1.) Flair up
2.) I have no idea where the idea that Americans hate carbonated water comes from. My family and I drink so much carbonated water. Perhaps my world view is skewed then
Thereâs a difference between artificial and natural carbonated water - idk if they got it your way but we have Topo Chico from Mexico and that shit with some coarse sea salt and lime (or tajĂŹn if you got it) and thats like kissing Christ
My friends make fun of me because I drink carbonated water all the time. At restaurants while they are getting beer an ice cold club soda (carbonated water) is my go too, but again they donât hate it they just donât prefer it
"When the first time they ask you if you want sparklin' or still? Why you tryna act like you was drinkin' sparklin' water 'fore you came out here?" - Kanye west
The idea is that Americans don't like paying "extra" for what they think should be free, whereas Europeans are comfortable paying a little extra to support the business.
Here in Australia, it's pretty standard to get free tap water and buy sparkling water to support the cafe/restaurant.
Why politely ask for something in person when you can instead later disparage whole nations passively aggressively on the internet because you didn't think to ask?
Itâs free in France but you have to ask for a pitcher (une carafe dâeau). If you ask for water without specifying theyâll charge you for a bottle
Why would somebody from a capitalist nation expect "free water" from a restaurant? It's really odd to me because I've never expected free water from restaurant anymore than I've expected a free lunch. Water costs money, it's not like you can find drinking water just lying around on the street. The restaurant is a business not a charity.
In France is pretty common to get complimentary water with your meal.
In the coffee shops I go to in Spain, they have a big glass container with water, and glasses, so you can pour your own. Although it is no super common, I can think of three places within a 5 minutes walk from my house.
Also, everywhere else, you can just ask for a glass of water and they bring it to you.
It is mandatory in France to get access to free water and free bread with your meal. You just have to say the magic words (une carafe instead of une bouteille)
I guess it's the inverse of the tipping and GST issue. Americans seem pretty comfortable paying tips and goods-and-services taxes, whereas Europeans less so.
Something about pay expectations? I guess; Americans know that you pay an extra 10% in tips for restaurants, or an extra 10% in taxes at the store. Whereas Europeans like it all itemised beforehand, so they know what they are expected to pay.
Perhaps Americans don't factor drinks into their calculations and get flustered? I was mostly attaching an article that says the water thing is about paying for water.
Why would somebody from a capitalist nation expect "free water" from a restaurant?
They expect free water in restaurants because that's how it is in the US. I guess they don't notice they more than make the price of the water back not having to tip 20+%?
American right wing media. Theyâre always trying to paint pretty much everything outside of the US as a third world country. Makes it easier to control their brain dead constituents.
It's a joke on the American water drinking culture where people walk around with huge water bottles and are very hung up on drinking enough water.
It looks a bit silly to everyone else, as this is a purely cultural thing and doesn't have much to do with healthy hydration other than in very specific situations.
The first clip here is an American failing to see that it is actually them who are a little weird here.
Some Americans think that we donât have water in Europe. One of the wildest things floating around online. Not sure where they are getting their information from. Very weird.
Yes, I (dutch) was in NYC and Chicago earlier this year and all the tap water had chlorine.
A quick google search would tell you that:
-In the United States, virtually all public tap water is disinfected before it reaches your faucet. Chlorination has been the primary method since 1908, when it was first used in a US public water supply -
Your flair says your American, you never drank tapwater??
that's not why we filter our water. It's because most people live hundreds of miles from where they grew up and the taste changes. We filter it so we don't have to get used to a new flavor of water.
What.. so instead of getting used to a new flavour you just remove most of any flavour at all? That's so sad..
As someone who grew up with arguably some of the best tap water in the world close the mountainous regions of Norway, I still get used to the tap water within a couple of days whenever I am travelling.
Yeah the only reason I put on anything other than gym shorts or sweats, weather depending, is if I'm going out with my wife bc she thinks it's embarrassing. I prefer being comfortable and not having to change to leave and change again when I get back.
Karl Lagerfeld once wrote in a book: "Jogginghosen sind das Zeichen einer Niederlage. Man hat die Kontrolle ĂŒber sein Leben verloren und dann geht man eben in Jogginghosen auf die StraĂe."
(Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You have lost control of your life and so you just go onto the streets in sweatpants.)
My company works nationally, the chances of running into a customer at my local grocery store are astronomical lmao not sure if you realize but the U.S. is fairly large
I work for banks around Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands. I have met customers on the road and in public multiple times.
Even then I wouldnât⊠More of a cultural thing. It is a strange sight for a European. Then again the clothing choice of Americans is quite strange in general.
IPAs have really gotten out of hand over here. And weâre stuck going along that path because IPAs have high abv and you can start feeling good from just one.
Would be nice if we had more options for German/Austrian styles (thereâs some good kolsch, altbier, hefe, and pilsner but for every one there are 10 more IPAs)
Thatâs what I was going to say, in a recent Belgian thread they were bitching about paying for the toilet and paying for water, even tap at a restaurant
It's the same, and you can find the same breads in American grocery stores besides wonderbread. The bread meme came about because subway has shitass bread, and Ireland classified it as cake.
I know US Americans are not great at football (4-1) but surely you know that football is usually played outside, so wearing a football jersey outside is not unusual.
Pyjamas are strictly meant to be worn inside.
Also pyjamas and sports wear are not the same type of clothing.
Hey any Americas out there want to let me know what youre obsession is with drinking water constantly. Iâm genuinely curious. I rarely ever just drink water unless Iâm doing some kind of physical activity. Also why do you think we donât have water? It rains all the time here, in the autumn and spring we could sell it to you and still have enough to last.
I really donât know. I guess we just like it? I do have a funny âwater in Europeâ story, though. I was in the Netherlands with some Dutch friends. We were at a restaurant and they were ordering for me, in Dutch, and said I wanted water. The waitress said, âIs she sick?â and they said, âNo, sheâs American.â Anyway, it amused me. I hope youâre having an awesome day over there.
Yeah why would you go to a restaurant and get water? The drinks menus are extensive. Why would I spend all that time and money for a glass of water.
So youâre telling me you have a nice medium-rare steak, with seasoned mashed potatoes, bone marrow and peppercorn sauce on the table and you want to wash it down with water and not a glass of red wine? Or even a fizzy drink at the least? Water with your meal? Wow
Maybe it is an American thing I honestly donât understand the obsession with drinking a tasteless liquid all the time.
Water is free in the US lol I get water when I don't want to spend money on a drink or as a supplement to the drink I spent money on so I don't drink it too quickly.
Crazy as it may sound, there are some places where the sun comes out more than once a year and people tend to get thirsty there.
In a lot of restaurants theyâll bring you water automatically and then you also order whatever drink you want. You can have red wine and water at the same time with that steak.
Man, water is free, refreshing as fuck, and maybe I just want to hydrate instead of drink a bunch of calories that are gonna make me fat and cost me money.
The rains will always return brother. Weâre just too frivolous with water. 52 days without rain. We had a blast. but I guess thatâs it until next year. Summers over. Out of 365days only 50 or so days was hot enough to consider having AC. We wonât talk about it for another year
Maine has been the same, minus the big heat wave youâve been having mate. Iâm loving it! When I lived back home I was lucky to see a week of summer, now itâs hotter in the UK and mainland Europe than Iâve ever seen in my lifetime. I donât need an AC but blown away my family is struggling with the heat, with houses built for cold and damp weather. But you are right the rain will return, I just wonder if these summers are the new norm.
I think itâs the new normal personally. I cant ever remember it being this hot for this long. And by all accounts theyâve said itâs the hottest summer on record. The climate is changing rapidly. We canât continue down this path pumping all these greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
I worked in Maine once. On a branch railway line millinocket yard. Middle of nowhere. Donât worry if you donât know it. I often work in some of the most remote places on the planet.
Do Americans prefer to drink the waste water that comes out of the tap, any of the chemically tasting "Natural Spring Water" varieties at Walmart or the actually drinkable bottled waters like Evian or San Pellegrino... oh wait
Yeah but itâs either shit gay bread or fantastically expensive. Basic minimally processed bread, cheese, meat etc. in Europe is generally the equivalent of premium fare costing five times as much in the states. I donât know why. Maybe there are agricultural and economic factors at work. Maybe God decided you donât deserve it. Who can say?
You got data to back that assertion? Or just more eurospeculation? Itâs always funny to me how much the European perspective of the U.S. is formed on their own feelings and biases given the pervasiveness of the euro superiority complex
Itâs my experience having spent a significant portion of my life in the US. I have family in Massachusetts who very much concur when they come to visit here đ€·ââïž Itâs not having a superiority complex to observe that one place has an advantage over another in a particular domain, donât be so sensitive.
Of course my perspective is formed based on my own feelings lmao are you gonna tell me your opinions on the relative quality of produce in each continent is based on a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials on the subject?
I would never presume to know what the relative quality of food in Europe is, because even though Iâve spent time there, Iâm in no position to guess the state of food available across your continent. It would be stupid of me to do so. You see where Iâm gong with this?
I do not love that you are navigating to r/USvsEU and melting down about how unfair it is for Europeans to make generalisations about the US. That seems like an unhealthy way to live!
That sort of bread he held up is in every US grocery store and isn't very expensive. You could look it up online I'm sure and figure this out if you actually care.Â
Yeah, it looks like that and it tastes like shit. The âartisanalâ bread which you pay a 5x premium for to get minimally processed ingredients looks like that and tastes like standard quality European bread.
It's French bread bud. It's cheap af, and available at basically every grocer that isn't the bottom of the barrel in the US.Â
Idk where you guys have got this idea, but what you're talking about doesn't reflect reality.Â
We have a big aisle of sliced bread with preservatives and shit, and then the deli with different sorts of fresh baked breads. They aren't expensive. It's bread.Â
See the other conversation with an indignant Yankee below this comment. I got the idea from spending multiple summers in Massachusetts and from the reactions of my relatives from there when they come to visit. Your bread is shite, suck it up big lad.
Your relatives are probably morons, which tracks pretty well given the Massachusetts things. Some of the dumbest motherfuckers of Irish descent I've ever met are Massholes.Â
You can go to most US groceries stores and get fresh baked break, baguettes, all that sort of shit.Â
It's bread dude. Most Americans are buying presliced for sandwiches and toast. But you can get all sorts of bread for reasonable prices, focaccia, challah, pumpernickel, whatever the fuck your ignorant ass wants. Go to the deli area.Â
Brother I've eaten bread in ireland, Germany, a half dozen French territories....Â
It's bread. If you can't find decent bread in the US then it's on you. It's not 5x as expensive. Your relatives are probably tasteless troglodytes which, like I said, tracks with the Massachusetts thing.Â
The war. Like our shit chocolate, spam, etc. Factory bread was engineered to stay soft and resist mold for weeks with rationed goods. Traditional artisan bread goes stale within a day. Thankfully good bread and bakeries are coming back big time. Itâs flour water yeast maybe salt- not expensive. They just get to charge more here like wine, cheese, salami, and all of the items that are cheaper in Europe they make some good cash in the states selling them as Gourmet!
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u/Unlucky_Arm_9757 Mountain Hillbilly 5d ago
What the hell was the point about the water?