Stereotypes which you are qualified to verify

Aldi, fruit, and reliable in the same sentence?!? Cannot be true. You can see shit rotting on the shelves in my local Aldi. England is "famed" for crappy food, but frankly, I do not consider a grilled sausage in curry flavour ketchup to be a particular pinnacle in culinary achievement, and think that the general level of culinary knowledge is probably lower here than in the UK. I mean take sauerbraten - pickled beef for want of a more eloquent description. Now, I have nothing against that, but when its served with picked red cabbage, you have to thinkg "eh?" - hardly a complimenting accompanyment is it, pickled shit with pickle. Jees, and they say the englsih are weird for putting vinegar on our chips. AT LEAST WE DONT RUIN A DECENT CUT OF BEEF WITH THE STUFF:

I quite like Sauerbraten... is that so wrong?

Don, you really should meet my mum when she comes over in the summer. She's a pro, and wouldn't be caught dead watching a TV cook. Old girl is now 63 and won't give it up. She's Manager of a specialist place near Oxford (Even bleedin' Rowan Atkinson goes to eat her nosh), and has a side business doing game pies, Etc. to very old English recipes. She breeds geese and turkeys for Chrimbo, plucks the buggers herself, and has been known to do anything from hare to pigeon pie. Dabbled as a chocolatier for a while, and makes a bloody fortune on cakes where you can even eat the flowers (they look real but are made of icing sugar). This is a one-woman industry. I think the only cooking book she has is Mrs. Beaton. Thank fuck you can't get whale meat anymore. Only English cooking I know is me mum's.

I frequently refer to my ancient collection of Elizabeth David books mate, circa 1951.
Rabbit & pidgeon pie. Mmm. There is a cracking shop on Viktialienmarkt that flogs game.

Pigeon Pie? Um... not normal street pigeons I hope.

In the south in America a friend of mine's grandmother makes squirrel steaks sometimes. Anything that can be considered vermin is a bit scary to be eating in my opinioin. Of course I guess eating a pig that rolls around in it's own uh is a bit gross too.

Tell you what I love here Don. Really, really good, well marinated wild boar. There's this wirtshaus down in the Allgau...

...wait, I'm salivating!!!

"uh" ?

The grossness that cannot be named ?

Wild boar is absolutely stunning. Bloody hard to find back in England, at least where I've looked, but there is a fair old bit on offer round here isn't there. I also very much like the availability of suckling pigs out here.
Getting hungrier.

I think "uh" is a fairly accurate description actually.

Ah fuck! Schweinelende *dribbling all over keyboard*

Germans: obsessed with shit.
This is a real childrens book called "About the little mole who wanted to find out who had shit on his head" Amazon listing
Case rests.

Yep. We have that book at home.

And there is a number two too
My mind was boggled.

elisabeth david rocks! i used to have a paperback reprint from penguin but some ex girlfriend did a runner with it. bastard there was a great recipie for slow cooked duck with portwine pears and cherries served with game chips.

i agree with you mr rina, delia does scare to many people off from cooking, although i have her christmas book, which frankly is georgeous. but i think the problem more is time. few people are prepared to spend 4 hours in the kitchen to cook. jamie oliver for all his faults has at least produced a variety of recipies (i have the first book, in german. he he, is that a double crime?) which enable people to dip their toes in the pool of culinary delights. and thats the difference in the uk, more people enjoy cooking, it's almost as if a whole nation has deceided to improve its habits. food in the uk is much better than its reputation.

I bought that book for my kids !

Of course I also bought The gas we pass and Everyone poops so obviously the Irish aren't just interested in skulling pints, partying and talking bollocks.

@Yeti

Funny. The reviews for both books (professional, not reader reviews) they have accompanying these books are pretty much summed up by saying "why do we need these books?" not really rave reviews.

Funny also to note. Both books come from Japan originally? Are Japanese people fixated on this stuff more than other countries?

@HeyFrito500

We need these books or at least our kids do. Opinions of a far from perfect father.

At lot of german childrens books are full of the "we should all love each other" message. Which is good in very small doses but kids want to have fun as well.

The mole book is good, it has a standard repeating structure which kids love, it's funny and the mole gets his revenge at the end (hope that doesn't spoil it for anybody out there). The same writer has a great book about bears making little bears. At least my kids aren't going to be embarrassed about it like I would have been, I hope. You haven't really known embarrasement until your 5 year old daughter screams "Penis" at the top of her lungs in a queue at Spar.

The other two books are not as funny but my kids liked them at a certain age.

As for the Japanese, they seem to be capable of extreme singlemindeness so when they get fixated I'm sure they do it in ways I don't even want to think about , or maybe I do which would explain why I bought the books. Any country that can produce the used panty vending machine !

you talking in the city or in the ground?
if you are referring to the ground the initial charges by english were BECAUSE the police did NOTHING to stop the brave itais throwing everything but the kitchen sink over the fence after removing everything from english fans that could be remotley thrown including belts. why didn't they do this with the italian 'ultras?'. maybe they did everything in their power to provoke confrontation eh?
there was running back & forth with police. the only ones beat were the ones caught on their own by numerous police. beatings given out were not worthy of a european police force. pathetic and cowardly.
no one ran away. backed off yes.
this is the same police who were INDECENTLY ASSAULTING english women in the name of searches going into the stadium but that falls on deaf ears. nothing new there with italians and groping eh?
here's a picture where you will not see people running.
pah!

[img]http://www.herr-rau.de/wordpress/archiv/evolution_poll.gif[/img]

Back OT, I read in the NYT Sunday that 60% of adult Americans are now classified as "overweight." This means they have a Body Mass Index of over 25.

Fully 33% of adult Americans are obese: BMI 30 or over. This supports someone's guess earlier that America has a lot more REALLY fat people than other countries.

You can check your BMI in pounds or kilos here: Body Mass Index Calculator

stereotype: Americans talk loudly and often say 'woo!' whilst punching the air(verified)

As for english food, I think that 90% or more of provincial restaurants are verging on the pathetic, unless you are in the Home Counties or affluent areas such as around Chester or Leamington Spa, it is very difficult to find a restaurant where the chef isn't a guy who thinks that putting as many exotic ingerdients together in one dish will make it great. (If I'm eating Guinea Fowl, I want to taste it, so please don't serve it covered in a foaming passion fruit sauce) Its very hard indeed to find chefs who source and treat their ingredients properly.

And compared to countries like Australia and New Zealand, it seems to be much harder to buy fresh ingredients that arn't vacuum packed. My diet in Australia seemed twice as healthy as in England.

New Zealand. Stereotype: [img]http://www.mysmilie.de/smilies/tiere/2/053.gif[/img]


*very draughty in this glass house, isn't it?*

i love america as a place, just cant stand the locals

Also, like, I don't think people in any other countries, like, say "like" all the time, like Americans do.

Like, I woulda thought that would be WAY out by now, but I was in, like, Florence for Easter, which was like CRAWLING with Americans, and they just wouldn't shut UP with all their like, like, like!

Plus, they were all like GOBBLING giant gelatos, so it was lick, "like", lick, "like" ...

"Stereotypes that you are qualified to verify"

Brrrr. Shudder. Wonder how he qualified exactly...

Lende is loin. Spanferkel is what you mean.

Duuuuuuuude! That is, like, soooo true!

Pshaw, I like almost never say like unless I like something.

Haven't punched the air recently saying "woo" either, I prefer "yeah!" or a more emphatic "hell yeah!".

I must say I had a chuckle when I was in a cinema watching a screening of XXX with Vin Diesel (yes I know) with a whole group of American service men, who proceeded to jump up and punch the air and shout 'woo' and 'hell yeah' when ever Mr Diesel 'opened a can of whoop-ass'. These were very large grown men.

I often see large groups of American students outside concerts where I'm working, and they are always giving each other 'funny' handshakes and saying " yo! 'sup blood!?" Is this ironic, or are they really trying to be black?

Yep, Spanferkel too *drool*

Yeah, but you're talking servicemen here. No offense intended to the intelligent servicemen of the group, but your average serviceman isn't exactly the brightest pumpkin in the patch (since we're on the subject of stereotypes...).

Point taken, but I can't really picture British or Australian soldiers doing the same thing.

Americans - Badly dressed (verified)

I even heard this from the mouth of an American friend who went home a couple of weeks ago with some pairs of 'European' jeans.

His mates started laughing at him and said he needed to get a pair of jeans that 'fit his ass', which probably meant a pair of jeans that he would need to wear a belt with, done all the way up to the last loop to ensure that they don't fall down under the weight of his wallet.

I suppose it depends on what you mean by 'badly dressed'. I would stereotype Müncheners as typically fashion uninspired. The 'university student' look gets old after a week or so. Even in Hollywood, no one would dress like the 20-something drama/comedy actors "as seen on t.v." - but here...

Thankfully, that's just this city though, and not all of Germany

Stereotypes that I *wish* existed ('cause, imnsho, they're true):

- Americans have a quirky sense of humor. A recent drive in the south refreshed my memory of what businesses put up on marquees at gas stations/garages/diners/banks/etc.

- Americans are friendly (and not superficially so). Take a positive, sunny-afternoon, frisbee-playing, cold-beer drinking BBQ on the Flaucher in Munich with a bunch of new people you've only just met - and put that attitude in a Friday night club or bar amongst all the patrons. Sound impossible? Only in Munich...

- Brits are not modest and self-effacing to a fault (and thank God for that, seriously).

---

@acquascutum
Considering how one-sided your viewpoint is, I'm not surprised you still have gripes over that match, I would too if I were you. Especially considering you took a good licking from the police! How do you manage all that though? On the one hand, you’re the innocent victims of a banana republic’s out of control police force yet at the same time sea-faring conquerors who never run away, you just “back down� at worst. How can it be both at the same time? That genuinely intrigues me.

By the way, Scotland played Italy in Milan a couple of weeks ago. Nothing happened. Explain (please).

There are many things that I like about England, however the high-and-mighty lectures on fan behavior? No thank you. Not in this lifetime.

@worm: If you think white American kids imitating black American rap culture is funny, you should see the white German kids, gettin' down wid it in my 'hood. Sheee-it, bra!

I even saw a young Turk chewing a toothpick last night!

Honestly, it's hilarious how all of these German youngsters walk about with moody expressions, swaggers and pinwheel caps sat high atop their head. They would get killed if they were back in the US or the UK. They honestly don't know they're born here.

I walked opposite a McDonalds once and faintly heard the Beastie Boys from just outside. It turns out that a group of kids about 15 had brought one of them cheap portable CD players, switched it on outside and they were stood there beatboxing to it!

When I think I've seen it all, and when I think that people in this country couldn't sink to any further levels of ridiculousness, something new always surprises me...

lol

stereotype: Germans enjoy wearing ridiculous clothing, especially when they are participating in exercise. (verified)

Blade night on mondays is always good for a laugh.

funny, when I was in america I used to think I didn't like americans and that europe would be some sort of eutopia for me. Then I came to germany and realized I don't like germans, then I realized in Prague that english people annoyed me too. Then I finally realized that I just don't like people. No borders, no national distinction.

People: are jerks (justified)

that is soooooooooooooooo true. i was always amazed at the number of young gilrs wearing very short skirts! One of them will never do so again since potbelly sent her flying and she grazed her leg from her ankle to her hip bone!! skirts and rollerblading...erm...no

High heeled shoes with 3/4 length trousers that gather at the sides. 'Nuff said.

"High heeled shoes with 3/4 length trousers that gather at the sides."

sounds nice actually.

@Augsburg Dave

Bang on. Heh heh.

Nah, we did that in the 80s, and it looked stupid then.

i laughed when i read this, totally know what you mean. but then i thought... isn't the not getting killed part actually good? the fact that they can ponce around macdonalds not getting shot, surely that's one up to our teutonic friends?

and is the UK and US really that dangerous? i mean there are some areas that are well dodgy, but even the bronx is not, you know, dangerous like it is in "Fort Apache: The Bronx"...

@Jules

mr. acqua differentiates between our military strength back in the day and the staying power of a group of football fans of mixed age and sex. 10 years before that game in italy, the english i'm sure would have run amok and caused large scale mayhem. but hooliganism is on the slide in the UK, as the main protagonists got older and it just got boring. in italy it is alive and well and probably more widespread than it was in the 80s.

like our military, the days of cecil rhodes, stamford raffles et al just tipping up on foreign shores and hoisting the union jack are long gone

@latecomer

Sorry I was just using my Northern slang. I mean killed in the way of beat up.

I don't know, Germans grow up in a very sheltered environment which I don't think would stand them in very good stead if they decided to travel.

Err what? if they decided to travel? Germans are one of the biggest travelers in the world right up there with the English and Aussies.