Magic Tom: Hi! I'm Magic Tom, the producer for Sam &Ted's Famous Last Words. Welcome to the Babbel Sound studio where we're sitting in on an American and a Brit twisting each other's words, getting tongue tied and generally reflecting upon the strange beauty of that majestic, rather odd thing we call the English language. Let's start the show!

T: Nice to see you Sam.

S: Good to see you too, Ted. How are you feeling today?

T: Just peachy.

S: Ted, it’s a bit cruel to be speaking about food right before we eat lunch, don’t you think?

T: Well, it might be cruel, but, err… I don’t really give a fig.

S: Ted…

T: Today, we’re going to spice up this podcast,…

S: I’m serious…

T: …and give our listeners some food for thought…

S: One more food idiom and…

T: …I’m sure they’re going to eat it right up.

S: …I’m going to go bananas!

T: Ha! How do you like them apples?

S: You’re a bad egg, Ted.

T: Sam, have a snack and calm your hanger.

S: Hanger? What, like clothes hanger?

T: No, "hanger" like anger that’s caused by hunger.

S: Oh, right, yeh yeh yeh, ok. I’m ready. What’s the show about today, anyway?

T: Food! And I’ve already warmed everyone up for our first segment, which I’m going to call…

You’re a peach!

S: I assume from the title that you’ve baked another peach pie for us to noisily devour while everyone listens?

T: While that would make for excellent listening, Sam, I’m actually going to talk about some of my favorite flavorful food idioms, everyday phrases like, “You’re a peach!”, which means that someone is beautiful, excellent, or sweet.

S: Ok… so, what else have you got for us?

T: So, I've got, "I don’t give a fig".
 Fig doesn’t actually replace another, more vulgar f-word. Comes from the name for a rude gesture from Shakespearean times (thumb between the index and middle fingers, called “The Fig of Spain”)

S: Which means?

T: This actually comes from an obscene gesture from Shakespearean times. And this gesture was when you took your thumb and you placed it between your index finger and your middle finger, and this was called, "the fig of Spain". 

Sam: "The fig of Spain"?

Ted: "The fig of Spain".

Sam: Really, "the fig of Spain"? I've never heard of that but I'm doing it right now…

Ted: I am doing it as well.

Sam: It looks somehow obscene… yes.

Ted: A little bit. Anyway…

Sam: Wonderful.

Ted: So, if you don't give a fig, you can't even be bothered to make this obscene hand gesture, you don't care.

To go bananas (to go crazy)
This one evolved from “to go ape”, which also meant to go crazy, or to explode with anger. The close association of apes, or monkeys, and bananas probably led to this change. Interestingly, before “to go bananas” acquired this meaning, it was used to refer to someone who was sexually perverted (: o)

How about dem apples? (Hah! In a superior way. The non-standard English “them” is used for emphasis)
If you’ve ever seen Good Will Hunting, you might know this one. It’s used when you surprise someone by beating them, either in conversation or competition.

Food for thought (something that gives you reason to stop and think)
This idiom from the 19th century takes the idea of digestion and transfers it from the stomach to the brain, where the information you’re thinking about is the “food”.

Cut the cheese (to fart)
Pretty self-explanatory. Smells like cheese.

Tasteful Tedbits (what are titbits?)

T: It’s tidbits, Sam, not titbits. And they’re small delicacies

S: Foreign culinary words that have found their way into English!

French:
beef
bouef
caramel
casserole
cassoulet
confit
consommé
cream
croissant
custard
fillet
foie gras
fondant
fondue
gateau
gratin
marmalade
mayonnaise
meringue
mille-feuille
mustard
mutton
pâté
pastry
petit four
pork
ragout
roux
salad
sauce
sausage
soufflé
stew
terrine
trifle
veal

Spanish:
avocado
originally a Nahuatl word, ahuacatl
banana
word, originally of African origin, entered English via either Spanish or Portuguese
barbecue
from barbacoa, a word of Caribbean origin
cafeteria
from cafetería
cannibal
originally of Caribbean origin
chili
from chile, derived from Nahuatl chilli
chocolate
originally xocolatl, from Nahuatl, an indigenous Mexican language
cilantro
cocaine
from coca, from Quechua kúka
flan
a type of custard
guacamole
originally from Nahuatl ahuacam, "avocado," and molli, "sauce"
jerky
the word for dried meat comes from charqui, which in turn came from the Quechua ch'arki
maize
from maíz, originally from Arawak mahíz
margarita
a woman's name meaning "daisy"
nacho
oregano
from orégano
papaya
originally Arawak
piña colada
literally meaning "strained pineapple"
potato
from batata, a word of Caribbean origin
salsa
In Spanish, almost any kind of a sauce or gravy can be referred to as salsa.
sarsaparilla
from zarza, "bramble," and parrilla, "small vine"
tomato
from tomate, derived from Nahuatl tomatl
tortilla
in Spanish, an omelet often is a tortilla
vanilla
from vainilla

sugar
سكّر sukkar, sugar. The word is ultimately from Sanskritic sharkara = "sugar".
syrup, sherbet, sorbet
شراب sharāb, a word with two senses in Arabic, "a drink" and "syrup".
alcohol
الكحل al-kohl
apricot
البرقوق al-barqūq
artichoke
الخرشف al-kharshuf
aubergine
البادنجان al-bādinjān
candy
قند qand + قندي qandī, sugared. Cane sugar developed in ancient India. Medieval Persian qand = "cane sugar" is believed to have probably come from Sanskritic
caraway (seed)
كرويا karawiyā | كراويا karāwiyā, caraway.
coffee, café

قهوة qahwa, coffee. Coffee drinking originated in Yemen in the 15th century.²⁵ Qahwa (itself of uncertain origin) begot Turkish kahve. Turkish phonology does not have a /w/ sound, and the change from w to v in going from Arabic qahwa to Turkish kahve can be seen in many other loanwords going from Arabic into Turkish (e.g. Arabic fatwa -> Turkish fetva). The Turkish kahve begot Italian caffè. The latter word-form entered most Western languages in the early 17th century. The Western languages of the early 17th century also have numerous records where the word-form was taken directly from the Arabic, e.g. cahoa in 1610, cahue in 1615, cowha in 1619.^{25 13}.

Cafe mocha, a type of coffee, is named after the port city of Mocha, Yemen, which was an early coffee exporter.
lemon, limonene
ليمون līmūn, lemon. The cultivation of lemons, limes, and bitter oranges was introduced to the Mediterranean region by the Arabs in the mid-medieval era.
lime (fruit)
ليم līm, meaning sometimes any citrus fruit,¹⁶ sometimes lemon and lime fruit, and sometimes a lime fruit.
orange
نارنج nāranj, orange (a citrus fruit), via Persian and Sanskrit nāraṅga from a Dravidian language.
saffron
زعفران zaʿfarān, saffron

tuna
التنّ al-tunn, tunafish. The standard etymology report is: Ancient Greek and classical Latin thunnus = "tunafish" -> medieval Arabic al-tunn (or al-tūn) -> medieval Spanish atún -> colloquial American Spanish tuna -> late 19th century California tuna -> international English. Note: Modern Italian tonno, French thon, and English tunny, each meaning tuna, are descended from the classical Latin without an Arabic intermediary.

S: All this talk of food is making me hungry, Ted! What’s next on our list of culinary delights?

Eggcorns! (acorns) (like Titbits/tidbits)

Skin milk - skim milk, milk with no fat

Bread and breakfast - bed and breakfast

Pass mustard - should be pass muster, meaning satisfactory. Muster is when a military unit lines up for inspection.

A couple of non food-related eggcorns that surprised us:

You’ve got another thing coming (think) “If that’s what you think, you’ve got another think coming.” - The joke is supposed to be grammatically incorrect, this is a case where the desire to be “right” actually led to a mistake.

Butt naked (buck naked)
There is greater support historically for buck naked being the correct term for describing someone fully nude. Butt naked is much newer and likely sees use because of butt having a long history of referring to one's buttocks. Buck naked is the only version with an official entry in our dictionary, but both are functional for everyday informal use.

S: Speaking of desserts, or deserts, this week on Sam and Ted’s Famous Last Words we have a special edition of celebrity bites - isn’t that right, Ted?

That’s right, Sam. This is the Celebrity Bites Special Party Egg edition

S: So, who have we got on the show, Ted?

T: Well Sam, we’ve invited West End girl Chelsea Sloane-Rangerton and Cheshire Lad, Christopher Pickles into the studio.

S: That’s right, and Chelsea and Christopher are gonna go head to head in the Babbel ring, where they’ll be digesting some famous British dishes, both sweet and savoury.

S: Welcome Chelsea & Christopher!!!

T: Where exactly is West Cheshire, Max?

S: And you’ve both starred in Babbel courses, right?

Fowlmouth Farm: Patagonia (Farm manager) & Max (Shiatsu Masseur).

S: Ok, so sticking with today’s food theme, we’ve got a quick fire quiz for you two. This is how it works: I’ll say the name of a British dish and the first person to buzz in and correctly tell us what it is gets the point.

S: Ted will be taking score.

S: For example, you’ve probably all heard of a Scotch egg, but who can tell me what a party egg is? Anyone?

S: Ok, are the contenders ready?

S: Ted, are you ready?

T: Always!

S: Then let’s go!

Lancashire hotpot

Eccles cake

Kendal mint cake

mushy peas

rag pudding

Worcestershire sauce

Spotted dick

Spam

S: And Chelsea, do people really say ‘jolly hockeysticks’ in West London?

T: I think we’re out of time, Sam – Magic Tom is doing that throat cutting move again.

S: Oh yeah. He does that a lot – I thought he had tourettes or sth.

T: No, it means cut - pronto… Soooooo, listeners. If you have any fun, interesting or even just darn weird phrases for us we’d love to hear them. Best one wins…

S: … A weekend with us on our party yacht!

T: No one wants to spend a weekend with us, Sam. And we don’t have a party yacht.

S: Oh right, sure. Well, email us anyway at podcasting@babbel.com or reach out to us on twitter using @Babbel.

T: And remember to subscribe to our show and search “Babbel” to see other shows from our colleagues. Thanks for listening!