[General] Daily meal / Everyday meal

[Potato]

One of my students wrote a sentence "I don't like spicy food. It's not a daily meal".
I have a feeling that the sentence "It's not a daily meal" is not really the best one in this case. What she wants to say is that she cannot eat spicy food every day.
And I'm not 100% sure whether it's okay to say it like this, but I want to say something like "Spicy food isn't a part of my daily meal" or "It's not an everyday meal for me" but I haven't found any precise information about such use case.
So, can somebody please explain the difference between "daily meal" and "everyday meal" and what's the best way to say "something that you do not eat every day" shortly? Any thoughts, ideas and clarifications would be appreciated!

 

[emsr2d2]

The problem is that "spicy food" isn't a "meal". Spicy food is a general term for all food that is (spicy) hot.

Spicy food isn't for every day.
Spicy foods aren't everyday foods.

Of course, that is her personal opinion and that should probably be made clear.

 

[jutfrank]

A problem here for me is that I don't think there's good coherence between the sentences. Saying it's not an everyday food for her suggests to me that she does eat it regularly. But if she doesn't like it, why does she eat it at all?

Maybe she wants to say that she never eats it, and therefore it doesn't feature in her diet, which would make more sense:

I don't like spicy food. It's not part of my diet.

 

[Potato]

Thanks for the replies!
Could somebody also explain the meaning of the phrase "daily meal", I mean, what exactly is called "daily meal"? Is it the whole amount of food you eat during the day and every day or is it just (some sort of?) one meal that you have on a daily basis?
And is there any difference between the phrases "daily meal" and "everyday meal"?

 

[emsr2d2]

A daily meal is something like breakfast or lunch. It's any meal that you eat pretty much every day. I'm not talking about specific foods. Meals are, for example, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

There is some crossover between "meal" and "food" but in this context, "meal" doesn't work. As I said in my first response "spicy food" isn't a "meal".

 

[Rover_KE]

Rather than using terms like 'daily food' and 'spicy food', we talk about 'plain food' and 'fancy food'.

'Plain food' consists of basic ingredients—potatoes and other common vegetables, cheaper cuts of meat, fish and chicken—simply cooked and served at home.

'Fancy food' is what we get when we eat out at expensive restaurants—more expensive meat and fish with unusual vegetables—prepared with delicate sauces flavoured with herbs and spices and artistically garnished and arranged on the plate – or sometimes on a board.

 

[emsr2d2]

... artistically garnished and arranged on the plate – or sometimes on a board.

I've had food served on a piece of slate and a roof tile. And there are these very weird alternatives!

 

[jutfrank]

In order to use the collocations daily meal and everyday meal, you should first have a clearer understanding of the use of the word 'meal'.

The core sense of the word 'meal' has more to do with substantial portion size than with the time of eating or type of food, and often suggests a mixture of different food items. You might contrast it with the word 'snack'.

Without context, using daily before the singular noun meal initially suggests to me that someone is accustomed to eating on only one occasion per day. And everyday meal suggests to me a meal that is in no way special, rather than anything about regularity.