Gourmet Food

Intro

If your family has money, it’s possible that you eat  gourmet food on a regular basis. You might buy artisinal bread,  aged cheeses,  organic milk, and   local produce. There’s a good chance you shop at a store that will import whatever you want, and since you believe that  you get what you pay for, you’re willing to spend any amount to eat well.

Being able to eat  luxury foods and drinks is a great thing, but most of us aren’t able to spend extra money on our groceries. Once in a while it’s OK to buy something special, but most of the time, we’re just trying to eat a variety of healthy foods and maybe eat at a restaurant once in a while. Gourmet food is a special treat for some, but it’s not for everyone.

Marni and Gary are talking about gourmet food. Do they buy it, too? Learn more when you check out today’s English lesson.

DialogueDiscussionGrammar Point

Dialogue

Gary: Marni, did you know that in the area here we have a  gourmet food supermarket?

Marni: Oh. Well, tell me about it.

Gary: Well, they have… it’s amazing. They have this  artisinal food from France and Italy. They have  aged wine and aged cheeses everywhere. And, of course, everything is  organic because it’s gourmet food.

Marni: And  you get what you pay for. You have to pay for quality.

Gary: I also do believe that a lot of it is  locally sourced.

Marni: Well, that’s good. So, they’ve got quite an international thing that they import, but also they maybe try to do local produce. Is that what…?

Gary: It sure seems so. And I think even in the bakery there were a number of handmade goods made of really incredible chocolates.

Marni: Well, jeez. Let’s go! Where is it?

Gary: I don’t want to tell everybody, so…

Marni: OK.

Gary: Let’s just go now and surprise everyone with some dinner.

Marni: That sounds like a great idea.

Gary: All right.

 

Discussion

Gary is excited about a  gourmet food store in the neighborhood. It sells fancy foods of very high quality, and he gives Marni all the details. The store sells food from Europe, but also fresh,  organic fruits and vegetables from the area. One can buy wine and cheese there, of course, as well as treats from its bakery.

Gary does such a good job of describing the supermarket and its goods that Marni is ready to go there right away. At first, Gary wants to keep it a secret, but then he decides to take her there to buy dinner for their group of friends. Marni thinks it’s a great plan and they head out together.

Are you willing to pay for gourmet food? What kinds of foods taste best when they’re gourmet?

Grammar Point

Contractions and Abbreviations

Talking about the gourmet food supermarket, Marni says, “they’ve got quite an international thing” there. She uses a contraction.

Sometimes, we shorten or combine words by creating contractions. This is especially common in spoken English.

Usually, to make a contraction, we remove a letter or letters from a word and replace the letter(s) with an apostrophe (‘). For example, we shorten “He is feeling ill” to “He’s feeling ill.”

Some other common contractions include: aren’t for are not, can’t for can not, he’ll for he will, and won’t for will not. In Marni’s sentence, they’ve is a contraction for they have.

Which is correct, “I’m see you later,” or, “I’ll see you later”?