For the confused: gelateria is some foreign word for an ice cream shop.
Not exactly; gelato is different than ice cream.
Yes, once it’s called gelato it becomes much more expensive.
Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
61–70 of 86 posts
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#62I kinda disagree with the general sentiment of the article. IMO the author mistakes a low context social style for imperial tastelessness. I, a Korean, lived in the US for a decade so I do have experience with this "imperialism" the author tries to illustrate. However, the American behavior the author is describing is more attributed to how American social norms don't force anyone to "read the room" and "know your pl…
Failure to read the room might explain why the tourists persist in the questioning beyond politeness, but not why they embarked on the quest to interrogate the worker to begin with. My family does this and I can barely go anywhere with them for the embarrassment. Everything is an interrogation. They actually take delight in the waiter not knowing the answer to where the seafood was caught, and then lecturing them abo…
> the waiter not knowing the answer to where the seafood was caught
It depends where they ask. An Eastern European waiter would probably answer "in the sea" to that, although the correct and mundane answer would probably be "the supermarket freezer". Relay that to your folks the next time they ask. Most fish that you order in restaurants is probably farmed, except for small school fish and big ocean fish. So unless they eat sardines, ocean caught tuna or sabre fish, the supermarket freezer or the fish market if you are lucky is probably a good answer. Of course, the Greek might tell you that their grandfather caught the fish that very morning and even show you his foul smelling fishing boat.
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#63I kinda disagree with the general sentiment of the article. IMO the author mistakes a low context social style for imperial tastelessness. I, a Korean, lived in the US for a decade so I do have experience with this "imperialism" the author tries to illustrate. However, the American behavior the author is describing is more attributed to how American social norms don't force anyone to "read the room" and "know your pl…
I feel like in countries which are mostly ethnostates, there is a tension around remnants of tradition and the business world trying to open up the culture to gain some new market opportunities (Unsure how to state this more neutrally). I think this tension is interesting and I think that in the U.S it feels like the market systematically has the upper hand. I am not sure this holds scrutiny so I'd love to read a cou…
I agree with you. Fundamentally, this is an article about the effects of market capitalism. Everything can be converted from cultural terms into economic terms.
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#64> The cold brew order is no new behavior. We know what it is. The American empire is just the fourth incarnation of what started as Roman, became Christian European, and then predominantly British. We know what it is. We still have it in our veins, the disdain these tourists are showing. Their carelessness and abstraction. They are the rulers, the ones who believe they are giving meaning to reality for the first time…
This is just wrong. The Marshall Plan was the smartest foreign policy decision the US ever made. Turned enemies into allies and got the world acting in our interests without the overhead of running actual colonies.
Operation Paperclip sure was great at bringing a bunch of fascists to the US.
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#65> The cold brew order is no new behavior. We know what it is. The American empire is just the fourth incarnation of what started as Roman, became Christian European, and then predominantly British. We know what it is. We still have it in our veins, the disdain these tourists are showing. Their carelessness and abstraction. They are the rulers, the ones who believe they are giving meaning to reality for the first time…
The American empire genocided the natives.
That was the express and public reason for nearly driving the bison to extinction. Said so by General Sherman himself.
To starve indians nearly to death, so that they would conform to American imperialism. Then we invented "schools" which were advertised to "Kill the indian, save the man" by erasing any remnants of their culture.
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#66I'm not sure if I like this piece but it's interesting. I just come away with the sense that the author feels something is off and did the best he could to articulate it but didn't quite put the finger on why things are off. I'm not sure I can do so either. Something about cultural and monetary pressure, how people respond to incentives for better or for worse. People crave the new and different and authentic, they f…
You were in Belgrade looking up italian ice cream, so who cares? Just point your finger at it. You weren't reading menus in cyrillic trying to decipher the difference between regular and cheese filled pljeskavica while an overweight shabby guy was playing acordion to a couple at a neighbouring table and the waiter was trying to remember the English word for krastavitsa. Actual experiance in Skopje.
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#67The homogenization, and subsequent impoverishment (at least with regards to the quality and diversity) of the world appears to be, sadly, inevitable. It takes real, constant effort to maintain "the old ways" while tradition is so easily erased through globalization and, ultimately, technology. I don't think we'll lose _all_ diversity of culture, as there will always be stalwarts to uphold institutions (even espresso…
I haven't been to Europe since before 2020. I assume we're not nearly as welcome over there now?
Not everyone voted for Trump or is waving a shotgun in your face. If you don't visit, the Chinese will. And then they'll be making a replica of the Colosseum somewhere in Zhejiang for the unfortunate ones that couldn't.
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#68I'm not sure if I like this piece but it's interesting. I just come away with the sense that the author feels something is off and did the best he could to articulate it but didn't quite put the finger on why things are off. I'm not sure I can do so either. Something about cultural and monetary pressure, how people respond to incentives for better or for worse. People crave the new and different and authentic, they f…
You were in Belgrade looking up italian ice cream, so who cares? Just point your finger at it. You weren't reading menus in cyrillic trying to decipher the difference between regular and cheese filled pljeskavica while an overweight shabby guy was playing acordion to a couple at a neighbouring table and the waiter was trying to remember the English word for krastavitsa . Actual experiance in Skopje.
Nah, turns out a lot of people in Belgrade speak English well enough, Claude translated Cyrillic, and, the last night I had dinner on the Danube in Zemun, a live band was playing American classic rock. Apple Pay or my Visa card worked in about 75% of the situations I found myself in; Apple Maps and international roaming meant I'd never get lost.
Plenty of places have smashburgers instead of pljeskavica now, and I had a couple of moments where I thought I had found some authentic cultural thing only to realize that young, progressive Belgradians have the same kind of regard towards historical stuff that plenty of young Americans tend to have as well.
All of that informed my reading of this article. The author laments the kind of changes that came to his land but we visitors don't necessarily want them either!
I think we're all wrestling with the downstream consequences of a shrinking world.
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
You were in Belgrade looking up italian ice cream, so who cares? Just point your finger at it. You weren't reading menus in cyrillic trying to decipher the difference between regular and cheese filled pljeskavica while an overweight shabby guy was playing acordion to a couple at a neighbouring table and the waiter was trying to remember the English word for krastavitsa . Actual experiance in Skopje.
Nah, turns out a lot of people in Belgrade speak English well enough, Claude translated Cyrillic, and, the last night I had dinner on the Danube in Zemun, a live band was playing American classic rock. Apple Pay or my Visa card worked in about 75% of the situations I found myself in; Apple Maps and international roaming meant I'd never get lost. Plenty of places have smashburgers instead of pljeskavica now, and I had…
> I think we're all wrestling with the downstream consequences of a shrinking world.
You should totally visit Skopje if you get the chance. Belgrade is a bit too cosmopolite. The bad is that they still allowed smoking in hotel rooms back before 2020 but otherwise I liked it a lot. Also I don't get the big statues and the anti Greek animosity. Should be anti Bulgarian by now.
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#70> The cold brew order is no new behavior. We know what it is. The American empire is just the fourth incarnation of what started as Roman, became Christian European, and then predominantly British. We know what it is. We still have it in our veins, the disdain these tourists are showing. Their carelessness and abstraction. They are the rulers, the ones who believe they are giving meaning to reality for the first time…
This is just wrong. The Marshall Plan was the smartest foreign policy decision the US ever made. Turned enemies into allies and got the world acting in our interests without the overhead of running actual colonies.
The US was fine without an oversized influence on foreign countries and the burden of defending Western values and democracy. We accepted the empire given without thinking of the added responsibilities. Vietnam, Korea, Cuba, israel, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran are those conflicts worth having a higher global influence? The standard of living is higher in the countries we protected in Western Europe than in our own country. It's a Pyrrhic victory. Without this 400 lb weight around our necks, America and its citizens would be in a better, more sustainable position.