A few years ago, I ran across some bananas on sale for like 2 cents USD each, and bought loads of them and made a lot of banana bread with them. I gave ziploc bags of banana bread muffins to JP's mom, and to friends at church. I also gave a pyrex baking dish with banana bread in it to a neighbor. About a week later, the neighbor knocked on my door to return my dish, and it had homemade cookies in it! I told JP later, "Guess what! When Vivian returned my dish, she put all these cookies in it for us!" JP looked at me strange, and said, "Of course!" I was confused. He explained to me that if someone gives you a non-disposable dish of food, you need to return it with food in it! (Glad he told me that before anyone ever gave us a returnable dish of food!) So now, when giving baked goods to friends, I kind of hesitate to give them something in a dish that I need back - I don't want to obligate them to give me something in return! A couple months ago I gave our next-door neighbors a plate of cookies, and they returned my plate with a glass bowl of homemade caramel corn (because you can't easily put caramel corn on a plate!) So I gave their bowl back with some brownies in it. Then last week I gave them a plate with banana muffins on it, and the neighbor told me yesterday that she will give my plate back soon, that she hasn't had time to make anything yet. I felt terrible, and told her she's not obligated to put anything on my plate for us, and she was confused as to why I thought she might give my plate back empty. I hope she didn't think I don't want her baked goods, or am in a hurry to get my plate back...
If you go to dinner at someone's home, and they ask you to bring a salad, dessert, etc. (which is common, because upon being invited you should ask what you can bring!), you leave the leftovers and your dish at the host's home, unless all the food you brought was eaten, then you can take your dish home. The hostess may prepare and "itacate" (see post below), and send you with your dish immediately, or she may not return your dish for sometime.
When JP and I were in the US, it was soon our turn to bring dessert to our small group. I made a cobbler and brought a tub of ice cream. When the group was over and we were getting ready to leave, the hostess handed me the almost empty cobbler dish and the half-eaten tub of ice cream. JP and I insisted that she keep both things, while she said that she didn't want to have ice cream in the house because she'd have to give some to her boys, and may not remember to bring my dish back. Then I remembered that in the US, you take whatever is left of what you brought with you! JP felt bad that we ended up taking the food home, but we both had to tell ourselves that we did the right thing for US culture!
Living in two cultures keeps us on our toes!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment