VOA慢速英语--Let's Talk About 'Meat-and-Potatoes'

Let's Talk About 'Meat-and-Potatoes'

Now, the VOA Learning English program Words and Their Stories.

Food expressions are popular with language learners. They combine two things important to every culture: food and language.

Today we are going to talk about spuds, a nickname¹ for potatoes!

First of all, potatoes have been around for a very long time. In the food magazine Bon Appetit, Sam Dean² writes about the beginnings of the potato. He explains that the common white potato came from Peru at least 7,000 years ago. Potatoes fed the Incan empire and other cultures in Peru at that time.

These days, most countries use a type of potato in their cooking.

Whether you like them boiled, baked, mashed³ or fried – potatoes are what we call a staple⁴. This means they are a basic food that you can build on. You can cover them in gravy⁵, butter, salt and pepper or sour cream and herbs.

And for people who eat pork, you have not lived until you have eaten a baked potato topped with melted cheese and crispy bacon. Mm-mm. Yum!

Speaking of meat on top of potatoes, let’s go back to the idea of potatoes being a simple, basic food.

We have a potato expression to describe a person like that: simple, basic, common. If someone is a meat-and-potatoes kind of person, they prefer eating simple meals such as – well, meat and potatoes. They are not interested in complex, fancy food. They are unpretentious.

Men are often described by this expression. When I hear about a meat-and-potatoes man, I picture a big, beefy guy. He likes to wear blue jeans and a simple t-shirt. He probably drives a truck and can fix it himself. He is a simple, no-nonsense kind of guy.

I like my steak well done, my taters (potatoes) fried

Football games on Monday night

It's just who I am

A meat and potato man

It is a little less common, but we can also describe a woman as a meat-and-potatoes kind of person. This type of woman not only likes to eat steak and hamburgers, she is also a down-to-earth person. She likes simple things, can take care of herself and is comfortable just hanging out with the guys.

Besides describing people, there is another way we use meat-and-potatoes. It can also describe the most important part of an activity or event.

For example, you might say that order is the meat-and-potatoes of teaching children. The teacher cannot teach and the children cannot learn in a loud, wild, messy classroom. Now, order may not be the most exciting part of teaching little ones, but it is arguably the most important -- or, the meat-and-potatoes.

In another example, you could say that voter outreach is the meat-and-potatoes of any political campaign. If people don’t come out to vote for your candidate or issue, the rest of your campaign strategy really does not matter.

Okay, as you know, potatoes hold heat well, meaning they stay hot for a long time. This idea led to the “hot potato” party game.

Here’s how you play. Players form a circle and toss⁶ a small object quickly to each other while music plays. You want to release the object as fast as possible, as if it was a hot potato. When the music stops, the player holding the potato must leave the game.

However, “hot potato” is more than a game. It can also mean a divisive or difficult issue. So, you could say the lawmakers discussed a few hot potato issues at the meeting.

And if an issue is too controversial, it might be a good idea to “drop it like a hot potato.” When you drop something or someone like a hot potato, you leave the person or thing completely and quickly.

Take my friend Olga, for example. She was dating this guy for a few months and she really liked him. But when she saw him acting⁷ unkind to a little puppy⁸, she dropped him like a hot potato! You see, Olga loves animals, especially dogs.

Hot potatoes might be important issues but “small potatoes” are just the opposite. They are unimportant⁹ matters. We often use the term small potatoes when we dismiss something. It is simply not worth our time.

Again, my friend Olga can help explain. After a storm damaged her hometown, she decided¹⁰ to collect money for homeless animals. She had little time to do so. There were so many cats and dogs without any food or shelter.

To help, I suggested selling lemonade to raise some money.

“Small potatoes!” she cried. “We need to go for big business donors¹¹. They have real money to spend!”

People can also be called “small potatoes.” It is a way of saying they are not a threat. If police in a big city do not have enough resources, they probably won’t waste manpower on small potatoes, like bicycle thieves. They have bigger fish to fry.

But please note. We may say “small potatoes” for trivial¹², unimportant matters.

But, we do not say “big potatoes” for important ones. English is funny that way!

And that’s Words and Their Stories.

I’m Bryan Lynn.

And I’m Anna Matteo.

Words in This Story

spuds – n. an informal name for potato

nickname – n. a usually descriptive name given instead of or in addition to the one belonging to a person, place, or thing

empire – n. a group of territories or peoples under one ruler

staple – n. the chief part of something : “Potatoes are the staple of their diet.”

unpretentious – adj. not having or showing the unpleasant quality of people who want to be regarded as more impressive, successful, or important than they really are

beefy – adj. heavily and powerfully built

down-to-earth – adj. practical and sensible

controversial – adj. relating to or causing much discussion, disagreement, or argument

have bigger fish to fry – phrase have other (or more important) matters to attend to

trivial – adj. of little worth or importance

1 nickname   

n.绰号，昵称；v.给...取绰号，叫错名字

参考例句：

• She called me by my nickname.她叫我的外号。
• Why do you fasten such a nickname on her?你为什么给她取这样一个绰号？

2 Dean   

n.(大学)院长，系主任，教务长

参考例句：

• The students much like the new dean.学生们很喜欢这位新系主任。
• Who is the dean of the Foreign Languages Department?外语系主任是谁？

3 mashed   

a.捣烂的

参考例句：

• two scoops of mashed potato 两勺土豆泥
• Just one scoop of mashed potato for me, please. 请给我盛一勺土豆泥。

4 staple   

n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类

参考例句：

• Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
• Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。

5 gravy   

n.肉汁；轻易得来的钱，外快

参考例句：

• You have spilled gravy on the tablecloth.你把肉汁泼到台布上了。
• The meat was swimming in gravy.肉泡在浓汁之中。

6 toss   

n./v.突然抬起，摇摆，扔

参考例句：

• Let's toss to see who pays it.让我们来掷钱币决定谁付账吧。
• The matter made him toss in the bed.那件事使他在床上翻来覆去。

7 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

8 puppy   

n.小狗，幼犬

参考例句：

• You must school your puppy to obey you.你要训练你的小狗服从你。
• Their lively puppy frisks all over the house.他们的小狗在屋里到处欢快地蹦跳。

9 unimportant   

adj.不重要的，无意义的

参考例句：

• Let's not quarrel about such unimportant matters.我们不要为这些小事争吵了。
• Money seems unimportant when sets beside the joys of family life.与天伦之乐相比，金钱显得微不足道。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 trivial   

adj.琐碎的，不重要的，无价值的

参考例句：

• Be patient.Don't lose your temper over trivial matters.忍着点，别为了一点小事发火。
• It's useless to fire away with such trivial details.喋喋不休地谈这些琐碎细节是无用的。