Helen: Hi I am Helen. Welcome to Question and Answer of the Week from BBC Learning English.

Alice: And I’m Alice. Hello. Today’s question is from Lei En in Shanghai. He has a question about something very delicious:

Question

Hello I'm Lei En, I am from Shanghai. I have a question about food. I think British people love eating potatoes and I have heard many different words for this vegetable. Could you tell me some of the common words meaning potatoes please.

Alice: Mmm. Something British people do like eating a lot – potatoes. Do you want to explain Lei En’s question Helen?

Helen: OK, Lei En wants to know if there are any other names for potatoes. 英语里除了potato 之外，还有其它可以指土豆的单词吗?让我们一起来看看。English people do love to eat potatoes – and they do have another word for them which is more informal, and even friendly. What is it Alice?

Alice: Spud – spud. I love spuds Helen; they’re so versatile.

Helen: Spuds. Spuds are versatile 多样化的、有多种用途的，这可是个有用的单词versatile.

Alice: Yes – potatoes are so versatile. They’re cheap, and easy to prepare. And there are lots of different ways you can eat them.

Helen: OK great. 那我们今天就上堂烹饪课吧。What’s your favourite way to eat potatoes, or spuds?

Alice: Lots of ways. I mean, I like them baked in an oven. We don’t peel them, we leave their skins on.

Helen: Baked potatoes 烤土豆，这是连皮一起烤的那种。

Alice: I think you do that with sweet potatoes in Chinese cuisine – but not so much with ordinary potatoes Helen. Is that right?

Helen: Well, sweet potatoes 红薯. 在中国我可喜欢吃烤红薯了，不过烤土豆比较少见。Yes, that’s right, not so many baked potatoes.

Alice: There’s another word we use for baked potatoes in English. We call them jacket potatoes – because the skins are like jackets when they’re baked in an oven.

Helen: Jacket 外套，jacket potatoes 带皮烤出来的大土豆、马铃薯。I don’t like jacket potatoes.

Alice: What’s the name of that lovely dish with potatoes, aubergine and green peppers Helen? I think that might use roasted potatoes.

Helen: Oh I think you mean 地三鲜。It is delicious.

Alice： Delicious!

Helen: How about some other terms for the way we cook potatoes in English Alice?

Alice: There’s roast potatoes. When we make the roast potatoes we take the skins off and roast them in hot oil in an oven. It's also delicious.

Helen: Roast potatoes 烤箱烤土豆–这个烤土豆是把土豆皮削掉后，抹上些油再放进烤箱里烤。这样土豆外面就会成金黄色，而且吃起来口感脆脆的。这也是周日烤牛肉大餐或圣诞节午餐必备的一道菜。It’s popular at Christmas time, right Alice?

Alice: Yes at Christmas time people like to eat roast potatoes with turkey and boiled vegetables.

Helen: I like roast potatoes. What’s another way of eating potatoes which people all over the world like to eat?

Alice: Fried potatoes – chips. You can have them thin, fat and everyone seems to love them, all over the word.

Helen: Yes I know, chips 薯条. Everybody loves them!

Alice: And what's a bit confusing, in American English, chips are usually called french fries. Chips, in American English, are what British people call crisps.

Helen: Oh that is confusing. Crisps 薯片。It's another very popular use of potatoes.

Alice: And don’t forget boiled. Lots of people joke about British cuisine being very boring – with everything boiled. But I promise you, listeners, it has improved and fresh new little boiled potatoes in spring are delicious!

Helen: Ha ha! You don’t have to defend British cookery Alice – we know not everything is boiled 水煮的。But I’m afraid there is no comparison to the range you can find in Chinese cookery.

Alice: And we haven’t yet come to my personal favourite yet Helen. Can you guess?

Helen: Right, let me see – we’ve had chips 薯条，roasted 抹了油再烤，fried 油炸或炒，baked 烘烤的，boiled 水煮的。What else is there?

Alice: Mash. Mashed potatoes.

Helen: Mashed potatoes 把土豆先煮熟，然后压碎成泥。That's one of my favourites too, with cream in it.

Alice: Lovely. Thanks for your question Lei En. It’s made me quite seriously hungry. And as usual I encourage everyone who has a question to send us an email to questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk

Helen & Alice: Bye.