Food, Cooking and Eating Out
The English you need to shop for food, read a menu and order a meal — including the countable and uncountable trap.
Food vocabulary is one of the most immediately useful groups at A2, and it comes with one grammar problem attached, so it is worth learning the two together.
Countable or uncountable?
| Countable (a, two, many) | Uncountable (some, much) |
|---|---|
| an apple, two eggs | bread, rice, cheese |
| a potato, three carrots | milk, water, coffee |
| a sandwich, two biscuits | meat, fish, sugar |
How many eggs? but How much bread?
For an amount of an uncountable food, use a container or a unit:
- a bottle of water, a glass of juice, a cup of tea
- a slice of bread / cake, a piece of cheese
- a kilo of rice, a packet of pasta
Cooking verbs
- boil — in hot water (pasta, eggs)
- fry — in oil in a pan
- bake — in the oven (bread, cakes)
- roast — in the oven (meat, vegetables)
- grill — under or over direct heat
- chop / slice — cut into pieces / thin flat pieces
I usually fry an egg and boil some rice.
Reading a menu
| Menu word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| starter | small first dish |
| main course | the big dish |
| side | small extra dish |
| dessert | sweet dish at the end |
| the bill | what you pay (US: the check) |
Ordering
- Could I have the soup, please?
- I'll have the chicken.
- Does it come with rice?
- I'm allergic to nuts.
- I'm vegetarian — I don't eat meat.
- Could we have the bill, please?
"I'll have…" is the standard, natural way to order. I want the soup is grammatically fine but sounds blunt to an English ear.
Describing taste
sweet, salty, spicy, sour, bitter, fresh, rich, tasty
This soup is a bit too salty. The sauce is quite spicy.
Test yourself
The quiz below checks countability, the container words and the ordering phrases.