Episode 0338

Hello everyone and welcome to English Pod. My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine, and it's the holiday season Marco, people are eating large meals with their families and I think often times when you cook a lot of food, you have something extra at the end. What do we call that?

That's right. Today we're going to talk about leftovers, leftovers.

That's the extra food after your meal that you eat later, maybe the next day.

Exactly. So, you know, during Christmas or during some holidays we cook so much food that obviously we can't eat it all. So, we put it back in the refrigerator and then we eat it later. So those are called leftovers.

Alright, so let's listen to this dialogue about leftovers and we'll be back in a moment to discuss what's happening in the dialogue.

What's for dinner?

Leftovers.

What? Leftovers of what and from when?

From last night. I took the leftover turkey, mix it with some diced peppers and onions, add a little bit of mayonnaise and made some sandwiches.

Isn't that dangerous though? I mean bacteria and germs reproducing on food that was left out or reheated?

Well, I didn't leave the turkey out at room temperature for more than an hour, and I refrigerated it soon after we finished eating. Also, when reheating, I put it in the oven for 15 minutes at 100 degrees Celsius.

Well, okay. I'm just afraid of getting food poisoning.

Alright, so a lot of vocab there. Let's take a look at it in language takeaway.

Language Takeaway

Alright, so Marco, there's one cooking term really in this dialogue that is it's a little bit different from the others. So let's start with that. It's diced.

That's right. We were talking about taking some peppers or diced peppers. So when you dice a vegetable or anything that you're cooking, basically you're making little little little pieces, little squares almost.

That's right. So you can cut something many different ways. Um, you can cut big pieces and small pieces, but diced peppers, diced is a specific way to cut something in small, like you say, small squares. And so in recipes, you will often see this instruction: dice the peppers or, in this case, the peppers are diced.

That's right. Alright, so we took some turkey, mixed it with diced peppers and a lot of things. And the roommate was a little bit concerned about bacteria and germs.

Alright, so bacteria and germs, these sound like very scientific words. Um, bacteria is something that grows on, well, everything really, but if you leave food out, for example, it gets bacteria or um, germs are things that can make you sick.

That's right.

Right? And so we need to avoid these things in the kitchen because they make us unhealthy. Uh, and so that's why we wash our hands and things like that. But when you have food that's left out, the risk is what, Marco?

Is that you get bacteria or germs on it. Yeah, so it's dangerous, like especially with meat. If you leave it out, it's very, very dangerous because you can get some uh, bacteria that will make you sick. And the reason why we're a little bit concerned is especially with meat is if you leave it out after cooking it at room temperature.

Alright, so room temperature is the temperature of a normal room. Maybe it's um, 65 degrees or what's 25 degrees Celsius, yeah. Um, it's the temperature of the inside of a room. And so um, it's not cold, it's not hot, it's just normal and when we leave food out, um especially meat like you're saying, we have to be careful. You can't leave it out for very long if it's something like eggs or milk or um what we call perishables.

That's right. So, actually here comes the other two words that are a little bit of a contrast. We're going to talk about food that is reheated or refrigerated.

Alright, so the roommate is explaining, don't worry, we have done these things to this food so it's safe. So one thing you can do to food to make it safe to kill germs, it's to reheat it.

That means um, well you know the word heated, right? It's to to make something hot, but how is that different from reheated? Well, because you cooked it already, so it was warm. Now it went a little bit cold because it's at room temperature. So in order to make sure that it's safe to eat and you kill that bacteria, you reheat it. So you kind of cook it again a little bit.

Yeah, you cook it again. So with leftovers, we often have to reheat things. Um because they were hot, then they were cold, and now we want them hot again. So we reheat them.

That's right.

The opposite of that would be refrigerate.

Right, and this is what you should do if you take something and put it in the refrigerator, what you are doing, the verb, the action is to refrigerate it.

That's right. So to refrigerate something means to make it cold. Um, you know, there are important things that we refrigerate. We refrigerate eggs, we refrigerate milk, we refrigerate butter. These are things that can make us sick if we don't make them cold.

Exactly. So, those are the two words. Now, obviously we it's a little bit different because the prefix to reheat means to do it again, while to refrigerate means you're just making it cold.

Yeah. Well, they're important terms and again, we also have the adjectives. This is reheated or refrigerated. Um, but there are another couple of phrases that are really important, so let's take a listen to those in fluency builder.

Fluency Builder

Alright, so the first phrase we're going to take a look at is when one of the roommates says, "Hey, what's for dinner?"

What's for dinner? Alright, this is a very, very standard phrase. This is something you'll hear at home, you'll hear with your friends. Um, it's usually something we say that when someone is cooking food for dinner.

That's right. We're asking what are we going to eat for dinner?

Mom, what's for dinner?

Mhm, exactly.

Well, obviously you don't want to say the long phrase. What are we going to have for dinner tonight? So you just say, what's for dinner?

What's for dinner? What's for dinner?

And then the answer would be lasagna or turkey sandwiches.

Right, exactly. Now when they started talking about the leftover turkey, he was a little bit concerned as we said about bacteria and germs because it usually happens that you get this on food that was left out.

Alright, so the verb here is to leave out, to leave something out. Um it means to leave something or put something at room temperature.

Right.

So Marco, you and I are eating turkey. It's Thanksgiving and we start to have coffee and dessert and the turkey is still in the room, at room temperature. We did not refrigerate it. That means it was left out. How long was it left out? Well, maybe two hours.

Right, right.

Okay, that means so it's it's not in a refrigerator.

That's right. And that's exactly what it means. So maybe you go to sleep and you left the turkey out. It's still on the table maybe at room temperature.

Oh no, we can't eat it if we left it out for like 12 hours.

Exactly. Alright, so it's not good to leave food out. Uh, and now what happens is if you do eat food that was left out for too long, you could get food poisoning.

Now this is very serious and it's something that you should be very careful about when you're cooking. Food poisoning is um getting sick from your food. There are different kinds of food poisoning, but usually it makes you throw up, it makes your stomach hurt. It's quite painful.

That's right.

Um, and so this is why we say, you know, you should wash your hands before you cook, you should make sure that you refrigerate meat, um because you want to avoid food poisoning.

That that's right. And it comes from the noun poison, a poison, which is something that is harmful for your body.

That's right. There are many different kinds of poison, um, but food poisoning means becoming sick, your body getting sick after you eat something bad.

That's right. Alright, so a lot of great stuff here. We can review everything one last time.

What's for dinner?

Leftovers.

What? Leftovers of what and from when?

From last night. I took the leftover turkey, mix it with some diced peppers and onions, add a little bit of mayonnaise and made some sandwiches.

Isn't that dangerous though? I mean bacteria and germs reproducing on food that was left out or reheated?

Well, I didn't leave the turkey out at room temperature for more than an hour, and I refrigerated it soon after we finished eating. Also, when reheating, I put it in the oven for 15 minutes at 100 degrees Celsius.

Well, okay. I'm just afraid of getting food poisoning.

Alright, so this is actually good advice about leftovers, about having something to eat. Um, but at the same time, I don't know how many people actually uh, are very careful with these things. For example, pizza. Sometimes you leave pizza out on the table all night and then the next morning you have some pizza.

I always refrigerate my pizza. I I know people who leave their pizza out and then eat it, but um there's cheese and sausage and, you know, you want to refrigerate that stuff. So I always wrap it in plastic and put it on a plate in the fridge.

Okay, you wrap it in plastic?

Well, because in the refrigerator there's also germs. So you need to make sure you cover your food.

Right, right, right. And uh what about have you ever had a a bad case of food poisoning because of having leftovers?

No. Um, I've had food poisoning, but not because of leftovers, because as I said before, you know, I wrap things, I put them in the refrigerator. I'm very careful because I don't want to get sick or I don't want to get other people sick. Because, you know, Thanksgiving or Christmas, you have to give food to many other people. And you know, I don't want to make anyone sick.

And actually uh, you can get food poisoning not only from leftovers, but from uh maybe food that um maybe was expired, like sometimes uh cheese maybe could be expired, you didn't realize it and, you know, you get food poisoning.

Or from people who are cooking with things that are not clean. So you have something that's not clean or food that's not fresh and it makes you very sick. That's food poisoning.

So it's an interesting thing, especially with uh like I said, so many holidays where you cook so much food that people have a lot of leftovers and not only that, but even at restaurants, maybe you you ordered too much, so you have leftovers you want to take home to your dog or to have later.

Let us know, do you have leftovers in your country? Um, are there things that you should and shouldn't do with when cooking? Um, let us know, our website is Englishpod.com.

Alright, we'll see you guys there. Bye.

The English pod audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

Food remaining uneaten at the end of a meal.

Leftovers.

A large American bird similar to the chicken.

Turkey.

Of different kinds combined.

Mix.

To cut into small cubes.

Dice.

Small organisms.

Bacteria.

A microorganism.

Germ.

To make hot or warm again.

Reheat.

To make or keep cold.

Refrigerate.

Becoming sick because of bacteria in food.

Food poisoning.

Let's try that faster.

A microorganism.

Germ.

Small organisms.

Bacteria.

Becoming sick because of bacteria in food.

Food poisoning.

To cut into small cubes.

Dice.

To make or keep cold.

Refrigerate.

To make hot or warm again.

Reheat.

Food remaining uneaten at the end of a meal.

Leftovers.

A large American bird similar to the chicken.

Turkey.

Of different kinds combined.

Mix.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Reheat.

Could you please reheat this? It's a little cold.

Reheat.

I reheated this pizza for you.

Reheat.

I hate to reheat things. It always makes the food taste really bad.

Food poisoning.

Could you please use gloves? I don't want to get food poisoning.

Food poisoning.

My wife always gets food poisoning when she eats seafood.

Food poisoning.

You should never mix cooked and uncooked food, otherwise you will get food poisoning.

Leftovers.

There are plenty of leftovers from last night's dinner. Please help yourself.

Leftovers.

I don't want to eat any leftovers. I need some quality food.

Leftovers.

You can come up with some very creative meals thanks to leftovers.

Germ.

Always wash your hands to wash away germs.

Germ.

Don't touch that. It has so many germs.

Germ.

I hate taking the subway. There are germs everywhere.

Mix.

I've prepared a bowl of mixed nuts for the party.

Mix.

My father has mixed ancestry. He is half Japanese and half Ecuadorian.

Mix.

I think having mixed classes will be good for the school.