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?

36 unique answers with expert feedback

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.

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.

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.

Tip

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

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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

My favorite food is Biryani. It is made from rice and some ingredients, spicy ingredients. It is very delicious for eating and this is very common and rare food in all over India. Especially this food came from Hyderabad. It is a very important dish for every occasion. Both youngsters and children and elders enjoy while eating this food. This food is a part of our culture and any kind of ceremony. Without this food, no ceremony or party will be completed. That's all.

Band 6-7

This dish is very common in Assam or in the North-Eastern part of India. But outside here, this food is not very common and not match, aligning to their cultures. And this food is my favorite because this food has a smoky flavor. This food, this dish has a traditional touch in it. The Assamese people are very inclined towards dishes which have the rawness in their taste, which have the smokiness in their taste and which align to their traditions, their cultures and everything. So there are a lot of dishes in Assam or in the North-Eastern state which are prepared by smoking it, by roasting it or by having a smoky flavor in it. And this is exactly why I love Princhal Ka Bhatta or Baingan Ka Bhatta.

Band 6-7

Actually, food is like a basic thing for a human being for leading a good life and it's an emotion for me. When I got a time to describe about my most favorite food, I go for Chinese cuisine and in Chinese cuisine, my most favorite dish is fried rice and it's like an emotion for me. When I went to a restaurant, I used to order fried rice and I tried different varieties of chicken with that particular fried rice. So the preparation of this fried rice is so simple. We just need to boil the rice first and after the complete cooking of this particular rice, we need to put that rice in a non-stick pan or something like that and we need to add some chopped vegetables like carrot, beans and if we need eggs, we can add and if we need some like veggies like spinach and all, we can add that or else we can add chicken then mix it very properly and then add some soy sauce and tomato sauce and we can gradually mix that and after two minutes of cooking and also we can add if we need spices like cardamom, I think it's basically like black pepper, black pepper powder we can be add and it's like a very good taste while we add these things to the particular dish. So the best combination of fried rice whenever I tried is like fried rice with dragon chicken and fried rice with chili chicken dry, it's the very best combination and I used to enjoy that a lot and also some other thing we can be tried with fried rice is like some North Indian dish like, no it's not actually pepper chicken, it's like butter chicken, it's a very rare combination so we can we can use that too with

Band 6-7

I would consider myself a foodie. I like variety of foods, cuisines and I have tried a lot of them too like Mexican, Italian. I recently tried seafood as well but didn't quite like it because of the smell but life is all about trying new things and I stand by it. Still after all of these things, I would say my favorite food is homemade cooked by my mom because I've stayed away from home so much that I always miss it. There's nothing like having Rajma Chawal, Kadhi Chawal in the comfort of your home which my mom cooks with all her love in it and love with all her love within it. I was first in a boarding school and then I proceeded since fifth grade and then I proceeded to go to college which kept me away from home for very long which makes me love homemade food even more.

Band 6-7

My favorite food item is chicken biryani. It is prepared in a big bowl and this needs rice and chicken and other ingredients like spices, onion and other etc. The smell is very aromatic. The spices are the key ingredients for this food item. It is not a common food item or neither a rare food item. We eat this food item once in two weeks. And this is famous worldwide. Many visitors come to Hyderabad. They feel very good while eating this. When other state people visit Hyderabad, they will mandatorily eat the biryani.

Band 6-7

So my favourite food is definitely pizza, ever since I was a kid I have always loved them because of it's cheesy feelings and their texture, the bread texture, I have been really you know fond of them since then, so I would say pizza yeah, other than that I would also say I really like chicken, I like the chicken that is used for chicken curry, which I have recently started to, which I recently, for which I recently learnt the recipe and have been able to cook for myself, so I would say that, other than that I would say

1 2 3 4