Skip to main content

Transcript

πŸ“• Part 1: Ice-cream

Find out why Rory's favourite flavour is surprisingly 'vanilla' and hear Maria challenge him with some truly bizarre options, including one that actually glows in the dark. A delicious episode awaits!

Maria & Rory

Β· 12 min read

This episode’s vocabulary

To cater to sb/sth

phrasal verb β€” to provide what someone or something wants or needs.

Lactose

noun β€” a type of sugar that is found in milk.

Sharp

adj. β€” sour in taste.

Cone

noun β€” a container made of very light thin biscuit, or one of these containing ice cream.

Flake

noun β€” a small, thin piece of something, especially if it has come from a surface covered with a layer of something.

Fare

noun β€” the type of food that is served in a restaurant.

Intriguing

adj. β€” very interesting because of being unusual or mysterious.

Podcast cover
πŸ“• Part 1: Ice-cream
IELTS Speaking for Success
0:00 / 0:00

Questions and answers

Maria

Do you like ice cream?

Rory

Doesn't everyone? I think they have types that cater to just about every taste these days. Especially if you're like me, and you have a sensitive stomach, so you need stuff that's lactose or sugar-free.

Maria

What's your favourite flavour?

Rory

I'm going to be very vanilla here and just say vanilla. It's simple and straightforward. It always gets the job done. I suppose a close second place would be mint chocolate chips. I quite like that one. It's got quite a sharp flavour.

Maria

Did you eat ice cream when you were a child?

Rory

Oh, absolutely. Like, didn't everyone? We used to get them with cones and a flake in them. Whenever we went to the beach, and there was an ice cream van nearby. That was quite nice.

Maria

Are there any shops selling ice cream near your home?

Rory

I think so. There was a Tesco store at the garage just along the road from where I lived. It must have some. Not that I've ever looked for it. It's a pretty small place though. So I imagine it would be just sort of standard fare. Nothing terribly complex or intriguing in terms of flavour.

Maria

Can you make ice cream yourself?

Rory

I mean, I could if I had the time, and the ingredients and a recipe book. And patience. But I don't have any of those things. So not right now, sadly. Sorry. <figure> </figure>

Discussion

Maria

Hey, thank you Rory for your delicious answers! Ice cream. Do you like ice cream? Doesn't everyone? So the answer to this question could be a question like doesn't everyone like ice cream? Come on, like...

Rory

Everybody likes ice cream.

Maria

Yeah, like who doesn't like pizza? Come on.

Rory

Where are these people?

Maria

Yeah, but some people dislike ice cream. Okay. And we can say that different types of ice cream cater to almost every taste. So different ice cream producers cater to different tastes.

Rory

Shall we talk about cater to?

Maria

Yeah.

Rory

So cater to means to make the effort, to help or to support something. And different tastes. Oh, every taste. It's a pub. Because you taste ice cream, but taste can also mean your preference.

Maria

And you can say that some ice creams are lactose-free. So this lactose, this ingredient. Or sugar-free. You can also say that I prefer non-dairy ice cream. Like, without any milk, it's like a dairy product, a milk product. So no milk, non-dairy ice cream, or I prefer vegan options. Right? Or low-calorie ice creams with high protein, for example. And these days, did you know that they have plant-based ice cream?

Rory

Oh, like, so no animal products in them at all?

Maria

No. They use brown rice, they use organic cocoa powder. So pretty much everything is green, plants, and organic. No, you know, these chemicals in there. So yeah, plant-based ice cream.

Rory

I hope there are no chemicals. Hold on, wait, if it's in the universe, then it's a chemical. What you mean is like harmful chemicals, right?

Maria

Yeah, no harmful chemicals. And also you can say like, oh, if I have a sensitive stomach. A sensitive stomach. The stomach is this organ, yeah?

Rory

It's where your food goes.

Maria

Yeah. It's like, you eat some of these. Yeah? Like ice cream. And then your stomach feels funny. So I have a sensitive stomach. So I prefer plant-based ice cream. Sugar-free ice cream. And also here you can talk about different types of ice creams. Can I say ice creams?

Rory

I don't see why not, to be honest. Because there are different kinds of ice... Well, I would say different kinds of ice cream. I consider it uncountable. But if we talk about the individual flavours, then yeah, but that's like super specific.

Maria

Different ice creams, different flavours, tastes, yeah? And also different types. For example, sorbet. Gelato is Italian ice cream. Gelato. Ooh, gelato, banana gelato. Mamma Mia. Also, we can have some frozen yoghurt as a type of ice cream. Ice popsicle. Rory, what is an ice popsicle?

Rory

Oh, you call them ice popsicles. Where I'm from, we just call them Ice Pops. But at least where I'm from an ice pop is... It's like a plastic tube that's filled with flavoured water basically and it gets frozen. And that's an ice pop. But you also have ice lollies. I don't know if they can be counted as ice cream though. I feel like the cream part of ice cream means it's got to have some kind of milk in it.

Maria

No, no. Yeah, we go crazy with this like plant-based ice creams, and non-dairy ice cream. So everything is ice cream.

Rory

Yeah, like, well, it's a milk substitute though. It's stuff that's used instead of milk. But it's still, there's the milk element is still there. The idea of it.

Maria

Flavor. Different flavours, Rory went vanilla.

Rory

I went vanilla because I'm boring.

Maria

Yeah, you're boring. Vanilla. And actually vanilla is one of... I think it's on top. Maybe the first most favourite vanilla... The flavour of ice cream is vanilla. But also you mentioned chocolate chip. So chocolate chip ice cream or ice cream with mint chocolate chips. Right? So what's this mint chocolate chips?

Rory

It's like mint-flavoured ice cream with chocolate chips in it. It's quite nice.

Maria

And you said that it has this sharp flavour. What did you mean by that mint?

Rory

Just you taste the mint and it's like, oh...

Maria

It's fresh, right?

Rory

I think sharp is usually used to describe citrus flavours, though. Like orange or lemon flavour, but also mint can be quite sharp, I think. Although I'm quite sensitive. So that might be why it's sharp for me.

Maria

For example, some cheeses have a sharp flavour, right? It's kind of like... It's sharp. So I enjoy the minty flavour. I enjoy this minty ice cream. It's refreshing. It's sharp. It's like... It's not too rich. Ice cream could be rich in flavour, like a lot of creamy, rich flavour.

Rory

Lots of sugar, lots of milk. It's probably very bad for you.

Maria

Another topic-specific vocabulary item... The word is cones. So what are they? Cones. Ice cream cones.

Rory

An ice cream cone... How best to describe it? Well, it's a cone shape. It's like a hardened pastry that you scoop the ice cream out of the tub and you put that inside. And then you can hold the cone while you wander around and then you can eat the cone too. That's the advantage of it over a cup.

Maria

Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the cone is this thingy. Yeah. Usually, it's like brown and then kind of you yum, yum, yum, you eat it. And then what do you call this actual ball? This ball of ice cream that they put on top. So you have the cone...

Rory

The scoop.

Maria

The scoop, right? So not an ice cream ball. A scoop, you know, like one scoop. How many scoops? Like three scoops.

Rory

You can have like huge ones. But probably one scoop is enough.

Maria

And when I was a child, I used to get cones, ice cream cones. At the beach, for example. And there were ice cream vans. So usually... What are these ice cream vans? Vans, like vehicles, cars.

Rory

Yeah, they just go around. They're big vans that have ice cream inside and they sell them. I think they're pretty common everywhere. You have them in Russia, right?

Maria

They're not vans, though. They're kind of like kiosks. They don't have an engine.

Rory

Oh...

Maria

Yeah. But sometimes we have vans. But maybe for burgers, or some fast food.

Rory

This was such a bad episode to film in the morning when I've not eaten. Really, I'm going hungry now.

Maria

Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. What did you mean, when you said that I think it will be pretty standard fare? Fare like the price?

Rory

No. Standard, like fare is just, well, sort of foodstuffs. It's a very old word meaning foodstuffs. It's just like saying it's pretty standard food, basically. It's an old word meaning food.

Maria

Oh, okay. Could you give us an example then?

Rory

Oh, yeah. The local stores aren't very big, so they just sell like standard fare, to be honest with you. I should say, it's quite an old word.

Maria

Like standard food.

Rory

Yeah, just like normal food that you wouldn't find anywhere. It's usually standard fare. It's another way of describing things which are quite boring as well because it's standard. It's just what you expect. It's nothing very exciting. Like I went to the restaurant and it was just pretty standard fare, to be honest with you.

Maria

And you can say that yeah, there are some ice cream vans near my house or along the road. And there are some stores, which sell like usual ice cream or maybe there's an ice cream shop. We can make ice cream ourselves.

Rory

If you're brave, I'm not brave. And Rory used the second conditional. So if I could.

Rory

Did I?

Maria

Yeah, so you're imagining things if I could. Oh, sorry, I could make ice cream if I had the right ingredients. So we're talking about the present and future. Kind of kinda real. So I could make ice cream if I had the right ingredients but Rory doesn't have them. Maybe he'll get them in the future. And a recipe book. So a recipe book.

Rory

A recipe book. Like a big book with instructions and a list of things that you need to make something.

Maria

Yeah, a recipe book, a recipe book, you follow the instructions and you make your ice cream. And then you need patience. Patience for it. So patience for cooking, patience for making ice cream. What ingredients do you usually need? Like milk, sugar, and some flavourings.

Rory

I think you need more than milk. I think you need cream, no?

Maria

Cream. Yeah, cream.

Rory

And that's like very rich milk.

Maria

And also, for example, you can mention that, oh, I prefer to use coconut milk or oat milk. Like replacements for dairy products, for usual milk. Or almond milk. Do you see? So really nice words.

Rory

Oh, fancy.

Maria

And Rory, I'm gonna give you three options for weird ice cream. Like strange ice cream. Okay? Could you choose one option? Yeah. Number one, ice cream which glows in the dark. Actually, an English ice cream maker added some proteins, which make jellyfish. Jellyfish glow. So he added something from jellyfish into ice cream and the ice cream glows in the dark. So it just lights up in the dark. So number two, is pizza-flavoured ice cream. Hey! Pizza-flavoured ice cream. Tomato, oregano.

Rory

Wait, what kind of pizza flavour though? Is it like Margarita Pizza?

Maria

Yeah, it's Margarita. Yeah, like tomato basil, salt, and garlic. Number three, pear and blue cheese. Pear is this kind of fruit and blue cheese is this cheese.

Rory

Why are they together? Do people eat their pears and blue cheese together?

Maria

Yeah, very often. Yeah. We have pizza with pears and blue cheese. So it's just... And pear and blue cheese, they go very well together.

Rory

I'll take your word for it.

Maria

Ice cream, which glows in the dark. Pizza-flavoured ice cream or pear and blue cheese?

Rory

I'm not eating pear and blue cheese. That's gross. But... Okay, so we've got pizza flavour. I like pizza.

Maria

Pizza-flavoured ice cream?

Rory

But also the novelty of glow-in-the-dark ice cream.

Maria

It's interesting. Yeah?

Rory

Yeah.

Maria

And you can have ice cream all over you and just glow.

Rory

Because I'm a creature of habit, I will say I will have the pizza-flavoured ice cream, please. See? That wasn't too difficult. It wasn't like a whole lot of disgusting options.

Maria

You know, Rory, life is like ice cream. We should enjoy it before it melts. Bye!

Rory

Bye! <figure> </figure> Make sure to subscribe to our social media to see some of the β€œbehind the scenes” stuff: Our Instagram:Β bit.ly/instagramswi Our Telegram:Β bit.ly/telegramswi