Expand Your English Vocabulary: 10 Adjectives for Describing Food

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"Snakes on a Plane", you know who would be good in that?

James from www.engvid.com.

I want to teach you a lesson that I think is important.

When I was teaching in school on a regular basis, I would find that a lot of students

would say, "Food tastes good.

Tastes excellent.

It's delicious.

I never actually heard people talk about the texture of the food, and if you're confused

by what I mean, I'll give you an example.

This cloth, okay, it's got a certain texture.

Texture means the way that it feels, which is different than the shirt that I'm wearing

has a different... as my skin.

It has a different feel, and with foods, we can describe foods to people by the texture.

Funny enough, we can't really explain to each other what food tastes like or what have you,

given what the texture is, but these words will give an idea for what someone can expect

from something.

And sometimes we can be surprised by the texture of a food, thinking it's one way and it's

actually another.

But my job today is to help give you vocabulary so you can describe your favourite foods in

a way that's mmm-mmm-mmm delicious to other people.

Let's go to the board.

Now, look at E. He's already in the job.

"I love gooey cheese."

The word "gooey" sounds disgusting, doesn't it?

But let's find out what it means.

Well, "gooey", wet and sticky, but in a good way.

Some things are gooey and you're like, ugh, ugh, ugh, like plaster or paint, it's gooey,

it's all over you.

But when we talk about cheese, for instance, on a hot pizza, you can imagine the cheese

and the melting cheese sliding down, you're like, ugh.

It has to be gooey and hot to be delicious.

So when somebody says the pizza is ooey-gooey good, or the cheese is gooey, they mean there's

lots of it and it's falling and it's sticky and it's mmm-mmm-mmm, gooey in a good way.

Let's talk about "greasy".

So, "greasy" is when you can either taste the oil - remember, foods can be put in water

and boiled, or we can fry them, we usually fry them in oil, or you can put them on a

barbecue and grill them.

Well, when we talk about greasy foods, we're saying, usually, in a way, that there's too

You can either taste the oil or, if you ever watch The Simpsons and they do the food taste

test, they take paper, they slap food on and take it off, if there's a greasy mark, they're

like, it's fattening.

Okay, it leaves oil behind.

Remember that pizza I talked about is gooey?

Well, cheese can be greasy, right?

And sometimes when you pick up the pizza, you see little grease parts.

If you say it's greasy, I would say that's too much oil.

So, French fries can be greasy, a chicken, fried chicken, like a Kentucky fried chicken,

or there's the other ones, Popeye's chicken can be greasy, that means there's too much

oil on the food.

It's leaving oil behind.

This is a carrot, and you know when you hit a carrot, you go, oh, I think I broke my teeth.

It means it can be hard to make a sound.

When you hit a good carrot, you bite into it, you hear a crunch sound.

But, and it's loud, so it's crunchy and it's loud.

And when you chew it, you can hear it breaking down because it's a hard food, so we say something

can be crunchy.

Now, let me go from "crunchy" to, where's number four here, I've got it all over, "crumbly".

It's going to seem similar because you're like, well, crumbly, well, when something's

crumbly, I'm going to give you two examples.

I only put a cookie there, but anybody who's had a cookie, you're going to go, I know,

you bite the cookie, and there's cookie bits everywhere.

Well, it's crumbly.

It's breaking into pieces.

And those of you who like a good Greek salad, you know, the feta cheese, you take the feta

cheese and you break it and it falls into smaller parts, and you put it over the salad,

that's crumbly.

A crumbly type cheese.

I actually like this Cuban cheese, I forget what it's called, it's S something.

It's very salty, and when you break it in half like that, it breaks into pieces.

It is salty and it is delicious.

Very crumbly cheese, you bite into these salty little - sorry, I'm supposed to be describing,

not going through my fantasies - so, crumbly.

Think of a cookie, when you break a cookie, it falls into pieces.

Next we'll go to "creamy".

You can see this chocolate bar.

The Swiss chocolate is some of the most delicious, creamy chocolate.

You put it in your mouth, you bite it, you don't even bite it, you put it in your mouth,

you suck on it a bit, mmm, you suck, and it just falls in your mouth.

It's creamy, it's like a milky kind of smooth, soft, thick, creamy.

Chocolate bars are like that.

You can get milkshakes like that, creamy milkshakes.

You drink the milkshake, and it's cool, but it's soft, we almost say velvety.

So, when you say something's creamy, like a good coffee or a - I don't know what a coffee

drinker, but you put the milk and the coffee together, you know, when people drink that

I think it's like a latte or something, and they're like, "It's creamy, ooooh."

That's because it's smooth and soft, and usually thick and tasty.

Chocolate can be creamy.

Even though it's solid, it's when you put it in your mouth and you suck on chocolate,

it comes like this nice, creamy, fluid kind of food.

Not like a carrot.

So, that's "creamy".

Now, let's go to six.

"Moist", "moist".

One of our Prime Ministers said this on television, and it became a meme, because he was saying

something, and he went, "It's moist", and everybody was creeped out, like, "Ahh, don't

say that word ever again!"

Well, "moist" means soft and slightly wet.

Do you remember we talked about the chocolate bar up here?

Well, when we have a chocolate cake, it's different, because it's like a bread, but

when you put it in your mouth, it's not like bread, which is dry; it's kind of a little

That's why we like cake, and cake and bread are not the same.

Bread tends to be a bit drier, while cake, which is almost the same thing, is slightly

wet and it's soft, so we like moist cakes.

That's the best one I can think of.

Muffins, cakes, that type of thing.

So, that's "moist".

Now, what about "crisp"?

I have to tell you, there's nothing better than an apple that's been in the refrigerator,

a red, delicious apple, because it's sweet; I love sweet apples.

You take it out, you bite into it, two things happen.

First, the outside is hard and dry.

And you might say, "But, James, you told us hard is, like, crunchy."

I go, "It's not quite the same.

It's crisp because once your teeth go inside it, then it's soft, so it's like you break

something and it's crisp."

So, when we look at apples, for instance, a perfect example, it's dry and hard on the

outside, but it breaks easily, and it's the softness inside that gives you that crunch.

Not a crunch, but that crispness to it.

I don't know how to describe it.

It's like a beautifully ironed shirt that looks crisp.

Looks nice because it's crisp.

It's just a perfect line.

This is the best visual I can think of.

You know what I mean, when you see a nice ironed shirt.

A crisp apple, if you've taken one out of the fridge and bitten into it, it's hard on

the outside, but it's not hard.

And when you bite in, there's the softness underneath, but it's that tearing, that breaking,

the breaking of the skin that's so good.

And that's right, it feels good when you bite into it.

Well, now, I have given you seven different ways to talk about food besides, "Teacher,

the food is delicious."

You can say, "Oh, the chocolate milkshake was delicious.

It was smooth."

I even told you "velvety", which is not a...

It's a word we can use, and I just threw that in for you.

And "smooth" and "velvety", they're similar.

So you've got your words that you can use, but it would not be greasy.

That chocolate shake wouldn't be greasy, I'd be like, "Ugh, disgusting."

So you got your seven words.

Let's go to the board.

We're going to come back...

We're going to come back right now.

Did you miss me?

Didn't give you time.

Let's go do our quiz, then we're going to do the little extra words I have, three of

them, and we'll do our homework.

Let's go to the board.

So, the first one we're going to do is "I love the taste of something feta cheese on

my Greek salad."

Mmm, Greek salad.

What kind of cheese?

Can you think about feta cheese?

Remember, we said crumbly?

Crumbly like a cookie.

It breaks into smaller pieces.

When you tear it, it breaks, and that's why you can put it all over the salad.

"The best food in the world is hot, cheesy pizza."

Okay, well this one's easy because we want...

Were you paying attention?

I certainly wasn't paying attention because I put "greasy", and what we want is "gooey".

If you get a pizza that is both greasy and crunchy, that is disgusting because it's old

We want "gooey" cheese, not "greasy" cheese.

"Gooey", dripping down.

Not "crunchy" because it means the bread is old and stale; stale is not good.

Now what's the...

Let's see sentence number three, shall we?

"The chocolate cake was very something and delicious."

Okay, luckily we've already used "gooey" here, so you've probably figured out "moist".

We don't want a cake that's "gooey", falling down with grea...

Ooh, that would be nasty.

We want a "moist" cake.

JT, you know who I'm talking to.

Look up Canadian politics, and a Prime Minister, and the word "moist".

You'll love too.

Number four, "The French fries were cooked in too much oil and they were really greasy."

Remember we talked about oil, it gets left behind and it affects the taste, it can taste

the oil, which isn't too good, or if you put it on paper, you can see the oil, and that

means it's greasy.

Now I love apples, so this is one of my favourite sentences.

You've probably noticed I use "apples" three times, it's one of my favourite fruits.

So, "I took the apple out of the fridge and it was sweet.

When I took a bite out of it..."

"I took an...

I took the apple out of the fridge and it was something and sweet.

When I took a bite out of it."

What do you think that would be?

Think of shirts.

If you said "crisp", perfecto.

It was crisp, tearing into that flesh, and then the rest of it's soft, crumbling away.

Oh, crisp apples from the fridge are delicious.

Okay, so that's our five.

How did you do?

Did you get five out of five?

Two out of five?

If you didn't get perfect, go to the beginning, watch the video again, okay, and see how I

explained each one.

Anyway, time for our extra.

It's always good.

You come for the video, I give you some extra.

So, number one was "chewy".

What does "chewy" mean?

When you put...

I can use a steak for both of these.

I hate when you hear people...

I go clackety-clack, and you hear that.

Chewing, because chewing is what you're doing, and it's chewy.

You can keep chewing it.

You tear easily.

You put gum in your mouth, and you chew it, and it stays together, and you keep chewing.

A very bad steak is like that.

You cut it, you put it in your mouth, and you're like...

And you know when you have to go, "Excuse me", and take it out, because I can't chew

It's like rubber.

When the food is chewy.

Sometimes that's a good thing, right?

Toffee is chewy.

Toffee is like candy.

You put it in your mouth, and you can chew it, and it's sweet, and it's nice.

Toffee and caramel, that's different than a steak.

So "chewy" depends on the food you're eating.

It can be good or bad.

Chewy toffee, brilliant.

Chewy steak, garbage.

"Sticky", I have...

It is hard to manipulate.

"Manny" comes from the hand "man", using your hands.

When something's sticky, it stays on your hand, and you're like, "Oh, jeez", trying

"Glue" is sticky, and it's like literally the word "stick".

It stays on you, so you can't get it off.

Once again, toffee is good; it's sticky.

What else is sticky?

You eat it, and it sticks, and you're like, "Mmm", you can get it on your teeth, and it's

A lot of candy is sticky.

Mexican candy can be sweet and sticky.

Put it on, and it's delicious.

Now, finally, I'm coming to this word "tender".

"Love me tender, love me true, let all my dreams come..."

That's an Elvis song.

See how I did that?

So, "tender" is soft and sweet.

And in this case, it tears easily.

When a steak is tender, you cut it, you put it in your mouth, it breaks into pieces.

I'm salivating.

I have water in my mouth.

It's delicious.

A tender steak.

The exact opposite of a chewy steak.

So, you want one.

It's soft, it tears easily.

When the food is tender, it means it's soft, it breaks easily, it's just soft and nice.

I'm thinking about food.

I'm hungry right now.

I've been talking about food.

I've been talking about pretty good food, so now it's time for me to give you your homework

so you can go home and then try and work...

Enjoy these foods I've been talking about.

The first one for your homework, remember, go down in the comments below.

You will get 100 points for each correct one.

How do we vote for these guys?

You read their sentences.

If the answers are correct and you know they're correct, give them a thumbs up.

If you're on YouTube, you can just press the thumbs up and they'll know they got it correct

and they'll accumulate their points.

So, the more of you guys that vote, the more points they can accumulate.

So, the first one, I ordered my steak medium, so it would be...

Now, medium steak, just in case some of you may not know, when you do a well-done steak,

the steak is completely dry.

There's no moisture, so it can be chewy.

If you do rare, it can also be a bit chewy because it's not really cooked, but medium

is just in between when it's cooked enough that it's nice and soft and...

What do you think it is?

I told you I loved apples.

It's right here.

I don't like apple the company, necessarily, but I like apples.

The apple was fresh, so the first bite was...

Anyway, you do the math.

And finally, deep-fried foods are too something for me to digest.

Digest is when you eat the food, you put it in your mouth, and your body breaks it down

To digest it means you break the food down before you go poo-poo.

You need to digest it, break it down.

So, deep-fried foods are too something for me to digest.

In this case, using the word "too" means maybe too much of something.

And what is one of the words I use that's not a great word for food?

You don't want your food this way.

Well, listen, thank you very much for spending this time with me.

Thank you for working or coming here to learn, because I appreciate when I see you guys show

up, especially learning new words, because these are words on texture which you may not

have been introduced to.

I'm going to get going now, but before I go, I'd like to ask you to hit that subscribe

There's a button down there that says "Subscribe", hit it.

But also hit the notifications with the bell, because sometimes I hear you guys go, "Whoa,

it's been a long time, teacher.

Where have you been?"

Here all the time.

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So, hit the bell, hit subscribe, and I'll see you soon on the next video.

Have a good one.

I'm going to get me a rice... nice ripe... ripe... crisp apple.