 Common English collocations with food from espressoenglish.net. Let's look at some adjectives with food. If the food is good, you can say the food is delicious, tasty, scrumptious, or wonderful. Children often say that food is yummy. Some other adjectives used for specific types of food are luscious. Luscious is usually used for fruits that are fresh and juicy. Mouth-watering This word often describes foods with a pleasant aroma or that are visually attractive and which make your mouth produce saliva in anticipation of eating it. Tempting Describes a food that makes you want to eat it, even if it's not especially healthy. We often use tempting for an indulgent food like a high calorie dish or a sweet dessert. If the food was merely okay, you can describe it as decent, which has a positive connotation, or mediocre, which has a more negative connotation. If the food didn't seem good, you can describe it as unappetizing. That means something about the food's appearance or smell made you not want to eat it. If the food was bad, you can say it was disgusting, horrible, or even inedible, meaning it was so bad it couldn't be eaten. If the food is unusual and includes elements from other countries, it is exotic. High quality food can be described as gourmet or fine food. Food that provides the elements your body needs is nutritious or healthy. Food that isn't good for you is unhealthy. Another term for unhealthy food is junk food. If a particular food fills your stomach and satisfies you, you can say the food is filling. When you don't eat your entire portion of food, a portion is the regular amount of food for one person, you have leftover food, or simply leftovers, which you can eat later or on the next day. If food is fresh, it means it's new and good to eat. Many supermarkets have a section for frozen food, which is stored in the freezer at very low temperatures so that it stays good for a longer time. If a food is past its expiration date and is no longer safe to eat, it smells or tastes strange than the food has gone bad. You can also say it's spoiled. When food is very old and starts decomposing, it is rotten. Food that stays good for a long time is non-perishable, such as rice, beans, sugar, etc. And food that has the potential to go bad quickly is perishable, such as fruit, meat, etc. Organic food is grown in a natural way without using dangerous chemicals. There's also processed food, which has gone through a lot of changes in factories. Perhaps the best kind of food is homemade. Homemade food is food that is prepared at home in a traditional way by a real person. Now let's look at some verbs. Of course, the most common verb we use with food is eat. You can also use have, have lunch, have a bite of your sandwich, have some potatoes, and a more formal word is consume. When you eat, you first take a bite of your food. That means cut it with your teeth. Then you chew your food, crush it with your teeth, and swallow. Make the food go down your throat into your stomach. Then your stomach and intestines will digest your food. If you eat very fast, you gulp down or wolf down your food. This is usually considered bad manners. If you're not very hungry or if you're preoccupied with something, you might pick at or play with your food. This means to eat very little and to just push the food around on your plate instead of eating it normally. People who are on a diet need to avoid or cut down on. That means reduce certain types of food. They may even need to cut out, completely remove some foods. If you're in a restaurant, you order food. Ask for food from the waiter or waitress. You can also order food for delivery at your house. Animals need to hunt for, look for, or search for food. They need to find it. Finally, you can store food. That means keep it in your refrigerator or cabinets, on shelves, and in other places in your house. Finally, let's look at some nouns with food. Your food bill or grocery bill is the amount of money you spend regularly on food. It will be higher or lower depending on your food intake or food consumption. That's the amount of food you eat. If the food supply, the amount of food available in a country gets low, the country may have to ration its food, control how much is distributed. Eventually, a food shortage, a lack of sufficient food, may turn into a food crisis. That's a very serious problem with not enough food. Restaurants must worry about food hygiene or food safety when they prepare food for clients. If someone eats a food that has gone bad, they might get food poisoning. That means getting sick as a result of bacteria in the food. Finally, some countries provide food stamps to poor people. Food stamps are coupons that allow them to get food for free. If you'd like to learn the common combinations of words used by native English speakers, check out my e-book, 1000 English Collocations in 10 Minutes a Day.