English for Ordering Food: Allergies, Vegan, Halal, Gluten-free...

Hey, how you doing? My name is Benjamin. Thanks for watching today. In today's lesson,

we are going to be discussing dietary choices, dietary intolerances. It's important that we

are aware of these. If you are hosting people for dinner, if you are corporate entertaining,

it's very important that we take care of our clients or guests and, you know, the more aware

we are and the more familiar we are with this vocabulary, the better. If this is not directly

relevant to you, consider this as a listening comprehension practice with the quiz at the end

to check how well your understanding has been, how good your understanding has been.

Okay, so lots of people have different diets. Some of these will be caused by allergies,

so people could have... So, an allergy is where if you consume this product,

then you will have some physical reaction in your body to that being in your body, in your

bloodstream. So, some people are allergic to cow's milk or eggs or nuts or shellfish, fish with,

you know, hard shell, wheat, soy, or fish. Now, you could say, "I'm allergic to",

"allergic", "I'm allergic to", or, "I have a something allergy", adjective, noun.

"I have a nut allergy", for example. "I have a shellfish allergy", okay?

Now, "gluten intolerant" means that either for health choices or you just feel that your body

responds better when you don't have gluten, which is basically anything that has grain in.

So, examples of grains are here. Wheat, rye, barley, oats, yeah, kind of long crop-like products

are not enjoyed by people who are gluten intolerant. So, if someone is tolerant,

it means they are welcoming and accepting. With the prefix "in",

it's reversed. It means gluten is not welcomed by this person.

Other people might be vegetarian, not able to eat meat, or vegan, not able to have meat or dairy

products, or a celiac. Now, a celiac is an autoimmune disease where if any gluten products

come into contact with any of the food they eat, then there is quite a serious reaction

in that person. So, there's no choice here with celiacs. They can't have anything with gluten in,

whereas some people just choose to because they think it's healthier. Also, some people may not

be able to have certain products for religious reasons. So, Jewish people tend to favor a kosher

diet, which means that some meat they are not allowed to have, and other meat has to be prepared

in a certain way, and there are some other guidelines. It comes from the Old Testament,

from Leviticus. Halal is the Islamic equivalent, and again, a lot of it is to do with the preparation

and the slaughter of animals, but there is some crossover between these two.

But if you're going to be offering meat to a Jewish or Muslim person, then you need to be

quite careful of the way the meat has been prepared and where the meat has been sourced,

as in where it's been obtained from. Right. Explaining your diet. So, if you

are in a situation, say you go on holiday to England and you need to explain what kind of

foods you can have and what kind of food you can't have, then this is for you. "I'm a vegetarian.

I'm a vegan. I'm a celiac." What's that? "Oh, it means I can't have any products that contain

gluten." What's gluten? Well, gluten is in crops like wheat and rye and barley.

Okay. Or, "All the food I eat needs to be prepared in a kosher manner." Or,

"All foods I eat needs to be organic." But that's surely out of choice rather than a kind of

need. You might need to say something like this, "There are certain things I can't eat

otherwise they make me unwell." Such as, "I can't eat this. I can't eat that."

Just try and make it really clear. But also, you want to avoid upsetting your host,

so you want to try and be delicate about this and not make it into a scene, not into a drama.

You need to avoid the drama. If you go to a restaurant and you are checking what you can

have in the menu, you might ask the restauranteur or the landlord in a pub or the landlady,

"Do you have a gluten-free menu?" Or, "Do you have a menu that shows

allergens?" Normally, they'll be showing it with different symbols. So, for example,

a kind of a bit of crop for the wheat or a picture of a cow for a dairy product,

a picture of a nut for a nut if someone's got a nut allergy. And then you want to check that

you're definitely choosing something that you're able to have. "Does this have wheat in it? Does

this have gluten in it?" So, this is quite a nice, polite way of saying it. So, just to check,

"This has no wheat, rye, barley, or oats in." So, just to check, "This does not have any dairy

products in." Okay? I've got a few more phrases up here to clarify you're choosing something

that will be accepted by your body. We're starting the conversation between yourself

and the waiter. Yeah? So, you're looking at the menu, you've found something you want,

but you've seen there's one ingredient that you can't have. So, you say, "Can I have this

without?" Yeah? You've seen ham, fried egg, and chips, but you can't eat potato because you are

gluten-free. So, "Can I have the ham, egg, and chips without the chips, please?"

"Does this soup have cream in it?" Yep. "Does this casserole have in it?" Yeah? You could replace

this noun and this noun with anything, with any other food item.

"Can you do it without... Can you make the steak without frying it in olive oil? Can you do..."

So, we've got the pronoun "it" substituting the dish. So, what dish do you want? "Can you do

the lemon sole without the lemon?" Wouldn't really be a lemon sole, would it?

Okay. "Can you make this without the... Can you make the pudding without the custard, without

the cream, without the ice cream?" "I'll take the soup without..." As in, "I don't want this bit."

"I'll take the soup without the bread, please." And then, if you're still not quite sure that

the waiter has understood or the waitress has understood your needs, you might need to do a

further check. "Can you double-check this is gluten-free?" So, if you are celiac, it could

be quite serious, or you don't want to be eating something that is against your religious beliefs.

"Can I speak to the chef, personally?" "Can I speak to the chef?"

So, that will ensure that an answer comes, the right answer. "Can you show me a list of

ingredients, of the ingredients for this, please?" Okay. So, what do you have now?

Well, if we go back to the beginning of the lesson, you've got your different

types of diets. So, whether it's religious, halal, kosher; whether it's

by choice, maybe vegetarian, vegan; whether it's gluten intolerant or celiac;

down to the different phrases you can use in the restaurant to ensure that you are eating

the right food for you. But, please, just make sure that you ask politely for what you want,

because I've had the experience of a friend who has quite, quite difficult needs, and it can be a

source of falling out. So, if you're in the position where you need to

get different things to everyone else, just try and think ahead and try not to make it a big

public spectacle. Just try and get what you need without making it into a drama.

Thank you very much for watching this. I hope it has helped. I hope it's given you - if you

do have dietary needs, I hope it's given you what you need in English to be able to get what you

want. Do have a go at the quiz now on www.engvid.com, and I look very - I very much

look forward to seeing you in the next video. Well done for watching.