📕 Part 1: Food

This episode's vocabulary

Torn between (something and something) (idiom) – Finding it difficult to choose between two possibilities. → I'm torn between steak and pizza for dinner tonight.

A toss up (noun) – A situation in which two choices are equally likely. → It's a toss up between the two candidates; they're both highly qualified.

Hit one's macros (idiom) – To consume the right balance of macronutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrates) for one's dietary goals. → The chicken and broccoli meal helps me hit all my macros.

Stick to (something) (phrasal verb) – To continue doing or using something and not change it. → I try to stick to the same morning routine every day.

Select food choices (collocation) – A limited and carefully chosen group of foods. → He has very select food choices and doesn't like trying new things.

All year round (adverb) – Throughout the entire year. → This resort is popular all year round, not just in the summer.

Seasonal foods (noun phrase) – Foods that are only available and fresh during a particular season. → Strawberries are one of my favorite seasonal foods in the UK.

A big fan of (something) (idiom) – To like something very much. → I've always been a big fan of spy movies.

Develop an appreciation for (something) (verb phrase) – To start to understand and enjoy the good qualities of something. → As I've gotten older, I've developed an appreciation for classical music.

Far from (something) (idiom) – Not at all something. → Although I can cook, I am far from a professional chef.

Junk food (noun) – Food that is unhealthy but is quick and easy to eat. → I try to avoid eating junk food during the week.

Far healthier (adjective phrase) – Significantly more healthy. → I feel far healthier now that I've cut out sugar.

Cuisine (noun) – A style or method of cooking, especially as characteristic of a particular country or region. → Italian cuisine is famous all over the world.

Questions and Answers

Maria: What's your favorite food?

Rory: I'm torn between steak and pizza right now, to be honest. Steak is great because it helps me hit all my macros as part of my diet. But while I normally don't do junk food, I do love a big pizza to celebrate the end of a hard week. So, it's kind of a toss up between those two.

Maria: Do you eat different foods at different times of the year?

Rory: Not particularly. I pretty much stick to the same select food choices all year round. I think the closest thing to seasonal foods would be strawberries in the summer, but that's only because my parents tend to buy and share them at that time of year.

Maria: Has your favorite food changed since you were a child?

Rory: I don't think so. I've always been a big fan of any meat dishes or products. I've definitely developed an appreciation for salad as I've gotten older. It's far from my favorite thing in the world.

Maria: What kind of food did you like when you were young?

Rory: Aside from what I said, I was quite a large kid and it was fairly obvious that I liked chocolate, burgers, all kinds of junk food. I'm far healthier these days compared to before.

Discussion

Maria: So, dear listener, food. What a lovely topic. Food. We all love food. So, what's your favorite food? Rory can't decide. Perhaps it's a steak or pizza. So, if you are in between, you can say, it's a toss up between steaks...

Rory: Or pizza.

Maria: It's a toss up between steak or pizza. What a choice. What about you, Maria? Oh, yeah, pizza. Yeah. Italian food.

Rory: Oh, only pizza?

Maria: No, pasta, pizza, gelato, cappuccino, just Italian food is my favorite, yeah. Also...

Rory: So it's not really a toss up between two things. It's just a massive list of food.

Maria: Absolutely. Italian food. I love Chinese food. Ooh, but not spicy. Chinese food. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. So, dear listener, you can say, I love Chinese food or I love Chinese cuisine, cuisine like food. Italian food or you can name a special dish, or a specific dish, right? So I'm torn between steak and pizza. I'm torn between is another synonym. It's a toss up between. Because torn is the third form of the verb tear. The bear tore him apart.

Rory: Oh, lovely, since we're talking about food.

Maria: Or something like, my dress was torn, right, kind of destroyed. So tear is the verb. I'm torn between steak and pizza. I don't know which I prefer more, steak or pizza.

Rory: Maria is not torn between two things. She just has food.

Maria: Yeah. And Rory, you said all my macros.

Rory: Yeah, macronutrients. So, broadly speaking, there are three macronutrients: fat, protein, and carbohydrates. And you need to keep them in a kind of balance as part of a diet that would be something that you or the things that you eat regularly. A diet's not just about removing food, it's also about regulating what you eat.

Maria: Macronutrients, dear listener, is a specific term from biology. So macronutrients. Yeah, fiber and protein are key macronutrients.

Rory: Macronutrients.

Maria: Macronutrients, yeah.

Rory: The big things. There are micronutrients too. I imagine specific carbohydrates or specific kinds of protein work that we do.

Maria: And you can say that steak helps me hit all my macros as part of my diet. Diet, as part of my food, all the food I eat is my diet. And steak helps me hit all my macros, all my macronutrients. Nice. But pizza doesn't help. Pizza is just for happiness, for good mood, happiness, joy, positive energy. I stick to the same food. Stick to, I choose the same food.

Rory: Yes.

Maria: And you can say I pretty much stick to the same food.

Rory: It's the same select food choices. If it's select, it's focused. You missed out the best colocation. Very sad.

Maria: Select food choices. Ooh. All year round or during the year. All year round is a nice one. And you can talk about seasonal foods. Here we can say foods, not food, but foods, like different products. Seasonal products. What are seasonal products?

Rory: Well, things that only grow at specific types of year. For example, maybe specific vegetables grow in your country at a specific time, so they are cheaper at that time of year because they can grow more readily. In my country, that is, well, in the summer it's strawberries, blueberries, raspberries. That's because that's when those things grow.

Maria: Yeah, and it's quite healthy to eat seasonal foods. So we don't usually eat berries in winter because they don't grow in winter. They grow in summer. So in summer, we usually eat seasonal foods, such as strawberries, different berries, apples, veg, vegetables. My favorite food has changed since I was a child. So here we are using the present perfect. My food has changed or my food choices have changed since I was a child, since I was young. And you can use the present perfect in this one. I've always been a fan of meat. I've always been a fan of fish. I've always enjoyed fish. Right? I've always been a fan of Italian food, Italian cuisine. Or just meat dishes, fish dishes. And I've recently developed an appreciation for salads. So recently, I started enjoying salads. And an appreciation is something is a nice word...

Rory: When you like something.

Maria: I have an appreciation for Maria.

Rory: Mmm.

Maria: I have appreciation for Rory. We like each other. Yeah.

Rory: Because I'm such a good dance teacher.

Maria: Oh, you're a teacher now.

Rory: Oh, did I say that? I meant to say professional dance instructor.

Maria: Right, so he's you see, it's just lying. So much lying, Rory can't...

Rory: If you don't understand that joke, it's because you were not paying attention in the introduction.

Maria: In the introduction, Rory told us that he is a professional dancer. Now he is lying again. He forgot his lies and said that he's a dancing teacher now.

Rory: Hmm.

Maria: Right, dear listener, where were we? So, I've developed an appreciation for meat, for fish, for salads. And now, for example, chocolate is my favorite thing in the world. Oh, maybe dark chocolate. When you talk about your childhood, you can say, I used to like chocolate. I used to like fried eggs. I used to eat a lot of burgers, but not anymore. As a child, I used to eat a lot of junk food, fast food, McDonald's. Yeah, McDonald's, if you want to get in touch and be our sponsor, just feel free to write to us. Nike as well, Gucci. Yeah, you're also very welcome. So you can say, I used to eat a lot of junk food, I used to eat a lot of burgers.

Rory: I used to be fat. I think is what we're trying to say.

Maria: Okay, yeah, or I used to be unhealthy, right? No, as for me, for example, I used to eat quite a lot of bread and sugar and donuts, sweets, biscuits, all that stuff. But now I'm far healthier. So you don't say I'm, well you can say I'm more healthy. It's okay, but if you want to say definitely, I'm just much healthier. You can say I'm far healthier, to intensify.

Rory: Or you could be super informal and say, I'm way healthier these days.

Maria: I wouldn't say I was way healthier, just far or much healthier. I still do some unhealthy things. For example, I stopped, well, as for me, I stopped eating bread and sugar. No more sugar for me. I'm sweet enough now. So I'm saying about myself, I'm far healthier. And I'm looking at Rory now, and he looks really healthy. His face is shining.

Rory: The camera is not working.

Maria: It's all that professional dancing, that's what it is.

Rory: Oh, yeah. It's just Argentinian tango and hugging a lot of people, beautiful people.

Maria: Right, dear listener. So, as we are talking about food, we are ready for a joke.

Rory: Are we?

Maria: Yes.

Rory: Okay.

Maria: Okay. So the joke is, what do you call a fake noodle?

Rory: Okay, what do you call a fake noodle?

Maria: An impasta. Rory, explain the joke. Go ahead, Rory.

Rory: So, a fake person or someone who is doing something they shouldn't be is an imposter. But of course, it sounds similar to impasta, which is a kind of, well, pasta is a kind of food. So, if anyone ever complains about my joke about being a professional dance instructor or dance teacher, I refer you to this joke and see who comes out better.

Maria: Yeah, but it's funny, come on. A pasta, impasta, imposter, a fake person. Fake, not real. Then noodles, they are kind of pasta, but not really like Chinese noodles, for example, right? So it's not a real pasta, so it's impasta.

Rory: Right.

Maria: Just remember, dear listener, there's no love more sincere than the love for food. So, our love for food is the most sincere thing in the world. Pizza, pasta, pizza, pasta. Cappuccino. And dear listener, also remember that everything that is not water is food. Tea is food, coffee is food, juice is food. So we have water, everything else is food. Bon appetit, enjoy your meal, and we'll get back to you in our next episode. Bye. Bye.