26: The Great Fruit Show

Easy English: Learn English with everyday conversations

Today, Mitch and Isi discuss all things fruit; the horrors of hairy fruits and mushy apples, Mitch's preference for a cold and crunchy banana, watermelon life-hacks, surviving on coconuts, the versatilities of apples and question; what the hell a lemon posset is and if Halle Berry is actually a fruit?

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Transcript

Mitch:
[0:00] 12345678.

Isi:
[0:05] 12645678 What? 1264567.

Mitch:
[0:12] Easy English!

Intro

Mitch:
[0:34] (Hello!) Hiya, welcome to the new episode of the Easy English Podcast. That is so formal.

Isi:
[0:39] I don't like to look at you while we record it. I have to laugh.

Mitch:
[0:44] We're so far away again.

Isi:
[0:46] Hello, down there, in the hallway.

Mitch:
[0:49] Yeah, it feels like we're in a hallway.

Isi:
[0:51] I will just directly say it. Mitch, We had The Big Veg Show (The Veg Cast. ) The Veg Cast. I hope people enjoyed it because I said it already, what comes this week. And it's The Big, Big Fruit Show.

Mitch:
[1:05] The Fruit Show, The Veg Cast and The Fruit Show.

Isi:
[1:07] Yeah, we couldn't do it both last time, so we need to talk about fruits.

Mitch:
[1:11] It wouldn't have been fair, though, to have thrown fruits on the ends of veg, because fruits don't... shouldn't be disrespected like that.

Isi:
[1:17] But fruits have a better life. Most of them are very sugary, so people usually like them more than veg. I would say.

Mitch:
[1:25] But we're savoury people. No, that sounds like... (We are savoury people.) That's actually a compliment. Because you can be a very unsavoury.

Isi:
[1:33] Will you make us a drink? Because I wanna ask our listeners for something, in between.

Mitch:
[1:37] Okay, feels like you're booting me out of the room, to say something private.

Isi:
[1:41] No, I just want a drink.

Mitch:
[1:42] If you'd like to listen to this podcast, without Mitch, give us a thumbs up.

Isi:
[1:46] What I wanted to ask, today is a little bit of a favour. You might know that, in podcast apps, where you listen to us. Um, there are several of podcast apps. It does help, if you give us a review of our podcast, on some apps you can leave a comment about our podcast. And this interaction, if you give like, a response to our podcast, will help others to find our podcast. So, if you could just today, if you like our podcast, take a second out of your day and see in your app where you can leave us
a review, a comment, a rating That will be fantastic. It's weird to ask for things, but I think it would be really, really, really nice if you could help us with this. Anyway, and also, if you have questions for our podcast or for us, write us an email to [e-mail] or on easyenglish.fm. You can also leave us an audio message. We have a section called 'Unhelpful Advice' and we are still waiting for your problems and issues to solve. Okay, now Mitch is back and we can go on with fruits. (Is margarita a fruit?)
Topic of the Week

Isi:
[3:09] I have a few questions first, and then I would guide you through the world of fruits. Um, what is... (Come with me.) What is your favourite fruit?

Mitch:
[3:14] Off the top of my head, I'm thinking strawberries, but it probably isn't. But strawberries are just like, a solid fruit.

Isi:
[3:21] So I wanted to say peach, I really like a really good peach, but peach can be really shit as well.

Mitch:
[3:32] I know what yours is and it's my like, curveball, because when you... when you think of fruits, you think of sweetness. But I think, actually, if we were to really go into it, what fruit we eat the most, especially you, It would be a sour fruit.

Isi:
[3:48] Lemon. Yeah, lemon is probably my favourite fruit because I eat it most.

Mitch:
[3:53] It's my favourite pudding. Anything with lemon?

Isi:
[3:54] I love citrus fruits. Anyway, I love lime, love oranges... favourite pudding.

Mitch:
[3:59] Yeah. Anything with a lemon on it. (Lemon cake.) Lemon drizzle, for shizzle, ma nizzle, Lemon cheesecake.

Isi:
[4:05] Lemon posset. (Lemon posset.) Posset. Posset. Such a thing I've learned in England. Um, with watching 'Come Dine With Me'. Everybody does a lemon posset. It sounds so posh.
I don't even know really what it is. It's a lemon cream or something. A lemon posset And they're always like; "for dessert, I have a lemon posset". And then you hear the other people talking in the off later in the car, and they're like; "a lemon posset, everybody's doing a lemon lemon posset and hers was not particularly good".

Mitch:
[4:38] I don't know what it is either. We should make one, just to sound fancy.

Isi:
[4:42] Lemon posset.

Mitch:
[4:43] Last night we had a lemon posset. Wasn't it just absolutely delightful, lemon posset.

Isi:
[4:47] I'll look it up now.

Mitch:
[4:48] I'm always very disappointed by nectarines.

Isi:
[4:53] Yeah! (Yeah.) Good nectarines are good.

Mitch:
[4:55] Yeah, but that's the... that's my I've never had a fully ripe one. I think ever.

Isi:
[5:01] I just looked up my least favourite fruit, and it's not in my list. So, we we have to do the list together. Um, a gooseberry

Mitch:
[5:10] You don't like gooseberries?

Isi:
[5:11] No, they're hairy. They're a weird mix of sweet and sour. And you know what they are... mushy.

Mitch:
[5:18] Er... mushy.

Isi:
[5:20] Don't like mushy foods at all. Mushy apples; urgh! Mushy bananas; urgh!

Mitch:
[5:26] Yeah. Oh, yeah! That That's my pet peeve. I love bananas, but they have to be kind of, not quite ripe.

Isi:
[5:37] No, yours are the least ripe I've ever seen.

Mitch:
[5:40] And in the fridge. Cold and crunchy. And probably my least favourite fruit is like a warm, mushy banana. Urgh! Urgh! Oh, I feel sick. Yours is gooseberry, because they're a bit hairy.

Isi:
[5:57] Yeah, gooseberry and my favourite. I don't know if my favourite would be lemon, but it has to be, because that's what I eat most.

Mitch:
[6:02] Uh, when you say a hairy fruit is a bit gross, isn't it? Like, have you ever eaten a kiwi? And you've forgotten to take off a little bit of the skin? And you're like, Ugh, what is that? And it's a bit of a hairy skin.

Isi:
[6:11] Actually, I recently learned that a lot of people eat it with the skin. You can eat the skin. You just eat it like that.

Mitch:
[6:16] That's disgusting.

Isi:
[6:17] OK, my favourites are strawberry, peach, mango, lemon.

Mitch:
[6:21] Yeah. Oh, I have one as well. Sorry. Do we have time for this last one? (No, we do.) I really want to use it more, but I don't know how to use it. And maybe, if anyone has a good recipe or a good way to like, cook it or prepare it. I really, really like rhubarb.

Isi:
[6:38] I love rhubarb. (I love the taste of rhubarb.) Rhubarb season is at the same time as strawberry.

Mitch:
[6:44] Oh, really? (I think so.) But I don't really know how to do it, but maybe someone who's listening can send us either a voice message to easyenglish.fm or write to us at [e-mail].

Isi:
[6:57] Yeah. Um... how do you? Yeah, how do you eat rhubarb in England? I've only seen it in cakes in... in Germany, I can just say we cook it, with a hell lot of sugar. (Where? In the oven or in a pan?) in a in a pot. (In a pot?) Yeah, you cook it and it kind of gets like this soupy, slimy mass. Sounds disgusting. It's quite good. And you can eat it with strawberries or with like, a vanilla sauce or something like this. Let's go now, through the berries. Strawberry, we already talked about. (Good berry.) Blueberry.

Mitch:
[7:28] I really like blueberries.

Isi:
[7:32] You like it more than me. We eat it basically every day. I still eat them. They're nice.

Mitch:
[7:36] Blueberry muffin.

Isi:
[7:38] Yeah, but you know what I don't like? And you often do it. Blueberry smoothies.

Mitch:
[7:43] Oh, I love the blueberry smoothy.

Isi:
[7:44] Too much blueberry. Then it is overbearing, isn't it? I like blueberries, I like them... I actually like both parts of them. Some are like, really big and not so sour, but really like, fresh. And then there're the little ones, that are super sour, both are good.

Mitch:
[7:58] Blueberries are... is a not safe for work fruit because, the skin always manages to sort of, somehow wrap itself around your teeth.

Isi:
[8:05] Mm, Yeah. And what is very English and maybe you can say how it's used here, is blackcurrant.

Mitch:
[8:15] Just someone saying blackcurrant makes you think of being like three years old with a glass of blackcurrant squash. I'm sure many other kids from the who grew up in the nineties, might think of that.

Isi:
[8:25] Which are the ones that we often see on our walks. Just recently, we saw a lot of them. They look like raspberries, but black.

Mitch:
[8:32] Oh, isn't that a gooseberry (No.) Blackberry? Yeah. Must be.

Isi:
[8:36] Like you don't know what a gooseberry is. Google Gooseberry now, so that you understand my.

Mitch:
[8:42] Goose... berry. They're not hairy.

Isi:
[8:47] They are hairy.

Mitch:
[8:49] Yeah? In this, they're not. Wait, it looks a bit like a grape. Which ones are hairy, though? Hairy fruits. Google is suggesting; "Are you thinking of Halle Berry?"

Isi:
[9:09] We stop with the berries, I'm not educated enough on berries. So citrus fruits, love citrus fruits.

Mitch:
[9:13] Yeah, absolutely. I have an issue, though. That I've never figured out, is that I don't know the difference between an orange, a tangerine and a clementine. I couldn't tell you what was what, or are they all types of oranges? Are clementines also oranges? And... is that what it is?

Isi:
[9:32] Clementines are the ones that you eat around like... (But is it an orange?) in winter and around Christmas and you peel them, right? That's clementines. Well yeah, I guess they're part of an orange. Then you have. Do you know kumquats?

Mitch:
[9:43] Yeah. Is that an orange? (Yeah. Blood oranges.) Oh, nice in a cocktail.

Isi:
[9:49] Valencia oranges. Best for juicing. Tangerines, juice for sweeter take on orange juice. Okay.

Mitch:
[9:56] Really, Tangerine?

Isi:
[9:58] Navel. Navel oranges, most common variety. And Seville/Seville Oranges. Perfect for marmalades. There you go. But these are the... that was the ultimate guide to winter oranges and tangerines. So there must be others as well.

Mitch:
[10:14] Right. Oranges is like the franchise. And then inside the franchise, there's different types. (Businesses of oranges.)

Isi:
[10:24] Ok, lime; amazing. (Love limes.) Ah, lime on... in drinks, on food. Basically, you can... you can put a bit of lime juice on nearly every food and it's good.

Mitch:
[10:35] Yeah. Really.

Isi:
[10:36] Melons. What's your favourite melon?

Mitch:
[10:41] Oh, I only know water and just like the yellow... what are the yellow melons called? (It says your honey dew.) Honey melon?

Isi:
[10:49] I like most, honey. (Really?) And then watermelon.

Mitch:
[10:51] More than... really.

Isi:
[10:54] Yeah, because I... I came to terms with watermelon, because you like it a lot. And we often have it in summer. And it's nice. It has to be good. We learnt how they have to look, but cannot explain it now, because I already forgot.

Mitch:
[11:06] Life hack. Not what you expect. It's the opposite of what you're expecting.

Isi:
[11:10] Yeah. Look it up. Google it. (The less round) How should the watermelon look?

Mitch:
[11:12] The less circular, the better, right? I think it was.

Isi:
[11:16] I think, yeah. And it should even be a bit yellow and weird.

Mitch:
[11:18] Yeah, circle and green is just not good. It has to be sort of like oblong and a bit brown and a bit yellow, I think.

Isi:
[11:25] Well, look it up yourself, please. I hope you don't have guarantees on that. So watermelon is nice. I like watermelon a lot, in a combination with, like, um, savoury, um, like feta, for example.

Mitch:
[11:36] Oh, yeah. Good shout

Isi:
[11:37] Um, feta cheese, watermelon, some balsamic... (Glaze.) glaze. And, um, some mint leafs. So, that's really good.

Mitch:
[11:50] I love the glaze. We should get that on Asda.

Isi:
[11:53] I'm getting hungry again. We always do this before food. Um, and but honey is also good. Also good with cheese. (Honey's not fruit!) Uh, honey melon, sorry. That also works very well. People that eat meat often eat it with, uh, in Germany, at least with ham. (Really?) That works very well, yeah.

Mitch:
[12:12] Oh yeah, we have ham and pineapple.

Isi:
[12:14] See. Stone fruits, Mitch. Cherries.

Mitch:
[12:19] I like cherries. (Like, or love?) Just like, 'cos you... It's a lot of. Is that when you're eating, there's a lot of this noise, like this. Not for say, for work, either. Just like the... blueberry.

Isi:
[12:41] Yeah, I'm not a big fan of cherries. I have to say I eat them, but I don't buy them, ever.

Mitch:
[12:47] I don't know what you do with it. They're selfish veg... like, fruits right? They don't really go with anything else, do they? What have you ever had a cherry with?

Isi:
[12:54] Yeah. And also like, cherry juice or so. It's too intense. Um, OK, we go in the world of tropical fruits. Bananas, we already talked about. (Yeah!) Coconuts, we had coconut yoghurt today.

Mitch:
[13:05] Coconut milk, I like. Coconut milk in any Asian dish.

Isi:
[13:11] Yeah, coconut milk is good. Do you like coconut meat or flesh? Or how do you call that?

Mitch:
[13:18] Doesn't it give you diarrhoea? (No! you've never eaten coconut?) I played a survival game once on the PlayStation. And if you... If you eat too many, you have diarrhoea for two days.

Isi:
[13:28] Oh dear, Oh! You know, Amarula is from the marula fruit.

Mitch:
[13:34] Oh, I love Amarula.

Isi:
[13:36] And I think the fruit is eaten by elephants. And that's why the big elephant is on it.

Mitch:
[13:40] Ah, that makes sense. Amarula fruit.

Isi:
[13:44] What do we forget? Oh, well, we forgot the big, I think the, the fruits of both our nations, probably. (Go on.) What is the... the fruit, that exactly now you get.

Mitch:
[14:00] Potatoes aren't fruit. The fruit of our nation? Both our nations?

Isi:
[14:08] Apples.

Mitch:
[14:09] Oh yeah, how did I not think about that.

Isi:
[14:12] Apples are eaten all day, every day. Apple juice, apple sauce. Apple sauce is a very English thing. Oh no, actually very German, too. With Reibekuchen.

Mitch:
[14:19] I tell you what is a very English thing with apples. (Apple mint sauce.) Cider.

Isi:
[14:26] Cider. Yeah, you see, it is a fruit of your nation.

Mitch:
[14:28] Have you ever had a proper cider?

Isi:
[14:32] Uh, I have... I have had cider... (Not Strongbow.) recently, at at our friends in London. I had cider.

Mitch:
[14:38] Did you? Oh, yeah, you did.

Isi:
[14:39] Yeah, a tiny glass, a cute little, tiny glass to try it. But it was too sweet for my liking.

Mitch:
[14:45] Oh God. Doesn't it make you realise that western... northwestern fruits are so boring, in comparison? Do you know what I mean? Do you think there are Mexican people saying; "Oh, do you know what I really love? Apples."

Isi:
[14:58] Maybe. Yeah, for sure. (No.) Yes.

Mitch:
[14:59] No. Not when you've got limes. I'm jealous. Let's go live in Mexico and just drink margaritas and mojitos all day. (Maybe we should do that. You know.) Caipirinhas.

Isi:
[15:10] We had apples today in our big yoghurt, with different fruits. Then it's OK. Um, the apples that I had were really small apples and like, red and green. And they were like, I only like apples when they are sour and hard. No mushy, no sweet, no nothing.

Mitch:
[15:25] Oh, really? Uh, we never talked about this. How have we never spoken about our favourite type of apple.

Isi:
[15:32] I know. I like Blackburn. (Blackburn?) Braeburn. Sorry. (Blackburn!) Blackburn is a place here. Bra. Braeburn, Braeburn, Braeburn.

Mitch:
[15:42] And what's your least favourite? Oh, there's actually way more than I ever heard.

Isi:
[15:45] I don't know what the mushy ones are called.

Mitch:
[15:48] I hate a pink lady.

Isi:
[15:50] Aren't they not mushy.

Mitch:
[15:52] They can get pretty mushy. That and a jazz. (Mashy, or mushy?) Mushy. That and a jazz apple. I like a Granny Smith.

Isi:
[16:01] Are those the green ones. (The green hard sour, more sour ones. ) Mm. Yeah, that's better. I also don't really like, uh, apple juice. Apple sauce, yes. Apple sauce was a good Reibekuchen. Which is like a... basically like a... hash browns. It's a bit like a big hash brown, isn't it? With apples.

Mitch:
[16:16] Yeah, that's right. Deep fried eggy, soaked, potato. (Grated potato.) Grated potato with egg and...

Isi:
[16:24] Made into like a dough with egg and...

Mitch:
[16:24] Did you know there's so many... one, two... there's Granny Smith, Fuji, Pink Lady, Honey Crisp, Envy, Gala, Pazazz, Jazz, Red Delicious, Braeburn, Cameo, Holston, Golden Delicious, Lady Alice, Hidden Rose Ambrosia... there's so many apples.

Isi:
[16:44] Oh, yeah. Jazz apple. I just see it here.

Mitch:
[16:45] 25 types of apples. Incredible.

Isi:
[16:48] Probably even more.

Mitch:
[16:49] Can I tell you one you've not mentioned yet, which I really like. I love plantain.

Isi:
[16:55] Ooh, I love plantain, too. Is that a fruit or a veg?

Mitch:
[16:58] Isn't it just a savoury banana?

Isi:
[17:01] Yeah, it is, but, uh, it's not the same as a... it's not... it's not the same as a banana.

Mitch:
[17:05] Mm. In, uh, England, because of Jamaican, uh, connections. Empiric connections, I might... might add. uh, it's quite often you can find plantain. And specifically, one thing I love. I'm not in ages. Plantain crisps. Salted plantain crisps.

Isi:
[17:22] Hm. So good. I love plantain. Absolutely love it. Plantain, you can also have sweet, by the way, if you wait long enough, you can also bake them.

Mitch:
[17:31] Oh right, maybe that's what I should get instead of bananas.

Isi:
[17:35] Hm... you cannot have them in your yoghurt. Um, do you... do you, uh, know a pomelo? I don't know if it if this is in English the same. It's written the same as I would say it in German. It's pomelo. (You know it?) Yeah. ( What is that?) Pomelo. Um, Google it.

Mitch:
[17:54] Po... pomelo, pomelo?

Isi:
[17:55] I mean, yeah, it looks a bit like a melon from outside. It is more like an orange. (Oh, yeah, it does.) Or like a grapefruit. Look from inside. It looks more.

Mitch:
[18:03] It has segments as well.

Isi:
[18:04] It has segments like oranges or grapefruits, and it is very dry. You can really break off the segments, sometimes. It's not that all the juice... like, it's not messy. Um, I like it, it's super, super healthy. I think.

Mitch:
[18:19] It has anti-aging properties. (You see!) Fights cancer.

Isi:
[18:22] Better get to know about it. Yeah. No, it's really healthy. It's really good. I mean, this list is long. I could now just, go up and down with it. Sweet Dakota rose watermelon.

Mitch:
[18:35] People gonna ask; what... what did you do on your Friday night?

Isi:
[18:38] Tawa tawa, tawa tawa. I don't know. Uh, what do we do?

Mitch:
[18:43] You'll never guess what. We had a wild night. (What is a Thornberry?) We spoke about fruit.

Isi:
[18:44] I've heard of a thornberry. I think we have to stop The Big Fruit Cast now.

Mitch:
[18:54] Fruit Show?

Isi:
[18:54] Um, OK, we have to stop this now. The fruits are taking over my mind. Um, it was nice to talk to you about fruits.

Mitch:
[19:04] Yeah, I feel like I know you better now that I know that you like a Granny Smith.

Isi:
[19:07] I... I don't even know a Granny Smith. (Oh, you said you like the green ones.) Ah so, yeah. Ah so.

Mitch:
[19:09] Ah so. Sour fruits, are the best kind of fruits.

Isi:
[19:16] Sour foods in general, yeah. Yeah, everything has to be sour, not bananas, though.

Mitch:
[19:21] Cheers to that, on your margarita.

Isi:
[19:24] And, um yeah, hope you like fruits. It's healthy. Eat them. Five a day. Bye. (And I hope all your dreams come true.) Te-ra! (Te-ra!)