Be Careful When Ordering Chips

May 25, 2016

As I have mentioned before, majority of the aspects of life in London are comparable to that in Boston. That being said, there are some differences between here and home in terms of portion size, etiquette, and names of food. In terms of portions size, EVERYTHING IN LONDON IS PROPORTIONATELY SMALLER THAN IN THE US. Ordering a medium pizza here and comparing it to a pizza back home shocked me! I had to call back and make sure I didn’t order a small by mistake! It got me thinking that maybe in the US, our culture is different from the rest of the world which makes it seem like everything is smaller but maybe we’re just eating bigger portions than everyone else. Etiquette is a huge part of meals in the UK, but since we primarily eat our daytime meals at burger joints, Starbucks, or other diners, we have not really run into a problem with learning etiquette. We have, however, seen signs on the doors of fancier, more pricey restaurants that state a STRICT dress code, which ties into restaurant etiquette. They will not let a person in who does not meet their guidelines; it’s that serious. Other than that it’s pretty similar to any fancy restaurant etiquette you would find in the States.

The names of food differ slightly. If you order chips, for example, you WILL NOT have a choice of Lays, Doritos, or Ruffles. You would get a bowl of french fries and not being from or being familiar with UK customs, you may ask for a refund or an explanation at the very least. At orientation, they explained this to us in order for us to avoid confusion and possible embarrassment! The fact that they mentioned this made ordering food, especially fast food, incredibly easy. The sodas and chocolate here have a different taste, not bad just different. And they don’t really have that much sugar in them, which I personally prefer. The pizzas are usually italian style especially at restaurants, which brings me to my favorite dish here thus far. In a cafe, I was able to order a Margherita pizza which is essentially pizza dough with sliced tomatoes and cubes of mozzarella cheese baked onto it. It was WAY better than traditional American pizza! Overall, I have enjoyed my break from American food to venture out and try new foods and new things.

Written By

Cynthia Orofo

Living in America for the entirety of my life has blanketed me in a shell of American culture and lifestyles. I aim to expand my limited view of the world that I live and learn in everyday and in having the possibility to study abroad, an individual is granted the opportunity to broaden his/her global outlook by experiencing every aspect of that nation’s civilization, culture and society. With this dialogue, I wish to be thrown past my limits and experience first hand what it means to live, work, and learn in an environment completely different from my own. One of my long term goals in life is to better the lives of the deprived and disenfranchised, essentially helping those who may not have or have lost the ability to help themselves. This I aspire to attain later in life by constructing a free health clinic in impoverished villages in Nigeria. This dialogue gives a global prospect on health care systems which can broaden my way of thinking in progress towards a better understanding of the differences in health care systems.