hello everyone and welcome to our first edition of faces and places across the
United States my name is Kate and I'll be with you behind the scenes along with
my colleague Leah as a moderator and we're happy today to be joined by our
host Sandra and our special guest Melissa all right thanks for joining and
let's get started hi hello everybody and welcome to our first edition of places
and places across the United States my name is Sandra and I'll be your host
today and today I'll be talking to our guest Melissa
welcome to our chat Melissa I think Sarah having me I'm really excited to be
here today it is wonderful to have you here Melissa we are so happy that you
have joined us for this first web chat but before we begin why don't you tell
us a little bit about yourself where are you now Melissa. Well I am in Utah which
is in the mountainous western part of the United States and I teach at a
university here and I live with my husband my two-year-old and our two dogs
so things are pretty crazy here most days. It looks like it's pretty busy
around there yeah it can be it can be a little hectic especially in the mornings
when the dogs and the toddler want to get up. Yeah, so tell us about the weather
today how is it there in Utah. Oh it's so beautiful. I'm just looking out the
window. It's blue skies, sunny. It's definitely spring today so it'll be
nice day to go on a walk or be in the backyard. Oh that is very nice. How's it in DC? Here in
Washington DC's a little cloudy is being unusually cold for the spring months but
we're getting there I think tomorrow will be a little better. Oh nice. So let's
get started because today we have a great topic to talk about we are going
to be talking about food and who doesn't like food. hmm so good. Maybe we can ask
our viewers today if they can tell us what's their favorite food. I'll start. My
favorite type of food is Mexican food. I love everything that has tortillas,
tacos, salsa; anything with cheese I love it. I'm there. What about you Melissa? What
is your favorite type of food? I could definitely go with Mexican food
especially a taco or a burrito but I think my favorite food that I could eat
all the time are french fries. Ooo, I love french fries. Yeah, they're just greasy and salty
and if you make them at home it's not quite the same. Oh that is nice. Okay so let's
talk about and I could experience you had with food.
We are going to talk a little bit about what happened to you and your experience and what made this
meal a very unforgettable story. I think the...so my my story starts in
Bosnia-Herzegovina when I was living there in 2008. And in the spring of 2009
my sister was visiting, my husband and I and her, and some friends were traveling
in the southern part of the country, in Herzegovina, and we we decided to take a
hike and it turned into a terrible hike that ended with a spectacular meal. So, it
was, if you know anything about Bosnia Herzegovina the southern part of the
country is very Mediterranean and so it can be very hot and dry. Umm, its mountainous
so you can see that's that slide there is a picture from our hike. There's not a
lot of shade or cover if you're out hiking in that part but it's it's really
lovely On that particular day it was really hot
and we decided to go on this hike up to this hotel restaurant that kind of sits
in the mountains and so we started our hike, and, we were, there were cows
everywhere, which is fine being from the Midwest I can handle cows but with cows
come cow pies which is basically cow dung and
flies. Lots of flies and a really rocky terrain so we're sweating, we're climbing,
we're looking for this place, we're hungry and ultimately, I think because
there were five of us we would have...we decided to keep going for about an
hour and then we just kind of said no we're done and we're we made our way to
the restaurant. Ooo, I think we have a picture of you and the restaurant. Yeah, next slide
Yeah, so we get to this restaurant after this terrible hike and you can see
how not even joyful just like excited I am to eat this food. We sit down the the
restaurant they're so friendly. It's a family. Most of what they make is
grown or produced on the property so they start with some like really fresh
spinach soup with lots of vegetables and meats because you can't be in
Bosnia-Herzegovina and not have grilled meat and then they gave us one of my
most favorite things I've ever eaten which is this fried bread. It's called
ustipci. Oooo, I see it. Is that the one there in the picture? Yeah, it's there in the picture and they
brought out a big pile of this fried bread and they brought out fresh cream
called kajmak and fresh honey and you were just to put everything on the bread
and for five of us I think they had to bring out another plate of those
because we were just kind of bottomless pits. Our stomachs just kept eating those.
They were amazing. Yeah that looks really really good. Is that like a cheese what I
see is that the cream that you put inside? Yeah, so it's like kind of a cross
for...Americans would know it is more like a cross between a cream cheese and a
sour cream but you can't really make it outside of that region easily cause you
can't get the same cultures and and things that make cheese, but then with
the honey on top it's the perfect combination. Wow,
that looks very good I think we have one more picture in the next slide
probably another picture of the, yep, of that donut basically. Now I'm really
hungry looking at it. Wow who can say no to fried bread and cheese and honey
Right, I think I think every culture has a variation on this and I
think there's a reason for it. Yep, it looks really really good. So tell me Melissa,
did you learn to make it. Um I did not. I feel like if I; I feel like it's probably
a pretty simple thing to make but to replicate what you have in a certain
experience or in a certain place it just wouldn't taste the same. So, I haven't, I
haven't tried it. Yeah and I think we have some questions. We want our audience
to ask you some questions, but before we have some other questions for you I
have a few other questions. Do you think the experience would have been different
if you were alone? If I was alone I would have never...I would have after 20 minutes
on that hike, being hot and grumpy and flies, I would have I would have left
never made it to the restaurant so I wouldn't have had this this bad hike
that turned into the best meal ever. Yeah because I think that's what made it more
memorable for you that you had people with you. Right and I had like my sister
and friends and it was, it was just, we were, it was a good time and a good group
of people and so that experience I think is what makes um probably for a lot of our
followers that can make a meal. Yeah definitely when they say great
adventures that lead to amazing discoveries and it looks like this one
was one of them. Yes, totally Sandra. Can you find this type of food in Utah? Um, I can
get Bosnian food in Utah at about two different places, but again I think
and it's delicious but I think it's it's not as easy to find as I would like I
would like every restaurant to have this on their dessert menu. I think so. Me too.
So if we go to the next slide I believe we have now some questions
so if you have questions for our guest Melissa who is joining us from Utah
you can ask ask them on the Comments on Facebook and we will try to answer as
many as possible. So the first question is about Brazilian food do you like it?
Ooo I've had many students make Brazilian food for me over the years and
it is delicious and of course I can never remember any
of the names. All I know is that it's it's really good food. I had some-
somebody make me like a very popular rice meat dish from Brazil and I wish I
could remember the name so I could try to find a recipe. That sounds good that was a
question from Luis from Brazil so maybe he can tell us what that meal is.
Okay we have Lisette Solise. She is talking about favorite food. She likes
everything including vegetables and fruit; so what do you think about
vegetables and fruit? Well I love vegetables and fruit especially when the
the the weather is getting, getting warmer that's when I really like to eat
all the fresh veggies and fresh fruit. I love watermelon season so when that
comes I'm eating watermelon all the time. That's definitely my favorite fruit.
That's very refreshing watermelon is very refreshing for summer days. Yeah, so
good. Well we have a lot of questions here; so we have a question from Tatiana
and she likes roast turkey how about you? You like roast turkey? I I'd say as an
American you it's you have to like roast turkey it comes as part of our biggest
holiday Thanksgiving so of course I love roast turkey. Yeah, I know it's been the
it's been a while since I had turkey but it's definitely my favorite thing
about Thanksgiving. We have Santa An Noor and she wants to know if you have a
recipe for brownies. Oh brownies I'm I can make really good
cookies but brownies they don't bake well and since I live in the mountains
at altitude it changes and they always come out half raw and half done so I'm
sorry I don't have a good recipe for brownies. But I do love eating brownies
Yeah, definitely, I am NOT a baker at all but I could eat a lot of cookies and
brownies. Yeah, definitely. Rodrigo Martinez is asking if you like Mexican food. Yes. I love Mexican
food in fact I would say that would be second to french fries like Sandra
could eat Mexican food all the time I could definitely eat Mexican food all
the time. Here in Utah we get a lot of kind of tex-mex mixed food or some real
Mexican kind of food so it depends but even just like a good tortilla
I could I could scarf those down all day. Yeah we have so many different questions
from different countries and we want to know if you know they can tell us what's
their favorite food from their country I think if they can tell us in the
comments we can also learn about what they eat and what's their favorite meal
in their countries. Anna wants to know if you had tried Albanian food. Albanian
food? Yeah. Ooo, I'm trying to think. I feel like I haven't tried anything that's
that's unique to Albanian food probably food that's maybe also made in Albania
but nothing so I'd like to know what kind of what that would look like. Yeah
definitely want by our viewers to please tell us in the comment box what's their
favorite food from their country and if they can describe it for us we can learn
a lot about their type of food. Pati Soto from Guatemala is asking
what's the most famous food in the United States. Oh wow, what are you, pizza.
I mean that not because it's from the United States but probably it's the most
popular food. The most famous food for Americans might be hotdogs?
People might associate hotdogs with Americans or pizza or hamburgers. What do
you think Sandra? Yeah I think hamburgers are pretty famous here along with
french fries, which we love, and then hot dogs definitely are very popular and
pizza. Yeah I would also say for for breakfast food I think cereals are
very popular here. Okay we have a few more questions. We have smart kids want
to know, they want to know what is the most delicious food here in the United
States. The most delicious, well like I said french fries but you can get so, now
we're all going to get hungry for lunch, What is the most delicious? It depends on what you're in the
mood for. You can get kind of anything you want. I would say though when I've
traveled outside of the United States or the Western Hemisphere
I miss Mexican food because it you can't quite get it the same outside of the
Western Hemisphere. The peppers are unique and the flavors, the spices...
Definitely oh now, now they're talking about pupusas and... Oh my gosh! I mean Jose's
talking about Dominican Republic and the food that they have there and they said
they eat mango with cheese and fried and he loves fried eggs too.
Wow and Dan is telling us that you must try Bolivian food and Adam from Algeria
recommends couscous. Oh I love couscous. So good and the last comment that we
have here - it says that we should try bubble tea. I have never tried bubble tea.
Have you? That second or third favorite food is bubble
tea from and I've never been to Taiwan but I went to China and Korea and if I
can find good bubble tea whenever I'm in a city I will always go get it. It's, it's
delicious. Yeah that's so so good. Yeah. Now we have some interesting foods here
too that I didn't know about but in Kazakhstan Rauza says that they if we
have tried horse sausage. Horse sausage. No I haven't. I don't think I've ever
eaten horse. Me neither but you know that's interesting maybe yeah tell us
more about it and next time if we are in Kazakhstan we can try. Right. Now we know
to ask for it. Yeah. And then Eduardo is saying that they have a dish called gallo
pinto and it's a recipe basing a mix of rice and beans. Mmm, that sounds good. I
know rice and beans together. My little girl can eat, she can really eat a lot of beans. She loves them.
Yeah and it seems like one of our viewers has eaten American pizza and she
is saying or he's in Korea I was saying that it was really delicious. Yeah I
feel like some of my students from around the world will either really like
it or sometimes they'll think oh this is this is too much stuff. Because we can
really put a lot of ingredients on our pizza here. Yeah and I think we have one
more comment and I think we you know we're past our time now but if people
have more comments or questions for us you can put them on the comments box in
Facebook and we'll try to answer your questions and share it with you. Well we
have pizza is always going to be the best. That's last sentence I have here so let's go to the last slide because I
wanna before before we leave I want to make sure that everybody knows of our
resources so our last slides has some of our resources. You can try to practice
more English online we have the American English at state.gov website
with tons of resources for everybody to practice. We have our YouTube channel
with excellent videos to practice listening skills and speaking skills and
we also have this Facebook page; the American English at State Facebook page
with great resources. What do you think Melissa? I love all those resources and
sometimes I'm I'm on and I follow all those sites and visit them regularly so
I'm a fan. Yeah so now it's almost lunchtime for me here in DC. I'm getting
really hungry from all this great conversations we had about food and I
think it's wonderful that our participants were telling us all about
their favorite food from their countries and when we visit their countries we can
try some of that food. That sounds good. I'll go with you. Okay sounds good like a
plan. In the meantime don't forget to like us on Facebook, to share our
resources, and keep practicing English. Thank You Sandra. Thank you so much
Melissa for joining us today and we will see you soon in our next episode. Bye
everybody. Bye.