Cheezburger saga, part 4

[chocolate_chip]

*sigh* The internet is full of fail today. Perhaps some of those underwater intartubes were damaged in the earthquake?

Anyway. After the cheezless cheezburger incident, the next time I went to McDonald's, I got a regular cheeseburger and scraped everything off. It tasted okay, but it just wasn't that good old trashy plain cheesburger taste that I'm used to, which is really the only point of going to McDonald's. So tonight, emboldened by hours of playing Tadashii Kanji Kakitori-kun on the DS, I decided to try again. I walked in, and with no sign of nervousness, recited my line: 『ダブルチーズバーガーバリューセットおねがいします、でもバーガーとチーズだけ、なんでもないもう。』 The cashier and I seemed to have an understanding, and I thought I was golden....

But.

When I got my cheeseburger, there was still ketchup and mustard on it. D: I'm thinking that maybe the desire to eat something without any sauce on it is a difficult concept for the Japanese mindset to grasp.

But anyway, it's fall, so everyone that makes any kind of food product has a special "fall flavor" they're putting out now. Trips to the conbini are exciting, indeed. *sips on a Mystery Fruits Fanta*

Comments

[muscatlove.livejournal.com]

(Cue rambling on the topic.) I had this conversation with friends once, because it's such a basic cultural thing that it doesn't even register as culture shock for people. When I studied abroad in Hirakata-shi, we would try to order the Chicken Ryuudon with no cup-o-mayo or nori on it, just the chicken and the rice, from the school cafeteria. It took about 15 tries, repeating "MAYO NASHI. NORI NASHI." nonstop, and at one point actually reaching in to grab the bowl away from the poor old lady preparing it as she was about to slap on a scoop of mayonnaise. She was utterly floored that we would want it without all the essentials.

The US is totally built around choice, what sides do you want, what dressing, would you like fries with that, an awareness of allergies and dislikes. In Japanese schools, on the other hand, they start kids off in kindergarten with a constant refrain of "Sukikirai wa dame!" (i.e. "no dislikes allowed, eat it all") so that kids will all happily eat whatever they're given, or at least force down the stuff they hate without complaining too much. I watched a 3rd grade girl once sob because she was brutally forced to EAT DELICIOUS CAKE as dessert with the kyuushoku, and yet she sat there for 45 minutes after everyone else had left, slowly eating microscopic bites of it as tears ran down her cheeks.

A friend (who had studied Japanese since junior high, and was pretty fluent) who hated peanuts tried to get a sundae in Kyoto without them, and it actually lead to having the manager called over to explain to him that the sundae came with peanuts, you were paying for peanuts, ergo peanuts you got. I think you did the only thing that is even possible most of the time, which is order it as is and scrape off what you don't like despite the reactions from other people, or else order something that you can eat the whole thing. ^^;

[usa-p.livejournal.com]

As the world's pickiest eater I feel your pain. I will not eat something I don't like EVER. My mom says that even when I was newborn I would rather starve than have anything other than one very particular kind of baby formula. Yep, sounds like me.

I have eaten McDonalds in about, oh, 10 different European cities (and an Ecuadorian Pizza Hut) and managed to do ok; it's only here in my own city where they can't get my order right.

I remember once in Madrid where I couldn't remember the Spanish word for mustard, so I ordered "one hamburger please. Only cow and bread. No yellow." Yes, I sounded stupid, but my hamburger was plain and that's all my stomach cared about. (I am wary of using words like "meat" and "beef" and "veal" and stuff in foreign countries where we might have different ideas of what that actually entails.)

[jimmy-thesiger.livejournal.com]

oh, no! (I am unfamiliar with mustard since over in my country i suspect that...mustard is either not popular or i don't realise i'm eating it.)

WOW! the fall flavour...that should be interesting. Hahahaha. I liked the way you put it--exciting trips and mystery fruits fanta...
I hear it's gotten really cold, though!!! TAKE CARE!! *huggles*