Food and Drink (2)
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I'm Neil and I'm Rob. Now, Rob, you like your food, don't
you? Oh yes. Yum, yum - food one of my favorite things. And what do you think of street food? Oh,
I love street food - there are some great places in London where you can find delicious foods
from all over the world cooked in front of you in market stalls on the street.
It's quite new though, isn't it? Not really a British tradition. I guess not but it seems to
be much more popular these days. Well, our topic today is street food but before we tuck into that,
here is today's question: recently, archaeologists in Jordan discovered what they believe is the
oldest remains of bread. How old is this bread? Is it a) 18,000 years old, b) 14,000 years old or c)
5,500 years old? What do you think? I don't know but what I do know is i wouldn't really want to
try sandwich made from that bread - might be a bit moldy. Yes, uh, anyway ii'm gonna have a guess
then ii'll go for c) 5500 years old. Right, we will find out the answer later in the programme.
Mark Laurie is from the nationwide caterers association. He's an expert in the business of
street food in the UK. He appeared on BBC Radio 4's, The Food Programme and was asked how the
business of street food has changed in recent years. In his answer, he talks about the areas
where there is most growth in street food. What are those areas? It's been phenomenal the growth,
uh, in street foods, it's really taken off, it's really become quite mainstream - part
of the cultural fabric of the country, really, or so it's beginning to be. Uh,
certainly in the bigger cities and increasingly in the sort of provinces, if you like.
So where does he say the popularity of street food is growing? He says that it's in the bigger
cities and also in the provinces. The provinces is a word which means the parts of a country
outside of the cities, so essentially he's saying it's getting more popular everywhere. Exactly! In
fact, he says the growth is phenomenal. This means he thinks the growth is spectacular - really big.
Yes, he says that it's really taken off. Taken off is one of those phrasal verbs that can be
used in many different ways. In this sense, when something takes off it means it becomes
successful and popular. You know, street food isn't really something you associate with Britain.
Perhaps it's the climate or British food, so street food is something that we're now getting
used to and enjoying more. In fact, Mark says that it's now becoming mainstream. This means it's no
longer something that is seen as being unusual or different - it's becoming an accepted part of the
everyday eating experience. Well, let's listen again to Mark Laurie talking about the growth of
street food in the UK. It's been phenomenal, the growth in street foods - it's really taken off,
it's really become quite mainstream - part of the cultural fabric of the country, really, or so it's
beginning to be. Certainly in the in the bigger cities and increasingly in the sort of provinces,
if you like. Mark Laurie goes on to talk about why street food has become popular. What kind of
food does he say it's not like? Yeah, it's just really captured the imagination of the public.
It's honest food, it's authentic food and it's people that you can trust making it.
It's not some microwave food or whatever that you might get in your local pub.
So, street food is many things but what isn't it? Well, he says that it's not like food you
might get in some pubs. That food, he says, may be some microwave food - which is food
prepared in a microwave oven. You know I quite like a microwave meal now and then,
and I reheat my leftovers in the microwave. But I guess if you were paying for a nice meal you
wouldn't expect reheated leftovers. I think the point he's making is that in many places,
the food you're served is not freshly made - it may be pre-prepared and finished off in a
microwave. Street food, he says, is authentic. Yes, authentic - it's real, fresh and cooked
right in front of you and if it's food from a particular country it's probably being prepared
by people from that culture. He also says that this has captured the imagination of the public.
It's something that the public have experienced and thought, yep, you know, I like this. This
is a great idea. Well, all this sort of food is making me hungry, so let's get the answer to the
quiz and review today's vocabulary before we head off and grab a bite to eat. We asked about the age
of bread discovered by archaeologists in Jordan. Was it a) 18,000 years old, b) 14,000 years old
or c) 5,500 years old? And I said c) 5 500 years old. And I'm afraid it's a lot moldier than that.
The answer was 14,000 years. Ah, very tasty, I'm sure. Yes, right then the vocabulary - we
started off with the adjective phenomenal to describe something that is amazing, remarkable
and extraordinary. Then we had - to take off - a phrasal verb which means to become popular. Street
food has really taken off in the UK - it's become really popular. And not just in the cities but
also in the provinces which is a noun to describe areas of a country that aren't the major cities.
Something which captures the imagination is something which makes you interested and not
just for a short time. And one thing which has captured the imagination of the British public
is authentic street food. Something authentic is real - it's genuine. It's not a fake or a copy.
And finally, we had microwave food - food prepared in a microwave oven and that kind
of food is not seen by some as authentic. Well, it's time to eat, so that's all we
have time for today. Join us again next time and remember you can find us on Instagram, Facebook,
Twitter, Youtube and, of course, on our website: bbclearningenglish.com. See you soon, bye. Bye.
I'm Rob and welcome to 6 Minute English. We've got a sweet topic today and six tempting items
of vocabulary. Hello, I'm Neil and we're going to be talking about sugar which many of us find
tempting. But how much is too much, Rob? I don't know, Neil, but hopefully we'll be finding that
out. I must admit, though, I have a sweet tooth and that means I like sugary things. Me too
but something I'm always seeing in the news these days is that we're eating too much sugar. And one
important factor is that sugars are sometimes hidden in processed foods. Processed food is any
food that has been changed in some way by freezing it or putting it in tins, or by combining foods or
adding chemicals. In fact, some of the sugars we eat are hidden in food that we think of as
healthy, such as yoghurts, low-fat snacks and fruit drinks. Do you check the information on the
back of food packets, Rob, to see what's in them? Yes, I do, but it can be very confusing - there's
so much information and I'm not always sure how much of a certain thing is bad. Well,
that brings me on to today's quiz question. Can you tell me: if a food contains five percent total
sugars per 100 grams, is it a) high in sugar, b) low in sugar or c) somewhere in the middle?
I'll say low, Neil. Okay, well, we'll find out later. Some food products have colour coding
on the packaging to help you understand the information, don't they? Red for high levels
of sugar, salt or fat, orange for medium and green for low. That sounds helpful. Then you can see at
a glance what's good or bad for you. At a glance means with a quick look. Okay, let's listen now
to BBC reporter Rajiv Gupta interviewing a man in Chester in the UK. He's asking him to guess how
much sugar there is in a pot of fat-free yoghurt. I've actually got a pot of yoghurt in front of me.
This says fat-free on it and it's been marketed as being quite healthy. If I was to say to you,
how much sugar is in here what would you say, as I say, a quantity of the tub?
I'd probably think maybe a couple of teaspoonfuls, you know, it's quite surprising how much there's
sugars in all these products, isn't there? Well, there's about a third of this yoghurt
pot is actually sugar. To be honest, that's quite amazing, that. I would never have thought a third
of that would have been sugar in the... just by looking at it and it does say it's fat-free.
So the yogurt is fat-free which means it doesn't contain any fat and the man guessed there might be
two teaspoons of sugar in the yoghurt. That's right, and if something is sugar-free then it
doesn't contain any sugar. But in this case, a third of the yoghurt's content was sugar. That
to me sounds like an awful lot -even for someone with a sweet tooth like me. Okay,
well, let's listen to Dr Gunter Kuhnle. He's a nutritional biochemist at Reading University.
One problem we see in nutrition is, sort of this, focusing on individual foods. It was at one time,
it was that fat has to be avoided at all costs. Now it seems to go towards sugar and sugar is
demonized and people link it to drugs and so on. I think this is the wrong way forward. Individuals,
yes, you should have a balanced diet but it is important also to enjoy your food and not
really do this extreme focusing on one side or one aspect in individual nutrients.
So, if you avoid something at all costs you do everything you can to avoid it.
And demonize means to make someone or something seem very bad. Dr Kuhnle thinks that
totally cutting out one type of food like this, whether it's fat or sugar
is wrong. He thinks we should eat a balanced diet and enjoy our food. That sounds very sensible.
Now, how about telling us the answer to today's quiz question, Neil. Ah, thanks for reminding me,
Rob. I asked if food contains five percent total sugars per 100 grams, is it a) high in sugar, b)
low in sugar or c) somewhere in the middle. You said low, and you were right. Well done if
foods contain more than 22.5 total sugars per 100 grams, they are classified as high. And I guess
that between 5 and 22.5 they are somewhere in the middle. Correct, okay, shall we go over the words
we heard today? Yeah. First up, if you have a sweet tooth it means you like sugary things.
For example, my little nephew has a sweet tooth - he eats far too many biscuits and sweets. His
dentist won't be pleased. Number two. Processed food is any food that has been changed in some way
by freezing it or putting it in tins or by combining foods or adding chemicals. For example,
the meat in sausages is highly processed. Oh dear, I didn't know that - I'm a big fan of sausages.
Number three - at a glance means with a quick look. For example, I could tell at a glance
that I wouldn't like the food at that restaurant. Fat-free means without any fat in it. For example,
I bought this yoghurt because it says fat-free on the label. But did you realize that a third of it
was sugar? Moving on - if you avoid something at all costs you do everything you can to avoid it.
