Listening Exercises A2 – Eating out

Tick: Thai, Indian, Vietnamese

Circle: Cambodian

a   They are too tired to cook dinner.

b   Rachel says that she is ‘getting a bit bored with Thai’. This means she has probably eaten Thai food recently.

c   It’s on Queen Street.

d   No, it’s not as strong as Thai food.

e   It’s reasonable. It’s not cheap but not too expensive.

Transcript

Neil:          So shall we go out for dinner?

Rachel:     Yeah!

Neil:          I don’t feel like cooking. What about you?

Rachel:     I’m tired – I don’t want to cook either.

Neil:          No. No exactly. So what kind of food do you want?

Rachel:     Indian?

Neil:          OK, yeah, well er that’s what we had last time, so it’d be nice to have something different this time, wouldn’t it? What about having Thai food?

Rachel:     Oh I’m getting a bit bored with Thai.

Neil:          Are you? OK.

Rachel:     I’ve got an idea. There’s this new Cambodian restaurant on Queen Street.

Neil:          Cambodian? Oh yeah, it’s just opened, hasn’t it?

Rachel:     Yeah … the new one … Ah what’s it called? That’s right … the Khmer Café.

Neil:          I’ve never tried Cambodian food.

Rachel:     Apparently it’s very similar to Vietnamese and Thai, but the flavours aren’t quite as strong.

Neil:          OK.

Rachel:     Well, that’s what they say. And it has very little meat. Meat is more often used as flavouring.

Neil:          OK, so there are a lot of vegetables?

Rachel:     A lot of vegetables.

Neil:          Well, I suppose we could try that for a change. Why not? And you said it was on Queen Street?

Rachel:     That’s right – it’s a new place and it’s supposed to be very reasonable.

Neil:          Do you know anyone who’s been there?

Rachel:     Ah … there was a review in the paper which was positive. Said it wasn’t cheap, but it wasn’t too expensive and … ah What else did they say? Umm … oh good food and nice and clean … nice atmosphere.

Neil:          OK. Let’s try that then.   

1: lime leaves, mushroom soup, lemongrass, mushrooms

2: chicken, chicken curry parcel, curry, fish sauce, ginger, coconut milk, rice

χ: noodles, egg, beef, tomatoes, coriander,

Transcript

I went to the Khmer Café for dinner last Friday night and the food was great. For a starter, I had mushroom soup. It was very simple, but full of flavour. There was a taste of lime leaves and lemon grass together with mushrooms. Then for a main, I had a chicken curry parcel – the Cambodian name is ‘amok moan’. At the restaurant, they used cabbage leaves to wrap up the chicken, but in Cambodian they usually use banana leaves. This dish was full of flavours and was delicious. It’s made with lemongrass, curry, ginger as well as a little bit of fish sauce. This is all mixed together with coconut milk and the chicken is cooked in this mixture, then wrapped in the cabbage leaves to make the parcels. The waitress told me that they then steam the parcels for about an hour, then serve with rice.

I went to the Khmer Café for dinner on Friday. For a starter, I had shrimp curry soup. There was a taste of coconut and lime. It was quite sweet salty. Then for a main course I had vegetable beef stir-fry. It’s made with pineapple and tomatoes. This dish was very mild spicy. For a dessert I had tried bananas and honey ice cream. It was OK delicious.

Transcript

I went to the Khmer Café for dinner on Friday. For a starter, I had shrimp soup. There was a taste of coconut and lime. It was quite salty. Then for a main course, I had beef stir-fry. It’s made with pineapple and tomatoes. This dish was very spicy. For a dessert, I had fried bananas and ice cream. It was delicious.