درسنامه واژه ها

Street Food – Vocabulary Lesson

Hi, this is Kristin Dodds, one of the teachers and directors of Learn Real English. Welcome to this month’s vocabulary lesson for the conversation Street Food. So I have the text of the conversation here and I’ve made some notes about some words or groups of words that you may have had difficulty understanding and I’ll be explaining them, those words or groups of words, as they relate to this conversation. So they could have another meaning in a different conversation.

Also, I want to talk about three words that you hear and see in our text from a lot of our conversations.

The first word is “yeah.” Yeah is just slang for yes.

The next word is “like” so you probably know like usually…like means to have positive feelings for someone or something but in conversations a lot of times native American English speakers will just use the word like and it really has no meaning. It’s just a filler word.

And then you’ll hear “y’know” a lot. So y’know, it’s actually two words combined together, you and know, and they get combined when we start speaking fast.

Alright I always like to point those out in case you are new to the Advanced Conversation Club. Let’s go ahead and begin.

So “street food,” the name of this conversation, street food refers to food being sold on the street. That’s pretty easy, right. But more than that it refers to specifically food being sold from a cart or from a truck.

Usually I’ve only seen food trucks here in the United States but it could be from a truck, from a cart or from a booth or stall. A booth or a stall is an area, usually outside, like at a market. There might be some walls but probably no roof. It’s just set up like a little kitchen, y’know, where food is prepared, cooked, sold. So that’s usually where I’ve seen a booth or a stall is like at a market or a festival. So it’s…street food, they’re sold in all these different ways. The food is sold in these different ways, like in a cart or a truck, as opposed to a restaurant, an actual building where you go in to order your food and eat your food.

Alright, let’s begin. At the very beginning of the conversation I say, “Just since I’ve moved here.” So here refers to San Francisco. San Francisco is a city in the state of California. And California is on the western coast of the United States. And San Francisco is actually in the northern part of the state.

Next I say, “We don’t really have people just out vending.” So vending means selling, in particular to this sentence it’s talking about selling from a stall or a food cart.

And then I say, “A little bit in the Mission, I guess.” So the Mission is the name of a neighborhood here in San Francisco. And there…in the Mission neighborhood there are a lot of people who live here who are originally from Mexico or Central or South America or their family is originally from those areas of the world or those countries.

Then AJ says, “It’s this kind of like encampment.” So what he means by encampment here is an area with many temporary food trucks.

And then AJ says, “The little gravel lot in the city.” So gravel is small rocks. And lot: lot is short for parking lot. So a gravel lot is an area where you can park your car and instead of it being on concrete it’s actually, you park your car on these little rocks, the gravel.

And then AJ says, “It’s kind of cool because you can go there.” So cool is a slang word for interesting.

And then AJ says, “I kind of used to think of street food as just yucky diner food.” So yucky means not good quality. It doesn’t taste good either. And diner food: this is a particular type of food. It’s generally not very high quality food. It can be greasy food, y’know, has a lot of oil in it. I think in a lot of diners you can find breakfast food and usually even get the breakfast food any time of day, not just for breakfast.

And then AJ says, “Now they’re getting more gourmet.” So gourmet means very high quality, wellprepared food.

And then I say, “What you’re talking about is the Soma StrEat Food Park.” Soma: this is the name of another neighborhood here in San Francisco and it’s StrEat…if you’ll see in the text of your conversation, Soma StrEat Food Park, street is spelled S-T-R-E-A-T. So that’s not the normal spelling of street. They spell it that way though, it’s kind of clever, a clever way of showing the word “eat,” eat within the word street.

And then I say, “Those food trucks change out.” So change out means alternate.

And then I say, “Sometime last fall Joe and I went.” So fall means autumn season.

And then I say, “All the food trucks were vegan.” So vegan means food that does not have any ingredients coming from an animal.

And then Joe says, “The street vendor said that they sold three times the amount of food that day.” So street vendors here means the food truck sellers.

And then I say, “They had a really good turnout that day.” So what I mean by a really good turnout is they had a lot of customers that day.

And then Joe says, “I think it’s spreading, too.” So what he’s saying…what he means by spreading is there are street food parks that are opening in other areas of San Francisco.

And then Joe says, “It has fewer trucks than the one you guys are talking about.” So when he says you guys he’s referring to AJ and I. Sometimes, mostly what’s common when you hear guys is that it’s referring to a group of men or boys or both. But it can also be a mix of male and female.

And then I say, “Portland is supposed to have a lot of food trucks.” So Portland is a city in the state of Oregon and Oregon is on the western coast of the United States. It’s in the northwestern corner of the United States.

And then Joe says, “There was just an article in National Geographic where they were talking about food trucks.” So National Geographic is the name of an American magazine.

And then Joe says, “Places where the weather’s a little warmer, like LA and Miami.” LA: this is short for Los Angeles and Los Angeles is a city in the state of California. It’s in the southern part of the state. And Miami is the name of a city in the state of Florida and Florida is in the southeastern part of the United States.

And then Joe says, “I think there’s some in Las Vegas also.” So Las Vegas: this is the name of another city. It’s in the state of Nevada. So Nevada’s in the western part of the United States. Las Vegas is also well-known for having a lot of casinos so a lot of people from around the world like to go to Las Vegas to gamble.

And then Joe says, “These food trucks are basically making a name for themselves.” So what he means by making a name for themselves is they’re becoming more well-known.

Okay, then AJ says, “The chance to market more and more effectively.” So market means to advertise and effectively means successfully.

And then AJ says, “We’re at this intersection now.” So an intersection is where two streets cross.

And then AJ says, “They develop this almost cult following.” So a cult following is a group of fans.

And then AJ says, “That just monitor Twitter.” So monitor means they watch what’s going on on Twitter.

And then I say, “You still have to have permits.” So a permit is permission from the City or from a city to sell something.

And then I say, “I think I said Sonoma earlier.” So Sonoma is an area north of San Francisco and in the Sonoma area there are a lot of grape vineyards which means there’s a lot of wine making that happens in Sonoma. So it’s also known as wine country.

And then Joe says, “South of Market area…Soma.” So Soma is short for South of Market. Market is the name of a street here in San Francisco. So the neighborhood, Soma, is south of that street, south of Market Street.

And then I say, “Right here around Dolores Park.” So Dolores Park is the name of a park in the neighborhood of the Mission.

And then I say, “A lot of food trucks were taco trucks.” So what I mean by taco trucks is the food was from Mexico, so it was Mexican food or maybe from Central or South American…South America.

And then I say, “There’s a whole range now.” So whole range means a lot of choices.

And then Joe says, “They try and specialize in something and then drum up interest.” So drum up interest: what he means is they find ways to get people interested in eating at their food truck.

And then I say, “We have two friends who own a resort on an island off of Washington.” So Washington is the name of a state. It’s actually right above Oregon, so it’s in the northwestern corner of the United States. It’s right on the western coast and it borders Canada.

And then I say, “They just recently bought a food truck in Miami and drove it cross-country.” So crosscountry means across the United States.

And then AJ says, “When I lived in Bangkok.” Bangkok is the capital city of Thailand.

And then AJ says, “It’s super affordable and tasty.” Super affordable means very cheap.

And then AJ says, “Thailand has an amazing street food culture.” So amazing means really great.

Thailand has a really great street food culture.

And then AJ says, “In America we’re combining it with vehicles which seems appropriate.” So a vehicle is something that is used to transport a person or an object so it could be a car or a bus or a motorcycle.

And appropriate: appropriate means fitting or just about right.

And then I say, “If you go up to Chiang Mai you don’t see as much street food.” So Chiang Mai is the name of a city in northern Thailand.

And then Joe says, “Along the moat you see a lot of people selling stuff.” So Chiang Mai in the center, or in the middle of Chiang Mai is what used…the old part of the city. And then around that is a newer part of the city. But around that old part of the city is what’s called a moat and a moat is a ditch or it’s where the ground is kind of caved in like if there had been water going around it, around the city. It’s basically old cities would have moats around them so they would have these areas where the land kind of goes in and there’s water in them so it surrounds the city and it makes it difficult for people to go and attack the city because it makes it difficult for them to get across the moat.

So then I say, “I’ve wondered if the street vendors would eventually be booted out of their areas.” So what I mean by booted out is made to leave.

And then I say, “Or just not be able to compete with restaurants in that area.” So compete means to keep up with.

And then Joe says, “This reminds me of that episode of that Anthony Bourdain show.” So an episode is one particular show in a series of shows. And Anthony Bourdain is the name of an American author.

He’s a chef and he also has a TV show about food and travel. In fact, he’s had a few shows I believe, at this point.

And then Joe says, “That episode he did on Shanghai.” So Shanghai is the name of a city in China.

And then Joe says, “He was saying that they were trying to eradicate them.” Eradicate means get rid of, get rid of them.

And then I say, “Yep.” Yep is a slang word for yes, kind of like yeah.

And then Joe says, “In favor of these.” So in favor of these means to be replaced by.

And then Joe says, “Even chain restaurants.” So a chain restaurant is a set of related restaurants from one company that are in many different locations. An example of a chain restaurant would be McDonald’s. You may know McDonald’s. You may have it in your country. It’s pretty…pretty much around the world at this point, that company is, McDonald’s.

And then I say, “He commented that they’re getting harder and harder to find actually.” So commented means said. And harder and harder means more difficult.

Alright, this completes the vocabulary lesson for the conversation Street Food. And I’ll be right back with the commentary.