There are complimentary expressions originating in food and cooking that we use to describe a person's personality or temperament - things like spicy, salty, sweet, and zesty.
And then there are terms that describe a problem behaviour - cooked, half-baked, toasted, overcooked, and today's headline rage-boil. I hadn't seen that before - it seems more intense than boiling over.
I wondered if there were other expressions I didn't know. But somehow I knew the ones that were listed. Maybe they are used so much that we are familiar with them - nutty as a fruitcake, full of beans, cool as a cucumber, not my cup of tea, cheesy, sour grapes, tough cookie, hard nut to crack, butter up someone. Most foods are the subject of expressions:
Sweet, salt and sour: - as sour as vinegar - salt of the earth - sugarcoat
Desserts, especially pie: - piece of cake - pie in the sky - finger in the pie - as easy as pie
Eating words: - bite off more than you can chew - eat crow - bitter pill to swallow - eat humble pie - food for thought
These seem sort of mundane, part of our every-day conversations. I guess that's the point as the people who write about these are targeting people taking the International English Language Testing System exams. Required for university admissions and professional registrations, work visas, migration, and so on, there are many phrases and idioms to learn. Here is a joke listed for IELTS learners - for many of these, there is a follow-up explanation of what "makes it funny" which itself quite funny.
Why did the student eat his homework? Because the teacher told him it was a piece of cake!
To ace the speaking portion of the IELTS or just boost your language skills, understanding the dual meaning here is perfect:
Figurative Meaning: The teacher meant the homework was simple and could be finished with no trouble.
Literal Meaning: The student pretended to think the teacher was literally offering them a baked dessert.
Here's one of the gardens on the Grand Durand Garden tour. It is an area i Hamilton of 19th century estates and heritage stone mansions . Lots of large plots of grass. A vast and beautifully coloured swimming pool and classic-style pool house was the central feature of this "garden."
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