Vibrant night-time street food market with red lanterns, sizzling wok and steaming bowls.
Unit 3 · Food for Thought

3A. Street food stories

B2 · 60–75 min · Apex English

Apex English← Back to contents
Unit 3 · Quote
"Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are."
— Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Lesson goals

By the end you will…

  • Tell a vivid food story using past simple, past continuous and past perfect (simple & continuous).
  • Use so / such …that for dramatic effect.
  • Describe dishes, textures, flavours and cooking methods with B2 precision.
  • Pronounce common irregular past forms correctly and use sentence rhythm to bring narratives to life.
1. Warm-up

Warm-up · taste map of your childhood

5 min

On a paper napkin (or in your notebook), draw three quick circles. In each one, write ONE childhood dish you remember vividly — and one smell, sound or person attached to it. Then show your napkin to a partner and tell the story behind each circle in 30 seconds.

👃
A smell that takes you straight back
👵
A person whose kitchen you can still see
🥄
A dish you'd queue an hour for again

💬 Whose napkin made you the hungriest? Whose memory was the most unexpected?

2. Lead-in

Lead-in: guess the street food

8 min

Six short, easy clues about famous street foods. In pairs, read them out loud and guess. The clues use simple past and past continuous — nothing tricky.

🕵️ Case 1

It is round and yellow. People sell it on the beach in Rio, hot from a big pan. Inside there is cheese, or chicken, or shrimp. You eat it with your hands.

🕵️ Case 2

I was walking in São Paulo when I smelled it. Grilled meat on a small wooden stick, with salt and sometimes cheese. Very cheap, very popular after a football match.

🕵️ Case 3

It is small, round and crispy. It was frying in hot oil when I arrived. Italians eat it in the street in Naples — flat, with tomato and cheese on top.

🕵️ Case 4

She was cooking it on a hot flat pan in Mexico City. A soft corn bread, folded, with meat, onion and a green sauce. You eat two or three, standing up.

🕵️ Case 5

It is long, sweet and fried. People eat it in the streets of Mexico and Spain. It is crunchy outside, soft inside, and you can dip it in hot chocolate or sugar.

🕵️ Case 6

It is a long bread with a sausage inside. You can put ketchup, mustard or mayonnaise on top. People sell it in the street everywhere — at the beach, at concerts, at football games.

💬 Which of these have you tried? Which one would you like to try? Do you have a favourite street food in your city?

Illustration for reading
3. Reading

Reading: the night the kitchen caught fire

10 min

I had been cooking in my grandmother's kitchen since I was six years old, but the night the kitchen caught fire was the night I actually learned to cook.

It was October in Naples, the air heavy with rain that hadn't quite arrived. My grandmother was frying zeppole — little balls of dough that puff up in hot oil and disappear, one by one, into the mouths of cousins. She had been frying them for almost an hour when the phone rang. She turned, distracted, and the oil — which had been getting hotter and hotter the whole time — finally spat, jumped, and caught.

The flames were so tall they kissed the bottom of the cupboard. My grandmother didn't scream. She simply picked up the metal lid of the pan, slid it across the flames, and held it down with both hands while she counted, calmly, to thirty. By the time she lifted it, the fire was gone. The zeppole, blackened and miraculous, were still in the oil.

"You cook with attention," she said, finally turning off the stove. "That's the whole recipe. Everything else is just shopping." She handed me the slotted spoon. "Now finish the batch. They're waiting."

I had been thinking of cooking as a series of instructions. That night I started thinking of it as a conversation — one where, if you stop listening for even a second, something burns.

Comprehension

  1. How long had the writer been cooking in her grandmother's kitchen before this night?

  2. What had been happening to the oil while the grandmother was frying?

  3. How did the grandmother put out the fire?

  4. What does the grandmother mean by "Everything else is just shopping"?

  5. By the end of the story, the writer sees cooking as…

Vocabulary in context

Find these in the text and match them to the closest meaning.

  • spat
  • blackened
  • miraculous
  • slotted spoon
  • batch
  • puff up
4. Vocabulary

Vocabulary: food, flavour & cooking

10 min

Flavours & textures

tangy
sharply tasty, slightly sour (like lime)
savoury
salty/umami (opposite of sweet)
rich
heavy with fat, cream or flavour
bland
boring, lacking flavour
smoky
tasting of wood smoke
crispy
pleasantly crunchy on the outside
tender
soft, easy to cut (esp. meat)
stodgy
heavy and filling, hard to digest

Cooking methods

grill (BrE) / broil (AmE)
cook with direct heat from above
deep-fry
cook submerged in hot oil
stir-fry
cook quickly in a hot wok, stirring constantly
simmer
cook gently just below boiling
roast
cook in an oven with dry heat
marinate
soak in flavoured liquid before cooking
season
add salt, pepper, herbs or spices
drizzle
pour a tiny stream over food (e.g. olive oil)

Practice

Complete each sentence with ONE word/phrase from above (correct form).

Word bank — drag or tap, then tap a gap
  1. The lamb was so  drop  you could cut it with a spoon.
  2. I love the  drop  crunch of perfectly fried calamari.
  3. Honestly, the soup was a bit  drop  — it needed salt and herbs.
  4. You should  drop  the chicken in lemon and garlic overnight.
  5. Quickly  drop  the vegetables on high heat — don't let them go soft.
  6. Just  drop  a little olive oil over the salad at the end.
  7. Cheese, anchovies, soy sauce — all classic  drop  flavours.
  8. Don't boil the stew.  drop  it gently for two hours.
5. Grammar focus

Grammar focus: narrative tenses + so / such …that

15 min

1. Past simple — the main events

Use the past simple for completed actions that move the story forward, one after another. • She turned, the oil spat, the flames jumped. This is the 'spine' of every narrative.

2. Past continuous — the background

Use the past continuous (was/were + -ing) for actions in progress when something else happened. It's the 'scenery' around the action. • She WAS FRYING zeppole when the phone RANG. • It WAS RAINING. People WERE QUEUING under umbrellas.

3. Past perfect — earlier than the past

Use the past perfect (had + past participle) for actions COMPLETED before another past moment. It jumps back in time. • By the time she answered, the oil HAD ALREADY BECOME dangerous. • He HAD JUST PULLED it out of the oven when the alarm went off.

4. Past perfect continuous — long earlier action

Use had been + -ing for an action that HAD BEEN GOING ON for some time before another past moment. Emphasises duration. • She HAD BEEN FRYING zeppole for almost an hour when the phone rang. • He HAD BEEN QUEUING since seven. Often used to explain why something then happened (tired arms, hot oil, sore feet).

5. so / such …that — dramatic results

Use SO + adjective/adverb + that… • The flames were SO tall THAT they kissed the cupboard. • She moved SO calmly THAT no one panicked. Use SUCH + (a/an) + (adjective) + noun + that… • It was SUCH a hot pan THAT the lid stuck. • There were SUCH long queues THAT we gave up. In spoken English, 'that' is often dropped: 'It was so hot, my eyes watered.'

Exercise A — past simple vs. past continuous

Put the verbs into the correct past tense (simple or continuous).

  1. While I (wait) ___ for my noodles, the chef suddenly (drop) ___ the wok.
  2. It (rain) ___ heavily when we finally (find) ___ the market.
  3. She (chop) ___ onions when she (cut) ___ her finger.
  4. He (eat) ___ his third dumpling when his phone (ring) ___.
  5. I (try) ___ the chilli, and it (be) ___ unbelievably hot.

Exercise B — past perfect (simple) and past perfect continuous

Choose the better form: had + past participle OR had been + -ing.

  1. By the time we arrived, they (sell out) ___ of the famous beef noodles.
  2. He was exhausted because he (queue) ___ for over two hours.
  3. She finally tasted it — she (wait) ___ all year for this dish.
  4. I knew the cook well; I (eat) ___ there every Friday for a year.
  5. When I opened the lid, I realised someone (already / take) ___ the last one.
  6. Her hands smelt of garlic — she (peel) ___ it all morning.

Exercise C — so / such …that

Join each pair into ONE dramatic sentence using so or such …that.

  1. The soup was very hot. I burned my tongue.
  2. It was a long queue. We almost gave up.
  3. The chef cooked very quickly. We couldn't see his hands.
  4. There was a delicious smell. We had to follow it.
  5. The portions were huge. We couldn't finish them.
  6. It was a memorable meal. We still talk about it.

Exercise D — gap-fill narrative

Read the story and put the verbs into the correct narrative tense. Use past simple, past continuous, past perfect (simple or continuous), or so/such …that where needed.

It (1) ___ a warm Friday evening in Lisbon and the streets of Bairro Alto (2) ___ with the smell of grilled sardines. Marco and I (3) ___ around for nearly an hour, looking for the tiny tasca his cousin had recommended, when we finally (4) ___ it — a blue door with a handwritten menu taped to the window.

We (5) ___ inside and the owner, an old woman with flour on her apron, (6) ___ us straight to the kitchen. She (7) ___ bacalhau for the whole neighbourhood that afternoon, she explained, so the pans (8) ___ still hot. She handed us two plates and said, 'Eat standing up. It (9) ___ better that way.'

The cod (10) ___ so salty and rich that we (11) ___ two glasses of vinho verde just to keep up. By the time we (12) ___, the kitchen (13) ___ empty and the old woman (14) ___ the floor, humming a fado she (15) ___ since she was twelve. We paid, thanked her, and stepped back into the night with oil on our fingers and a story we (16) ___ tell for years.

6. Pronunciation

Pronunciation: irregular past forms & sentence rhythm

8 min

Storytelling lives or dies on rhythm. Two things matter at B2: getting the SOUND of irregular pasts right (so they don't trip you up), and stressing the KEY words so your listener stays hooked.

  • Past forms ending in -ought / -aught all rhyme with 'sort': /ɔːt/ — bought, brought, caught, taught, thought, fought.
  • Watch the vowel change: write → /raɪt/ but wrote → /rəʊt/; eat → /iːt/ but ate → /et/ (BrE) or /eɪt/ (AmE).
  • Many past forms END in /d/ or /t/ that learners drop: stopped /stɒpt/, asked /ɑːskt/, lived /lɪvd/. Keep that final sound — or your story sounds like the present.
  • In narrative rhythm, STRESS the content words (nouns, main verbs, adjectives). UNstress auxiliaries and modals: 'She had BEEN FRYING them for an HOUR.'
  • Pause briefly at commas — they're your dramatic timing. Don't speed-read your own story.

Listen and repeat (irregular past forms)

Listen carefully to each pair: infinitive → past form. Repeat with the same vowel sound and the same rhythm.

🎧 Irregular pasts & sentence rhythm drill
  • eat → ate /et/ · drink → drank /dræŋk/
  • fall → fell /fel/ · rise → rose /rəʊz/
  • buy → bought /bɔːt/ · catch → caught /kɔːt/
  • bite → bit /bɪt/ · feed → fed /fed/
  • burn → burnt /bɜːnt/ · spit → spat /spæt/
  • find → found /faʊnd/ · hold → held /held/
  • speak → spoke /spəʊk/ · break → broke /brəʊk/

Practice — story rhythm

Read each line aloud TWICE. First slowly. Then again, hitting the CAPITALISED words harder than the others. Feel the rhythm of a real story.

  1. She had been FRYING zeppole for an HOUR when the PHONE rang.
  2. The OIL spat, the FLAMES jumped — and she did NOTHING.
  3. We had been QUEUING for AGES when he finally OPENED the door.
  4. He took ONE bite. His EYES watered. He asked for ANOTHER.
  5. By the TIME we got there, the GUY with the wok had GONE home.
7. Listening

Listening: the night I tried durian

12 min

Two friends, Priya and Sam, are at a café. Priya is telling Sam the story of a memorable food experience in Singapore. Listen once for the big picture, then again for detail.

🎧 Dialogue: the night I tried durian

Before you listen

  • What do you know about durian? Why is it so famous (or infamous)?
  • Predict: do you think she ended up loving it or hating it?
Show transcript

Sam:OK, you've been promising me a food story all week. Spill.

Priya:Right. So, Singapore, last spring. I had been wanting to try durian for, honestly, about ten years — since a friend told me about it at university.

Sam:The stinky fruit?

Priya:The stinky fruit. My cousin Ravi lives there, and he'd been promising for ages he'd take me. So one night we go to this hawker centre near Geylang.

Sam:And…?

Priya:Sam. I smelled it before I saw it. It was so strong that my eyes were watering before I'd even taken a bite.

Sam:Watering how?

Priya:Like — imagine gym socks left in a warm taxi. Sweet and sharp and a little horrible. People were eating it like it was nothing.

Sam:So you ran?

Priya:I almost did. I'd been walking around the markets all afternoon, I was starving, and now this. Ravi was laughing at my face. He just said, 'Hold your nose, take one bite, and then we'll talk.'

Sam:And?

Priya:I took the bite. And — Sam — it was unbelievable. Creamy. Sweet, like custard. Rich, almost savoury at the same time. Nothing like the smell.

Sam:So you became a durian fan?

Priya:I had three more bites and stopped. It was such an intense flavour that I couldn't manage more. And the smell stayed on my fingers for two days.

Sam:Would you do it again?

Priya:Honestly? I think once was enough. But I'm so glad I did it. That's the whole point of a food story — you remember it forever.

First listen — gist

  1. What food is Priya describing?
  2. Where and when did the experience happen?
  3. What is her overall feeling about it now?

Second listen — detail

  1. How long had Priya been wanting to try durian?
  2. Who took her to try it?
  3. How does she describe the smell?
  4. How does she describe the taste?
  5. What 'so …that' detail does she give about the smell?
  6. What does she say she had been doing all afternoon before they got there?
8. Speaking

Speaking: story dice — build a food memory

10 min

In pairs, choose ONE word from EACH of the three boxes below. Those three words must appear in your story — naturally. Tell a 90-second food memory using past simple, past continuous AND at least one past perfect / past perfect continuous. Use one 'so/such …that'. Listener: at the end, repeat the three words back. If both partners agree they were used well, you each earn a ⭐.

📍
WHERE
  • 🎲 a beach
  • 🎲 a friend's tiny kitchen
  • 🎲 a wedding
  • 🎲 the back of a car
  • 🎲 a 24-hour diner
  • 🎲 a mountain hut
🍽️
WHAT
  • 🎲 fish you'd never seen
  • 🎲 a birthday cake disaster
  • 🎲 a soup that took 6 hours
  • 🎲 street food at midnight
  • 🎲 a meal you couldn't pronounce
  • 🎲 leftovers that saved your life
💥
TWIST
  • 🎲 someone arrived unexpectedly
  • 🎲 the power went out
  • 🎲 you spilled everything
  • 🎲 you cried (good or bad)
  • 🎲 you broke a plate
  • 🎲 a stranger paid your bill

🏆 Extra ⭐ if you naturally use one of: 'I had been …-ing for ages when…', 'It was so … that…', 'By the time I…'.

9. Writing

Writing mini-task — a tiny food memoir (90–110 words)

5 min (or homework)

Write a 90–110 word food memoir about a real or invented memorable meal. You MUST include: (a) at least one past continuous, (b) at least one past perfect simple OR continuous, (c) one 'so/such …that' construction, (d) at least three vocabulary items from today (flavour or cooking method).

Illustration
10. Wrap-up

Wrap-up · the one-bite review

3 min

You're a food critic with 15 seconds to file your review. In ONE sentence each, complete the cards below about today's class — the way you would about a meal.

🥄

First bite

The moment in class that grabbed you — finish: 'It was so … that…'

🌶️

Strong flavour

A new word or grammar point that stood out — and an example sentence.

📓

I'll order again

One thing you want to practise this week (use 'I should/had better…').

🎮 Games arena

Play to remember

Three quick games. Earn up to ⭐⭐⭐ stars on each.

🃏 Vocabulary flashcards

1 / 12

Click to reveal the meaning

⚡ Word–meaning match (60s)

⏱ 60s0/8

Tap a word on the left, then its meaning on the right. Beat the clock!

🎧 Listening gap-fill (120s)

⏱ 120s

Priya:I had wanting to try durian for about ten years.

Priya:My cousin Ravi lives there, and he'd been for ages he'd take me.

Priya:It was so strong my eyes were watering before I'd even taken a bite.

Priya:I'd been around the markets all afternoon.

Priya:Hold your nose, take one , and then we'll talk.

Priya:Creamy. Sweet, like . Rich, almost savoury at the same time.

Priya:It was an intense flavour that I couldn't manage more.

Priya:The smell on my fingers for two days.

Listen carefully and type the missing word in each gap before time runs out.

Challenge

End-of-lesson quiz · Street food stories

12 questions · 70% to pass · instant feedback after you submit.

  1. Q1.Choose the BEST tense: "While I ___ the soup, my phone rang."

  2. Q2.Choose the BEST tense: "By the time we arrived, they ___ the last dumpling."

  3. Q3.Choose the BEST tense: "His arms ached because he ___ noodles for three hours."

  4. Q4.Which sentence is grammatically correct?

  5. Q5.Which sentence is grammatically correct?

  6. Q6.Pick the meaning of TENDER (about meat).

  7. Q7.Which cooking method means 'cook gently just below boiling'?

  8. Q8.Choose the correct past form: "She ___ the cake out of the oven just as we walked in."

  9. Q9.Listening recall — in the durian story, where did Priya try it?

  10. Q10.Which past form is irregular and pronounced /kɔːt/?

  11. Q11.Combine: 'The queue was long. We went somewhere else.' → BEST single sentence:

  12. Q12.Which sentence uses the past perfect CONTINUOUS correctly?

0/12 answered

📚 Homework

Practise at home

Open the Workbook for extra exercises with answer keys — vocabulary, grammar, reading, listening and challenges. The listening is a different scene (Aunt Mei and her nephew Leo in the kitchen).

📝 Open Workbook 3A →