12/2/24, 1:58 PM 📙 Part 2: Describe your favourite food that you ate at a traditional festival/special events – Telegraph

📙 Part 2: Describe your favourite food that you

You should say: what this type of food is, where you had it, how to make this type of food,
and explain why you like it.

This episode's vocabulary

• Variety (noun) - a different type of something.

• Recipe (noun) - a set of instructions telling you how to prepare and cook food,
including a list of what food is needed for this.

• To appeal (verb) - to be interesting or attractive.

• Joyous (adj.) - full of joy; very happy.

• Evidently (adverb) - used to say what people believe is true.

• Ready-made (adj.) - bought or found in a finished form and available to use

• Icing (noun) - a sweet food used to cover or fill cakes, made from sugar and water
or sugar and butter.

• Voilà (exclamation) - used when showing to other people something that you have
just made or got and are pleased with.

• Personalized (adj.) - used to describe an object that has someone's name on it, or
that has been made for a particular person.

Questions and Answers

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12/2/24, 1:58 PM 📙 Part 2: Describe your favourite food that you ate at a traditional festival/special events – Telegraph

R: To be honest, I quite like birthday cake. I know that can take a variety of forms, and
there's no fixed recipe, but the taste of it always appeals to me. I wonder if that's a
combination of the sugar, which I don't have so often, and the kind
of joyous atmosphere of a birthday party that makes it so unique. And evidently, I'm not
the only one, since there are various birthday cake-flavoured products that you can buy.
So clearly, I'm on to something here, and other companies have picked up on this, as
the name suggests, you obviously have it at birthday parties. And you can buy it ready-
made, or you can make your own. In my country, usually, close relatives make them or
send them. Either way, you eat it on a special day, and usually at a birthday party,
unless, for some reason, you weren't able to make it to a birthday party or to the
birthday party, then so tradition to save some and give it to the people who couldn't be
there. In terms of the recipe, I'd say it's really just a basic sponge cake with jam and lots
of icing. I'm a big fan of the ones which are covered in a layer of icing on the outside,
since that means more sugar, of course. All you need to do is throw together the
ingredients, bake them and then add some candles, and voilà, you're done. Some stores
do personalized ones with pictures in the icing or different shapes, which is quite cool.
I'm sure you can do your own as well though I've never tried. I'm not a great baker,
unfortunately. It fits well with the atmosphere of a party and, well, it's not the main
thing when it's someone's birthday. It's obviously a nice thing to have. So I'm always
really glad to have one or be offered a slice of one. I even had two at my last birthday,
come to think of it, which makes me sound greedy, but there were a lot of people, to be
honest with you. So I don't feel so bad about that.

M: What about your friends? Did they like it?

R: I heard no complaints.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your story!

Discussion

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M: Right, dear listener, so the topic is, describe your favourite food that you ate at a
traditional festival. For example, in your country, you have a traditional festival. I don't
know, it could be a flower festival, pancake week, or beer festival. I don't know. Food
festival, okay? Music Festival. And you ate some traditional food at this festival, or you
ate your favourite food at a special event. Your birthday, your wedding day, a party, I
don't know, anniversary, graduation day, any day, okay? And please choose the food
that you can describe. Don't talk about something very strange that you don't know
words about. Rory here picked a very easy topic, a birthday cake. Hey!

R: I like birthday cakes. I don't... It doesn't really matter what kind it is. It's always
appealed to me.

M: Birthday cakes appeal to me, meaning I like birthday cakes. They attract my
attention. And you can say, like, to be honest, I actually quite like birthday cake, yay.
And here we don't use any article because like I like cake, just in general. I like work. I
like love. I like cake. I love cake. Birthday cakes can take a variety of forms. And there
is no fixed recipe. The recipe is the instructions that you follow to cook a cake, to bake
a cake. And there is no fixed recipe. So no... We don't have one recipe to follow. And
the taste of a cake appeals to me. It's this combination of sugar and cream and fruits
and yum, yum, yum.

R: You have fruit in the birthday cake?

M Yeah, you can.

R: No, that would ruin it for me.

M: And birthday cake creates this joyous atmosphere. So the atmosphere of joy at a
birthday party. This makes it very unique. So I had a birthday cake at my birthday, or,
for example, at my wedding. At this summer festival, I went to.

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12/2/24, 1:58 PM 📙 Part 2: Describe your favourite food that you ate at a traditional festival/special events – Telegraph

R: Some people like wedding cakes as well, actually.

M: They are... Like I think they're a piece of art. Because each wedding cake is, you
know, could be tailor-made with different statues, and could be so beautiful and wow,
and tasty as well. And you can say that I made the cake myself, or I bought it ready-
made.

R: Or I had it made for me. Ooh, passive voice.

M: I had it made for me. I paid some people. And they made this cake for me because I
can't possibly cook.

R: Or bake.

M: And I had it on my special day, on my birthday, at a birthday party. And you can say
that, well, it's a tradition to have a good birthday cake. You can talk about a recipe. And
for example, like I made this cake with jam and lots of icing on top. With cream and
sugar. So it was a sponge cake or a cheesecake or a tiramisu, for example. And all you
need to do is throw together the ingredients. So you mix the ingredients together, like
sugar. Sugar, more sugar, milk, flour. It's this white thingy. You bake them, and you add
some candles, and voila, you're done. And you see, here, instead of voila, what else can
we say, Rory?

R: Oh, Bob's your uncle.

M: Oh, you throw together the ingredients, you bake them, you add some candles, and
Bob's your uncle. The cake is ready. Some shops, some stores, do personalized cakes.
Yeah? With pictures. And you can actually eat this picture. So you show them a photo,
and then they make this kind of picture edible, so you can eat it. It's amazing. So you
can eat a cake with a photo of yourself, yum, yum, yum. And you can say, I usually
order such cakes. I'm not a great baker like I'm not a great cook, so I can't possibly
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cook, so I have it made for me. I pay professionals to do their job. And a birthday cake
fits in well with the atmosphere of a party. So it fits well, it's kind of, its suitable.

R: Yeah. It's appropriate.

M: I'm always glad to have a good birthday cake at my birthday party. And you can say
like, I usually have two slices or one slice. A slice of a cake. Yeah. And what else can we
say when we talk about why I liked this food? So I ate this cake. I liked the flavour, the
taste of it. I like what? The texture.

R: The feeling, the memories it inspires.

M: I loved the process of making this food, for example, or it was the best food I've ever
had in my life. It took my breath away. It was, like, unbelievably tasty, delicious. And if
you talk about the festival, like, what food do we usually eat at festivals? Some like fast
food, I think?

R: Yeah, I'm trying to think of any specific foods for festivals, but I just don't know any
at all.

M: I think like burgers, some, I don't know, like mini pizza, or some traditional, I don't
know, hot dogs. You know, homemade pies, for example, could be quite traditional.
Yeah, pies. I think every festival has some, you know, pastry, some cakes and pies. Or
maybe you can say that, ooh, I went to this food festival, pizza festival in Naples, Italy.

R: Is that actually a thing?

M: Yeah, yeah, it's a thing. Of course, it's a thing. It's Naples, come on. Held annually in
the city of Naples. Pizza fest.

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12/2/24, 1:58 PM 📙 Part 2: Describe your favourite food that you ate at a traditional festival/special events – Telegraph

R: Are you kidding?

M: No, I'm just reading from amazing foodanddrink.com.

R: That's amazing.

M: And they've had this festival in Naples since 1995. Unlimited pizza. Okay?

R: Where? Where do they sell this?

M: Oh, my God... In Naples.

R: Is there like a special place for it? I feel like I need to go on a holiday.

M: I think, I think it's just the whole Naples is just full of pizza, life, music and people
from all over the world. Oh, my God, this is so amazing. Ooh, and in Japan, they have
ramen show, you know, like, ramen soup, ramen noodles. Yum, yum, yum. Oh, I love
good ramen. But it may not be like a food festival. You may just talk about music
festivals, or, I don't know, flower festivals, summer festivals, any festival.

R: Other countries have such a rich culture with food compared to mine. Honestly. Like
I cannot think of really that many festivals.

M: No. But I think like in local villages, you have many things associated with food.

R: No, not that I can think of. Although, then again, I live in a city. So what do I know?
If anyone is listening from Scotland, then feel free to correct me, but I do not feel like
there are any traditional food festivals.

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M: Taste of London festival, come on.

R: That's in London. That's 600 miles away from here.

M: Ooh, Edinburgh Food Festival. That's Scottish. Huh? Edinburgh Food Festival, oh,
my god, it's so good. An oyster festival. Ooh... Seafood festivals. No, come on, lots of
festivals.

R: Oh yeah, we have the Sea Fest in our broth. Why didn't I think of that? Maria's new
employer is the Scottish Tourism Board. Okay, so Maria knows more about my country
than I do.

M: Oh, food-wise.

R: But make sure you do not fall into the same trap. Find some festival or traditional
food and talk about it in your exam. Bye!

M: I'm hungry. I'm hungry now.

R: You just ate.

M: Let's go to Pizza Fest. Can you imagine, dear listener? Pizza.

R: Oh, my God.

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