-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
My biggest surprise in visiting Europe
- Thread starter The Lamp
- Start date
- Status
Is this real?
Speaking as a foreigner, what's wrong with sauerkraut? Whilst I wouldn't eat it every day, I think it is quite tasty and refreshing. What is it that makes it only for tourists and old Bavarians?
If you're in France look or ask for the nearest "pharmacie de garde". But if you are in Cassis meaning the south of France you'll probably need a car.
And we actually have all kind of supermarkets, small to medium/big size in cities, and huge supermarkets in the suburbs or anywhere outside the cities.
Theres so many supermarket in the cities that you don't need a car, however, you DO need a car once you live in more rural areas.
But you don't seem well prepared or at least not ready to actually look or search for the things you need/want..
I mean it's borderline comic that you went to paris and didn't see any supermarket or only "tiny" ones....Did you bother actually checking what's in them?
ClosingADoor
Member
There are plenty of larger supermarkets everywhere.
Just depends on the person and place, like everywhere else. My parents do groceries like once a week, since they need to drive to the supermarket that's s bit further away. I live next to one, so almost daily and buy less at a time.
People use cars for groceries just fine also.
Lol @ all the offended Europeans that can't stand an American calling THEM unhealthy. I live in Holland and one of the main reasons I always go to the U.S. on vacation is the awful service and ridiculously high prices for healthy food in Europe.
Every diner or breakfast cafe in the U.S. has affordable healthy options, doesn't serve coffee in a cup the size of a tea spoon and actually offers free icewater. I was flabbergasted when I ordered water during a concert and the woman behind the bar looked at me like I was insane for trying to hand her money. Don't get me started about public bathrooms. If you go shopping in Europe and need to go to the bathroom? Tough shit! Hold it in or pay the ridiculous price of 1 Euro.
I HAVE TO PAY TO GO TO THE BATHROOM IN A MCDONALDS AS A PAYING CUSTOMER.
Europe has a lot of advantages but service and dining ain't one of them. I know a lot of Americans hate the tipping system but getting a steady wage and not having to work for tips has made European restaurants and waiters lazy. It's a big fucking chore to get free water (at least in Holland) and the word refill is non-existent.
Every diner or breakfast cafe in the U.S. has affordable healthy options, doesn't serve coffee in a cup the size of a tea spoon and actually offers free icewater. I was flabbergasted when I ordered water during a concert and the woman behind the bar looked at me like I was insane for trying to hand her money. Don't get me started about public bathrooms. If you go shopping in Europe and need to go to the bathroom? Tough shit! Hold it in or pay the ridiculous price of 1 Euro.
I HAVE TO PAY TO GO TO THE BATHROOM IN A MCDONALDS AS A PAYING CUSTOMER.
Europe has a lot of advantages but service and dining ain't one of them. I know a lot of Americans hate the tipping system but getting a steady wage and not having to work for tips has made European restaurants and waiters lazy. It's a big fucking chore to get free water (at least in Holland) and the word refill is non-existent.
MatrixMan.EXE
Member
OP, there are TONNES of large supermarkets in Europe. The ignorance, my god.
It depends. My parents shop for food once in a week with their car. I'm going like three times in a week since I like to cook fresh things and I have no car. But that's not a problem. You're going out for a walk and getting food at the same time. Furthermore the markets aren't that small everywhere. Some of them are similar to the U.S. ones
Remember that European cities are built for pedestrians so people can often walk to and from work - or to a bus station and then off a bus station to work - in a timely fashion that wouldn't be possible in the average American sprawling suburb.
I'd imagine it'd be very possible in a lot of cases simply to stop at a grocery store along the way back home from work with a bag of fresh vegetables and meat once every other day or so.
You wouldn't have to drive all the way to a strip mall Stop & Shop, park your car, load up your car with a week's worth of groceries...
Edit: Out of curiosity, how do people who live in New York City do groceries? I wonder if it's more similar to the Europeans.
titiklabingapat
Member
No really, its all about city design. Being bigger and being spread out has nothing to do with it, it's mostly the car-first designs most American cities took after post WWII. We could have had walkable medium and small size cities too, with highway connections between them but we decided to prioritize suburban style developments instead.
The establishment of the National Highway System, white flight and the systematic destruction of inner urban neighborhoods are what ultimately resulted in the city designs we have now in the USA. We actually have places in the USA that are just as dense and just as close to each other as many European cities (Northeast, Midwest and the South) but only the Northeast partially escaped the post-WWII pandemonium because it was too expensive to tear them down.
I have no idea how on Earth can anyone find such monotone food selection in places like Germany, France, Czech or, dear god, Spain (the source of some of the most delicious food on Earth). Like, you literally have to FORCE yourself to ignore a lot of great little restaurants that serve delicious food. Yeah, there are a lot of cafes & such that offer cake, pastires & snacks and yeah, there are a lot of junk food places in Europe as well. But to act as if it's impossible to find quality food? lulz. Maybe if you stay in the tourist trash locations, but go a little further away from those locations and there are a lot of of delicious food just waiting to be found.
Lol. Carbs are carbs. One of the reasons why Americans are so fat is BECAUSE you put so much of these "refined carbs" like fructose in fucking everything.
Depends.
There are families and alot of people doing a big part of their shopping once, but there are also more than enough that keep buying smaller amounts.
Which is quite frankly a nice way to make use of fresh food, and we got quite alot of supermarkets, normal markets and shops in general.
Within 2-3km I've got like 3 discounter (lidl/aldi,netto), one big supermarket (real), a more expensive supermarket that also carries specialities , a bio supermarket and a drugstore. I'm not living in a big city and not directly within the city either.
It's still part of alot of diets, it's just not so popular anymore.
The term krauts was mainly used due people being forced to eat alot of Sauerkraut as not much other stuff was around and you could keep it for a good amount of time.
Within the time of WWII and afterwards obviously.
It's part of more traditional cuisine and I haven't seen it used within so many types of dishes, but it's still part of our cuisine.
Where I live in the UK public toilets are free. But most are disgusting due to the local council cutting down on public services. Also McDonalds toilets are open to every one as well. So I guess like always it depends where you live within Europe. Water is free as well. One thing U.S.A is better though is the service.
Hands of Stone
Member
What would you say is your national dish? I think I'd like to travel there for a holiday in the future.
No, it's the Sauerkraut serving restaurants I referred to. Mainly older generations eat there. Cooking it at home is a bit more common.
Yeah, having to pay for water and toilets is true and fucking awful. That's true.
Uh I didn't really think about supermarkets in Paris, or look for them. But forgive me for my use of the word "tiny", everything Europeans shop at is nano-sized compared to what I shop at in Texas. My grocery store is like the size of Berlin train station.
harriet the spy
Member
As a european who came back from the US to live in Europe, I now find it very irritating that euro (probably not all countries, but many) restaurants don't automatically bring water first thing, no questions asked. I don't know why it's so mysterious that I would want water with my meal; even if I order beer or wine. And if order tap water, bring me a whole fucking jug of it, not just one tiny fucking glass (as it often happens). This is made especially annoying since the average european restaurant has fewer waiters per patron, so grabbing the attention of the waiter can take a while.
Yeehar.
there are bigger supermarkets like Carrefour and Interspar's out of town
ClosingADoor
Member
Don't come to Holland for the food. I can't even think of a national dish actually. I mostly eat potatoes, meats and vegetables.
Austriacus
Member
I'm going to Italy on Monday. Generalizations and judgments are incoming, just you wait.
You people are beautiful, though. How do you do it?
The italian diet is considered one of the best in the world, it also helps that some people exercise before and after a meal and they take a while to eat. All of this while consuming the highest amount of pasta in the world.
kroket
entremet
Member
No it's the calories. We eat too much.
Well I didn't see any that I would consider large in 5 weeks, so pardon my ignorance, you can't drive 5 fucking minutes in Texas without seeing a Walmart or giant ass market. They're not as common in Europe.
Oh wait I just remembered seeing a Carrefour a few miles outside Barcelona on the train ride but it might have been a warehouse because people weren't using it I don't think.
jim-jam bongs
Member
You really can't speak for all of Europe on this one. My most recent trip to Europe was to France, previous was England, Italy and before that Croatia. All in the past 12 months. Nothing you've described lines up with my experiences anywhere I visited on those trips; service was great, the food was great, water and toilets were abundant and free. Maybe you're going to shitty places, or maybe Holland is just unusual. Or, even more likely, maybe shitty places are shitty and not-shitty places are not-shitty.
And before you ask, I've lived in the US and am familiar with the obsequiousness and over-attentiveness which characterises their customer-service.
ClosingADoor
Member
The only place I've had to pay to go to the restroom was in train stations and airports. Most restaurants allow you to go to the toilet 100% free, but of course, touristy places will try to rip off tourists, so you can get the wrong impressions. I've seen some McDonald's where you had to use a code that came printed in your buying ticket to get into the bathroom, but that's the extent of it.
About the service... I just need waiters to take my order and bring my food, not ask about how my day was and give me fake smiles and fake laughter. And we do have refills... but you have to pay for them.
Wowsers
Germany. I shop three times a week. No car.
My parents shop once a week, including bottled water. with car.
Frikandel speciaal man
Yummmm. And biterballs and applefloppers too. I'm finally going to Holland in a week or so, gonna eat all the good food my Oma makes me.
Frikandal special, oh my. So good.
I don't mind paying a euro for the waiter to bring me water, beats paying an American waiter a dollar to bring me the drink I've already paid for.
I feel like this is an acute case of culture shock.
OP is trolling l think.
Right cause making bread is so hard.
You wouldn't think so, and yet the average US loaf is still fructose loaded sweet tasting junk. Ive been there. I've eaten your bread.
http://www.bbcamerica.com/mind-the-...nk-10-things-that-taste-different-in-the-u-s/
Surely. Going to Europe and complaining there's a dearth of mega-marts to choose from...
http://www.bbcamerica.com/mind-the-...nk-10-things-that-taste-different-in-the-u-s/
Surely. Going to Europe and complaining there's a dearth of mega-marts to choose from...
beato_angelico
Member
this thread is giving me a headache
What? You obviously didn't see the places because as a tourist you don't need to but we have massive hypermarkets everywhere. Ever heard of Tesco or Carrefour? They are usually built in remote areas though, so you wouldn't get to ever see one of them as a tourist. Families go there with the car every week or twice a month to fill the trunk with groceries. Young urbanites shop in the smaller markets in the city centre you have seen, and do so more than once a week depending on the need (and the budget
)
YourMaster
Member
Reminds me of the time I booked a place in Florida that included breakfast. When morning came we found they only served what they called 'doughnuts'. They looked like golf balls in size and color(from the powdered sugar), and I wouldn't even know how to make dough so badly, it had no moisture, no fat and no air in it. Probably just preservatives and flour or something(sealed in plastic).
It was hard to eat, so sweat and dry I couldn't swallow. I need to eat something in the morning before driving, so I struggled to finish two so I could go and eat somewhere else. It was the worst breakfast I ever got.
Overall what I took away from just a few weeks in one part of the US is that indeed it is much easier to get any type of food you want at any time, and lots of it. They offered something that is a lot more difficult to find in Europe, somewhat of a regular meal for a low price quickly. I think that is what the OP is missing. I know that when I had food ordered for people staying late many evenings in a row during crunch time of a project it was difficult to find food that wasn't junk food in Amsterdam.
In the US though I found it much more difficult to find the experience that I'm used to when going out to eat - a proper dining experience on a medium budget. Nice atmosphere and food to match, something to enjoy for a few hours.
It was hard to eat, so sweat and dry I couldn't swallow. I need to eat something in the morning before driving, so I struggled to finish two so I could go and eat somewhere else. It was the worst breakfast I ever got.
Overall what I took away from just a few weeks in one part of the US is that indeed it is much easier to get any type of food you want at any time, and lots of it. They offered something that is a lot more difficult to find in Europe, somewhat of a regular meal for a low price quickly. I think that is what the OP is missing. I know that when I had food ordered for people staying late many evenings in a row during crunch time of a project it was difficult to find food that wasn't junk food in Amsterdam.
In the US though I found it much more difficult to find the experience that I'm used to when going out to eat - a proper dining experience on a medium budget. Nice atmosphere and food to match, something to enjoy for a few hours.
Okay so Berlin probably takes the cake, haha, and most stores in Texas are only ground floor. But our markets are still quite big, especially the local favorite HEB. Our largest HEB store is in San Antonio, is two stories, has 1,180 parking spaces, 182,000 square feet, and built on 44 acres. But I don't know if HEB is the biggest. Maybe Sams or Walmart might beat it in size.
Austriacus
Member
Making bread is not hard. Good bread tho, thats another thing entirely.
Fucking LOL.
Sorry man, but this is just so ignorant it's funny... no offence, I'm sure your experiences are genuine, but man, this all just sounds so ridiculous.
The tone of your posts seems like you forced yourself to go abroad to Europe just so you could 'prove' that your pre-conceived ideas on European diet/culture were right. Eh, sorry if this sounds too harsh...
Gimme dat hypermarket big boy!!!
I hate our bread. It's awful. But sometimes European bread is too rocky and unpragmatic to eat. I've had bread here that is quite difficult to slice with a knife. Some people like that though. It depends for me.
I like it tougher than flimsy American bread though
ClosingADoor
Member
What do you need from there that you can't get in a regular sized supermarket. Seems kind of overkill to me.
- Status
Similar threads
- Poll