How to Talk about Food in English Beginner English

I’m YouTube or Facebook rolling yes okay

hi everybody welcome back to our weekly

live stream my name is Alicia and in

this week’s lesson we’re talking about

food we’re talking about food this week

so food this week I’m going to use this

diagram behind me I made to explain kind

of some leveled up adjectives so how to

go past how to go beyond like good or

sweet for example so I want to kind of

give some deeper adjectives and then I’m

going to use this sort of spectrum over

here to talk about expressing your

hunger so how do you express like your

level of hunger we’re also going to talk

a little bit in review about your

preferences I like I don’t like and

we’ll talk about giving recommendations

so today will be lots of vocabulary and

expressions that I hope you can use

right away so as you join please send a

message and the chat to let us know

you’re there please hit the like and

share button we appreciate it as always

we will begin in about two minutes

there’s a lot to talk about today okay I

see lots of you in the YouTube chat hi

everyone hello let’s see there’s URI and

Leah yes I am really live right now we

are really live right now Fernanda hi

from Brazil M nix hi Klaus hello I just

saw you write something in the chat um

Charlie you’re new hi welcome ok Harry

hello Ethio hello you are not in

Argentina right no Lucia from Mexico

hello hi Fernando great lots of you and

YouTube on facebook facebook is up great

ty everyone on Facebook vanthu hello

Cesar hello Robinson high flat vo hello

Rafa hello Margaret hello ha I can’t

keep up and someone writing in Thai I

cannot read Thai very sorry but hello I

assume it says hello great Wow we have

lots of people watching that’s exciting

I too I’m going to go to Facebook and

share this Wow look at all those people

watching

okay fantastic let’s get going if you

missed my introduction today’s live

stream is about food it’s about soon so

I’m going to begin maybe over here with

some review points while everyone joins

us as I said yeah please don’t forget to

like and share the video and make sure

to send example sentences throughout

today’s live lesson and if you have

questions please feel free to send your

questions in the chat also I will try to

catch them if they’re about today’s

lesson if not if you’re not watching

live please feel free to send some

questions anyway I’ll check the lesson

after the live lesson I’ll check the

chat and I’ll try to answer your

question somehow for now though let’s

begin I want to start as I said on this

side of the board I think I want to

start kind of with these two points

these two points here the first part for

today’s lesson will be very review

focused so your preferences your

preferences this means what do you like

what do you dislike what do you hate so

let’s review kind of a basic pattern for

foods that you like for foods you like

you can use I like your food or I love

food the difference between like and

love is just the level really so I like

is a little less strong than I love when

you want to explain something you do not

like just use don’t like I don’t like

you can use hate you can use hate but

just be careful if you use hate with for

example a specific like a person’s

favorite food it might seem a little bit

offensive so you can say I don’t like or

I hate another one that you can use here

is I’m ugly this

I’m not a big fan of I’m not a big fan

of something is kind of a softer way

that you can express when you don’t like

certain foods so I have here two food I

like or I love food you can use in this

part and adjectives like I love sweet

food or I love spicy food or I hate

spicy food here you can also use the

name of a country’s cuisine as well so I

like Thai food or I like Japanese food

or I don’t like Indian food for example

so you can use a type of food you can

use a cuisine you can use the name of a

food I love curry or I don’t like rice

maybe so you can use a lot of different

things in this pattern this is a very

basic way to explain your likes and your

dislikes here so with this then I do

want to go to this part this experience

parts a little hidden there sorry we’ll

talk about this and then I’ll go on to

this diagram I made here so here your

experience this is one point I hope many

of you remember from today’s lesson this

experience point what I mean by

experience first this is a question have

you ever had or have you ever tried a

food so again this can be a country’s

food a type of food a specific dish name

have you ever had Thai food have you

ever had sushi have you ever had spicy

food so this one I want you to remember

this one because I hear lots of learners

use the expression do you know do you

know like do you know sushi for example

but the question do you know is a bit

different from have you ever had or have

you ever tried or have you ever eaten

that dish so this is a more natural

question have you ever had curry for

example that’s a better question then do

you know it communicates more so when

you answer this question is have you

ever had

just give it yes or no can you guys see

that so I’m just gonna write yes really

big or no this is the most natural way

to do this so just answer yes I have or

no I haven’t for an experience question

um if you say no you can say no I

haven’t but I want to if it’s applicable

if that works for you

I don’t excuse me so this is I hope one

big point for many of you to take away

to use from today’s lesson have you ever

had his food have you ever tried

something so yeah send a few sent a few

example sentences have you ever had

sushi sushi good ok I’ll check the chat

I don’t see any examples yet so Oh

someone wrote I don’t never eat Mexican

food you don’t need to put don’t and

never together because they’re both

negatives so I never eat Mexican food ok

or I don’t eat Mexican food ok so don’t

put those two negatives together there

ok yeah try to send your examples there

and I will check them out yeah I don’t

like Ethiopian food good okay so let’s

continue on then to this diagram here

that I made it’s a little small but I

think we can zoom in because we have the

technology can we if not that’s okay I

will read things many times in a very

clear manner ok um so I made this

diagram I want to continue on from

talking about your preferences so what

do you like can’t get a thing so from

what do you like there are this is kind

the small cooking lesson I suppose to a

food lesson from preferences the things

you like and dislike there are five

basic ways to talk about flavors there

are only five five categories of like

food of flavor these are them so the

first one here is salty salty so you can

say salty has that salt as the root yeah

this is the adjective form a food that

is salty has a strong salt flavor

another one bitter bitter the spelling

is B ITT er maybe if you make your video

big you can see this a little better so

bitter bitter so something that is

bitter for example if you drink a beer

beer is often very bitter that that kind

of like taste on the back of your tongue

often is a very bitter taste or like if

you’ve had a burned sugar it’s very

bitter very bitter so bitter is another

very is one of the five basic flavors

the next one is sour sour sou are sour

is the next basic flavor sour things we

often have like sour candies at least in

the US so maybe like lemons are a great

example of sour food it’s like a really

strong taste that for some people can be

very uncomfortable so a sour food or

sour flavor next one is sweet sweet so

sweet things these are things that have

that like natural sugary taste so lots

of fruits have a sweet taste

so maybe apples are sweet for example

and then the final one here is mommy

this is a word that comes from Japanese

money

umami is like depth of flavor it’s

something that’s like rich so it has a

lot of body to it so I want to start

with these five basic vocabulary words

these are kind of the five basic ways to

express flavor in cookie you can use

these in cooking as well but you can use

them to talk a little bit of

your preferences so to go back to this

pattern we talked about you could say I

love salty food or I don’t like bitter

food or I hate sour food or I love sweet

food so this one is a little different

though mummy we don’t use a mummy so

much as an adjective we use it more as a

noun like I love food with lots of mummy

is a good way to express that so if you

don’t feel comfortable if you want to

use something that’s like I guess a

little bit similar to the mummy you

could use the word rich rich I’ll talk

about this a little bit later we use

this a lot for desserts actually okay so

with these five basic flavors if you

missed it don’t worry this video is

being recorded I want to kind of go more

in detail with these things then so

around this diagram I have a few other

vocabulary words let’s start up here so

up here I have these two words spicy and

hot spicy and hot we use both spicy and

hot to mean um something that’s like it

makes your mouth feel like it’s burning

kind of but not because of temperature

it’s not a temperature problem this is a

food that has like peppers in it it’s so

if you’re from a culture that has lots

of spicy food you probably know but in

cultures maybe like in Japanese food

culture for example spicy or hot food is

not so common so spicy SPI see why and

hot are both used to describe that

feeling in English so here hot does not

mean temperature so if you’re eating

something and you say oh it’s so spicy

that’s a very accurate word but you will

hear native speakers use hot foods so

hot it doesn’t always mean temperature

so if native speakers are confused like

do you mean temperature or do you mean

spicy they just asked each other so

spicy and hot are used to describe the

same feeling so I put them here like in

kind of bitter salt or salty

territory but you can kind of feel what

spicy is for you someone says I hate

spicy food oh I like spicy food actually

good

someone says Peruvian food is Peruvian

food spicy someone says spicy and hot I

love it we have lots of spicy food fans

in the chat huh I like it too I hate

spicy food yesterday a little bit spicy

some salsa

Mexican food ok onward let’s go to the

next part over here the next kind of

more detailed vocabulary word is tangy

tangy the spelling is T a n G Y tangy so

what is tangy tangy I put it here

between sour and bitter this is not a

perfect it’s not a rule but it’s here

between sour and bitter because it’s

something that has it can have like kind

of a creamy feel often but there’s some

kind of like sour or some kind of sharp

taste to it like we really notice

another flavor

maybe it’s herbs or maybe it’s something

sour like I said good examples of tangy

food if you know like Greek yogurt

that’s a great example so it’s really

creamy but there’s also kind of this

sour flavor to it

so you might have like something like a

sauce a really tangy sauce that’s a

common way that we kind of experience

tangy

food so Tenny is another good one maybe

you have some something tangy in your

food in your food culture I’m very

curious to know about the foods from

where you guys are from so if you have

some examples please send them in the

chat I’m checking lots of you like spicy

food ok lots of you like spicy food

someone says what is your name teacher

my name is Alicia ok

let’s continue to the next one for time

reasons

I want to continue down to this next

part of this diagram kind of moving into

the sour part here so I have three words

in this section here they are tart tart

tea 8rt acidic acidic AC I D I see and

fruity which is kind of over here a

little bit let’s start with tart so tart

I have here in the sour part so tart is

something that’s like lightly sour so if

you imagine a lemon is like maybe a very

sour food something that’s not quite as

strong as lemon is tart actually maybe

if you like cooking if you like baking

you know a tart is a type of dessert

this is also an adjective that we can

use to describe slightly sour food it’s

often slightly sour and like slightly

sweet so it depends a little bit on the

food so tart tart you can use this to

describe desserts quite a lot so that’s

one that I want to talk about here next

is this word acidic acidic so maybe some

of you can see acidic the base word here

for acidic is acid yeah

acid so acid has it can have that very

kind of strong like for example like a

vinegary taste almost so maybe a salad

dressing could be very acidic or again

to use the lemon or lime example there’s

like a topping or some kind of liquid

that gives a very strong acid acid a

taste acidic taste to it so acidic is

how we describe that acidic acidic

Juan and YouTube Mayo can be tangy

it could be Mayo can be tangy mayo’s

kind of creamy Mayo is short for

mayonnaise when we say tangy it’s

usually there’s some kind of like herb

or some other maybe acidic part added to

it to create a more interesting flavor

let’s see someone says is Thai food

spicy food I think so sometimes it

depends on the dish it depends on the

dish really all right let’s move along

time reasons the next word here is

fruity fruity I talked a talk I put this

between sour and sweet because fruity

can be kind of both so you can see here

the root is fruit so there are lots of

different kinds of fruit obviously so

some are more sour so some are a bit

sweeter so just think about kind of

which one you want to kind of

communicate which feel is it like a sour

fruity so maybe like a grapefruit for

example is it sweeter so like berries or

apples so this is kind of in between

these two words

okay um I guess I’ll continue on yes

I’ll finish up this diagram and then

we’ll take a quick break I’m going to

slowly alright let’s move on to sweet

I’ll try to check your chat let’s move

on to sweet I have these two words here

syrupy and sugary syrup syrupy syrup

maybe you guys know maple syrup maple

syrup is probably the most popular syrup

in North America maple syrup commonly

put on pancakes

so syrup is something that’s very sweet

yes and it’s kind of it’s like a liquid

it’s like a really thick liquid so

syrupy can mean something that is sweet

yes and it’s kind of thick so if you

pour it it’s not like water but it kind

of takes a long time to come from like

the bottle that you’re you

so something is syrupy syrupy you could

use syrupy to talk about a sauce for

example something that is syrupy maple

syrup yes

Giovanni says can we use fruity to

describe coffee sure yep if you have a

coffee that has fruity three flavours

you can do that for sure no problem

lemon is bitter perhaps yeah like it

depends a little bit on like which lemon

you eat but for some people you could

get a bitter taste from lemon sure

today’s lesson is about food Lila okay

let’s get to the next part sugary so

what’s the difference between syrupy and

sugary syrupy is like it’s a texture

thing it’s kind of it’s the quality so

we kind of visually we see something is

syrup like it’s syrupy sugary is

something that has a strong taste of

sugar so that means maybe it’s not

natural so if you like eating like

processed candy so you like candy bars

chocolate that kind of thing we might

call that sugary so it has kind of an

unnatural sweet flavor that’s really

sugary or if you’re eating a dessert

that’s topped with sugar you can call

that sugary it’s something that uses a

lot of sugar processed sugar ok onward

Leah says are these natural tastes of

natural foods or can be junk food as

well yes they can be junk food

absolutely I’m going to finish with junk

food words actually junk food is next ok

we have just a couple more and then

we’ll take a break let’s move on to this

word decadent decadent I’ve spoken about

this in a lesson before decadent is

spelled Dec a de an ET deck

so decadent is something I have it here

between sweet and mummy so decadent to

something that’s often a dessert

it’s like has like a high calorie kind

of like luxury like really really nice

image about it and it’s often like kind

of a like a chocolate cake style dessert

so something that’s really really strong

in flavor lots of fat maybe some sugary

flavors as well that’s something that is

decadent so a great example like my

favorite cake I make like this flourless

chocolate cake it is decadent there’s no

flour it’s super rich so I mentioned

this word rich rich is a great word you

can use to talk about something with

lots of mummy or lots of body you can

use this for desserts you can use this

to talk about anything that has a really

deep flavor to it it’s a really but keep

in mind it’s like um it’s something

that’s often used with desserts maybe

with like sauces perhaps with like maybe

meat dishes from time to time if they’re

paired with a sauce so something that

has a lot of body to it I keep using

that word actually too

a lot of body something that has a lot

of body this is used for like wine and

beer so for example red wines have well

some if you’re drinking a rich a kind of

richer I guess you could say it red wine

you could say it has a lot of body to it

getting off track a little bit

so rich rich can be used for desserts

and a lot for its sauces okay um

ice cream is very decadent says Michaela

indeed or gelato gelato is another

example of something decadent oh that

sounds so good okay let’s finish and

then we’ll take a break these last two

here these last two right between salty

and umami are great words to talk about

junk food junk food

savory is the first one sav ori savory

something that is savory has this salty

flavor yes and maybe it has this mommy

factor too

so it’s something that maybe is kind of

rich and kind of salty something that is

savory we use savory to talk about like

roast meats we can use savory to talk

about sauces kind of saltier sauces we

don’t use savory so much to talk about

sweet things savory savory so like I had

like a really savory rose to meet last

night that is true all right last word

then we’ll take a break greasy greasy

this is the last one Gracie gr e is y

greasy greasy you can see the root

grease grease grease or oil in other

words so greasy food is like junk food

so food that uses a lot of oil a lot of

grease maybe you can see the grease or

the oil on a napkin when you’re eating

so like hamburgers are greasy pizza is

greasy burritos are greasy those are

like all my favorite foods are greasy

foods so you can use these kinds of

words to talk about flavors that are

kind of between salty and umami and have

this sort of maybe sometimes junk food

nice feel about them okay so that is a

lot of vocabulary to start with so we

can use all of these words in an

expression like this I like or I love

that style food so in my case I love

savory food I love greasy food sometimes

I love I’ve I sometimes like tangy food

um and I also like spicy food as well

great

yeah so those are my favorites send your

favorite someone says I hate greasy food

and really I like it from time to time

but if I eat too much greasy food I

don’t feel very good

I know about you guys you like tacos I

also like tacos Gabriel I tacos last

night it was good I was very happy with

myself okay other ones no food no hot

dogs at Yankee Stadium are greasy are

they I have not had a hot dog at Yankee

Stadium before okay we are going to take

a quick break I’m trying to find the

thing that I’m looking for right now all

right

I’ll find it in here anyway let’s take a

quick break we have free stuff as always

for you guys so I want to introduce

since today’s topic is food I want to

introduce the free thing that we have as

always this week I want to focus on our

dining cheat sheet so this is free an

example of one of the free things we

have on the website here are well this

is kind of a list of vocabulary words

you can use at a restaurant today I’m

not talking about dish names these are

like the kinds of dishes the courses you

can order at a restaurant these are like

restaurant related vocabulary words but

the words I’m talking about today our

words you can use to describe your

preferences so what do you want to eat

what kind of things do you like or

dislike so you can use that when you’re

asking for recommendations which I’ll

talk about in a moment

you can use that to ask waitstaff so

that means the staff at restaurants for

recommendations and to explain like your

preferences as well so check this out

this is a nice addition to today’s

lesson you can find this from the link

below the video on YouTube and above the

video on Facebook please check the

description box it’s not in the chat box

so please go get this it’s for free from

English class 101.com

ok good fantastic

if you are just joining today’s lesson

today we are talking about food food and

being hungry so that’s part 2 for

today’s lesson is talking about being

hungry

how do you explain your level

hunger we’re going to talk about that

next so as you join please don’t forget

to hit the like button and share the

video as well we always appreciate it

many things okay um let’s go to part 2

for today I will try to check your

questions again so I am trying to check

the chat please feel free to send your

example sentences and questions there

let’s move on ok let’s move on to part 2

for today part 2 is over here so there

are two parts in part two

expressing hunger expressing hunger so

this means how do you explain your level

of hungry and of course that’s one and

I’m also going to review giving

recommendations giving and explaining

recommendations and preferences okay so

let’s start here express your hunger

Express your hunger I made a spectrum so

this is this is a spectrum so we’re

going to go from one end of it to

another end of it and we’re going to

look at some expressions you can use at

each level of hungry so if you have some

ideas I did not include everything on

this list if you have some ideas send

them in the chat and I will add them to

the board for everybody to see let’s

start though let’s start down at 0% so

at 0% you do not want to eat food so

reasons could be this expression I’m

full I’m full so this is I apostrophe M

ful ful L I’m full means my stomach is

full so we use this after eating so we

cannot eat anymore food I’m full I’m

full I don’t want food I am not hungry

so no 0% you can use this I’m not hungry

I’m not hungry I’ve put this kind of

down here because maybe you could eat

I don’t know but it’s maybe not always

0% I’m not hungry again I’m this is one

point I noticed many learners miss I’m

not I but I’m I’m I’m not hungry I’m a

full this is the second one here so

maybe like 10% 20% or so I’m not hungry

moving along up here maybe 50 percent or

so 30 percent I don’t know this

expression so this is something I use

actually it is I could go for a snack I

could go for a snack in Natives level

speech I could go for a snack I could go

for a snack so what does this could go

for could go for could go for is like

saying I kind of want I kind of want I

have a little bit of a feeling for this

thing I could go for a snack it’s like I

could eat a little bit I’m not hungry

I’m not really hungry because this is

like a fifty percent or so expression

but I could I could have something I

could go for a snack um moving along I

see some of you are already writing I’m

super hungry we’ll get there in a second

the next one here is this one I’m a

little hungry so maybe about 60% 70% or

so I’m a little hungry a little hungry

so maybe you can guess to level this up

a little bit more you just remove a

little here’s I’m hungry I’m hungry is a

quick in a clearer way to express it I’m

hungry or I’m a little hungry too

leveled it level it down finally up here

at 100% I have a couple expressions some

of you already wrote I’m super hungry

there are these two I’m so hungry I use

this one a lot I’m so hungry and this

one

I’m starving I’m starving this isn’t

like this is an exaggeration an

exaggeration means a word that makes it

sound

more like bigger than it actually is

isn’t an exaggeration you’re starving

means you are dying because you’re so

hungry so of course in most cases we are

not actually dying but we want to

communicate that strong level of hunger

I’m starving I’m starving so this is a

quick introduction to expressions you

can use oh my gosh we’re two minutes

late I have no idea

Wow I have to stop talking okay good so

that’s a quick spectrum Oh someone asked

what is a snack a snack snack is a small

food small food it’s not a meal small

food so if you like junk food like

potato chips or I love potato chips take

their chips are like crackers if you’re

a healthy person maybe you eat fruit

first back so it’s not a full meal okay

I’m going to finish quickly I didn’t

realize how much time I was going to

well finish them quickly with these two

lines about like recommendations and

like giving recommendations and asking

for recommendations so when you want to

make a plan with a friend you can use

one of these two like to ask for a

recommendation or to ask for an opinion

what do you feel like eating what do you

feel like eating this feel like means

what do you want to eat what do you feel

like eating you can answer this with a

one-word answer ty is fine Japanese

pizza burritos I don’t care you can use

that as well I don’t care or anything so

that’s a quick way to ask for someone’s

like a recommendation or an opinion what

do you feel like eating what do you feel

like eating last for today this one I

use this a lot it’s easy it’s friendly

what sounds good

or what sounds good to you what sounds

good what sounds good answer

something ty sounds good

or Pizza sounds good curry sounds good

very quick and easy friendly I like to

use that one a lot

okay but I’m out of time I talk too much

again

so I will finish therefore today I will

check the chat from today’s lesson I’m

try to answer that someone wrote just

now is it weird to use I’m starving

in a day no you can use I’m starving it

just sounds like you’re really really

really hungry it’s common though it’s

common to use that but I’ll finish there

for today please send other questions if

you have them in the chat I will try to

catch them especially it’s especially

easy for me to check YouTube as well so

please please send anything you have

there but I have to finish sorry so

we’ll end there for today but we’ll be

back next week as always of course next

week’s topic is going to be shopping

shopping in English do we have a tech so

October thanks October 24th is our next

lesson next week Wednesday October 24th

at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

if you can’t remember just set a

notification on Facebook or on YouTube

and you will get an announcement when we

begin our live stream so please join us

I’ll be talking about shopping and

shopping related expressions that will

be next week Wednesday in the meantime

don’t forget to get your free stuff we

have lots of free stuff I showed you

this one the food one a little bit

earlier there is also a cooking a

cooking PDF in here too so if you like

food if you’re interested in this point

I talked about earlier you can check

that out for some more vocabulary and

expressions that you can use okay so

I’ll finish there for today thank you as

always for sending your questions for

liking and share

ring and everything we really appreciate

it so have a great day have a great

night enjoy your week and I will see you

again next time