No one here eats ketchup with their eggs... I don't have any in the house and it is strictly verbotten to bring it into the house.... childhood trauma. The closest thing in the house is hot sauce and that's what you get if you ask me for ketchup. And only Americans have ever asked me for ketchup.
Only Americans ever ask me for lemon for their tea.
The British like their cereal with their breakfast. Often sacrificing having my famous hot breakfast dishes.
The French often ask me for hot milk for their coffee..
Eric Arthur Blair said:
Only Americans ever ask me for lemon for their tea.
What about iced tea?
In Ireland last year we stayed at a B&B near the Shannon airport and, being hot and tired from a day on the road, my sister asked for iced tea. The owner said she'd never made that before, but she'd give it a try. She eventually brought a pitcher of tea with 2 little ice cubes in it.
We expressed our gratitude. 'Twas better than nothing, I guess.
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Refigerators are smaller in Europe. We grew up with a few ice cubes in cold drinks. I don't understand the habit here in the US of filling the entire glass full of ice and getting only a little drink. Would rather have a couple of ice cubes and a glass of what I'm drinking. Never got used to that here.
When I first moved back I also could not understand the compulsion of adults here wanting straws in everything they drank. Finally realized with all the ice in the dang glass you need a straw to be able to drink out of it!
RIki
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egoodell said:
We grew up with a few ice cubes in cold drinks. I don't understand the habit here in the US of filling the entire glass full of ice and getting only a little drink.
I agree, I hate it when they put ice to the top of the glass then it only holds about a cup of liquid. But there's a happy medium. In Europe, if you ask for ice, it's still common to get two, at most three, small ice cubes in a cold drink, resulting in a drink that's just cool, not cold. Give me half a glass of ice and I'll be happy.
I've argued this with my European friends many times. I've even heard them claim that it's not healthy to drink ice cold drinks. I said, you eat ice cream, don't you? It's frozen. They agreed, and said they hadn't thought of it that way. Personal preferences rely on what you're used to, what you're raised on.
I'll never forget once when we went to the Memphis airport to pick up my aunt from New York. We stopped to eat on the way home and she ordered tea to drink. She pitched a fit when they brought her iced tea, saying if she'd wanted iced tea, she'd have asked for it. In the south, if you ask for tea, iced is assumed.
In fact, in the last couple of years here, the word tea is no longer even mentioned at restaurants. When they ask what you'll have to drink, you just answer "sweet" or "unsweet" and they know what you mean.