Differences in eating habits and eating out between US & UK!

[DavidUK]

hey! i enjoyed reading this thread! i usedto work in an american theme reastaurant, won metion the name but it was always good on one dat of the week! and we had to serve in american style, which we were given training in, a lot of training!

Ice... ... the american rule is 3 cubes over the glass, our guests from the US got this the UK thought youwere diddling them out of a drink! the reason it is done is cus if you only have a couple then they melt quickly and your drink gets warm!!

Service... Americans will ask for stuff and want stuff changed like mash for fries etc and they will as outright for it whereas UK Guests think they are being rude and won't ask! used to annoy me! and UK Guests won't complain if they don't like something! i can tell if someone doesn't enjoy their food and always ask if they eant it changed which was policy at the restaurant but they never ever would but you bet that two days later you'd get a letter saying how it was the worst meal ever! if only they'd let me sort it out there and then!!

and my favourite TIPPING!! US see it as neccisary and tip as they spend like 10% etc, UK guests think £1 is okay if they spend £400 or £10 it isn't related to how hard you work just if they are tippers or not it isn't built in like it is in americans!

 

[DavidUK]

ooooh just saw something and it jogged my memory...

Iced Tea.... I HATE Iced tea, takes soooooo long to make and here in the UK we make it wrong! well that's according to quite a few of the US Guests i served!! and i was making it how i was supposed to !!! hehe ... ... and there is no iced tea in a long island!! it was created to look like iced tea in the prohibition so the police wouldn't see what they were drinking and also was useful in hiding the taste of Bathtub Gin as it was vile! There we go my 'Cocktail History' Classes come in handy!! exept they weren't called cocktail history it was Mixology Theory!!!

 

[UKDEB]

Originally posted by DavidUK
and my favourite TIPPING!! US see it as neccisary and tip as they spend like 10% etc, UK guests think £1 is okay if they spend £400 or £10 it isn't related to how hard you work just if they are tippers or not it isn't built in like it is in americans!

Not all of us, David . I tip generously wherever I am, but I do agree that a lot of Brits don't get it.

 

[DavidUK]

Not all of us, David . I tip generously wherever I am, but I do agree that a lot of Brits don't get it.

Me too but it tends to be those of us who have worked as waiters or on a bar! but us brits are getting better!

 

[Snoopymom]

Fun! Something I didn't see mentioned is that when visiting Ireland our food and soup was always steaming hot when it was served and I loved it!!! Maybe American restaurants are afraid of being sued over someone burning himself.

Also, I just remembered, we sat with a British family for dinner for a week on a cruise and they sent their food back the first night because it wasn't hot enough and then the rest of the week our waiter knew to make sure the food was hot for our whole table so I was very grateful. (They also loved talking to us about our infamous president Clinton and the scandal that was going on at the time, LOL.)

One question, what are the bottles of orange cool-aid looking like stuff sitting on the bars in the pubs? People would add whatever was in the bottle to their drinks. Whenever I asked, all I got was..."you wouldn't like it".

Oh, and we were always recongnized over there as Americans because one of us was always wearing a "golf cap" (baseball hat) LOL.

 

[cajunmommy]

Hmm.. well yecats, I know exactly what you're talkin' about. Looks as though no one else caught it. Of course, I would rather think about a dressed shrimp po'boy....or dressed roast beef po'boy smothered in debris gravy! Yummy.

btw... You're partially right about not being able to get beignets & French bread outside of New Orleans. I know of a handful of bakeries throughout SE & SW LA who get the bread right (most poboy shops here in Baton Rouge, however, don't have a clue). You can also get really good beignets here as well. Now, venture any further north, west, or east, and your opportunities become very slim indeed. If you do stumble across the real deal, it's probably some home-sick expatriate who decided to open up shop on their own.

Is it lunch time yet??? Tummy's starting to grumble.

Regarding the souse recipe. That is a truly basic recipe. When my family made hog head cheese, it was usually flavored up with the addition of green onions, bell peppers, parsley and several spices. It's a tailgating must have - as long as you don't forget the beer & saltine crackers!

 

[Tinkerbutt]

When I was England I didn't get the whole "hot" thing...it was like they boiled it for an hour....I mean it only gets sooo hot. After it hits the boiling point it can't get any hotter! And of course there is my tongue and taste buds I'd like to keep. I kept asking for more ice (I think they thought I had gone mad!) and I kept adding it to everything! After taking that first sip of tea that first evening..... I'll never make that mistake again!