Hey, thanks. I never knew I am eating butter the French way

Margarine in a tub substantially simplifies life by effectively only offering you one (scraping off the top) alternative .. I knew there had to be more to it then just the health vs. yukky taste debate.

I hate to break it to you, but there are people who slice stuff in a tub and not scrape the top.

SLICE margarine ??? but it's a gloopy mess .....

You seem to know a lot about this though. Do you know any of these people?

But then, I think you also previously confessed here to hanging the loo paper all wrong.

Hahaha....yup. I wont say who slices margarine, but just the fact it's horrible, 15% marge, almost fat free, which makes it slice-able and very unhealthy. Butter is slice/able in a tub, I get French butter in a tub, you can slice sideways..

I did confess about wrong TP side, I blame my country, which until relatively recently even had TP paper folded, in a weird book type fold , you just pulled a sheet, didn't tear. So, we unroll the bog roll the wrong way, obviously, hahahaha.

Years ago, my American boyfriend said he'd make the tea and brought out a lovely teapot with china cups and saucers. "How civilised", I thought. As he poured the tea, I noticed it looked a strange colour. He'd decided it was far more efficient to just add the milk and sugar to the tea inside the teapot

A friend of mine (a Pole) is married to a British man. They constantly have arguments about her intonation not being polite enough. Once a row started after she asked him: Could you open the window? He went ballistic because she didn't add please at the end of that request...

Ah, you have just highlighted something in my German husband's behaviour that still grates on me a bit. If a host or waitress asks him if he would like tea or coffee he will reply 'coffee' and I have to bite my tongue in order to not add 'please'.

Bi-Cultural Relationships: The Culinary Education of Mr. H.

Part 1
Me: Want to try some fun and creative dishes tonight?
Him: I love potatoes.
Me: Ok then, tonight I'll make homemade gnocchi.
Him: What sauce are you putting on? I'd like to stay on the light side
Me: No problem, "burro e salvia" (butter and sage")
Him: Great, so I can add some XYZ (unpronouceable spicy sauce that apparently is eaten with potatoes in Germany)
Me: don't you dare!
Him: But...but...it reminds me of a dish my mom used to make
Me: Ok...is this cute or scary or both?*

Part 2
Me: What do you want on the pasta tonight, creamy sauce, seafood, or pesto?
Him: We could dip the seafood in the creamy cheese sauce, spread the pesto on bread, and eat the pasta with no sauce as a side dish to some mashed potatoes
Me: this is going to be difficult. Ok, would you mind going out and buying some fresh flowers for the table while I finish cooking?

To be continued...

*scary

I'm Swiss and my bf is from a rural and very poor area of Portugal. His parents have a little house in a tiny village and breed animals for their own consummation.

Little city girl that I'm it's always a big cultural shock for me when I go there. The water comes from the well and is not drinkable without boiling it first; we have to boil water on a big gas heater to give a bath to the kids... And the animals are kept in small and quite dirty cages which contrast with the somewhat edulcorated version of our Swiss farms.

Even though Switzerland and Portugal are two European countries, the mentalities can be quite different, as I'm slowly discovering... I'm the one doing the cooking, so my partner has to adapt (I'll never again cook bacalhau in my kitchen! The stink of it!), but he doesn't really mind. I have more problems with his total lack of environment friendly habits: no recycling, no trying to spare electricity, etc. And even though he really tries to make an effort, it's hard for him to go beyond his patriarchal education, where daddy is at work all day and mommy takes care of the kids...

the bi'cultural problems exist even when you, in theory, speak the same language.

mrs.G is english and I'm american ... I'll never forget the first time I threatened to slap her fanny... her's and one of her girlfriends at the same time as I recall


( fanny being bum of course in American lingo )

CONSUMPTION Mélusine - LOL - consummation would be something else- as happens in the Welsh or Scottish mountains (well I am in deep doo-doo now).

A common nation divided by a shared language!

My 50th, celebrating in a downtown bar in MY with my family (grown-up daughters) - called one 'Claire come over here I am dying for a fag'
Well, I didn't know (gave up smoking a long time ago but still enjoy a crafty one on special occasions).

Early on in our relationship, my partner (German) once cleaned my teapot, you know scrubbed it on the inside with detergent.

It took us quite long to get over that one.

My Swiss husband is *obsessed* with our kitchen cabinets and refrigerator being neatly organized. But I'm not sure if that's a Swiss thing or just an obsessive-compulsive thing.

Is there a difference?

And here in lies the (another) part of the problem. Even within Portugal (insert whatever country) you have people who are very very different from that. This is not (necessarily) a bi-cultural problem alone, but a socio-economic problem, a "personality clash", etc. etc.

That reminds me of my Italian friend who when we went to visit him, he brought out his moka and lamented (for quite a while I might add) about the fact that his cleaning lady scrubbed the living hell out of it. He was practically crying. I felt so bad for him.

As for us, we are both bi-cultural already. And I think makes these things not happen between us. Sometimes there are funny language things like he says "sheferd pie" and "hafazard". lol, turning the PH in those words into the "f" sound. It cracks me up!

__________________

If bi-cultural is the only problem you have, think of those with inter-galactic ones

Well, my wife's mother was Italian from just over the border (Luino), but my wife has never felt Italian.

But she does bitch about them a lot!

Tom

Some things are universal, just like things that drive you crazy in your spouse who is from a different culture than yours. One thing my husband does is to put stuff back in the fridge or the pantry with, say, 1 chip left in the bag or one small sip left in the juice bottle. Folks back in his country don't want to be the one to use the last of something and, so, I live with those moments of rage where I go to get something I assumed had a consumable amount of food in the package, only to find it empty. Drives. Me. Crazy.

LOL...that's a good one. There's a "Fanny" brand of foods that I never could bring myself to purchase and eat, both for the amusement factor and, well, BOTH definitions.