Wednesday, January 21, 2009

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not suitable together (No, no, not me and Lawrance . . . we are perfectly suitable together! :)) That is what the manager at McDonald's told me when I asked for mayo on my cheeseburger the other day. In fact, my request was so not ok, the clerk had to go get the manager. She wouldn't do it because beef and mayo are not suitable together. She said she would be happy to put some mayo in a cup and allow me to put it on my own burger but she couldn't couldn't add it to my cheeseburger for me because they "don't go together." What!?!?!?! It's been a looooong time since something has shocked me culturally . . . but this sure did. I mean totally . . . mouth hanging wide open in total culture shock. I felt like I must be an alien for wanting mayo with my beef. But, "why?" I asked her. Her only answer was "well, people in Taiwan don't think mayo goes with beef." In my head I'm thinking, "WHAT!!!!! You guys put mayo on EVERYTHING . . . even fried shrimp!!" Up until this point our whole conversation was in Chinese. Seeing I was still suffering from acute culture shock the manager switches to English to ensure me that I heard correctly, "they are not suitable together." Ok, fine, whatever. I'll take it on the side and put it on myself. I'm still not satisfied and I've continued to try to think about why . . . is it something to do with ying and yang? something with the fact that cheeseburgers don't have lettuce and mayo in Chinese is only called "salad dressing" (doesn't work--what about the shrimp)? something she made up to get me to leave her alone? Anyone out there with a another "suitable" possible reason? She was nice in that she did give me the mayo--enough for 15 hamburgers, no joke--on the side in a sundae cup. She must have felt really bad for literally sending me into acute culture shock. (FYI: pic on left is from a few years ago when Sam was here . . . he ordered his dessert in Chinese by himself. I was so proud of him.)

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