see, it's just everybody seemed to like Mette. When I used to work, did my apprenticeship when I was in my 20s or even younger. Everybody's birthday. So that was Mette Egel and roasts. And it's just massive amount of Mette for all day, for everybody. See, I think in the UK, you're not allowed to sell raw pork mince. You're not, as in a restaurant, because there is this bacteria that you can get from eating it. And I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to sell it at home. So I was just confused, horrified. I'm still horrified. Have you ever eaten it, Dave? I've never eaten Mette, actually. It's actually very delicious. Is it? I've never had it. And I've gone to, there's a thing called Jägermette, apparently. Oh, I don't know. I don't know if you've heard of that, Birgit. No, no. It might be a regional thing. What's in that? Well, it's just basically like sort of more spices that go with it. It's actually quite spicy. And that was really delicious. But that was from when I lived in Munster. Very nice. Oh, I'm very glad you tried it at least, Dave. Oh, definitely, I loved it. Rebecca, something on your bucket list. I don't know. There are certain things after 25 years, I've still decided I do not need that in my life. And that's one of them. The other weird thing about German food I always find is the one thing the Germans are not good at. They're good at a lot of things, but they're really not good at sandwiches. Like best practise sandwiches are not German sandwiches, you know. And I, you know, why do all sandwiches in Germany, when you buy Brötchen at the bakery, why do they all have a bit of egg on them? Every single sandwich you buy, doesn't matter what it is, has a little slice of egg. I mean, I like eggs, I don't have a problem with eggs. And the Remoulade sauce. What's that about? It's every sandwich though. And it's like, and then a little bit of kind of crinkly lettuce, one little piece. You know, there was one little bit of lettuce. And I think I agree with you, Rebecca, when I lived in England, I remember, and when I was in London, there were like shops around and you could grab a sandwich or a bagel. And they were really good. Yeah, really good. Yeah. And they do something to the egg. So they mash it and they put some. We do sandwiches generally. Egg mayonnaise, lovely. I like those. Yes. Generally. And France do good sandwiches. Spain do good bocadillos. Netherlands. I think the Dutch, they're also, yeah, but we're not very good at that. They can be rather dry sometimes. Apart from our little pub grub menu, what is it you look forward to when you go to the UK in terms of food? Is there something that you like, say, oh, yeah, can't wait to get there and try this? Actually, I think I do appreciate really a nice fish and chip freshly made. That's really nice. And then I'm really on the Indian. I like the curries. So in India, you do get really good curries. Now, this is the next question, maybe with fish and chips, that would be interesting for people. What to have with the fish and chips? Do you have the fish and chips with mushy peas or as we do in Yorkshire often, curry sauce or even gravy? Curry sauce and gravy. I haven't had that. But mushy peas, I think they need explaining as well. Yeah, you mash the peas. I mean, we mash the potatoes. They mash the peas. Yeah, that's right. It's one of these foods that looks kind of disgusting, but I absolutely love mushy peas. I absolutely love them. I would have gravy on my mushy peas as well. Or Henderson's Relish, Chef, you'd think on my mushy peas. I would buy a glass of Marmite. Do you like Marmite? I don't. So Dave does and Rebecca doesn't. No, I don't like Marmite. It's just a weird, it's one of those weird foods that, you know, my equivalent of Marmite in Germany is this weird, oh, what's it called now? It's like these funny thin slices of cheap chocolate that you put on bread. Is it SS set? Oh, yes, SS schnitten. Oh, yeah. We never had those at home, no. They sell them in Rewe, where I live. And I just find that, I mean, I love chocolate, but I find that weird. It's like weird kind of thin slices of cheap chocolate. And you put it on, you just put it on sandwiches, do you? Or what do you do with it? On toast? On a roll even between, yeah, I eat it with some bread. And they even do that. No, I don't do that. Yeah, that's, I don't know. Every country has its strange foods. Yeah. And every country has its strange saying. So I looked for a list of phrases to do with food. And I found a long list. And there are some on it I've never heard. So number 35, for example, just desserts. Don't know what that means if I say just desserts. If that's a saying. It's what you deserve, I think. Isn't it, Rebecca? You get your just desserts. I will see it now on the list. You get your just desserts. So you deserve to get this because you were naughty, bad. Ah, okay. I don't get a main course. I only get desserts, but that doesn't sound like a punishment. I actually don't really know why that, I don't really understand. I don't know where it comes from, but it's like it serves you right. Yeah, it serves you right. Okay. Okay. What else did we have on here? Oh, I like one of my favourites. Sorry. One of my favourite is he's one sandwich short of a picnic. I like that one. He's one sandwich short of a picnic. Which basically he's got a sandwich missing from his picnic. And I think the German is there. Oh, that's wonderful. I love that one. He's one sandwich short of a picnic. He's not quite, not quite there. Oh, he's got a slate loose. I mean, yeah, he's got a slate loose. Oh, okay. That's one. I like that one. Cut the mustard. Aha. Cut the mustard. Number 18. Cut the mustard. So what does that mean? Doesn't reach the standard or something? It doesn't cut the mustard. I think it doesn't cut it. It doesn't cut the mustard. It's not good enough. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. What else have we got? The best thing since sliced bread. That's a good one. Oh, that's a nice one. And I really like when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. That's good. Well, that's the motto for the day. Just go along with the way things are. If life gives you lemons, then you make lemonade. To catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I would never say that. I've never heard anybody say that. I mean, I'm sure it's a phrase, but I've never heard that. Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it? So I haven't heard them. So maybe they're not all used very much. I think this is the thing with these phrases. Some of them are, you know, it depends. Some of them are regional. Some of them are just some people like to use them more than others. I think it depends, really. Yeah. Dave, do you have a favourite German dish? Is there something you miss now you live in Spain that you used to like eating apart from Met? I think we've discussed Met far too much. Yeah, I really love the schnitzel, I must say. I really, I know it's typically, you know, cliche, whatever. But I love schnitzel. And I actually like it with the green pepper sauce. And yeah, a natural fact, there's a place in Mallorca where I often go to get it. When I'm in Mallorca, I get my schnitzel fix. That's difficult to say, isn't it? My schnitzel fix in Mallorca. If I don't go to Germany. Oh, and yours, Rebecca? Your favourite German food? I'm just thinking, I do really like Käsespätzle. I have to say, I love Spätzle generally. So sometimes if your schnitzel comes with a mushroom sauce and they serve it with Spätzle instead of pommes or something, I like that very much. And just a big comfort food, you know, big plate of Käsespätzle. You can't beat that. Yeah, I do like that. OK, so now hopefully you feel like having something to eat or you might have already had something to eat. And next time we are going to talk about phrasal verbs. So that's again back to some grammatical learning, maybe because phrasal verbs are sometimes words you put together with prepositions, how to use them, where to find them, how to remember them. One preposition changes and the meaning changes completely. So we will give you some tips and tell you which ones to focus on. You can't learn them all. So definitely there will hopefully be a learning for you in our next episode. Hopefully you will be listening again. Bye for now. Bye for now. Bye. Thank you so much for pressing play today. If you have any comments, questions or perhaps suggestions for future episodes, feel free to contact us at our website 3englishexperts.com. Have a great day and see you next time.