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Real Easy English

Easy level

Talking about spicy food

Episode 260807 / 07 Aug 2026

(Photo: Getty)

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Introduction

Georgie and Neil have a real conversation in easy English about spicy food – those dishes that make your mouth feel hot! Learn how to talk about food that has a kick and find out the spiciest things that Neil and Georgie have ever eaten...

Vocabulary

spicy
describes food that makes your mouth feel hot, such as chilli peppers

hot
spicy

has a kick
contains some hot spice

my mouth is on fire
expression used when you have eaten something extremely spicy

cool (your mouth) down
soothe the hot feeling in your mouth with a drink or another food, such as yogurt

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Transcript

Neil
Hello, I'm Neil.
 
Georgie
And I'm Georgie. Welcome to Real Easy English.
 
Neil
You can find a worksheet and transcript for this episode on our website, bbclearningenglish.com. Hi Georgie. How are you?
 
Georgie
I'm very well, thank you, Neil. Something that made me very happy yesterday was that my housemate made me a delicious meal. It was very spicy.
 
Neil
Well, we're talking about spicy food today.
 
Georgie
Yes. Spicy food is food that makes your mouth hot, and sometimes it can be painful. Neil, I like spicy food. What about you?
 
Neil
Yeah, I really like spicy food. I think, well, it has a lot of flavour. And it can make you actually feel good when you eat spicy food. It can, kind of, lift your mood.
 
Georgie
Yeah, I agree actually. Spicy food really makes you feel alive. The food that my housemate made for me yesterday was jerk chicken, which she put on the barbecue and it really had a kick. So, if something has a kick, it means that it's a little bit spicy. So, we had some mayonnaise with it to, kind of, cool it down.
 
Neil
Yeah, good idea. Sometimes when you eat really spicy food or hot food. We say hot food and it doesn't mean the temperature always – it means spicy. When you have spicy food or hot food, it can make it feel like your mouth is on fire.
 
Georgie
Very true. Have you always liked spicy food or was it something you had to learn to love?
 
Neil
I think so. I think I've always liked spicy food. Yeah, I've always eaten lots of Indian curries, or Mexican food, or Caribbean food, like your jerk chicken.
 
Georgie
Yeah, I remember going on holiday with my family in Spain, and they have a dish there made of peppers, and some of them are very mild so they aren't very spicy, but some of them really have a kick, and you don't know which one is going to be really spicy, so it was quite... it was almost like an exciting game. So, I've always enjoyed spice.
 
Neil
OK. So, Georgie, you can eat spicier food now than when you were younger.
 
Georgie
Yes. Now, Neil, what's the spiciest meal you've ever eaten?
 
Neil
Well, I was travelling in South East Asia, and there was something on a menu, in a restaurant or bar I was in, called the spicy sausage salad... and they weren't lying! It was so spicy, it felt almost like somebody had attacked my tongue.
 
Georgie
Oh no! Was your mouth on fire?
 
Neil
My mouth... My whole head was on fire! And it took a long time and lots of water before... before I felt normal again.
 
Georgie
Does water help?
 
Neil
I don't know. I needed to try something.
 
Georgie
I think sometimes milk can help, but I don't know if there are... if there's anything else that can help. But sometimes you really need something to cool down.
 
Neil
Yeah. How about you, Georgie? What's the hottest thing that you've ever eaten?
 
Georgie
Well, it wasn't a meal, but I used to work in a restaurant. And there was a chef there who had three bottles of hot sauce with different levels of spice, and we were all trying it – everyone that worked there – and the spiciest one was so hot. It was so spicy, it... my mouth was completely on fire. It was horrible. I actually didn't enjoy that. Everyone was sweating, crying. I don't think anyone enjoyed the experience.
 
Neil
Time now to recap the vocabulary we've heard in this episode, starting with spicy. If something is spicy, it makes your mouth feel hot and that can be uncomfortable or even painful.
 
Georgie
We can also describe food as hot. Now, hot is not always about the temperature – it can also mean spicy.
 
Neil
If food is spicy, we can say it has a kick. Now, Georgie said she had some Jamaican jerk chicken and that had a kick – it was spicy.
 
Georgie
If you eat something that's really spicy, you could say, "My mouth is on fire!" And it means it made your mouth feel very hot. If your mouth is on fire, you might want to cool it down with maybe a glass of water or a glass of milk.
 
Neil
That's it for this episode of Real Easy English, but don't forget to go to our website where you can find a free worksheet and you can test yourself on what you've learned. That's at bbclearningenglish.com.
 
Georgie
And we'll be back next week with another conversation in easy English. Goodbye for now.
 
Neil
Goodbye!

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