English food adjectives will help you describe food in English.Β
Chewy, mushy, stale…
Enlarge your vocabulary and improve your English speaking skills.
Some of the English food adjectives will come in handy if you decide to complain about your food in a restaurant.
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Letβs face it we all love π₯° our food. Cooking is a pleasure but eating it is even more pleasurable. Here are some English food adjectives you might need to describe how you like your food.
Or how you might describe what is served to you in a restaurant.
English adjectives to describe meat
When we are talking about MEAT we can use the following English food adjectives:
- Chewy – a bit difficult to eat and requires a lot of chewing
- Tough – like eating leather impossible to bite
- Tender – perfectly cooked and very delicate
- Juicy – nicely cooked that melted in your mouth
Usually, in a restaurant you will get asked how you’dΒ like yourΒ meat (or steak) cooked. So next time you could answer:
- blue – completely red on the inside
- rare – 75% red on the inside
- medium-rare – 50% red on the inside
- medium – a little bit pink
- medium to well done – nearly cooked
- well done – very well cooked and often chewy
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INSANITY: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
English Food Adjectives
English adjectives to describe vegetables
- For vegetables we can use the following English food adjectives:
- over cooked – soft and watery or mushy
- al dente – perfectly cooked; a little bit of bite when you chewed them
MUSHY is usually used to refer to food that has been over cooked particularly vegetables. They absorb a lot of water and become very soft and mushy when pressed. However, a very favourite English way to eat peas is known as “mushy peas” and are often served with the traditional fish and chips.
English Food Adjectives
The potato chips/fries/french fries were:
- crispy – a little overdone, firm, and usually make noise when you bite them
- crunchyΒ – a nice bite, perfectly cooked
- greasy and fat – too much oil or fat used in the cooking
STALE is used to describe food that is no longer fresh. More often we refer to old bread as stale when it becomes dry and hard. But many foods can become stale when they are past their sell-by date. Milk that is old and not drinkable, however, is called sour milk, not stale milk.
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REMEMBER: We sayΒ
- STALE bread
- SOUR milk
- ROTTEN fruit, vegetables or meat
- RANCID butter
We all like sweet things, biscuits and cakes. However, when referring to certain fruits like lemons and limes we use the word bitter which is the opposite of sweet.
The lemon adds a bitter taste.
Most recipes now include several references to teaspoons of herbs and spices. This is to add some much need colour or flavour particularly if you are cooking middle eastern or Asian foods.
Spicy, however, usually means the food is quite hot and likely to make your eyes water if there is too much spice added such as chilli or ginger. They make a big difference in the taste when the right amount is added but for me, it spoils the experience if overused.
One of my favourite words to describe the food is gooey. It reminds me of a chocolate brownie. Yummy. π
GooeyΒ stands for foodΒ that is kind of hard on the outside butΒ inside it’s sticky and soft.
English Food Adjectives
English cooking verbs
There are many ways to prepare food. In relation to most meat dishes we can:
- boil – cook in water that is boiling (100 C)
- steam – cook vegetables, fish or chicken over boiling water
- roast – meat in the oven
- fry – cook in a pan on the stove
- stew – slow cook in a pot for several hours
- bake – to cook bread, cakes, biscuits in an oven
- to grill – to cook under a grill
- to heat up – to make something hot that is already cooked
- to microwave – to cook something in a microwave
- to steam – to cook with steam produced by boiling water
Cooking Verbs in English
Phrases to Describe Your Meal in English
When the food is cooked just the way you like it we can describe the meal as TASTY. When you were not so happy with the meal you might sayΒ Β
- ah it was alright
- it will do!
Enjoy the cooking and the eating!!!
More Information
For more information in English Expressions, English Phrasal Verbs and tips on English Grammar Rules, check out the following links:
English Idioms related to Food
Difference between WILL or BE GOING TO
English Phrasal Verbs with OVER
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