Episode 0107

And today we're going to be talking about one of our favorite topics as always.

Food.

Food. We're going to be at a restaurant.

And, you know, one of the most difficult or embarrassing things to deal with at a restaurant is, um, what to say when you don't like the food, or when it's bad quality food.

Right, so maybe we have to complain about the food, or maybe even the service, right?

That's right. And in this lesson, we're going to be learning some some really wonderful, um, words and phrases that you can use when you need to complain about the food or the service in a restaurant.

Okay, so before we listen to what happens in this restaurant with this food, let's take a look very quickly at vocabulary preview.

Vocabulary preview.

Okay, we're only going to do one word today. Uh, and this you'll hear in the dialogue. Um, an establishment.

Establishment.

This kind of establishment.

Okay, so when I say an establishment, that's a noun. What is an establishment?

It's basically a fancy word for a business or a restaurant in this case.

In this case it's a restaurant.

Yep.

But in general you can say it's a business.

So you have a very fine establishment.

That's right. So an establishment, a type of business, a place of business really.

Very good. All right, so now it's time for us to listen to our dialogue. We're gonna find out what's going on here. Apparently, there is a very angry customer, and we're going to find out why.

Yes, sir. What can I do for you?

I'm sorry, sir. I'll check on your order right away.

Relax, honey. The place is busy tonight, and I've heard the food is amazing, anyway.

Here you are, sir. The foie gras for the lady and a mushroom soup for you.

Okay, I I do apologize for that. Can I bring you another soup or would you like to order something else?

Right away, sir.

Honey, come on. The foie gras was fine. Why are you making such a big deal? Are you trying to get our meal comped again?

Here you are, sir. I hope it is all right now. The chef has prepared it especially for you.

Yes, fine.

Honey, are you all right?

Well, I guess that's one lesson, hey, if you're in a restaurant, uh, don't be too rude to the waiter. You never know what's going to happen.

The waiter and the cook.

Right. Yeah, you don't want to offend that those uh that kitchen staff.

All right. So, uh, we'll talk about that a little bit later on, but uh, now I think we had some really interesting vocabulary of how to describe food that is not well prepared. And we can take a look at that now in language takeaway.

Language takeaway.

All right, so the guy in this in this dialogue, he ordered a a mushroom soup and he complained that the mushroom soup was too runny.

Okay, the soup is too runny.

Runny.

So, he wanted a cream of mushroom, so it should be a little bit thicker.

Yep.

But in this case it was runny.

So when something is runny, it's too liquid.

Too liquid. And I think we can relate it to a runny nose, right?

Exactly. Mhm.

Okay, so when liquid is coming out of your nose, a runny nose, in this case, the soup is runny.

All right. And another thing that he was complaining about, the food was over-seasoned.

Over-seasoned.

The food is over-seasoned.

Okay, so if the food is over-seasoned.

It's too salty.

So, it's another way of saying it's too salty.

Yeah, it's kind of a fancy, um, a cooking term.

Now, can I say if there's too much pepper in the food, can I say it's over-seasoned?

Well, um, technically no. When when a cook says something is over-seasoned, he's talking salt only.

Only salt. Okay. So the the cream of mushroom is very runny, it's over-seasoned, and he said it's completely inedible.

Inedible.

It's inedible.

Inedible.

Now, this word edible.

You can eat it.

You can eat it. So we add this prefix inedible,

You cannot eat it.

This is not possible.

Yeah. And it it doesn't mean that physically you can't eat it, it just means it's pretty disgusting.

Okay. This food is inedible.

Mhm. And then he started to complain about the other dish and he said that it's rubbery.

Rubbery.

The the foie gras was rubbery.

All right. So I think we noticed the word rubber. Mhm. So obviously if if a food is rubbery, it tastes or it it's it's too chewy. It's like chewing on the bottom of your shoe, right?

Okay, so it's it's too hard to chew or to swallow.

Exactly.

All right. Apparently, the food was rubbery because it's completely overcooked.

Overcooked.

All right, we have overcooked.

So when something is overcooked, I mean it's it's easy to understand that it's cooked too much.

Mhm. But it doesn't mean that it's burnt, right?

No, so maybe you've ordered your steak to be rare, but it comes to you well done. So it's not burnt, but it's cooked too much.

So also I guess we can say like chicken. Sometimes if you overcook chicken, it comes out too dry.

Yep.

All right, so to overcook something.

And and finally he was complaining about the size of the dish and he said, um, this is a sliver of duck liver.

Okay, a sliver.

A sliver.

All right. Now this word sliver is like a slice, right?

A very small, tiny little slice.

Okay, so we can say, okay, I just want a sliver of bacon for breakfast.

All right, why don't we hear a few more examples of how we can use sliver.

Example one.

No, John's on a diet. He'll just have a sliver of cake and no ice cream.

Example two.

Example three.

And those are all the words we had for language takeaway. Now you have, so we've given you different adjectives of describing food that is not well prepared.

So now, let's move on to some other phrases that the customer used to complain in fluency builder.

Fluency builder.

Okay, so before we get to the customer complaining language, I want to look at a phrase that the waiter used to apologize. He said, I do apologize.

I do apologize.

I do apologize.

Now, why is this phrase so, uh, interesting?

Well, I mean, it's pretty easy to understand the meaning, but I want to look at why he added this uh, verb 'do.'

Mhm.

Well, he added the verb 'do,' uh, it to this phrase to make it, um, seem a little bit stronger, to give it a little more power to his apology.

Right. So if you have an affirmative phrase, like I apologize. Yeah. It it's good. But if you want to give it a little bit more emphasis, you can say I do apologize.

Why don't we give an example? Um, so I might say this: Marco, I didn't know we had a party tonight!

And I might say, what? I did tell you about it last week.

Right, so you're just giving a little bit more power to the statement that you told me.

Mhm. So this do, did, does becomes an auxiliary to make it more powerful, to give it more emphasis.

Yeah, exactly. So a a neat little phrase, uh, something you can use if you want to make your apologies sound maybe a little bit stronger.

All right. Now, moving on to the next phrase, he was complaining about the food and it was terrible, and he said, I'm shelling out my hard-earned bucks.

Okay, let's let's break this one down into two sections. We'll start with shelling out.

All right, so to shell out.

So when you shell out, you pay for something.

All right, but this gives you the sensation that you are, that you don't really want to pay.

You're a bit unhappy about it.

Right, so you want to shell out your money.

Mhm. Why don't we listen to some examples to show us how we can use this phrase to shell out.

Example one.

Great. It's my girlfriend's birthday this month. So I'm going to have to shell out for a present.

Example two.

I really want those shoes, but I can't really afford to shell out $400.

Example three.

All right, so now that we understand shell out, let's move on to the second part of that sentence, my hard-earned bucks.

Hard-earned bucks.

My hard-earned bucks.

Okay, so bucks are dollars, right?

Dollars, only dollars, right?

Yep, not not pounds, not euros. Um, but his hard-earned bucks is money he had to work really hard for.

Mhm. So I can also say my hard-earned money. Right? Or my hard-earned cash.

Exactly.

Very good. So you worked hard to get it.

All right, so three three great phrases that can be used when you're complaining in a restaurant. And why don't we hear them one last time in context by listening to the dialogue.

Yes, sir. What can I do for you?

I'm sorry, sir. I'll check on your order right away.

Relax, honey. The place is busy tonight, and I've heard the food is amazing, anyway.

Here you are, sir. The foie gras for the lady and a mushroom soup for you.

Okay, I I do apologize for that. Can I bring you another soup or would you like to order something else?

Right away, sir.

Honey, come on. The foie gras was fine. Why are you making such a big deal? Are you trying to get our meal comped again?

Here you are, sir. I hope it is all right now. The chef has prepared it especially for you.

Yes, fine.

Honey, are you all right?

So complaining at a restaurant and actually sending food back is not uncommon in the US.

Yeah, of course, if the food's bad, of course, you're going to send it back.

Mhm. But maybe in other cultures, I think people would be a little bit more reluctant to do something like this.

Yeah. But hey, you know what's an interesting thing about the way Americans eat in restaurants?

Is sometimes at the end of the meal, if they haven't finished everything, they might ask for a doggy bag.

A doggy bag, yeah.

Yeah. So what is that, a doggy bag?

Well, usually if you order a big meal or, you know, half your steak is left over on your plate, uh, you would ask for a doggy bag and they would bring you a little box or a bag and you would take it to, supposedly, give it to your dog.

Right. So it's it's sort of like like you tell the waiter, "Oh, you know, the steak was so good. I couldn't finish it. Can I take some home to my dog?"

Right. So you would just ask, "Waiter, can I have a doggy bag?"

Right. But you it's it's sort of like code for I'm going to eat this tomorrow for lunch.

Exactly, because people wouldn't really give it to their dogs, I mean.

Right. Yeah, it's actually very common in the US, but in other countries, people will leave entire plates of food on the table.

Like it would be totally impolite to ask the waiter to pack up the food for you.

Exactly. Yep. So a little bit of cultural differences, but we want to know what you think and how things are done maybe in your country with complaining or sending food back or even this whole doggy bag situation.

That's right. Why don't you visit our website englishpod.com and tell us about it?

The English Pod audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

A bad second taste.

A bad aftertaste.

A strong unpleasant taste that is opposite of sweet.

Bitter.

A strong unpleasant smell.

Rank.

A rotten taste or smell.

Rancid.

Not appealing, not attractive or tasty.

Unappealing.

Little dish people have before meal.

Appetizer.

Place of business like a restaurant or hotel.

Establishment.

Work done by someone to serve customers.

Service.

The list containing your choices of dishes.

Order.

A food made from the livers of geese.

Foie gras.

More liquid than expected.

Runny.

Too salty.

Overseasoned.

Cannot be eaten.

Inedible.

Difficult to chew.

Rubbery.

Be cooked over time.

Overcooked.

The amount of food that is served to a person.

Portion size.

A small thin piece.

Sliver.

Get very upset about something small.

Make a big deal.

Be given to customers for free.

Comp.

To spend money.

Shell out.

Money you work hard for.

Hard earned.

Work done by someone to serve customers.

Service.

Place of business like a restaurant or hotel.

Establishment.

More liquid than expected.

Runny.

The amount of food that is served to a person.

Portion size.

A strong unpleasant smell.

Rank.

Difficult to chew.

Rubbery.

Too salty.

Overseasoned.

Not appealing, not attractive or tasty.

Unappealing.

Be given to customers for free.

Comp.

Get very upset about something small.

Make a big deal.

A strong unpleasant taste that is opposite of sweet.

Bitter.

A bad second taste.

A bad aftertaste.

A food made from the livers of geese.

Foie gras.

The list containing your choices of dishes.

Order.

Be cooked over time.

Overcooked.

Cannot be eaten.

Inedible.

To spend money.

Shell out.

Money you work hard for.

Hard earned.

A rotten taste or smell.

Rancid.

A small thin piece.

Sliver.

Little dish people have before meal.

Appetizer.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Inedible.

This fish tastes terrible, it's completely inedible.

Inedible.

If you leave meat out of the refrigerator for too long, it will be inedible.

Inedible.

Are you sure you can eat that? Aren't the flower decorations on cakes inedible?

Rubbery.

This steak is so rubbery, I can barely chew it.

Rubbery.

If the meat is so rubbery, why don't you send it back?

Rubbery.

The foie gras is so rubbery, I bet it would bounce on the floor if I dropped it.

Sliver.

No, John's on a diet. He'll just have a sliver of cake and no ice cream.

Sliver.

I'm really full, but it looks so delicious. Can you just cut me a sliver?

Sliver.

Hard earned.

Hard earned.

I refuse to spend my hard-earned bucks on someone who won't appreciate it.

Hard earned.

Tommy loved to party. Last night he shelled out $300 buying people drinks.

The English Pod...