My 13th is do not eat if there is any chance that you may visit a friend's parents house around mealtime. I've made this mistake on a number of occasions, been virtually tied to a chair and force fed a huge meal which cannot be refused.
Right, one thing you didn't mention: bread MUST be eaten with every meal. When setting the table, bread is the first thing that goes on the table. I shall quote my grandmother, "Comida sem pao nem no inferno a dao." (They wouldn't serve a meal without bread, not even in hell.)
Also bread has magical properties. If for some reason you need to eat a lot (don't ask me why!) you eat it with bread "to push it down" leading to the famous exchange, "Hey, pa, podias comer uma vaca?" "So com muito pao para a pushar p'ra baixo." "Hey, dude, could you eat a cow?" "Only with a lot of bread to push it down."
And on that, if you take your normally brought up American kids to Portugal, you find you need to teach them to be quite forceful with "Nao obrigado!" (No, thank you.) This is accompanied with a hand gesture down and out. Because if you're not forceful, and don't do the gesture, and just whisper nicely, "no, thank you," everyone from street vendors to your grandmother will assume you really want to buy/eat the thing. (My poor kids.)
My parents were of the Great Depression. They had bread with every meal as children as it was relatively inexpensive and filling so we had bread with every meal also. We also had mayonnaise sandwiches for lunch as that had been normal for them.
My Slovenian grandmother would use the French word ordinaire to mean sth was vulgar/lacking good taste. She would say "so and so is ordinaire" with contempt for the so and so...
"The crisps and biscuits are already here." Love this!
Uh oh, you might have just inspired me…
UH OH, yes please!!
My 13th is do not eat if there is any chance that you may visit a friend's parents house around mealtime. I've made this mistake on a number of occasions, been virtually tied to a chair and force fed a huge meal which cannot be refused.
it’s the meaning of life, Peter
Right, one thing you didn't mention: bread MUST be eaten with every meal. When setting the table, bread is the first thing that goes on the table. I shall quote my grandmother, "Comida sem pao nem no inferno a dao." (They wouldn't serve a meal without bread, not even in hell.)
Also bread has magical properties. If for some reason you need to eat a lot (don't ask me why!) you eat it with bread "to push it down" leading to the famous exchange, "Hey, pa, podias comer uma vaca?" "So com muito pao para a pushar p'ra baixo." "Hey, dude, could you eat a cow?" "Only with a lot of bread to push it down."
And on that, if you take your normally brought up American kids to Portugal, you find you need to teach them to be quite forceful with "Nao obrigado!" (No, thank you.) This is accompanied with a hand gesture down and out. Because if you're not forceful, and don't do the gesture, and just whisper nicely, "no, thank you," everyone from street vendors to your grandmother will assume you really want to buy/eat the thing. (My poor kids.)
My parents were of the Great Depression. They had bread with every meal as children as it was relatively inexpensive and filling so we had bread with every meal also. We also had mayonnaise sandwiches for lunch as that had been normal for them.
Likewise with bread but not the mayonnaise.
I’m in talks with my other half to ban bread from the house for a week, as an experiment. It’s not going well. :)
My Slovenian grandmother would use the French word ordinaire to mean sth was vulgar/lacking good taste. She would say "so and so is ordinaire" with contempt for the so and so...
Slovenia and Portugal, separated at birth
Must be why I feel rather comfortable here.
Haha yup
Check out this delightful double-feature of France for Americans which I just glued together.
Falling on dumb and deaf ears, for sure. The details don't matter, but the vibes definitely do.
https://streamable.com/yw0zm7