Compelling Conversations: for Advanced students

EATING AND DRINKING

“Gluttony is not a secret vice.”

—Orson Welles (1915-1985), great director/actor

Sharing Tastes

Everybody eats. Food is both a necessity and a pleasure, and discussing different foods is an interesting way to learn more about people. Interview your partner or a friend and share your eating and drinking experiences.

1. Do you consider eating a chore, a duty, or a pleasure? Why?

2. What did you eat yesterday? Was it a typical day?

3. Do you drink juice/tea/coffee in the morning? Regular or decaffeinated?

4. Do you eat at the same time each day? Or do you eat when you have time?

5. Do you prefer salty snacks or sweet snacks? How often do you have snacks?

6. Where do you usually shop for food? What shopping tips can you share?

7. What drinks do you often have with your evening meal?

8. What kind of meat do you enjoy eating? Beef? Pork? Poultry? Fish?

9. What is your favorite vegetable? Are you a vegetarian?

10. What is your favorite fruit? Which fruits do you find delicious?

11. Can you name three American dishes that you really enjoy or savor?

12. Has your diet changed since moving to the United States? How?

13. Which dishes from your country would you recommend to a tourist?

14. Is there any food you enjoyed in your homeland that you haven’t found here?

15. Are you a chef?

16. What’s your favorite recipe? Where did you get it? What dishes do you cook?

Vocabulary

Review the vocabulary words below. Choose the words you know. Ask your partner or teacher for the meanings of the other words.

decaffeinated | chef | fast | famished | feast

Idioms, Puns, and Expressions

Which is your favorite?

I’m on a seafood diet. I see food and I eat it.

She loves candy, ice cream, and cookies. She has a sweet tooth.

A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.

Eat, drink, and be merry.

The most sincere love is the love of food.

The Conversation Continues

1. What is your favorite restaurant? In what language do you order?

2. How often do you eat at a fast food restaurant? Why?

3. Are American fast food chains popular in your homeland? Why?

4. In your native land, did all members of your family eat the evening meal together? Who cooked the food? Who served the food?

5. In your native country, what foods or drinks are associated with weddings? Birthdays? Funerals?

6. What foods or drinks are associated with holy days or national holidays?

7. Have you ever eaten at a feast? When? What meals remind you of happy times?

8. Have you ever fasted? Why? Were you famished after skipping two meals?

9. Does your religion have dietary rules or restrictions? What are they?

10. Has there ever been a famine in your native country? What caused it?

11. Have you ever tried to diet to lose weight? What did you do?

12. Can you name several types of diets?

13. Is your diet restricted in any way by health considerations? How?

14. Do you ever read food labels? Do you have any food allergies?

15. What meals does your family share? Who cooks? Who serves?

16. Does your family share recipes? Which recipe would you like?

17. Would you like to share a favorite recipe?

18. Are you adventurous in seeking out new culinary delights?

19. What is your ideal dinner? Please describe the dishes, the guests, and the location.

Discussing Quotations

With your conversation partner(s) or on your own, read the following quotations out loud. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Why? Explain your reasons.

1. “Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear.”

—Aesop (ca. 550 B.C.)

2. “The proof of the pudding is in the eating. By a small sample, we may judge the whole of a piece”

—Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616), Spanish writer

3. “The satiated man and the hungry one do not see the same thing when they look upon a loaf of bread.”

—Rumi (1207-1273), Persian poet and mystic

4. “More die in the United States of too much food than of too little.”

—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006), ambassador, economist

5. “Live. Love. Eat.”

—Wolfgang Puck (1949-), chef

6. “When I drink, I think; and when I think, I drink.”

—Francois Rabelais (1495-1553), satirist

7. “Edible (adj). Good to eat and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm.”

—Ambrose Bierce (1842-1916), American writer

8. “I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.”

—Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British Prime Minister, Nobel Prize winner

9. “The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.”

—Lucille Ball (1911-1984), American TV star and actress

10. “People who drink to drown their sorrow should be told that sorrow knows how to swim.”

—Ann Landers (1918-2002), American advice columnist

11. “I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy eating, and in fourteen days I lost two weeks.”

—Joe E. Louis (1914-1981), world boxing champion

12. “I thought, I called, I planned, I shopped, I schlepped, I cleaned, I chopped, I soaked, I peeled, I rinsed, I grated, I minced, I simmered, I larded, I mixed, I fried, I boiled, I baked, I sautéed, I souffléed, I flame boiled, and I sweated. So, tell me it’s great!

—Slogan on a novelty kitchen apron in the United States

13. “If it’s beautifully arranged on the plate, you know someone’s fingers have been all over it.”

—Julia Child (1912-2004), American chef/author

On Your Own

Write menu descriptions for your perfect meal. Include the major ingredients of dishes as one finds on a menu. Be sure to include appetizers, beverages, and desserts. Indulge yourself. Now describe your delicious choices to your group.