📘 Part 3: Food

This episode's vocabulary

By virtue of something - as a result of something.

Proximity (noun) - the state of being near in space or time.

Legacy (noun) - something that is a part of your history or that remains from an earlier time.

Set in your ways - not liking change in your life.

Embrace (verb) - to accept something with great interest or enthusiasm.

Cuisine (noun) - a style of cooking.

Novel (adj.) - new and original, not like anything seen before.

Ancestor (noun) - a person related to you who lived a long time ago.

Palatable (adj.) - palatable food or drink has a pleasant taste.

Seasonality (noun) - the fact that something changes according to the seasons.

Zero-sum game (noun) - a situation in which an advantage that is won by one of two sides is lost by the other.

Hefty (adj.) - large in amount, size, force, etc.

Fine (noun) - an amount of money that has to be paid as a punishment for not obeying a rule or law.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, what kinds of foreign food are popular in your country?

R: Uh, well, mostly ones from the northern hemisphere. I've talked about this before. It's just by virtue of proximity. But there's a colonial legacy in there, too. For example, Indian food is popular because we have this sort of connection, if you will, with India and the subcontinent. And, of course, Chinese food is everywhere as well. I think that's like a universal thing. Like everywhere you go in the world, there's always a Chinese restaurant somewhere.

M: Why do people like to try new food?

R: Well, I suppose it's kind of a safe kind of risk taking behavior. It's new, but it's food in a restaurant. So, you know, you're safe because restaurants are largely controlled environments. And some people like to show off as well. I can remember the boys that I used to live with in university used to challenge each other to order the spiciest chicken from a restaurant called Nando's, and that was their form of competition. Never live with rugby players. It's always a disaster.

M: And why do some people dislike Chinese food?

R: Well, they're very set in their ways, like I'm set in my ways. I don't particularly like trying new food either. It's just because they like the routine. Also, if you're like me and your nutrition is quite important for building muscle mass, for example, then variations in my diet are like they're not really good for me in the sense.

M: What are young people's opinions on new food?

R: Well, to grossly generalize, young people seem to embrace new ideas more readily than older people. If we talk about people in their teens, in their 20s, and this seems to extend to cuisine as well, they're always trying new kinds of food. Preteens and younger, well, people who are younger than preteens tend to be more conservative. For example, they always want just like more sugar, more ice cream, fewer greens. That's not very experimental or very novel. It's just the thing that young people do at that age.

M: Why do people prefer their local food?

R: Well, there's a variety of factors. You'd have to ask them to find out exactly which ones affect a particular area. But it might be that it's more available because, of course, the farms are in close proximity than more distant places. And it's cheaper because the transport costs are lower and they've inherited maybe a set of genes from their ancestors and that makes the taste of certain local foods more palatable than others. That's a really technical explanation. It's probably just a price, to be honest with you.

M: What factors influence people's food choices?

R: Well, I think I mentioned a lot of them just there. But if we speak more broadly like price, flavor, availability and seasonality. So there's a choice of choices that affect people's choices. Or we could say there's a range of choices that affect people's decisions if we paraphrase.

M: Why do some people prefer to cook at home?

R: Well, some people find it fun and others have this sort of ancestral connection that they relive through cooking can be related to culture in that way. And again, talking about money. For others, it's just cheaper than paying for a delivery.

M: More and more people are unwilling to cook. Why?

R: Well, I imagine it's connected to time availability, to be honest. People are increasingly busier. They're multitasking all the time. They just don't have time to cook. And you have everything available at the touch of a button on your phone. So why not just order food instead of cook it or get some prepackaged processed meal instead? It's not as healthy, though, I think.

M: Do you think teachers or parents are responsible for teaching kids about food?

R: I'm not sure it has to be a zero-sum game. Parents probably impart more cultural recipes. While teachers broaden horizons or kindle fires of awareness in students. In terms of the foods that other people eat, I can remember our primary school. Our teacher brought in star fruit once and that was nice.

M: Is it expensive to eat out in your country?

R: Well, it's not expensive or cheap because you have to pay a hefty fine for eating out or going outside now in Scotland because there's a lockdown. Um, but more broadly, like when the lockdown is finished and even pre lockdown times, yes, there was a time for coronavirus. It was relatively expensive compared to Russia. Like here you get, it's much cheaper to eat compared to Scotland for sure.

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Discussion

M: Do they eat in Scotland? I thought that they only drink. Whiskey is food, right?

R: They eat too much in Scotland because we have one of the fattest populations in the world.

M: Really? In Scotland?

R: Really. If Scotland was an independent country it would be one of the fattest countries.

M: Are you joking? I thought it's England.

R: No, no. Well they have the obesity crisis there as well, but it's a serious problem.

M: Wow. It's always bread and butter.

R: Well, people's eating habits haven't really changed, but their lifestyles have. They're more sedentary and so they get fatter.

M: But in Scotland, do people go to McDonald's and Burger King, and KFC, and stuff?

R: Yeah, but like, it doesn't, it wouldn't matter even if they were still eating the same things, they're not moving around as much...

M: Okay. So somebody is just eating, but they just stop moving.

R: Yeah.

M: Oh, okay. Now, let's talk about delicious, yummy vocabulary. Hmm, yum, yum, yum. So when you try new foods, it's a safe kind of risk taking behavior.

R: Yeah, it's sort of a contradiction in terms, isn't it? So, like, risk taking behavior is usually something thrilling, like bungee jumping or skydiving. But some people like to take smaller risks. So what I really should have said was like minor risk taking behavior. But a safe kind of risk taking behavior, or a safer kind of risk taking behavior.

M: Yeah. So you go to an expensive restaurant, you order this Fugu fish. It's a safe kind of risk taking.

R: I tried to do that in New York. There is a restaurant that does it and turned out that I went at the wrong time of year. Apparently it's a winter dish, not a summer one.

M: Oh OK. And then some people like to show off. They show off that they can eat the spiciest thing on the planet, or they can eat, you know, a scorpion.

R: Yes, I've done that.

M: You've eaten a scorpion?

R: I have eaten a scorpion, yes.

M: How was it?

R: Crunchy.

M: Yum yum yum. Crispy.

R: Anyway, that's the kind of showing off behavior. So you show other people how cool you are. It's not cool to eat scorpions people.

M: And they you can like play a game. Oh, have you ever eaten this? Have you ever eaten that? Have you ever eaten a lamp? No, I've eaten a glass. What about a smartphone? Yeah, I've eaten a smartphone. I'm so cool.

R: Showing off, basically.

M: Yeah, showing off. We embrace new ideas.

R: Young people embrace new ideas. So if you embrace an idea, then you just follow it. And if you do it readily, then you're more willing to do that than other people.

M: Embrace is like a hug. So we hug new ideas. We embrace new ideas. If you want to paraphrase the world food, you say.

R: Cousin.

M: Yeah, it's not cousin. OK? You don't say, oh, I like my Italian cousin. I want to eat a cousin. Give me Italian cousin. No. It's cuisine. Cuisine is French word. Right, cousin, you guys, ok? Food or cuisine. You can get more conservative, so you can be more conservative in terms of food.

R: Or the range of food that you enjoy. So you could talk about choices or the range of choices. And I've actually mentioned that. I mentioned the word choices three times just for fun.

M: Yeah, choices, options. And, Rory, you said that you are set in your ways. In your way.

R: I'm set in my ways. It's like if your set in your ways then you just have a fixed routine. It doesn't change.

M: Yeah. If you've listened to our premium episodes about food. I think dinner or something expensive that Rory does. Yes, he talked about pizza. Huge, massive pizza he orders.

R: And usually they arrive. But last night the pizza didn't arrive and I was very angry. I've never been so angry. This year that was the angriest I've been.

M: Wow. I've never seen you that angry.

R: I was really unhappy. But that was because I'd been awake since half past five in the morning and it was twelve o'clock at night and I just wanted a pizza. That's all I wanted and I couldn't get it. But I did get a refund, so that's good.

M: Hmm. Ok. So Rory is set in his ways. He orders a pizza on a regular basis. We have inherited set of genes. Genes and I don't mean clothes. I mean, genes like genetics.

R: Yeah. Genes. So you inherit genes from your ancestors. Always inherit something from somebody. Um and that makes food taste more palatable. Palatable just means tastier.

M: Wow. So you can say like oh like local food is more palatable than foreign food.

R: Yeah.

M: Wow, beautiful. So forget about the word tasty. Palatable. Palate is this thing you have in your mouth. Palate.

R: Yeah. You have a hard one and a soft one.

M: Soft one. Soft palate. Yum yum yum. Are you hungry, dear listener? Yeah, we are starving.

R: I'm starving. I'm so hungry.

M: Let's talk about food. So when we choose our food, so we choose our foods according to price, flavor. Flavor. Let's taste, Availability. Seasonality.

R: Yeah, seasonality is just, well, some food is more available in the winter than in the summer. So for example, strawberries are more available in the summer because that's when they grow. This isn't really a big problem, to be honest, unless you, well, if you live in a big city, it's not a problem because food is constantly available. If you're outside of a big city, then it might be because some foods might not be available in certain seasons.

M: Yeah, but they say choose your local seasonal food.

R: They do. I don't know why.

M: Because it's local and you have genes and this is more palatable to you then foreign food.

R: Who is they?

M: And you have ancestral connections? Ancestral.

R: Ancestral is just the adjective for ancestors, which are the people that come before you or who are the people that come before you. And an ancestral connection is just a connection to your ancestors through time and space.

M: So my ancestors and my ancestral...

R: Connection to them.

M: God, this is so sophisticated, dear listener.

R: It's very band nine.

M: It's super band nine. So the "bandest", the "ninest" it can get. Ancestral connection, right, ok, God.

R: You can be traditional and have an ancestral connection or you can choose to broaden your horizons. And by broadening your horizons, it just means increasing the number of options that you're aware of.

M: Yeah. So eat muscles, scorpions, whales or whatever you can get your hands on. Yum yum yum.

R: But be careful you don't eat any endangered species or break the lock down because you might pay a hefty fine. A hefty fine is just a large fine.

M: Yeah A large fine. A hefty fine. And do you know why Singapore is a fine city?

R: Because everybody gets fines for everything.

M: Yeah, it's a kind of a joke. That's why in Singapore... They ask you, how are you? I'm fine, fine and you pay a fine. Rory, what about this to be a zero sum game?

R: We mentioned this previously, but a zero sum game is when there one person wins and one person loses. But in this case, we talked about who's more responsible teachers or parents. A zero sum game means one or the other person is responsible. But if I say it's not a zero sum game or it doesn't have to be, then it means that both parties, both people or groups, can win. They can play a part.

M: Mhm. And have you ever been taught about food?

R: What about it?

M: What food to eat? You know, about calories, about how to eat your food. Can you eat meats together with potatoes and bread?

R: Well, there are myths that people have. But what we've actually started to realize recently because I was reading a book about medicine. Everybody has their own unique bacteria in their gut. And this means that you process foods differently from other people. So these standardized diets don't actually work because of this. You have to see what works for you. For example, I can give you a very clear example. A lot of people in my family are fine with the amount of sugar they can eat. I can't eat sugar because that makes me feel ill. I just discovered this recently, actually.

M: Like white sugar?

R: Yeah, well, any kind, to be honest, isn't good for me. So I have a sugar free diet basically. I don't have any sugar in my diet. The energy drinks I drink are all sugar free. I don't have any added sugar in any of my food because it causes the wrong kind of bacteria to multiply in my gut and the consequences of that are not good.

M: Oh, you should watch this...

R: But this is how I lost so much weight because I just stopped eating sugar. But what I'm saying is that works for me and my bacteria and my gut. It might not work for other people. So just because something worked well for me, people, doesn't mean that you should just cut something out of your diet.

M: If Rory does it, it doesn't mean that you should do it. Okay?

R: Yeah, yeah, for sure. There's lots of things that I've done that nobody else should do.

M: But you should watch this film, which is called "That Sugar Film". It's Australian film. So it's interesting.

R: I'm not saying get rid of it completely like I did, but don't eat so much.

M: No, but you didn't. Bread has sugar. Pizza has sugar.

R: I don't eat bread though.

M: But you it pizza.

R: But the dough, it's not like regular dough.

M: Everything has sugar. The sauce that might be used on the pizza has sugar. Anyway, "That Sugar Film". Sugar free. Sugar, hey, sugar.

R: We hope that that was an appetizing vocabulary meal for you.

M: Yeah. Remember "That Sugar Film". Australian film. It's quite interesting.

R: And we hope that what we said was something sweet for you to hear.

M: Yum yum yum.

R: Bye!

M: Bye!

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