B2 C1 C2 expressions about food

If you are studying for your B2 C1 or C2 level or are simply an English language learner, you know there are tons of expressions to learn. Here we offer you some B2 C1 C2 expressions about food. Let’s face it, expressions about food are the best sort of expressions!

A piece of cake

  • Everyone likes cake. It’s easy to like cake. So, if something is a piece of cake, it means that it is easy to do. It comes from the same meaning of ‘easy as pie’ referring to how easy it is to eat a sweat dessert.
    • Click here to learn how to make carrot cake! It’s as easy as pie.
    • Learning English is a piece of cake with Bloglish!

Spill the beans

  • If you spill the beans, you have said something you shouldn’t have. This is usually when there is a surprise party and you accidently mention it in front of the person whose party it is or if you intentionally tell a secret that someone asked you not to tell.
    • Henry spilled the beans to my mom and now I am grounded for two days.

Go bananas

  • Go bananas or ‘Go ape’ (a less commonly used expression) refer to someone acting in a wild or crazy way. So, it comes from the idea of monkeys (or apes) jumping or swinging around and eating bananas. Sometimes it is difficult to know if the expression means someone is very happy or over-reacting to a situation. It depends on the tone of voice used to say the expression. 
    • They bought a new house and they are just going bananas about it.

There’s no use crying over spilled milk

  • This probably depends on what your parents were like when you were a child. If they yelled at you when you spilled milk, then this expression doesn’t work. The idea is that kids knock over their milk quite often due to being clumsy and since crying won’t bring the milk back, they should just clean it up and get another one. Parents literally would say, there’s no use crying over spilled milk. However, you can apply this to any situation where someone is upset about a past mistake or situation to tell them, it can’t be changed so they just need to accept the consequence and move on.  
    • You lost your keys. There’s no use crying over spilled milk. Get them replaced and move on.

Take it with a grain of salt

  • If someone tells you to take it with a grain of salt, it is a small warning that maybe it’s not 100% true what they are telling you or what they heard. This could be for a number of reasons:
    • They don’t have all the information,
    • Someone is giving you their opinion, not facts,
    • He or she does not think they got it from a reliable source, or
    • maybe they don’t remember all the details.
    • Kelly told me that she is going to make the team, but take it with a grain of salt (because Kelly sometimes lies or exaggerated the truth).

Bring home the bacon

  • This is one of my favorites, simply because it says bacon. Mmm. To bring home the bacon means that you earn money and therefore your house (or home) has money to buy such things as food (bacon). It used to be used mainly in a sexist way, saying women work at home and men bring home the bacon, but this has changed and is now used for anyone who is earning a wage.
    • I got a new job! I’ll finally be able to bring home the bacon.

Butter someone up

  • If you are buttering someone up, it means you are flattering them or saying nice things to them because you need something in return from them. You may tell your teacher she is your favorite teacher before telling her you didn’t do your homework. You may offer to help your boss as much as possible saying you enjoy working for him or her so you can later ask for a raise. Maybe you tell your dad how wonderful his cooking is before asking permission to go to a concert. Either way, you are buttering someone up so they are more likely to give you what you want. Naturally, everything is better with butter.
    • Are you buttering me up? What do you want?

That’s the way the cookie crumbles

  • If you eat a good cookie, it should crumble a bit because that’s just what happens when you eat a cookie. This is a metaphor for life, sometimes things just happen and there’s not much we can do about it. Sometimes things will go in your favor and other times they won’t. Your team played the best they could but they lost the game. You had a great interview but they gave the job to someone else. You like a boy but he likes your best friend. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes and there’s not much we can do about it.
  • I’m really sorry to hear that you didn’t make the team. That’s just the way the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.

Now that you’ve learned these B2 C1 C2 Expressions about food, learn more from other Expressions Sessions Expressions Sessions: Time