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Now, the VOA Learning English program Words and Their Stories.
We received a list of expressions about food from Elenir Scardueli, a listener from Brazil.
Today we will talk about some good things to eat.
If something is new and improved, we say “it is the best thing since sliced bread.” In the past, bread was only sold in loaves in baked goods stores. Today, American supermarkets sell sliced bread in plastic bags. Many people thought this was easier because you did not have to cut the bread yourself.
“Bread and butter issues” are those that are most important to Americans and affect them directly -- like jobs and healthcare.
“Half a loaf is better than none” means that getting part of what you want is better than getting nothing at all. If you know which side your bread is buttered on, then you know what your best interests are and will act to protect them.
Many Americans like their bread toasted. Toast is cooked with dry heat until it starts to turn brown. But you are in big trouble if someone tells you “you’re toast.”
If you say something is “a piece of cake” it means something is really easy, like a test you take in school.
Hotcakes are also called pancakes. They contain flour, eggs, milk and baking powder. You cook them in a frying pan and eat them with fruit or a sweet topping. If a new product is popular and selling well, you might say “it is selling like hotcakes.”
“Flat as a pancake” describes something that is, well, really flat.
A “tough cookie” is not something you want to eat -- it is a person who is difficult to deal with, and would do anything necessary to get what he or she wants. This person could be “a sharp cookie” -- or someone who is not easily fooled. Very often things do not go the way we planned. Instead of getting angry or sad, you might just accept it and say “that’s the way the cookie crumbles.”