Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
Originally Posted By: vavavroom
Many European countries tax engine displacement, while horsepower output affects insurance rates. That combined with higher fuel cost results in a trend towards smaller displacement engines, which are often turbo-charged.
I worked with two Italian guys who were on two year transfers to the US, and our company gave them money to buy cars while they were in the US.
They both said that they could not afford cars with displacements greater than 2.0l in Italy due to the taxes.
One guy spent forever finding the "perfect" 2.0l car and was bumming rides in the months he took to actually buy something...and then ended up leaving the company and staying in the US after two years.
The other guy bought an SUV with a good sized V6 right away, had tons of fun with it, and then sold it before he went home. He thought all of the US was like the Wild West and would drive around in any empty field he saw anywhere, surprised he never got shot or arrested for it.
They both agreed that "Italian" food in the US was horrendous but loved cheap steakhouses like Sizzler or Golden Corral. We went to a TGI Friday's kind of place one night and they insisted on ordering bruschetta, then tried to correct the waitress about saying "brooshetta" over and over until they finally realized it was hopeless. When she put the stuff on the table, they both looked like she had just thrown a dead rat on the table.
"What eez zees?"
"That's the brooshetta you ordered."
"Zees eez not bruschetta!"
They both inspected the stuff like it was something they were supposed to dissect and then howled with laughter.
But take them to Ponderosa and they were in heaven...I told them I would take them to a REAL steakhouse and buy them good steaks (they were great pals and I enjoyed them a lot), and they would just shake their heads and swear, "CANNOT be better zan zees!"
One of them came back from the salad bar at a cheapo steak place holding a cube of jello between thumb and forefinger like it might be radioactive and/or poisonous and queried me, "WHAT eez ZEES!"
I told him it was jello, a dessert made from hides and hooves that was very popular with US kids.
His solemn response was, "Now I am ready to die!", and he then asked me if he could mail it to his mother in Italy.
I miss both of them a lot, visited with one in Italy over ten years ago and I have no idea what happened to the guy who stayed in the US.
After successfully introducing Guiness to an American exchange student (I'm sure you can get it in the US but this was a long time ago and he claimed not to have had it before), I unfortunately failed to dissuade him from ordering pizza in an Edinburgh chip shop.
These are often owned and run by Italians, but the pizzas owe nothing to Italy.
DEEP FRIED, tough, saturated and bubbling with grease.
Think fried clutch plate and you have a rough idea.
Fortunately not an Italian-American, but still, THE HORROR.
You people think you OWN junk food? Ha!