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Describe Your Favourite Food: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What dish or food item it is?
  • How it is prepared or cooked?
  • How common this food item or dish is?
  • Why it is your favourite?
Show all 36 answers

Cue 1:What dish or food item it is?

  • Begin by naming your favorite food item clearly.
  • Provide a brief description of the dish, including its main ingredients.

Example

My favorite food is biryani, a fragrant rice dish that is often made with marinated meat, spices, and sometimes vegetables. It is a popular dish in India, especially in the northern regions.

Cue 2:How it is prepared or cooked?

  • Explain the cooking process in a simple way, mentioning key steps.
  • You can include any special techniques or ingredients that make it unique.

Example

Biryani is prepared by first marinating the meat in yogurt and spices for a few hours. Then, the rice is partially cooked separately. Finally, layers of marinated meat and rice are combined in a pot and cooked together on low heat, allowing the flavors to meld beautifully.

Cue 3:How common this food item or dish is?

  • Discuss the popularity of the dish in your region or country.
  • Mention any occasions or festivals where this dish is typically served.

Example

Biryani is extremely common in India and is often served at weddings, festivals, and family gatherings. It is a dish that brings people together, and you can find various regional variations across the country.

Cue 4:Why it is your favourite?

  • Share personal feelings or memories associated with the dish.
  • Explain what makes this dish special to you compared to others.

Example

Biryani is my favorite because it reminds me of family gatherings where we would all sit together and enjoy a hearty meal. The rich flavors and the aroma of spices evoke a sense of comfort and nostalgia for me.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, biryani is not just a dish for me; it represents love, family, and tradition. Its unique preparation and the joy it brings during special occasions make it my all-time favorite food.

    Following this structure will ensure you cover all the essential points while providing a clear and engaging response to the cue card topic.

    Tips to answer this Cue Card

    1: Lack of Detail in Description

    Providing vague answers can make your response uninteresting. It's important to give specific details about the dish to engage the listener.

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    Tip

    Include sensory details like taste, texture, and aroma to make your description vivid and appealing.

    2: Ignoring Cooking Process

    Failing to explain how the food is prepared can leave your answer incomplete. This is a key part of the cue card.

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    Tip

    Outline the main steps in the cooking process, mentioning any special techniques or ingredients that make it unique.

    Not Explaining Popularity

    Neglecting to discuss how common the dish is can miss an opportunity to connect with the audience's experiences.

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    Tip

    Mention where the dish is typically served, its cultural significance, or how often you and others enjoy it.

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    IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

    Reported by Leap students who gave IELTS

    Describe your favourite food at a traditional festival or a special event in your country
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

    location icon

    Pitampura Test Centre, New Delhi

    Answer

    I like to taste different types of cuisine. Here I would like to talk about my favorite dish at my traditional festival of Onam which is Sadya. Sadya is popular in my city. We are experimenting these cuisines on Onam festival day. Onam is a famous festival in my city. All family members get together in my home and we make a delicious Sadya. There are many ingredients includes that Sadya. Moreover, we make a big feast that day as well as we create a lot of memories together and we wear that day the traditional dress called Sari and men wear the Dhotis. That festival is really important to us because the whole day we are conducting different kinds of games at our homes and all the family members came together. It's a memorable day in my life. This is the festival. We are making the Sambar and Aviyal. These all the kinds of foods are making with the vegetables.
    Talk about a toy you liked in your childhood
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 8

    location icon

    Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

    Answer

    The toy which I liked in my childhood was a panda doll, which makes me pleasant and makes me more blush. The pandas are the most beautiful creatures of the world, which looks gigantic and has pooshy cheeks and they are like stars in the clouds and they dream in me. Furthermore, these have been given by my father. My father is a very very beautiful artistic person, who makes me think of that. Every day you will face every difficulties and make you suffer and move forward. Pandas are always seen in Japanese countries. It is my lifelong dream to visit a Japanese country and click a photo with the original pandas, which makes sounds better.
    Describe a time you were in a place where you didn't know the local language
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 6.5

    location icon

    Whitefield Test Center, Bengaluru

    Answer

    As India is a very large country full of diversity, so there are many places which have their own language and speak their native language. The place which I visited and I didn't know about their language was Leladakh, which is about 300 km away from my hometown and it is a very good place as it consists of different kind of trees, animals and have many scenic views and I visited over there last year in summers as it was the best time to visit because it has many, it was cold over there and we had summers in our area so it was the best time to visit over there and I went over there with my whole family.
    Describe a time when your friend damaged something you owned
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7

    location icon

    Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

    Answer

    When I was a kid, I had a little pencil box which had these four buttons which gave the pencil box an operative use. When you press the button, the box would open up. When you press the second button, a little part of it would slide out. Basically it was just a little electronical and a fun thing to have and I owned it when I was in 6th. One day after break, I was standing and talking there with one of my friends and another friend of mine was running through the hallway and accidentally she pushed my shoulder and my pencil box hit the ground and it broke into multiple pieces to the point that it was not functional anymore.
    Describe a book you recently read
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

    location icon

    CBD Belapur Test Centre, Navi Mumbai

    Answer

    It Ends With Us is a book I read recently. It's by the author Colleen Hoare. It's mainly a story about two teenagers, Atlas and Lily, and how they just handle their life going through high school, adolescence, and just domestic violence at home. Both of them come from very, very different families. However, they have one common determining factor between them, which is domestic violence. The abuse that they've seen their moms go through is just insane, and they connect through that on a different level. They're actually in the same high school, but they never speak to each other until Atlas actually crashes into an empty house next to Lily's villa. When Atlas is homeless and he doesn't have anywhere to go, he just comes and breaks into the house next to Lily's, and Lily helps him with all the daily necessities like clothes and food, medicines and stuff. Furthermore, their friendship blossoms into love, but it doesn't really fructify as Atlas has to leave. This book really gave me a lot of knowledge about domestic abuse and how to deal with it.

    All Answers

    Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

    Band 6-7

    Firstly, I would say, whatever the dish that my mother made is favorite to me, but especially if I want to mention a dish, I would say Bhagara rice and chicken curry. This is one of my favorite dishes so far. Why it is my favorite dish is I love the flavor of this Bhagara rice and chicken curry. So we can prepare this dish at home by using the regular rice and with the chicken curry. We can prepare it on stove or on induction as well. As I stay in hostel, when I eat this food at hostel also, I feel like my mother is there with me all the time and mixing both Bhagara rice and chicken curry makes me so comfortable having the food and I eat more when I eat this special dish that I like. So overall, I would say I enjoy my cooking made by my mother and especially if it is Bhagara rice with chicken curry, I would enjoy a lot.

    Band 6-7

    Hi, today I would like to share about my favorite dish which I often prepare at my home. It is a gravy made up of channa. Channa is of two types. It has two wide varieties. It is a dried one and the other one is a fresh one. It is dried and we have to soak it for overnight and I have to make it cook for at least 5 to 6 whistles but for the fresh one it is enough for 3 whistles and no need for soaking. So what happens, initially we have to soak it or not. It depends on the variety and I have to chop onion and potato and add ginger garlic paste according to the content and I have to deep fry and later if it is necessary we can add coconut milk or else we can add, we don't need to add. So we have to add coconut milk along with that we have to grind it along with cumin seeds and other seeds which is necessary for spicy things and adding all these in a hot pan, add the channa and just give it for a whistle according to that variety. So this is a very traditional masala of our culture but it is very hard to prepare initially. The taste actually differs when we make it because each and every time when I cook this masala I have a different taste. I never made a channa masala of same taste. So it depends on the mood I hope, it depends on the mood when we cook. So when we cook it very peacefully the taste really taste a lot.

    Band 6-7

    From my perspective I am a foodie and there are plenty of people are love to food in India. In India there are plenty of cuisines are available but I am vegetarian so I love vegetarian food. There are plenty of vegetarian foods in India and as well as the plenty of street foods. But one of my favorite food is Gujarati as well as Chinese and Italian. In Italian my most favorite thing is pasta and which is made by me. Every time when I am not in mood or not feeling well so I made this pasta. It is not that much famous or not that much it is my comfort food. It is vegetable pasta with Maggi Masala. Maggi Masala is a mixture of Indian spices and I love it because it has so flavorful flavor. And it is good for flavoring in mouth. So I love to eat that Maggi Masala and when I am talking about my pasta making. So first of all I boiled the pasta in the container. After that the excess water I removed that extra water from after boiling it. And then I cut some veggies like onions and capsicum and tomatoes and all. Then I need to shallow fry it. I shallow fried it.

    Band 6-7

    My favorite food has to be pizzas. I really enjoy eating pizzas and I can eat it at any time during the day or the night. I love the way it is cooked because it can be cooked in a variety of ways by including different kinds of flavors, starting from non-vegetarian to vegetarian, from using herbs to spices and making it interesting and cooking it in many different ways like hand-tossed pizzas, oven-cooked pizzas and there are also handmade dough that they use which is a mixture of herbs and spices. I really enjoy eating different kinds of pizzas. According to my mood, if I want to go for a Hawaiian pizza which is made of pineapple or I would want to go for a spicy pizza with pepperoni and chilies. In my hometown or in my country, they don't usually eat pizzas because it's an Italian dish and in my area, they mostly prefer local foods like rice, noodles, curries and fish. All the local vegetables and green leaves are added in our dishes in my country. It is my favorite food because it comes with lots of flavors and varieties and I love cheese. Pizzas contain too much amount of cheese which really excites me and I love customizing it with extra vegetables like mushrooms, olives and by adding some tofu or even some vegetables.

    Band 6-7

    My favorite food, as a foodie, I can say my favorite food is Biryani. That's because it is one of the most popular dish in the whole world. For preparing Biryani, it takes a whole lot of efforts and time. We know that we have to procure the meat, the tender pieces. And then we have to marinate them with a lot of ingredients like curd, various spices and garam masala as we say in India. Next, it is basically a slow cooking method. Usually, slow cooking is used in preparing Biryani. Next, I love my Biryani with Aloo. Because in Kolkata style of Biryani, Aloo is a must. Also, it's a very common dish all over the world. So, every region and culture have its own version. But the Kolkata variant and particularly the Lucknow or the Awadhi variant of Biryani is the most favorite of mine. Ever since childhood, I love Biryani because not only it's a complete meal, it's really a sumptuous dish. It has meat, rice, in some cases, potatoes and as well as eggs. So, having Biryani is like having a full course meal and we don't need anything else. Sometimes, I need chutneys and raita to complement my meal of Biryani. But however, Biryani will always be my favorite for its aroma, its flavors and of course the great taste.

    Band 6-7

    well I know well and I doesn't know very well about the food but I want to tell that my favorite food dish is Amritsari Kulcha it is actually a cuisine which belongs to Punjab Amritsar and it is a very delicious I would say it is a very delicious dish that almost everyone love to prefer in breakfast especially in Punjab North India people would like to have Amritsari Kulcha in their breakfast and I too like to have it in breakfast it is a kind of food that is actually a tandoori which is not fried it is a kind of baking technique almost everyone in North India knows about it very well it is a very common food over there and people would love to have Kulchas in their meal and almost even the children's from the children from the very young children's to the very old age people would like to have it because it is a complete food actually once you have it in your meal in the day and you are not required to have anything else after within 4-3 hours and you can go with it it is actually prepared with the technique that is known as tandoori where first of all the dough is prepared and some mashed potatoes and various spices I would say various spices are added on it and spices would be like salt chili green chili red chili black pepper and like you know the coriander leaves such are added and are filled into

    Band 6-7

    The most favorite food that I love is obviously biryani. I like non-veg biryanis, I mostly, I don't even call veg biryani, I don't... I don't even call it veg biryani, I call it non-veg biryani, I call it non-veg biryani. My most favorite food is undoubtedly biryani, there are list of different types of biryani, among them I like chicken and mutton biryani very much because of the spices, the aroma, the calmness that it gives, whether I'm in a happy mood or I'm down mentally, I'll have biryani. So, every special occasions undoubtedly my mother cooks biryani for me and even during weekends we used to have that. It takes two hearts for the preparation and to cook it completely, we have to add the more the ingredients, the more the taste is and I think we have to add few love also to make it tastier. And it's very common in South India, we used to have, we even now have many biryani shops in our streets, in many areas and we used to have many offers, if you buy one get one offer such that. In weddings undoubtedly we will go for non-vegetarian biryanis only and we will be quite hesitant to go to the weddings that provide veg in their menu. So that's how biryani is important to us and to myself. I like, how I fell in love with biryani is because of the spiciness, the non-veg, that is the cooked mutton or chicken with warm butter. I can eat, I can even have biryani for breakfast, lunch and dinner and I'm not a pro at cooking but still I'm trying to make biryani by looking at the tips and tricks in the YouTube video and I have tried few times but it didn't, it was not up to my expectations. So without any risk I'll just take my mobile phone and order it through the app or straight away go to any biryani shop.

    Band 6-7

    Today I would like to speak about one of my favorite dishes, that is Chicken Biryani. The process is quite lengthy, but it is quite simple to follow. Firstly, the chicken is marinated with different types of spices, like different spices, different spices. Simultaneously, the basmati rice or the biryani rice is soaked in water for one hour. Then the marinated chicken is heated, I mean the marinated chicken is then brought to simmer along with the basmati rice until the rice is cooked 80%. Then the chicken and basmati rice or cooked rice is kept in layers, so that one layer of chicken rests on the top of a layer of basmati rice. And a good quantity of ghee is used in the whole process. It is very common in India, wherever you go and wherever you want to dine in, there are quite a restaurant which has this particular dish and everyone has their own style of making. The main reason why I am fond of this dish is the amount of spices it has and the flavorness of the rice it gets along with the chicken that is cooked tender.

    Band 6-7

    my favorite dish is vada pav which is also called as the Indian burger this is mostly of street food and the preparation of this food is not very complicated it is just a fried potato mashed boiled potato fried in chickpea flour and stuffed inside a bread Indian bread served with some green chutney or fried chilies it is a very popular street food present in India and we can enjoy this dish mostly in the rainy season people people enjoy this dish when it's very hot and vada pav has been my favorite since I was in college because it's a very it's a very good I like to cherish the childhood memories by eating this vada pav on a on a rainy day because it's served hot and it really satisfies my cravings that's the reason I like vada pav

    Band 6-7

    So, a balanced diet is must for good and healthy well-being. So, the favorite food that I would like to talk about is Himachali Dham. It is called as Himachali Dham. It is prepared in large utensils, mainly made up of brass, they are placed on the chamber that provide heat to it and then when we made rice, we have to separate the water from the rice and each grain is separated from the other grain. It consists of almost 7 to 8. It is a combination or conglomeration of approx 7 combined dishes, hence that's why the collective term is called as Dham. It is not that common in Himachal, but we can say this, that most oftenly it is prepared on, it is most oftenly prepared when there is a family function, there is a wedding or sometimes some types of reception. Then most oftenly people used to make this Dham on their very special day. Last time when I made this Dham is about the wedding of my own brother and I like this Dham very much because it has a conglomeration of more than 15 to 16 type of spices. More oftenly we can call it a mixture of cloves and a wide variety of spices in it. If I talk about my favorite, it is one of my favorite because it has, it tells us how a combination of one can hold a family of 7. It means if one dish is kept from the whole, then it will,
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