Once I went to a restaurant and I wanted to have something to drink and eat. So this waitress
came along and she asked me a question “Hi! Can I get-ya some soda to have?”
I said “Soda? No! I just wanna have a glass of
coke, please?” That’s the first time I heard a sound in
my mind (drum beat sound). I knew something was wrong. The waitress gave me a very am-
gave me a very amused look and she said “Okay? A glass of coke. Do you wanna a high
tea?” High tea? No! I just want some normal sandwich
to have. I don’t want tea I just want coke and a sandwich to eat, mam, please.
By then the waiters looked very upset and in my mind I had this music…(drum beats).
I knew, probably, I am not aware of the vocabulary she is using. Right? And I am sure, a lot
of you come across this situation where you are too embarrassed to ask or you say something
which you are not sure of, especially in a restaurant, it may… it gives you er… how
to say, it puts you in a bad light. Right? I am sure you had.
My name is Emmelda, and
today I will help you escape all of those embarrassing moments by learning or introducing
you some very unusual snack time vocabulary. Now, why are they unusual? Because certain
vocabularies are, actually, not practised quiet popularly, they may be practised only
in certain countries but now they are getting popular slowly and steadily. So If you are
travelling to any country where such vocabulary is used, you will not feel very embarrassed,
or at least, as embarrassed as I felt at that time. SO let’s get started. The first one
I have is Nibble on! What is nibble on? Have you ever seen a cow munching? (cow munching
sound). Yes, that’s actually what nibble on means. Nibble on means to munch. Ok er
What will you munch? You’ll munch a canopy, a san.. no I’ll not say sandwich, but those
small small tarts, canopy or anything, which is small and you just want to, you know, pass
your time. You don’t… You aren’t really hungry. Just want to eat something. You just
want your jaws moving. SO you munch like a cow (cow munching sound) Yes! You nibble on
a canopy. The next as I said is High tea. The next one I have is high tea. When she
said High tea. I was wondering “what kind of tea is she offering? I asked for a soda.
No! High tea is actually a word from Ireland. It is used as early dinner from 7-9. And it’s
a small and early dinner. That was the original word. That was the original meaning. But now
High tea means refreshment. It’s refreshment. So anytime you are talking about snacks or
something small that you want to munch, they sometimes use the word “High-tea”. In
fact, if you happen to go to Singapore you will have restaurants claiming they have High-tea
menu for you. Okay, so next time, if you come across the word High-tea, you know mean…
they just mean some refreshment usually for the dinner time. Okay? The next I have for
you is Savoury. Now savoury is common or for that matter another term for snack. However,
savoury initially meant both, something that is not sweet as well as sweet like cakes,
pastries or sandwiches. But now-a-days, savoury is meant or probably used only for things
that are not sweet. So, may be your sandwiches or your… how to say… or puffs. the puffs?
The puffed sandwich. Yes! That they call as savoury. Now a days no body uses savoury for
something sweet. They use it for something which is salty, which you can have it with
tea or coffee. Alright? So now that you have something salty, obviously you wanna have
something sweet, right? Good! For those, I have confections. Confections are baked products
that are very rich in…guess the word…sugar and carbohydrate. So those who are watching
their waist line, you may not want to have a confection. Oh! Who makes those confections?
Of course, the bakers. So, confection is rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Obviously what
kind of confections are we talking about. I am gonna talking about tarts. Now, tarts
are those small pieces. They like they are this small. They are very colourful . They
have a very strong firm base…yeah! But it’s damn tiny so it’s … the base is very firm,
however, the top portion is very and open. We may have fruit tarts. Some tarts are actually
big, but usually tarts come only in this size. Yea! Chinses like tarts. During their Chinese
festivals, you will see people giving them egg tarts or lemon tarts. Right. That’s
tarts. Not really common in how shall I say in Europe but very common in America. my favourite…
cakes. Have you ever heard of chocolate cakes or pineapple cake? Yes, of course! You know..
they are quiet smooth and nice. So cake is something very common. However, sometimes,
even a sandwich is called a cake. Very rare. But sometime, people call puffed sandwich
also a cake. So, you may want to be aware what or what actually the cake mean. You have
cheese cake. Oh! I love cheese cakes. If you go to America, please go to CheeseCake Factory.
That’s one of my favourite places. Then we have pastries. Pastries and cakes are pretty
much similar. Again, pastries I call them a short form of cakes. But, pastries can be…puffs
are called pastries as well. You know. They can be savoury as well. So, anytime you order
cakes or pastries and if you are not sure, especially when you are in a foreign country,
you may want to ask for a sweet cake and sweet pastry and not a savoury one. My favourite…one
more… is macaroons. Macaroons are like those tiny buttons. Okay? They are really small,
very colourful. The outer crust is like a biscuit but inside is very soft. And they
actually look something like this. Okay? It looks like a burger though. So, You see that
back portion, that thick black line I am creating, that will be a softy. You will be able to
see the filling but the top and bottom will be very hard as a very soft biscuit. Yeah!
They are not really hard; they are very soft biscuit. Goes very well with coffee and tea.
Now that I have done the cakes and pastries I have one word which a lot of people get
confused ‘Water!’ What’s water…I mean how difficult can it be? But trust me, it’s
difficult. In a restaurant I asked for water. The first thing the waiters asked me was “still
or gas?” and trust me, this is what my reaction was. “
No! No! I just want tap water. Excuse me!
Oh, I just want simple water.” -What? Mam, do you want something with bubbles
inside or do you just want a plain glass of water.
I said “Oh, yeah! A plain glass of water, which is a still water. So, next… I am sorry…
So next time you are see a glass of water with bubbles in it you may want to say glass
of water with gas or can I have a glass of water with gas, please? Soda is considered
not the coke soda but the actual soda is considered a gas water or er… aeriated water, if I
may call that. So, water is not as simple as you thought. Moving on to next one I have
coffee. Oh I know, everybody loves coffee. What is so special about coffee? Coffee has
many versions, we have cappuccino, we have latte, we have mocha. But today I will be
teaching you two very important types of coffees. What are they? Café Royal and Macchiato.
Café Royale is a teaspoon of brandy with a cup of coffee. Remember, it’s a teaspoon
of brandy to a coffee and not a teaspoon of coffee to a brandy. Okay? So brandy with coffee
makes café royal. What is macchiato? Have you ever heard the word espresso? Have you
heard the word espresso? Yes, you have! But if you have espresso with a skim milk or milk
with low fat, you call it macchiato! Yes it’s Macchiato. I think the right pronunciation
is not ‘-toe’ but ‘-tho’. Macchiato hmhmm espresso with low fat milk. Alright!
For those coffee lovers, I gave you two good options but I have people who love tea. So
what kind of tea do you have. You have English, herbal and decaffeinated. A lot of people
don’t know about English it’s a regular tea black. Some people call English Tea as…where
shall I write it. I’ll write it here no its liquor tea and I am yeah! Some people
call it liquor tea. Why? Because, it looks like a brandy or alcohol. So some people call
English tea as liquor tea. Otherwise, people call liquor tea white, which means English
tea with milk. Now that we have talked about liquor tea, you may want to talk about herbal
tea. Where do you classify your green tea or your peppermint tea? You classify them
under herbal tea. I… usually…this is what the restaurants will write, if they want to
write it on paper “GT” OR “PPT”. Yes trust me. It’s not a PowerPoint; PPT is
considered as peppermint tea. So next time, you wanna talk about peppermint tea, you will
see people just writing PPT. Okay? Green tea or Peppermint tea. One thing to notice, green
tea and peppermint tea will usually have of lot of caffeine in them. They keep you awake
and some people do not like so much caffeine to their blood level. So what they do is,
they request for a decaffeinated tea. Decaffeinated tea means simple words No… So next time
if you are going for a ‘fine dine’ restaurant, you may want to say “May I have a glass
of decaffeinated tea please? Ah! SO classy, right? So these are few unusual snack time
vocabulary I had a tough time learning because I never use to have coffee... I still don’t
have coffee, tea or water with gas or soda. I keep it very simple, I just go have a glass
of juice or a glass of milk. I know I am a good girl. Yes! So next time if you go to
a restaurant and you are not sure what the word would mean, you may want to ask the waitress
or you can immediately go on to YouTube or, for that matter, check out my lesson and look
out for these phrases. You may find a word or two. I will be back with new lesson, I
really hope you enjoyed this one though. I will be back with new lesson. Until then stay
healthy, have fun and watch on your confections. See you! Babye…