Idiom Families
The Big Idea
IDEAS AND SITUATIONS ARE FOOD - easy things are sweet, secrets are containers that spill, taking on work is biting
Food & Cooking
The kitchen is the second-biggest idiom factory. Difficulty is texture (piece of cake), secrets spill like beans, flattery is butter, postponed plans sit on the back burner of the stove. Picture the literal kitchen scene and the meaning follows.
Fuku's Note
Food idioms exist everywhere, but the foods differ - English butters people up where Japanese sells oil (abura wo uru) for idle chatting. Comparing your language's kitchen idioms to English ones is a proven memory anchor.
Ryu's Tip
The stove is a to-do list: front burner = now, back burner = later. Once you see the stove, you never forget the idiom.
Idioms in this family
bite off more than you can chew
To take on more work or responsibility than you can actually handle
butter someone up
To flatter someone excessively in order to get a favor from them
on the back burner
Postponed; given low priority for now, but not cancelled
piece of cake
Something very easy to do
spill the beans
To reveal a secret, usually by accident or under pressure