Unit 4 FOOD AND DRINK

LISTENING

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Mike: So, what type of meal do you think we should have at the

party, Jane?

Jane: I don’t know, Mike. Do you have any ideas?

Mike: What do you think about preparing a Mexican meal?

Jane: I really like Mexican food and we could have some fun Mexican

party games, but I think it might be too spicy for some people.

Mike: That’s true. We could have pizza. Everybody likes pizza.

Jane: Hmm, I think we should have something healthier.

Mike: I know! We could have salad and roast chicken.

Jane: That sounds like a good idea. And it’s fairly simple to prepare.

Let’s do that.

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A: So do you think that we now have everything ready for the meal?

B: Almost, I was just wondering what would be the best way of

preparing the potatoes.

A: Well, you could just boil them and serve them with the fish.

B: That would be easy, but I don’t think it would be very exciting.

A: What about frying them? Everybody likes fried potatoes.

B: They aren’t very healthy though, and I haven’t got much oil le .

A: You could bake them and serve them with the salad Elly’s

preparing.

B: That would taste good, but it takes ages to bake potatoes in the

oven. I know, I’ll boil them and then put them with Elly’s salad.

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A: Before we go back to the flat, I think we need to check we have

everything that we need.

strawberries and apples from there?

A: Yes, I did.

B: Did you notice if they had any cucumbers while you were

over there?

A: I’m not sure. I thought you were going to get them.

B: Well I went over to Best Buy, and I got some nice carrots and peas,

but I didn’t like the look of the cucumbers.

A: Oh, I suppose we can go there on the way back to the station.

B: Don’t forget we need to get some cakes and pastries too. We can

get those a er we’ve been to Hampton’s to get the lamb and

chicken.

A: OK, good plan.

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A: In this new series of ‘Talk of the Town’ we’ll be looking at the

di- erent restaurants in and around Ogdenville and getting some

tips and recommendations from our resident food critic, Chris

Gri- in. So Chris, where have you been this week?

B: Well, one restaurant that I really enjoyed is Adam’s. It’s on the

Town Square. I ordered a steak au poivre and it was perfect.

A: What’s that?

B: It’s a steak in peppercorns – it’s quite a typical French dish.

A: So, is it a French restaurant or a steakhouse?

B: Well, the chef is French, but it serves food from all over the world. It

has a wide variety of dishes. One word of warning though, it gets

really busy at weekends, so you should check they have places

before you go.

A: Have you got any other recommendations for us this week, Chris?

B: Oh, yes. I can really recommend the Duke on Smith Street. I had
lobster and it was really tasty. It also has a few vegetarian dishes,

but it’s the fish dishes that make it famous in the town. The food

isn’t that low-cost though, so you might want to save going here

for a special treat.

A: What about people who are on a budget? Have you got any

suggestions for them?

B: Yes, I have. The Tower in Market Street is a fashionable restaurant

where people can get a good meal at a reasonable price. I had a

pizza, but it isn’t a fast food restaurant, it specialises in all di- erent

types of food from Italy. I’ve heard that the lasagne is especially

good.

A: Thanks, Chris. You certainly have given us all food for thought

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Chef: I suppose one thing that everybody knows about Japanese,

Chinese and Korean cooking is that they all use chopsticks rather

than knives and forks like people in the West. The chopsticks that

people use in the di- erent countries are quite di- erent though. In

China the chopsticks tend to be made of wood and are round at

the end, whereas in Korea they’re made of stainless steel and are

rough at the end. This is because in the past the emperor would

use silver chopsticks, as they changed colour if there was any

poison in the dish. They can be quite tricky to use, but in Korea

people use a spoon to eat their rice. In Japan they use a variety of

things to make chopsticks. Wood and plastic are the most popular

now, but you can find bone, metal and even ivory ones.

If we look at the food of the di- erent countries, it’s very di- icult to

talk about China in general terms because it has many di- erent

cuisines. So it might be better if we look at Korean and Japanese

food a little more. It’s well known that Koreans tend to like spicier
food and red peppers can be found in a wide number of dishes. I

suppose that everybody thinks of sushi when they think of

Japanese food, but you can also find a lot of influences from all

over Asia and even Europe, for example tempura, which came to

Japan from Portugal. Those aren’t present in Chinese and

Korean food.

Traditionally, in both Japan and in Korea meat plays less of an

important role than in Europe, perhaps because it’s so expensive

due to the lack of space for keeping animals. That said, both the

Japanese and Koreans enjoy meat. Barbecues of all types are

popular in Korea and beef forms the basis of many special meals in

both of the countries. Now moving back to Chinese cuisine …

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Interviewer: Today in the studio I am pleased to have with me the

famous chef, Graham Shepherd. Graham has just come back from

Beijing in China, where he was making a TV programme on the

food you can try in this historic city. So, Graham, what can you tell

us about your trip? Was it how you expected it to be?

Graham: It was quite surprising really. I suppose that most people

think of Beijing duck when they think of Beijing and I did try some

of this tasty traditional dish, but with so many people from all over

the country living in Beijing there really are a lot of di- erent foods

from all regions of the country. One dish that I really enjoyed and I

didn’t expect to find was kebabs. These tasty snacks are originally

from north-west China, but they’re very popular street food in

Beijing. They’re especially popular as a tasty snack at lunchtime

for school pupils. They have less meat and more vegetables than

we are used to, so they’re a bit healthier.

Interviewer: I’m sure that most people have tried kebabs, but did
you try anything that might be unusual for our listeners?

Graham: Oh, yes. One of the things that I had was jellyfish. It added a

nice texture to the dish, but I thought it didn’t taste of much. One

dish that did have a strong taste was hotpot. The dish I had was

made in the Sichuan style, so it was very spicy. What I found

interesting was that the hotpot was put on a hotplate in the centre

of the table, and we were given a dish of raw food and we chose

what we wanted and put it into the pot ourselves, and got it out

when it was ready. It was great fun and very sociable. And very

tasty!

Interviewer: I’m sure that you tried some of the dishes that we all

know and love too. Can you tell us something interesting about

them?

Graham: Of course, everybody knows about noodles and dumplings,

but I doubt many people know how many di- erent types there are!

One of the highlights for me was learning how to make fresh

noodles with a chef from Northern China. The recipe of egg, salt

and wheat flour is quite simple, but to make the noodles by hand

you need to be quite a skilful chef.

Something which is much simpler to make are dumplings. The

basic ingredients are flour and water, but the beauty of this dish is

that it’s very flexible. You can fill them with whatever you like. I

especially enjoyed one with raw prawns, but all sorts of meat and

vegetables can be put in them.

Interviewer: Thanks Graham, that’s really interesting, but

unfortunately we’ve run out of time. If you’d like to know more

about Graham’s adventures, the series will be starting on Thursday

at 7 o’clock on Channel 9.