It seems that in every country I visit, I end up making a pizza at the request of my new friends/host family. To them it is very American (apparently), and as an American, I should know how to do it the "right" way. I take this as an opportunity to spread the gospel that it is NOT okay to put mayonnaise on pizza (which is a huge shock to most Eastern Europeans, especially Russians, who put mayonnaise on just about everything). When I told my host sister that we really didn't need to bust out the mayo, she was like, "Oh, okay...I guess we can use tomato sauce instead," which made me feel very victorious and patriotic until we were eating and she said, "This is really good, but I think it would be a lot better with some mayonnaise." And then I died a little inside and realized that I may be fighting a losing battle.
This is hilarious. I can't imagine eating pizza with mayo on it!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in Shanghai I took one of my teachers to a Western restaurant and she ate a hamburger for this first time. She just kept saying "there is so much meat!"
It's so funny to see these little cultural differences in action and realize that we have very different perceptions of what is normal. The other day while I was eating pasta my host-sister put down the sugar bowl in front of me. When I asked her what it was for she looked at me incredulously saying that it was to put on my pasta of course. Like what else would I do with it? Sometimes it's just too much...
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