IELTS Cue Card # Unusual Meal You Had

July 23, 2021 IELTS Research

IELTS Cue Card, Unusual Meal You Had

Although food is defined as something that people and animals eat to survive, for us humans it is much more than that. For humans, eating and food also have symbolic meanings associated with love, comfort, security, reward and power. Throughout our lives we may associate certain foods with a holiday, past event, or specific memory. Let us look at a cue card that asks questions about an unusual meal you had.

Describe an unusual meal you had:

When did you eat it

Where did you eat it

With whom you had that meal

Describe why you found it unusual?

Sample Answer

I love to travel to new places and make sure that I try out the local cuisine of that region. This is the perfect way to sneak peek into the culture and traditions of the people out there. I’ll like to share with you one such experience I had on my visit to Pune which is a cosmopolitan city in Maharashtra, in western India. One of our local friends suggested us to have a meal at an old eatery called “Manish lunch home”, a place famous for its fresh sea food. We went there and could see a large aquarium placed right in the reception area filled up with crabs and lobsters. I was keen to try crab curry while my husband played safe by ordering usual chicken gravy.
After we placed the order, waiter laid down the table and kept a pair of strange looking cutlery next to my plate. The food arrived and I was served a few pieces of crab with the shell intact. I was supposed to crack the shell using that fancy looking cutlery and then pull out the meat in there. I just didn’t know how to do that. I somehow managed to finish my serving of flatbread with the gravy which was typical of that region. It was spicy gravy with coconut milk base and a tinge of sourness. It was indeed the strangest looking food I had in my life. I promised myself to be careful and sure before ordering something which I have not tasted before.

FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS

Q1.Why do people buy foreign food?
Ans. I personally believe that this is a world of consumerism. There is a wide range of exotic, attractively packed foreign foods available in supermarkets these days. Those who can afford to buy , don’t mind spending on these items. Maybe, they think that the quality of those products would be better than domestic ones.
Q2.Why are humans facing food shortage?
Ans. According to me, there are two main reasons why we are facing scarcity of food. Firstly, the population is increasing at an alarming rate, especially in the underdeveloped and developing nations.
A vast majority of these people belong to low socio-economic strata and simply cannot afford to buy enough food. Also, a large quantity of food is wasted by the rich in hotels, parties instead of giving it to the poor and needy people. Then, there are environmental factors too such as crop droughts and famines which result in dearth of food.
Q3.Do you think having dinner at home is a good idea?
Ans. Of course, having a meal together actually makes the family to spend some quality time with each other. Often, it is dinner time when all family members are together. This helps them to handle the stresses of daily life and hassles of day-to-day existence.