Sophia's simple vegan sushi

Sophia: Hi, guys! Welcome back to another video for the British Council’s LearnEnglish Teens website and their YouTube channel. Today I’m with my flatmate, Viktoria.

Vicky: Hi.

Sophia: Do you want to introduce yourself? Say where you’re from, what you study at university?

Vicky: Sure. Um, I’m from Hungary. I study art history and literature, and I’m a fourth year, so I finish university this year.

Sophia: Yay! So, today we decided that we wanted to make some sushi for dinner and we thought we would show you guys how we attempt to make vegan sushi. So, I think this is Vicky’s first time (Vicky: Yes, I think …) making sushi, and I’ve done it a couple of times before, but we’ll see how it goes. So, what we have here, erm, is some rice, that we cooked and what do we have here?

Vicky: Avocados, carrots and cucumbers.

Sophia: You can use other vegetables like red peppers or green peppers or yellow.

Vicky: Radish … And then the point is that you need to cut it lengthwise, so it’s in, like, these little long shapes that you can put in and then roll it up.

Sophia: OK, so here I have my nori, and what you want to do is to put the shiny side facing downwards, so the glossy side of the nori is touching the bamboo, or just the cling film if you’re rolling with cling film. Next, I take a bit of water and I just dip my fingers in it and moisten up the nori. This makes it a bit easier to roll. Then, I’m going to take a little bit of rice and put it along the bottom half of the nori, just flattening it down. I always put some extras at the end, because I find that they come out with less stuff – everything is in the middle.

OK, so for this stuffing we have carrots and cucumbers. … OK, so that’s the first wrap – just going to put it to the side. And then afterwards we’re going to chop them up. Now, Vicky, it’s your go. Your turn to shine!

Vicky: Haha. What is wrong?

Sophia: I thought you didn’t know what you were doing.

Vicky: No, I do know what I’m doing! What did you think I was doing?

Sophia: I thought you forgot to put the nori!

Vicky: I did forget! No, I did forget! This can be a California roll, then. You know, where the rice is outside.

Sophia: You still need the nori! Haha. Oh my god!

Vicky: Rewind! I just accidentally put rice without nori.

Sophia: I thought Vicky was, like, knew what she was doing, and was trying to make the rolls.

Vicky: I did, I just forgot. I just forgot to put, like, seaweed under it. So …

Sophia: Attempt number two.

Sophia: So, Vicky, what’s your favourite food?

Vicky: It’s probably sushi.

Sophia: Is it, really?

Vicky: Ah ha. Either sushi or ... or just Indian food in general. I like the spices. What’s yours?

Sophia: Erm, I have, I think I have a favourite food from different nationalities or, like, different cuisines. I don’t think I have one overall favourite food.

Vicky: What’s your favourite Hungarian food?

Sophia: Erm, I would say goulash. Haha. How original.

Vicky: Traditional.

Sophia: Traditional, exactly. What’s your favourite British food?

Vicky: Erm, I really like sticky toffee pudding. It’s a dessert.

Sophia: OK.

Vicky: It’s a cake with, um, caramel sauce, so ...

Sophia: Mmm. That’s nice. It’s your go. I think that one came out well.

Vicky: Yeah, that one was a really nice one.

Sophia: What dish would you recommend to cook that is easy if you have people over for dinner?

Vicky: Pasta. I think that’s a really safe bet. It’s quick and it’s filling and you can make a lot of it. So that’s what I would cook. Or something with rice, like risotto or something. How about you?

Sophia: Um, I’d probably just say pancakes. Because you can make them savoury, you know, if you, like, add sweetcorn. Or, yeah.

Vicky: Yeah. OK. It’s a good idea.

Sophia: But I like pancakes. OK, let’s ask a question now about language learning. So, how … like, what would you recommend to people who want to learn English as a second language, because English is Vicky’s second language.

Vicky: Exactly. Erm, I think the most fun way to learn a language is to watch movies or series. So, that’s what I did. I watched a lot of … I started with a really difficult series. I started watching Big Bang Theory, um, which has a lot of technical terms and science words that I didn’t understand. But then you feel more and more competent and successful when you do understand those words after a while. So, I would recommend watching series, probably.

Sophia: Yeah. And maybe if you’re not as ambitious as Vicky, um, start with something simple, or with a series that you’ve already watched in your native language, um, so you have an idea of what’s happening.

Vicky: Yeah. Or add subtitles, even.

Sophia: Yeah, subtitles are good. And what I really like, erm, is watching TED Talks. When I was teaching in Italy I watched a lot of TED Talks with my students because they have subtitles for like 76 languages or something.

Vicky: Yeah.

Sophia: And the talks are really interesting as well.

Sophia: So, these are what our sushi rolls look like and now we’re just going to cut them up into small pieces. If you are a younger person, please make sure that you get an adult to help you with this because it can be quite tricky and you’re going to need a sharp knife. So, make sure you have someone older helping you out. OK. So, I’m just going to wet the knife a bit so it’s easier to cut. OK. You can cut them as big or as small as you want. That’s what they look like when they’re cut. And they were successful.

So, guys, these are the results! Yay!

Vicky: Yippee!

Sophia: Now it’s just time to get eating, really.

So, guys, it’s dinner time! OK, well, we’re going to put the chopstick ability to the challenge.

Vicky: Haha. I’m just afraid it will fall apart. Oh no, it didn’t, it didn’t!

Sophia: OK, I’m going to have some of this sauce. Are you ready for the taste test?

Vicky: Yeah, I am!

Sophia: I don’t know how I’m going to put this one in my mouth.

Vicky: Yeah, I don’t know. It’s ... really big.

Sophia: So, guys, comment below and let us know if you’ve ever made sushi at home, if you like sushi, or if not tell us what your favourite food is. And I hope you’ve enjoyed watching this video. It’s goodbye from us and enjoy your food! Bye!

Vicky: Bye!