Different cultures and their quirks/food/customs/drink 5

[ziggi]

This is a continuation of a post on a hijacked thread, which was primarily about booze (the post not the thread), but then evolved, but then I forgot where it went, so I'm making a new one.

For those of you who wonder why this is in the self-improvement section. The next time you end up in Poland overpaying a restaurant meal by $80 b/c you gave the waitress $100 for a $20 meal and said thank you, you'll be glad you read this post.

To start us off, when in Poland and at a restaurant, first off pay in cash (credit scams are rife) and secondly don't say anything to the waitress/waiter when paying, saying "Thank you" denotes that you want the waitress/waiter to keep the change.
Also Croatians tend to stare right into your eyes when talking to you, that may creep out the introverts out there....pretty much most engineers ;-) .

 

[MadMango]

Some of the better all-you-can-eat places are the Brazilian BBQs (rodízio or churrascaria). There's bound to be at least one in/near any major city.

There is a red/green marker on the table. If the green is showing the servers bring racks and racks (skewers I suppose) of different cooked meats. When you can eat no more you have to turn the red end up or the food continues to flow. I haven't been to a bad one yet.

For bland American food buffets, nothing beats Homestyle Buffet. Very institutional grade food from what I have experienced.

At buffets, or any place that has mutiple service personnel, what is the usual advice for tipping? If I have only one server and service was descent I'll tip 10-16% (just double the tax). If the service is great I don't have a problem tipping 20-25%. But when I get to a place that has one person bringing me water, another bringing me bread, another for salad, another for entrees, and yet another for dessert, I have no idead what to tip.

[green]"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."[/green]
Steven K. Roberts, Technomad
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[SomptingGuy]

The only all-you-can-eat places I've seen in the UK are pasta bars (in London in my student days) and Pizza Hut (the American influence no doubt).

I must admit I do miss the all-you-can-eat indian and chinese restaurants we used to go to when I worked in America. I wonder if any of these places have fulfilled Dilbert's dream yet of being open 24 hours a day (you never need to leave and can actually live there).

 

[FrenchCAD]

Sadly, French people do not like much learning foreign languages

Funny you say that, Cyril. I work with three French guys. One speaks French, German, & English, the next speaks French, Italian, and English, and the third speaks French, Spanish, and English.

In business and industry, many French do speak foreign languages of course. How would they work otherwise? I do speak English and German myself. But have a travel anywhere in France not for your job and tell me if Robert in Berry can speak english with you about his cows and sheeps

About the McDonalds, is it only the drinks in America McD is refillable? In Asia, the drinks are not refillable. How about the case in Europe?

No refills in Holland nor in France. I was at Schiphol and the typical American guy obnoxiously demanded that they fill his cup to the brim. The server pointed to a little line on the side of the cup and said that was the fill line. Definitely no refills in Holland. The Dutch have a well-deserved reputation for being cheap.

I ate in a KFC near to Paris early July were they offer refill. I was very surprised.

Cyril Guichard
Mechanical Engineer Consultant
France

 

[ziggi]

Grits.....yuck, my wife loves them (native Canuck). I do like homefries, they're hunks of potato baked (sometimes fried) and occasionally seasoned. Scrambled eggs w/ hot sauce (especially Frank's Red Hot) are great.


All you can eat places are prevalent up here in Canada, most people love the local 'Mandarin' franchise, they serve Chinese/American fare, there's also a 'Tucker's marketplace', they serve American/British food. I was guilty of frequenting those places in my poorer university days, but I also worked out alot back then and it was the only place that could satiate my hunger for a decent price.
Most people like these places, I dislike the Mandarin and hate Tucker's, the price is good, but if the food is awful (in my opinion) it's just a waste of cash.

I generally avoid the chain restaurants (especially Pizza Hut) and stick to the mom and pops, the price is good, the service better and the food superb.

Hmm 'churrasqueras', I've seen a few around here, but now I've got try one out.

Lebanese food is great, has anyone tried it?

 

[GregLocock]

You can't move in Sydney but for yeros (?sp) - the Leb equivalent of kebabs to a Pom. I never ate in a proper leb restaurant, would like to, Greek and Turkish are among my favourite cuisines.

Incidentally there is a really good posh Greek restaurant in the centre of Detroit. And there is a fantastically good Greek tavern in Chapel St in Melbourne.



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Greg,

It's spelled gyros (but still pronouned yeros) at least here in the States.

 

[ScottyUK]

When I was at college a group of us were thrown out of an 'all-you-can-eat' pizza joint for.... eating too much!

We'd been in for maybe five hours, consumed pretty much a gallon of beer each, and a frankly stupendous amount of pizza. Think in terms of a combine going through a field of corn and you have some idea of our eating rate. I think we were so drunk that we were becoming loud and irritating, but that wasn't the reason given when we were ejected. Happy days!

----------------------------------

I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy it...

 

[KENAT]

Slightly off topic but in the spirit of the differences in beer around the world try this:

The Leaders of the big beer companies meet for a drink.

The president of Budweiser orders a Bud, the CEO of Miller gets a Miller, the head of Coors orders a Coors, and so on. Until it's Arthur Guinness's turn.

He orders a soda. "Why didn't you order a Guinness?" everyone asks. “Nah,” Guinness replies, “if you guys aren't having beer, then neither will I.";-)

 

[monkeydog]

If you are in the Buffalo NY area, and you enjoy a glass of Ice Tea, DON"T order it in a restaurant. For some reason, they have no idea how the make a glass of ice tea.

 

[HDS]

I divide the northern states from the southern states in the US based on the availability of sweet iced tea in restaurants. In the south they put a nice dose or real sugar in the tea when it is brewed to super saturate it. Up north if you ask for sweet tea they look at you funny and say there is sugar on the table for coffee that you can put in the tea.

It is hard to get sweet tea in some parts of Florida. So I fell like it is a "northern state".

 

[ziggi]

I never got that whole non-sweetened iced tea thing. What's the point really. I takes forever to dissolve sugar in cold tea and it tastes terrible.
Up in Canada the iced tea is usually in a can, or a soda fountain so it's sweet.

 

[davidbeach]

Iced tea is not supposed to have sugar in it. Why oh why do they ruin perfectly good tea? Always better to let someone put their own sugar in it if they must than to ruin it for everyone.

 

[SomptingGuy]

"Iced tea is not supposed to have sugar in it. Why oh why do they ruin perfectly good tea?"

Sugar in drinks is the US equivalent of flavourless plastic cheese on food. It's seen to somehow make whatever it's in/on better. In reality it just adds calories.

 

[KENAT]

Real tee is drunk hot with milk. Maybe a biscuit or two for dunking.

 

[UcfSE]

You gotta have swee' tea. Some restaurants do all right with it, but mom's is always best.

Putting sugar in cold tea just ain't right. It never dissolves properly or in the right conentration, and certainly not before you're done with your meal.

 

[ziggi]

Kenat,
Exactly, in fact I could go for a cup o' Earl Grey right about now.
UcfSE,
Amen

 

[SomptingGuy]

Ziggi:

But would you put "cow juice" into it?

 

[ziggi]

Sompting,
Of course! You can't miss with pasteurised bovine lactate.

Although occasionally some lemon is good too.

 

[SomptingGuy]

"pasteurised bovine lactate"

Now THAT is a phrase my mother-in-law will be hearing quite a lot when she digs out the tea pot on her next visit. Excellent!

 

[DaveVikingPE]

I don't like sugar in anything except Chinese food, so it's either unsweetened iced tea or water. Usually the latter - I've developed a caffiene problem as I've aged.

Germany - the waiter gets the order and the money/change right on the first shot. This is an incredible relief to those of us Americans who are "used" to going over a restaurant bill and finding mistakes, then having to work it out with the waiter and do we need change with that, etc. Tipping is not expected in Germany, either. Not that I don't like to tip (if the service is good), but it's got to be earned.

A survival skill is the ability to drink warm soda (or "coke") - warm anything for that matter, an like it.

In my home town of New York City, there are so many food choices that I prefer my wife's cooking to anything else, six days a week. I take her to whereever she feels like going on the other day.