Food & drink

Speaking

Look at the photos of diferent food. Discuss these questions:

• Which is most similar to the food you usually eat? How?
• Which dish would you most like to eat? Why?

Reading

Read the text and questions below. For each question, choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.

Food from Thailand

When I’m abroad and I ask people what their favourite food is, most people say “Italian”, “Spanish” or “Mexican”. People hardly ever say that “Thai” food is their favourite. I don’t understand why not as it’s definitely mine! Some of my favourite dishes when I go to a Thai restaurant are: chicken Thai green curry, pad Thai and coconut rice. I feel hungry thinking about them!

Thai food is rich in flavour and it is extremely varied. You can find dishes made with a range of meats and seafood. The dishes usually include a variety of vegetables, fruits and sauces. Typically the food is grilled which makes it healthier than some other cuisines.

A lot of people have never tried Thai food before because there aren’t many Thai restaurants in some countries and for this reason they don’t choose it as their favourite food. Also some people think that Thai food is like Chinese food and they believe that because they don’t like Chinese food, they won’t like Thai food. Chinese food is heavier than and not as healthy as Thai food, as most Chinese dishes are fried using a lot of oil.

Thai food can be a little spicy and a little creamy but not always. Thai chefs sometimes use spices and they cook with many different forms of coconut, for example: coconut water, coconut cream and dried coconut. Usually for starters, people order prawns, crab or chicken and for a main course, the most popular dishes are cooked with fish, chicken, beef or prawns. All of the main courses are eaten with rice or noodles. This food type can also be eaten by vegetarians as there are many vegetarian dishes.

I don’t eat this type of food everyday as it can be quite expensive. I love going to Thai restaurants at the weekends or when it’s a friend or family member’s birthday. Thai restaurants are typically owned by Thai people and they are really friendly and polite. They are happy to explain the history of the dishes and also to tell you which dishes are their favourite. I have tried cooking this food at home but there are so many ingredients that a traditional Thai green curry can take a long time to prepare!

Vocabulary

Look at the food pyramid and answer the questions.

Grammar – Nouns

Countable vs uncountable

Como deberías saber a este nivel, los nombres en inglés son o contable o no contable. Por ejemplo:

Las reglas son:

Nombres contables.

1. Con los nombres contables, podemos usar los artículos ‘the’, ‘a’ o ‘an’ con su forma singular.

• A banana
• An Apple
• The tomato

2. Cuando usamos la forma plural, a veces no necesitamos un artículo, puedes usar ‘some‘ o ‘the’.

• Apples are good for your health. → No article
• Some apples are green, others are red. → Some
• The apples in that shop are more expensive. → The

Nombres no contables.

1. Con los nombres no contables, podemos usar los artículos ‘the’, ‘some’ o ningún artículo.

• The bread
• Some rice

2. Los nombres no contables no tienen una forma plural.

• No se puede decir breads, rices, cereals.

3. Siempre requieren la forma singular del verbo.

• The bread is Brown.
• Some rice is better than others.

4. Cuando queremos contar cosas que no son contables, utilizamos palabras como a slice, a loaf, a bottle, a cup, a glass, a packet, a piece, etc. (Look up the words if you are unsure what they mean).

• Would you like a slice of bread?
• The recipe requires two cups of rice.

A. Which of the words below are countable (C) and which are uncountable (U)?

B. From the exercise above, choose an uncountable noun to complete the description.

C. Read this short newspaper article. Add the, a, an, some or nothing in the gaps.

The lucky pizza

Listening

You will hear a radio presenter giving a review of some of the restaurants in the local town.

For each question, fill in the missing information.

The Courageous Cobra

Pizza Italia

The Mansfield Arms

Writing

This is part of a letter you receive from an English friend.

Now write a letter, answering your penfriend’s questions. Write your answer in about 100 words.

Recording

Right everyone! Some important information about the new restaurants that have just opened in town. The first one is ‘The Courageous Cobra’. This Indian restaurant is unique in that all of the food is cooked at your table. It is a small restaurant with only 10 tables and it may be for this reason that the prices are quite high! Expect a big bill at the end of the night.

The next restaurant is ‘Pizza Italia’ and as the name suggests, this is a traditional Pizzeria. They only serve pizzas and with 30 pizzas on the menu, I’m sure you won’t have a problem choosing one! The restaurant is open daily from 12 noon until midnight. On Friday and Saturday evenings, they offer a delivery service, so if you don’t want to come to the restaurant, they will bring the pizza to your door.

The last restaurant is the ‘Mansfield Arms’. This traditional English pub has been opened by a top London chef. They are only open at lunchtimes and offer a rather small menu. In fact, there is only one menu, the set menu which costs £55 per person and includes 3 courses and two drinks. The menu will appeal to those interested in trying new foods as some of the dishes on the menu are very different, for example, this week the pub has frog’s legs and pigs feet!

Well, that’s it for me. Go and try one of these restaurants and report back to me!