Scripts for Unit 2  Food, glorious food!

Inside view

Conversation 1

Kate  Oh, this looks nice.

Mark  Cool.

Waitress  Good afternoon, table for three? Come this way.

Mark  Let's have a look at the menu.

Mark  Thank you.

Janet  Thank you.

Waitress  The specials are on the board.

Kate  So, what sort of food do you like, Janet?

Janet  Well, I like spicy food. And I'm not very fond of raw food! What would you recommend?

Mark  Why don't you try the chicken curry? That's nice and spicy.

Janet  What's in it?

Mark  Chicken cooked in tomatoes and onions with Indian spices.

Janet  I'll try it. Do we all choose a selection of dishes to share or only one dish per person?

Mark  Usually one dish per person.

Kate  Or the moussaka looks good.

Janet  What's it made with?

Kate  It's made with lamb and eggplant. It's a Greek dish.

Janet  How is it cooked?

Kate  It's baked in the oven.

Janet  Mm, that sounds good too.

Kate  And as a starter?

Janet  What's minestrone soup?

Mark  It's an Italian soup with vegetables and pasta. It's delicious!

Janet  OK, I'll have that.

Kate  Waitress?

Waitress  What can I get for you?

Kate  Well, for the starter, can we have two minestrone soups, and for the main course, one moussaka and one curry, please. What about you, Mark?

Mark  I'll have the prawns with garlic and the chilli con carne. And could you bring us some water, please?

Waitress  OK.

Mark  Thank you.

Waitress  Thanks.

Janet  What's chilli con carne?

Mark  It's a spicy Mexican dish with beef and beans. It's very hot!

 

Conversation 2

Janet  That was great! Except I don't like cold water. I usually drink hot water.

Kate  Hot water? We never drink hot water except with tea. Let's have a dessert. What would you like, Janet?

Janet  Any suggestions?

Kate  Well, why don't you try the apple strudel? It's an Austrian dish. It's made with apple, pastry and spices.

Janet  No, I'm not so keen on pastry. ... What's a chocolate brownie?

Mark  It's a kind of chocolate cake.

Janet  How is it made?

Kate  It's made with flour, eggs and butter ...

Mark  And lots of chocolate!

Kate  You'll love it.

Janet  What kind of ice cream is there?

Kate  I'll ask ... Excuse me ... What flavour ice cream do you have?

Waitress  Strawberry, vanilla and chocolate.

Janet  I'll just have a fruit salad, I think.

Mark  And Kate, what are you going to have?

Kate  Same for me.

Mark  Could you bring us two fruit salads, and a chocolate brownie?

Waitress  Sure.

 

Outside view

    Hi, guys, my name is Angel. Ah, I come from China, It’s my third year of the undergraduate study. And I’m going to make a Chinese dish, sweet –and –sour spare ribs. It’s very tasty, very Chinese-style and it’s really ideal for you to have a quick dinner at night when you’re busy preparing your coursework and stuff.

    To make this, we’ll need four pork ribs, corn starch, soy sauce, oil, Chinese rice vinegar, sesame oil and sugar, salt, lime and spring onion.

    The first thing to do is to marinate the pork ribs with soy sauce…just to make sure that you cover all the ribs. After you’ve done that, just to leave (just leave) it (them) for 20 minutes.

    So this (these) have been marinated for 20 minutes. It’s time to fry them. Make sure your pan is really hot, pour in oil, and put them inside one by one.

    Just turn them around, and it takes about three to five minutes to golden brown. Let’s put them aside.

    So, we are going to make the sauce, it’s really easy to make…and firstly we pour in some oil. And some sesame oil. So after (we) finish making the sauce, we are going to pour in the spare ribs. And last but not least, we have our Chinese secret weapon, liquid corn starch. And almost every Chinese dish eat (eaten) in Chinese restaurants use (uses) this. It will make the sauce thicker. Takes another three, four minutes. Stir constantly. And we’re good to serve.

    Just carefully put them in the plate. There you go. Sweet-sour- spare ribs.

    

 

Listening in

News Report

      The US government just released its latest dietary guidelines. The guidelines are revised every five years and serve as the government’s official advice on what to eat.

      This year’s update focuses on the importance of a lifelong healthy eating pattern that contains a variety of nutritious foods like fruit and vegetables, grains, fat-free or low-fat dairy products, lean meats and other protein foods and oils.

      The biggest change in the guidelines involves added sugar. For the first time, they suggest limiting added sugar to less than 10 per cent of daily calories. That means no more than 12 teaspoons of sugar a day for an average adult. This does not include foods with natural sugar like fruit and vegetables.

      Americans are also encouraged to consume less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day, equal to a teaspoon of salt. This number reflects the salt already in processed foods and the salt you add to your food.

1. What do we learn about the dietary guidelines from the news report?

2. What is the biggest change in the updated guidelines?

      

Passage 1

Ben  If it's a formal meal, maybe Thanksgiving or Christmas, or if you're with your boss or someone like that, you are being careful about your table manners. So you'd wait until everyone is served before you eat. But most of the time,, if you know each other well you would just go ahead and start. It's more usual to entertain them at home because it shows your hospitality. We have a lot of barbecues outside, maybe in the garden or maybe at a campsite. But sometimes if you don't want to cook, you can go to a restaurant.

Oh, well, after dessert you'll have a little talk, then talk some more, have some coffee. Then you'll say, "Oh well, it's time for us, we should get going." And if you don't then you're probably going to be rude and stay too late.

Michelle  Well, it would be between 8 and 8.30. It is unusual that if somebody is invited for 8 they would be there at 7.30 or 7.45. Probably 8, or 8.30 would be when all the guests would arrive. It's OK to refuse something if you don't like it, but it might be embarrassing. For example, if I'm cooking dinner and I discover one of my guests is a vegetarian, I'll feel a bit frustrated that I didn't know before. But usually everyone tries everything.

Tom  Well, usually the host serves the guests, so you should make sure you tell him or her not to give you too much, because yes, it's quite important to eat everything on your plate. It doesn't matter if you leave something, but if you leave a lot, it will look as if you don't like their cooking.

My mother always told me to put my hands on my lap, under the table when I wasn't eating, and I would be in big trouble if I ever put my elbows on the table. But actually I know that in some countries that's considered rude. So I might rest my hands or my arms on the table, and I suppose it's a bit more relaxed today than it used to be when I was young.

No, it's the worst thing you can do if you're eating. Any strange noises are absolutely forbidden. I mean you can say "mmm, this is good", but nothing more than that. And even when you drink soup or eat noodles, you have to do it in silence, otherwise it's considered very bad manners.

 

Passage 2

 

News-reader  The government announced today that they are going to ban advertisements for junk food during TV programmes for children under the age of 16. The rules will include any foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar. There will be a total ban on ads during children's programmes and on children's channels, as well as adult programmes watched by a large number of children. But there will not be a total ban on all ads for junk food which are shown on television before 9 pm. This was thought to be "over the top" by representatives of the food industry. The new rules will come into effect before the end of December this year, and mean that television channels will lose about £39 million in revenue for advertising.

So why has the government introduced this ban? We asked leading food and nutrition expert, Neil Bennett.

Neil  Well, we all know that over the last 30 years, what we call junk food, bad food with too much fat and salt, has become easily available and eating habits have changed.

However, in recent years many of us have become aware of the importance of keeping fit and eating healthily, and this means people are not going to fast food restaurants so often. So, the result is that the fast food business has increased the number of ads in order to recover some of the business it's lost.

News-reader  And how do the fast food restaurants do this?

Neil  The biggest problem is that they aim their ads at young people. One well-known fast food restaurant chain sells hamburgers which come with a free gift, usually a toy which is linked to a new children's film. Other fast food restaurants aim their ads at teenage and college-age men, trying to make their food trendy and, you know, kind of masculine food.

News-reader  So a ban on junk food ads will stop the sales of junk food?

Neil  Almost certainly not, but it might reduce the growth of the fast food industry.

News-reader  So you're in favour of the ban?

Neil  As a nutritionist, I am. As a father of two young children, I'm not sure.

News-reader  Why not?

Neil  Because less money from advertising will mean less money for children's TV programmes. So we're likely to see more cheap and violent cartoons, and fewer programmes produced specially for children.

News-reader  So the choice is between junk food and junk television?

Neil  Yes, that just about sums it up.

News-reader  Neil Bennett, thank you.