Listening Exercises B1 – Cooking

1.

It’s easy to make a Caesar salad. Just take some fresh romaine lettuce and chop it into big pieces. Then put it in a big bowl, add the dressing, and mix it all together. Finally, when you’re ready to eat it, sprinkle some shredded Parmesan cheese on top.

2.

My grandmother is from New Orleans, and she makes the best gumbo. That’s a kind of soup. She pours broth in a big pot, and she adds shrimp and mushrooms. She adds a lot of spices, too, like salt and pepper, and some other spices that are a big secret. Then she stirs it and cooks it for hours.

3.

On Saturday mornings, I usually sleep in and make pancakes. You pour some flour and sugar in a bowl. Then you add water, an egg, and oil, and mix it together. Then you pour it in a hot frying pan. I like to spread a lot of butter on the pancakes when they’re done. That’s what makes them taste so great!

4.

Whenever there’s a big game on TV, I invite my buddies over and make some burritos. First, you fry some ground beef with spices. Then you get some tortillas – you know, Mexican flat bread that looks like really thin pancakes. Anyway, you put the beef on a tortilla, plus tomatoes, cheese, and chopped lettuce. Then you roll it all together and eat it with your hands. It’s delicious!

5.

There’s this Korean restaurant on campus that serves an amazing dish called bi-bim-bap. You’ve got to try it. They cut all these vegetables into little pieces, add some beef, and cook it all together with this really spicy sauce in a hot bowl. Then they put a big fried egg on top of it.

6.

Well, I don’t know how to really make ravioli. I bet it takes hours to make pasta yourself. So I just buy it frozen from the store. You boil a pot of water and pour in the little squares of pasta. Then you pour sauce over it and eat it. My favorite ravioli is the kind with cheese inside it. Mmm!

1.

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Cooking Today. I’m your host, Jack Murphy, and today we’re going to make some crepes that will knock your socks off. Seriously, guys, you’re going to love these crepes. All right, first thing. You’ve got to get your ingredients together. You need some flour, some milk, and an egg. Just put them on your kitchen table like I’m doing here. Oh, yeah, and you’ll need some sugar, too, because that’s what makes the crepe sweet.

2.

Now you’re ready to measure your ingredients. You want one cup of flour and one cup of milk. And, of course, you want the whole egg. You can’t cut an egg, anyway – ha! That’s a little kitchen joke for you guys. As for the sugar, you need just a pinch. That means a very, very small amount. Too much sugar will make your crepe taste awful.

3.

Once you’ve measured all your ingredients, pour them together in a big bowl. You see how I did that? Pour it nice and slow. Then stir it all together with a fork. Yeah, that’s it. Mix it up. Stir it until you get a nice, smooth liquid. That liquid is called the batter.

4.

Okay, so you’ve mixed the ingredients together. Now you’re ready for the frying pan. Put the pan on the stove, heat it up, and put some butter on it. You don’t need a lot of butter. Just put a little bit in the pan, so the crepe won’t stick to it. All right, now we’re ready. All you do is pour the batter on the pan. When the bottom gets a little brown, flip it over. Yeah, just like that. Then you just put some strawberry jelly on there, and you’re ready to eat!

1.

A:   Hey, Jen! How was your trip to Taiwan?

B:   Amazing. I can’t wait to go back there. My favorite thing was eating dim sum.

A:   Dim sum? What’s that?

B:   Well, it’s all kinds of different little foods, like fried pancakes, egg rolls, or fried rice and vegetables. You go out with our friends to the restaurant, and the waiters bring all the different dishes around in carts while you sit around and drink tea. If you see something you like, you’re supposed to wave to the waiter. It’s really fun.

A:   Yeah. It sounds great.

2.

A:   You used to work in Saudi Arabia, Tony. What’s a traditional meal like there?

B:   Oh, you would love it. Everyone sits on cushions, on a nice carpet and drinks cups of sweet coffee. Then you eat kabob with your hands.

A:   Kabob … that’s like barbecued meat, right?

B:   That’s right. You cut pieces of meat and vegetable and grill them. It’s sometimes served over rice.

A:   Mmm. It sounds great.

B:   Just remember one thing. In Saudi Arabia, it’s very important to make the guest happy. So if the host offers you something, you should try to eat it. if you refuse something, you might hurt his feelings.

A:   Thanks for the advice.

3.

A:   Ana, can I ask you something? I’m going to Spain this summer, and I want to try something really Spanish. What do you recommend?

B:   Oh, paella, of course. You take rice, meat, seafood, vegetables, and all kinds of spices, and you cook it all together in a really huge pan. It’s our most famous dish.

A:   It sounds great.

B:   But if you really want to experience paella, you’ve got to eat it like the people in Spain do. We like to eat our dinners really late at night, like at 9 or 10 o’clock. Then we go out to the discos and dance all night.

A:   Wow. I can’t wait to go!

4.

A:   Hey, Mike, I heard you were studying abroad last semester in India.

B:   Well, actually, I was in Nepal. It’s a small country just north of India.

A:   Wow, what was that like?

B:   Really fun. The only thing I had trouble adjusting to was the food. My host family ate a dish called daal bhat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s just rice with this sort of bean soup poured over it. Sometime it had vegetables on it. It was really difficult to eat because in a Nepali home you’re supposed to eat with your right hand only.

A:   That sounds rough.

B:   It was

5.

A:   I’m in kind of a hurry today, Luca. Would you mind if we just grabbed a quick lunch at a fast food joint?

B:   Oh, man, I would never hear that in Italy.

A:   Oh, really? Why is that?

B:   Well, long lunches are an important part of Italian culture. I like to meet my friends at a nice restaurant, order some appetizers, and then eat lasagna al forno. That means lasagna cooked in an oven. And after you’re done eating, you’re not supposed to leave right away. You should sit around for a while, just drinking coffee and chatting.

A:   That sounds nice. I wish we could do that here.

6.

A:   Hey, Miho, that smells great. What are you cooking?

B:   Thanks. It’s sukiyaki. It’s one of the most popular dishes in Japan. You cook thinly sliced meat and vegetables in a big pot. We like to eat it in the winter. Oh, yeah, and some people like to dip the meat in raw egg.

A:   Really? You mean they dip it in uncooked eggs? That’s pretty weird.

B:   Many Japanese customs probably seem strange to you. For example, when you’re eating noodles, it’s okay to make slurping sounds. Most Americans probably think that’s rude, but it isn’t rude in Japan.

A:   Wow, I never knew that.

1 b   2 c   3 e   4 a   5 d

Transcript

1.

I know this cafe that serves the best borscht. That’s a kind of soup. It’s made from sugar, potatoes, onions, garlic, and eggs. And, of course, it’s got lots of beets-you know, those bright red vegetables?

2.

When I was a child, my parents used to take me to the local restaurant and order me a pizza burger. That’s a hamburger that has pizza ingredients inside it-like tomato sauce, and lots and lots of cheese.

3.

When I was on vacation in Prague, in the Czech Republic, every restaurant served something called “smazeny syr.” The name means “fried cheese.” So it’s made from just cheese and oil.

4.

Every Sunday, my crazy roommate cooks something for us that he calls “potato soup.” It’s very simple to make. He puts five potatoes in a pot of water. It’s cheap, but it tastes pretty bad.

5.

I love this Mexican restaurant called “Burrito King.” They make the best burritos. They take beef, lettuce, tomatoes, and lots of spices, and they roll it up in a tortilla. It’s really spicy!

1 b   2 c   3 a   4 a   5 c

Transcript

1.

Hello, everybody! Are you ready to make a delicious and easy dessert? Okay! To start with, you need these ingredients: vanilla ice cream, strawberry ice cream, chocolate ice cream, and chocolate sauce. And you need one banana, of course!

2.

Okay! Now that you have your ingredients, you need a bowl to put everything in. Make sure it’s a big bowl, everyone, because we’re going to use a lot of ice cream!

3.

We’re ready for the next step, okay? Take the banana and peel it – you know, open it. Then take a knife and cut the banana into two long pieces. Got it? After you’ve cut the banana, put the pieces in the bowl.

4.

Okay, everybody! Now it’s time to add the ice cream! Do you see this big, big spoon I have? That’s called a “scoop.” Now, take two scoops of vanilla ice cream and two scoops of strawberry ice cream and put them in the bowl. Good. Put them right on top of the banana. Then add one scoop of chocolate ice cream.

5.

Okay! Okay! Are you getting excited, everybody? Here’s the last step. Take your chocolate sauce and pour it all over the ice cream and the banana. Okay! That’s it! The banana split is finished! You should eat it right away, while it’s still cold!