Hi everyone! I am Georgiana, founder of SpeakEnglishPodcast.com. My mission is to help you to speak English fluently.

Do you want to sound more like an English native speaker?

Well, today you'll learn six new popular expressions in English related to food. After that, I'll practice your speaking with a funny mini-story.

Ok. Let's learn some new idioms:

There's a type of food that always makes us feel better because it reminds us of our childhood. That kind of food is called COMFORT FOOD.

We eat comfort food because it comforts us. Although we tend to feel better after eating this type of food, it is not necessarily healthy food.

Example:

"After a tiring day, it's so wonderful to cook some comfort food and read a good book."

And who doesn't like eating cake? I just can't say no to a piece of cake. And when something is extremely easy to do, we say it's a PIECE OF CAKE.

However, this expression doesn't have anything to do with food.

There's another similar expression. Instead of "piece of cake," you could say "AS EASY AS PIE."

Examples:

"I thought the test would be difficult, but it was a piece of cake."

"Compared to learning Japanese, learning English was as easy as pie."

But you know what? Sadly, there are times when YOU CAN'T HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO.

Yeah! You guessed, right! This is another expression 🙂

When someone says, "you can't have your cake and eat it too," they mean that you can't have two incompatible things at the same time.

In other words, the cake cannot be eaten and saved for later.

Example:

"James works too hard to pay for that luxurious house. The irony here is that he never has any time to stay at home and enjoy it. I guess he can't have his cake and eat it too."

Do you like these two expressions? I hope that you are not hungry because I'll continue talking about food.

So my question is: Do you enjoy eating cake? And please be honest.

Well, if you love cake, then eat as much as you want but make sure you don't bite more than you can chew, or you'll choke!

There's a popular expression called to BITE MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW."

When someone has bitten off more than they can chew, it means that they are trying to do something too complicated.

So please, don't bite off more than pie than you can chew 🙂

Example:

"Tom has taken on too much responsibility. He shouldn't bite off more than he can chew. "

Anyway, after so much pie, let's talk about something less sweet.

There's a common expression called "TO TAKE SOMETHING WITH A PINCH OF SALT."

What do you think this means?

No. It doesn't mean that I want to eat something with a pinch of salt.

You could use the expression "To take something with a pinch of salt" or the word skeptical. When you are skeptical, you don't entirely believe something you are told because you think it's unlikely to be true.

Therefore, you take things with a pinch of salt when you don't believe something is completely true. You're skeptical.

Example:

"I don't trust everything Sarah says, so I take anything she says with a pinch of salt."

Let's listen to the new expressions once again:

COMFORT FOOD

PIECE OF CAKE

AS EASY AS PIE

YOU CAN'T HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO

BITE OFF MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW

TAKE SOMETHING WITH A PINCH OF SALT

And don't worry about it. You probably won't remember the meaning right away. If that's the case, I recommend that you listen to the lesson several times until you're familiar with the new idioms.