Do you have something simple, like soup?
Traveling is a great opportunity to sample new restaurants and cuisines. Not everyone feels this way. Witness this exchange with a fellow tourist from Boston in the middle of a Paris street where we were browsing menus:
Boston: Do you speak English?
David: Yes.
Boston: Oh, thank God - have you eaten anywhere around here? Nobody will tell me what the things on the menu are. I'm afraid they'll serve me creepy crawly things.
Clearly, this woman had recently seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and mistook Paris for Pankot Palace, and Camembert for Snake Surprise.
4 comments:
I had a recent experience that was somewhat similar. At the resort we stayed at in St. Maarten, we were dining beside another couple from somewhere in New England (I forget where). When we told them we were from Ottawa, Canada, the lady piped up, "So you flew out of Hartford?"
Speaking of slow New Englanders, I was in upstate New York several years ago and had an interesting conversation with Kathy at Wal-Mart who was trying to sell me a fishing license. Poor Kathy was completely flummoxed trying to fill out the form for an out-of-state angler. She then asked, "If you're from Canada, how come you speak English so good?" To which I replied, "I practice every day."
She honestly believed that every Canadian spoke French. This is strange because she lives no more than eighty miles from Niagara Falls.
Don't tell anyone from New England that you think New York is part of New England. It's not, and you may very well get hurt.
Thanks, good advice.
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