Talking about desserts

Introduction Georgie and Phil have a real conversation in easy English about desserts – the sweet treats we have at the end of a meal. Learn to talk about having a sweet tooth or being a chocolate person, and find out the surprising dessert that Phil still thinks about 20 years later! Vocabulary pudding another word for dessert, particularly common in the UK have a sweet tooth enjoy desserts and other sweet things sour acidic tasting sharp having an intense and flavourful acidic taste filling makes you feel full a (something) person a person who particularly likes something, for example a chocolate person particularly likes chocolate Transcript Phil Hi Georgie. How are you?   Georgie I'm pretty good thank you, Phil. How are you doing?   Phil I'm really good. I think you're going to be even better when you find out what we're talking about today.   Georgie Tell me.   Phil Well, I know we often talk about food, but today we're talking about desserts.   Georgie You were right. I love desserts or puddings – sometimes we call them puddings in the UK. I have a big sweet tooth so, yeah, I will love this. I will love talking about this topic.   Phil Fantastic. Let's get started.   Georgie Well, first, before we start talking about my favourite topic, we have to remind our listeners that they can find a free worksheet and transcript to help them learn at bbclearningenglish.com.   Phil So, Georgie, I think this is a silly question and I think I know the answer already, but do you like desserts?   Georgie Ah... do I like desserts? I love desserts! I have a really big sweet tooth, which means that I really like sweet things, sugary things – I put sugar in my coffee sometimes. But I... if I'm in a restaurant, I will always order a dessert. I would prefer to have a dessert or pudding than a starter, actually. Yeah. What about you? Do you like them?   Phil Yeah, I do. I think... I think in a restaurant I'd probably order a starter rather than a dessert. But yeah, it's nice when you get a good one. Ah, it's so good. I quite like homemade desserts – so, I don't know... homemade apple crumble.   Georgie Ooh, that's really good. So, that's when we cook the apples a little bit so they're quite soft, and then we put a biscuit topping at the top. And it's really, really delicious. And it's a hot... a hot dessert.   Phil Yeah. And a lot of fruit puddings that I quite like – they're sweet but they're also a bit sharp as well. A bit sweet, a bit sour. That's a really nice combination. I love that.   Georgie Well, I do love fruit puddings but I am a chocolate person, so if I have a menu in a restaurant, I will always look for the chocolate dessert – maybe a chocolate brownie, chocolate cake, ice cream as well. That's a really good dessert. And sometimes if you're feeling very full after the meal, ice cream is a good option because it doesn't feel too filling, does it? Do you like ice cream?   Phil Yes, I really love ice cream. I like most flavours of ice cream, I think. I like the creamy ones and then some of the fruity ones as well, like mango ice cream or something. On a hot day you can't beat it.   Georgie Do you often eat dessert?   Phil No, I don't think I do. Not that often. I keep it as a treat for, like, a special occasion or something to make a meal feel really special – dessert with it. But yeah, I wouldn't... I wouldn't have it every week, I don't think.   Georgie No, because it's not very healthy to eat too much sugar, is it? You're very good. I do eat pudding and dessert quite a lot. I... Yeah, I just get really strong sugar cravings after meals.   Phil What's the best dessert you've ever had?   Georgie OK. Well, I said that my favourite puddings are chocolatey, but actually I think the best dessert I've ever tried, because it was the first time, was when I was in Jordan and I tried something called knafeh, and this is like a... it's actually a cheesy pudding so it has cheese in it, but it then has a kind of crispy topping that I think is made of honey or sugary syrup, so it has the kind of savoury, which means salty, of the cheese – the salty flavour of the cheese – plus the sugary bit at the top. And it was so delicious. I ate all of it and it's, yeah, very rich.   Phil That sounds amazing.   Georgie Do you have a favourite one?   Phil The one I can remember best – I had it in a restaurant in Argentina about 20 years ago, and I can still remember it. And it was deep-fried ice cream, which sounds crazy. It's like ice cream and it was fried in, like, sweet batter or pastry. It was amazing. And I can remember it 20 years later.   Georgie That sounds incredible. That's something that's very common in Scotland actually. I'm surprised you had it in Argentina. Maybe not ice cream, but in Scotland they like to deep fry – so, put something in a lot of oil. They do that with chocolate bars and things like that so, yeah, not very healthy.   Phil No, not at all... but lovely.   Georgie So delicious!   Phil OK. So, let's recap the vocabulary that we've been looking at today. We're talking about desserts. We also, particularly in the UK, call them puddings. And that's just something sweet that you eat at the end of a meal.   Georgie Yes. If you really like puddings and desserts and sweet things, you could be described as having a sweet tooth. I have a sweet tooth, for example.   Phil Yes. Of course, puddings aren't just sweet. I talked about apple crumble, a very traditional British pudding, and it's a little bit sharp, which kind of means the same as sour. So, like, a lemon pudding would be sharp or sour.   Georgie We also heard the word filling, which describes a food or a pudding which makes you feel full.   Phil Oh, and Georgie, you said you were a chocolate person. What do you mean by that?   Georgie That just means that I am a person who really likes chocolate. What kind of person are you, Phil?   Phil I think I might be an ice-cream person.   Georgie I'm also an ice-cream person.   Phil I'm also a chocolate person.   Georgie Well, Phil. That is the end of this episode of Real Easy English. We will of course be back next week with another conversation.   Phil Yes, we will. And don't forget that we have a worksheet that you can get from our website. And that's bbclearningenglish.com. Goodbye.   Georgie Goodbye.   Now try this... Watch The London Letter Challenge. Download a free worksheet. Discover more programmes for your level.  Find all our latest programmes.