While on one of my first trips to BAE (British Aerospace)
with a fellow McDonnell Douglas employee (Terry) we were invited to the
Executive dining room for lunch. Neither
of us were seasoned international travelers so we were duly impressed that we were
invited this fine dining experience by BAE. The dining room tables had white tablecloths
and white cloth napkins with proper English waitresses that spoke with an
elegant accent. We both tried to act
like this was normal for us so we were careful to use the utensils properly and
try not to make fools out of ourselves.
Everything was
going along swimmingly (notice the use of English slang) and after having a
nice lunch and coffee in these extremely small cups (the English use brown
sugar in their coffee) the waitress came around to ask us about dessert. What’s important to know is that the English
have an interesting use of words which differ from the US English version plus
they have a different dry quirky sense of humor (Monty Python). Speaking to us first since we were guest she
announce the first dessert choice, I believe she said “Today we have spotted
dick”. At that time if you looked close
you could have seen both of our eyes bulge out.
Now, what goes through your mind when you here about this dessert
choice. I know what I thought, (I don’t
think I want that, No that’s not right, I’m sure I don’t want that). I hesitate to ask but what other choices do I
have and don’t tell me about your personal problems. But without asking maybe because of our
hesitation she offered us the 2nd choice, which, was ice cream and
at that point without any prompting Terry and I glanced at each other and
immediately exclaimed “Ice Cream”. What
we should be asking at this point is there anything we should know about the
ingredients in this ice cream? Were our
British friends pranking us?
As it turns out
the dessert “spotted dick” is a pudding, but why in the (bloody) hell would you
choose that name for any type of food. Well,
that’s what’s interesting about traveling, words have different meanings, some
words offensive in one culture are not in another in fact they may have a
totally different meaning.
So sit back and enjoy your pudding while visiting TwistedCorkscrew to check out all the cool wine accessories.
No comments:
Post a Comment