Monday, October 19, 2009
Carbohydrate Madness
I had another culture moment last night with my host mom as she tried to feed me dinner. She had brought home some lasagna in a Tupperware from somewhere and was heating it up for me. She asked me if I wanted any arroz [rice] with it. This, being lasagna, seemed strange, so I said, “no, pero un pan sería bien” [no, but some bread would be nice]. She looked at my strangely and slowly, explained that this food was actually pasta and if I wanted some rice with it. I hesitantly replied with another “no, está bien”. I then realized this was a culture moment! Of course I know that lasagna is pasta! Lasagna is one of my favorite foods ever! I could (and have) eat it for 5 meals straight! However, to an Ecuadorian, eating pasta with bread is just out of the question. Clearly this is a rice or potatoes kind of food. I just laughed to myself while I ate, realizing how different Ecuador has once again proven itself to be. On top of that, it was clearly the Ecuadorian adaptation of a traditional Italian food, as the lasagna didn’t have any tomato sauce in it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
a) great blog, short, sweet, entertaining, thoughtful
ReplyDeleteb) dont you love remembering, hey I'm in another country, and they do thing differently than at home!
c) fun fact: a chilean will eat bread with EVERYTHING. probably even as a side course to bread. As far as I know, every basic grocery store has at least five kinds of freshly baked bread, and each has its own name: Hallulla, marraqueta, pan amasado, pan de molde, etc.
Just like in Hawaii-spaghetti and rice plate at Zippy's!
ReplyDeletehahah fail. Lasagna w/o tomato sauce? Fun fact: in South Africa tomato sauce = ketchup. Another fun fact: they put grated cheddar cheese on their scones and muffins, in the same way we might put cream cheese. They eat them with jam. Delicious, but awkward.
ReplyDelete