Following the successful crowd-sourcing of our recent Things You Know installment, I thought it might be interesting to delve into the world of how things get done in other places that we could learn from.
Now, I’m not talking “health care” or “paid maternity leave” or “decent sandwiches on trains,” I’m talking about the small, piddly things.
To wit: Australia has the condiments game DOWN. Do you know how they dole out soy sauce at takeout places in Australia (and, you know, in Japan, but I’d always ASSUMED they had a better system in Japan, and I heard this from an Australian first)?
Little fish. You unscrew the noses from little plastic fish instead of ripping open a packet and having a salty black fluid squirt at your eyeball. You can buy them here, in case you’re in the odd habit of decanting your soy sauce for the road. Maybe bring them to your local takeout place and ask them to use them for your order, I don’t know.
But that’s not all! Look at how ketchup and mayo packets work!
They’re little cubes. You twist and squeeze and have greater control over your condiment distribution as a result.
Now, let’s hear it. What else are they doing in other places that we could use here?
Tags: advice, condiments, soy sauce, useful things, world peace
Ha! Love this topic.
Japan is, like, a whole discussion unto itself. But my favorite things in Tokyo were these little umbrella racks that they had outside some of the stores. You could lock up your umbrella, take the key and shop for tiny electronics without dripping all over, or leaving your umbrella to the haphazard mercies of one of those communal ‘brella buckets.
PLUS those clear umbrellas are like only a few dollars so if you’re out and it’s raining you don’t break the bank to replace them. Or care if someone takes yours.
Those clear umbrellas are also surprisingly strong!
*sniff* fish & chips in butcher’s paper at the beach!!!!!!!
BUT on America’s side, you don’t get soda refills in restaurants in Australia.
I would rather have fish & chips on butcher’s paper at the beach than free soda refills. The cups are big enough that I rarely need more.
I’m a Brit living in Norway. I feel your pain.
I feel like the Dutch and bicycles is kind of way too obvious, but on the other hand, it’s been like, the most noticeable thing in three years here. How the Dutch handle bicycles/what they are accustomed to doing with them is amazing.
I’ll try to think of more things now that that’s out of the way.
I live in a bike-friendly city that is still trying to work out its relationship to bikes. I’d like to hear more about this.
I highly recommend the book “Pedaling Revolution” by Jeff Mapes – he gives a great overview of how bicycles are a natural part of life in Amsterdam and Copenhagen, and talks about what works and what doesn’t in cities like New York and Portland that are trying to become more bike friendly. It’s a great read!
Ooo! Thanks!
Bike lanes themselves are a big thing, of course. In the larger streets they’re physically set apart from the car road, with like, a strip of greenery or sidewalk or something. On smaller streets it’s painted on, but generally, cars expect there to be bikes, which makes a big difference!
Also, the bikes used are different here. You see people riding around racing bikes/mountain bikes/fixies on occasion, but they’re not the standard. What I ride for example is a very typical omafiets, a city cruiser with pedalbreaks and no gears because it’s very flat here, and it takes very little maintenance- although I did need to take it in to replace the back tire. (You can also get fancier version with gears and handbreaks but those aren’t sold for €65 from the used bike shop.) On the back there’s a luggage rack that I have bike bags on, and use said bike bags to carry back all my groceries/other shopping. I ride upright, which is very comfortable- it’s not a race to get somewhere, after all, no point in needing aerodynamics or getting gross and sweaty since you’re just wearing your normal clothes and going to work or the bar or whatever.
Higher-level Dutchness involves carrying people sitting sidesaddle on the luggage rack. I’m not quite up to that yet although I did get home a 3-foot-tall cat scratching post on one. Some people also have front racks. For kids, you can put on both front and back seats, and some bikes are designed to carry that better- I regularly see Dutch moms and dads carrying 2-3 children with them. There are also bakfiets, which are basically bikes with big wagons on front, which can carry a lot of children and groceries and the dog or whoever. (Speaking of dogs, sometimes you do see people walking dogs on bikes. Or dragging a wheeled suitcase behind them. The Dutch!)
Also, there’s tons of bike parking everywhere, although there never seems to be ENOUGH bike parking because everyone has a damn bike. I’m talking to you, Utrecht Centraal.
It helps that the country is flat and the cities are fairly tightly packed- they don’t sprawl like American ones. But still. It’s pretty nice!
When I was in Paris I used to sometimes cycle the boys I looked after to art classes with the little one in his seat on the front, the five year old on his seat on the luggage rack, and the eight year old cycling just in front of me the whole way. And THAT is something you could never do without alternative routes involving just cycle lanes/parks. It was amazing.
HIGHER LEVEL DUTCHNESS!!!
I now want to achieve Higher Level Dutchness. I’m not even at low level Dutchness right now.
**looking for jobs in Amsterdam**
I use the phrase “high-level Dutchness” to describe the things the Dutch do with their bikes a lot. My friends find it hilarious.
The UK has soy-sauce fishes too, they are great! I know someone who made earrings out of them – chicest condiments ever.
Oh, can we also get a shout out to Canada and their milk bags? The concept totally blew my mind when I heard about it; I still can’t believe it’s not more widespread.
Milk bags are SO UNWIELDY. I know some people love them but after living in Quebec for three years and flopping milk onto the floor all the time, I’m putting that firmly in the “U-S-A!” column.
Milk bags are the best!! Some people who didn’t grow up with them need practice cutting the proper size hole and pouring in a straight line. But yes. Milk bags! They store so nicely in your fridge and they have such little waste! Plus a 4-litre bag of milk is half the price of two 2L cartons but the individual bags are smaller so you’re not hauling a whole 2L of milk up over your coffee cup to pour. <3!
I grew up in upstate New York and distinctly remember getting little baggies of milk (instead of cartons) at my school lunches. Stabbing them with a straw was very satisfying, but also typically a mess, because children.
They brought in the milk bags in Sainsburys in the UK recently! They’re so handy.
I saw that on the wikipedia link – now I MUST FIND THEM. (Hilariously, you seem to be able to get the bags through online shop, but no jugs!)
I’d never heard of milk bags until now! They sound pretty difficult.
Also, “milk bags” sounds like a euphemism for “boobs.”
Milk bags aren’t even widespread in Canada. I’ve had quite a few Albertans look at me like I had 2 heads when I mentioned them. Love and miss you, milk bags.
Yeah, milk bags are an eastern Canada phenomenon. You can find them as far west as northern Manitoba, but they’re rare in the southern parts of the province and even NW Ontario. I’m a Winnipegger and we don’t have them here.
We occasionally got milk in a bag when I was younger from Kwik Trip and I remembered hating it. I’m trying to figure out if it is because I was a child and things presented in different ways to children are often met with resistance or if it is because the “boutique” dairy was actually disgusting.
In India McDonald’s has Masala Fries, and you get a little spice packet and put that and the fries in a bag and shake shake shake and then you have spicy fries.
Okay, that is brilliant. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to get some little spice packets over here.
Does that have something to do with the fact that McDonalds uses (used) beef flavoring in their fries and got sued by observant Hindus awhile back and had to change their fry recipe in India?
It has more to do with garam masala being delicious.
Yeah! And of course there’s that.
In East Jerusalem/Palestine, all medicine is available over the counter, occasionally including hashish. Good luck trying to explain a UTI in Arabic to a hundred year old man, though.
I’ve actually had to do that. Well, not in Arabic, but to an Israeli. And then at the end he revealed he knew English the whole time. I was charmed.
Not sure if this is a “little thing” or not, but it wasn’t until I spent five months in Europe that I realized that rainbow-colored money is practical as well as pretty. Every euro bill is a different color based on its denomination, and the colors are easy to tell apart, and the more valuable bills are also physically larger. This all makes it very easy to tell what denomination of bills you have *without* pulling them out of your wallet, as opposed to the uniformly sized/green US bills, where you often have to pull the whole wad out and go through them looking for the bill you want.
Also, re: dollar bills vs. dollar coins. Dollar bills wear out very quickly because they circulate so much, which is why most countries have their rough-dollar-equivalent denomination in much more durable coin form, as this saves on manufacturing costs (and also makes vending machines easier to manufacture, as many don’t bother with bill readers). I get why Americans have resisted dollar coins despite the benefits and repeated gov’t attempts to make them happen, though, because coins are heavy and having up to $5 in coins in your pocket is annoying. Might I suggest that adding a $2 coin to the mix might ease this problem? The rough equivalent to such a denomination is also common in countries that have ditched their low-value bills.
As a Canadian, I have a heck of a time figuring out American money, because it all looks the same! I’ve been guilty of accidentally giving someone a $1 and thinking it was a $10. Also, who uses $1 bills anymore? Coins are where it’s at. Also more convenient for vending machines.
yep, Oz has different colored and sized notes, AND $1 and $2 coins. Also Oz money is plastic instead of paper/cotton and it can go through the washing machine 😉
Canada too! Very handy.
I was just in Canada and someone told me to make sure not to put the new plastic $20s/$50s thru the dryer or it’d melt. Not so?
I know the Canadian $50s/$100s melted in hot cars for a brief period a couple of summers ago, but they fixed that. So maybe they’re okay for the dryer, now, too… but I’m not going to be the one to try.
I’ve heard it shrinks in the dryer, but that might be a myth…
I believe it’s the armored car people who are resistant to dollar coins — heavier money, more gas, higher costs to them.
Also, believe it or not, the stripper lobby — Canadian strippers found their tips went down a lot when both the $1 and $2 ‘notes’ became coins, because people think harder before sticking a $5 in a g-string.
WHAT. American money is ALL green?! Mind blown.
Colored bills make so much more sense!
Switching from dollar bills to dollar coins and getting rid of the penny would save the government SO MUCH MONEY at a time when it’s really needed. I say fuck the whiny people who refuse to adapt. Your $2 coin is a good idea and would help the “heavy pocket” problem.
And you just reminded me that I had a dream last night where I opened my wallet and had dollar bills in weird denominations, like $7. What?
I was just wondering the other day why non-US money is all weird and big and small denominations were heavy coins and stuff. This makes SO much sense, thank you! There are pros and cons to the different approaches. I know that paper money is a challenge for the vision impaired in the US, and different sized bills would help, but would cost more to create. brb, going to see if there’s been any moves to incorporate sizes or color in US bills…
In Japan there are little divots on the corners of bills so that vision impaired people can tell the denominations.
I think there’s little impetus to change it in the US because we’re moving away from tangible money. (And hey, that’s a conversation for another day.) I carry all my money in the form of four plastic cards. What are these “coins” and “paper” you speak of?
That’s true, the US is probably the least cash society.
In Quebec, I never had trouble finding wine in liter format, which is the perfect amount for three people. More liter bottles of wine please!
The British are very, very proud of their electrical plugs, which have apparently won awards for their safety and durability (I personally think they’re a little unwieldy, especially for portable electronic devices which may be smaller than their plugs). One nice feature is that they all have easily removable fuses built in and the prongs are impossible to bend.
On the subject of British electricity, in the UK and indeed most of Europe/RoW most newer electrical sockets have small switches on them so you can turn off power to the ones you’re not using. Also makes it easy to stop the drain from your turned-off electronics, if you’re so inclined.
Electric teakettles! Useful for so much more than just tea.
Maybe this is cultural more than practical, but in the UK when you borrow money from someone, they will usually just text you their account number the next day and you send the money back electronically. Or you can just pop around to the bank and deposit it right in their account. (I feel like if you asked an American for his or her account number after borrowing $20 you might get punched)
YES, I was flabbergasted in Germany at how much people used bank transfers for person-to-person monetary interactions. I think part of it is that paper checks have been almost completely phased out. Our landlady just gave us her bank account number and we took cash to her bank or to the post office, filled out a completely standardized form w/her number in it, and it was wired right into her account. The same was true for any and all bills we received, which prominently included the bank account number we were supposed to pay into.
in japan, in order to pay my rent, I used to go round to my landlady’s bank (round the corner from the house) with the cash and a “paying-in card” that had all her and my details on it (that i’d registered the first time i did the rent), so i didn’t even have to fill in a form!
Yup. Checks are unheard of here. Only annoying thing is you have to pay the bank transfer fee, so it sucks to pay like $5 if you’re just sending someone $20. Also banks in Japan are pretty freaking inconvenient otherwise.
In New Zealand this is also common, except you don’t need to go to the physical bank to transfer the money, you just do it online & it goes through pretty much instantaneously. My bank has an app for smartphones/notebooks too. It is wonderful.
I think it might be because banking is set up differently. Not an expert though, but I don’t think you can take money from an account in the UK if all you have is the account number.
Because we usually have a debit card attached directly to an account, you’d need a debit card number to steal money from someone. Though, this is half-remembered from an extremely simplified thing my bank manager told me 7 years ago. Maybe a brit who works in banks could confirm or deny?
In Holland knowing the bank account number is only useful to pay someone- there’s a bigger process to use an account (PIN number, a little calculator thing with codes).
Yes, we have pins too. I THINK (but couldn’t swear to this) that you can only use the account number and sort code to send someone money. You couldn’t just… put it in and take money from their account. You would need their debit number for that (the number on their debit card and cheques) plus usually a lot of other info like the answers to their security questions.
It is, obviously, still possible to find shortcuts, like hacking someones paypal which HAS all that info already stored.
I don’t work in a bank but you need someone’s account number and sort code to transfer money to their account, and getting money out is harder. The easiest thing is having a card/PIN linked with the account, or an online account/password/PIN (and sometimes you have to use the code-generator thingie with your card).
You could probably go into a bank with the account number and sort code and get money out but you’d need ID to prove it was your account, so yeah. Pretty hard to withdraw funds with just the AN/SC.
Oh yeah! The bank transfer thing is a big thing in the Netherlands too. The Dutch don’t really believe in credit cards – I had to go through a whole thing just to get a Mastercard debit thing I could use to like, pay for Easyjet – so absolutely everything is done by bank transfer. Buying concert tickets. Takeout. Sending your friend a few euros to pay for your half of the delivery. Everything! It’s kind of neat but kind of odd.
electric teakettles are the best! we definitely have them in America (I’d be lost without mine) but they’re nowhere near universal.
I think PayPal has made the idea of person to person transfers more common in the US. That and on-line only banks, and mobile banking apps.
But I think we are skipping the “walk around the corner to the bank” part of this process, and skipping straight to “put the money in the account online” part.
Maybe the wire to the bank part of the deal wasn’t feasible because we don’t have that “bank branch every block and three free ATMs on every block” thing going on. At least where I live, most people go places that have drive-through facilities.
WHICH REMINDS ME: ATMs everywhere, with minimal or no charge, so you can be a broke student and withdraw 5GBP and not waste all the money on charges AND not spend all the money because you have 50GBP burning a hole in your pocket.
Electronic banking is the best. I have no idea how to write a check and the one time I was employed via the Internet by an American website who sent me a check, it took me a lot of time to get my money. The check was sent here, then I went to my bank who proceeded to check it and send it back to the US. Took me three weeks to get my money whereas a bank transfer takes five minutes.
CANADA HAS GOTTEN RID OF THE PENNY. We should learn from them.
I have been so sad this week because I want a snack from the vending machine, but all I have are pennies. What is the point??
I just mentioned this upthread but didn’t know Canada got rid of it. WE NEED TO DO THIS, AMERICA. Why are we always the late adopters of all the smart things these days?
Because it’s the American way.
But it used to not be that way! America used to be pioneers of ideas and technology. Not that I think we should be number one at everything, because that just breeds a country full of arrogant pricks (and we have enough of those as it is). But we’re falling behind. We coulda been a contender. We coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what we are, let’s face it.
The UK has a lot of beaches and nearly all of them are open to the public all year round. As a result, if you want to go to the beach in summer you can easily do so and avoid the crowds as long as you avoid the most famous ones.
(It is my understanding that in the US particularly there are far more private beaches and far fewer public ones)
(If you;re every in Norfolk, try Cley! Pebble beach, lovely sea, you can buy samphire at the right time of year, and you will often see seals)
Also free museums! So many museums you can get into for a donation, instead of mandatory fees! It’s great and encourages people to just wander in for a bit/come back multiple times, which is lovely.
I LOVE that about the U.K. All the museums were so great and so free!
Pretty much most of our museums are free and those that aren’t charge fairly reasonable costs. Entry to our historic buildings is often free, but depends on who owns them. But if you see a nice, ruined castle on the horizon? Chances are you can wander around it for nothing or very little (though they’d probably appreciate it if you bought something from the gift shop or donated something)
I work in a small art museum in FL & we would LOVE to be able to have free/donation only admission, but there isn’t enough government support in the way of grants or whatever, and private grants aren’t enough to cover costs of the one or two days per week we’re open for free. 🙁 As it is, admissions revenue doesn’t even pay for the front desk/ticketing receptionists’ wages, because we try to keep it low enough to not feel like a blow to the wallet.
SUPER jealous of places where they can do it. I hate when people can’t come in because they don’t have enough in the monthly budget.
Private beaches, wtf? It’s ridiculous.
I mean I can see MAYBE a private road down to the beach and a particular, isolated, cut-off and inaccessible bay being owned by an individual, but the beaches themselves are very much public property.
I’m not familiar with the rest of the country, but private beaches are illegal in Florida.
There are some private beaches in the US, but they are far far far less common than public beaches.
I live in Oregon, where the beaches are a “public highway.” It dates back to the days before actual highways, when if you wanted to travel down the coast you had your choice of driving in densely wooded cliffsides or sand. Sand won. 🙂 The beauty of that now is that all of the wet sand part of the beach is state land, and all the dry sand up to vegetation is government easement, regardless of the underlying property ownership. Oregon law is INTERESTING!
Italy does bars better, period. The standard “bar” serves alcohol, coffee, espresso, and a huge variety of different sweets and also sometimes appetizer-esque food. Because what do I want after a couple drinks? I want a selection of various small fruit-and-cream pastry treats. I really honestly do.
Unf. Gimme.
One of the things I miss most about Italy is the ability to stop in any corner shop and point at a panini and eat that for lunch, at a not ridiculous cost. And it was always delicious, of course.
Dutch cafes, too! A beer, a coffee, a soda, usually some bitterballen or an appeltaart or something…I like the beer-or-coffee thing at bars here. No one thinks it’s weird if you have a coffee while your friend has a beer.
God yes. It’s the stupidest thing that American bars don’t have hot decaf coffee for everyone to chill out on at midnight. I’d pay just as much for that as for a fifth beer.
I always want something salty and/or greasy, but I’m not a big fan of sweets in general. Give me chicken wings or give me death! But preferably chicken wings. And another pitcher of beer.
I really enjoyed the euro style public transportation system wheree there are just random ticket checks on the trains — you don’t have to go through turnstiles or swipe a metrocard or whatever.
I remember this causing problems in San Francisco though. It created perverse incentives where many people who would have obeyed the law decided to fare-jump; it was the Napster of transportation. The bus drivers were lazy about enforcing it. Friends of mine would complain about getting caught without a ticket, as if the cops had been cruel to expect them to actually pay for the bus.
When I left, they were several years into failing to implement RFID passes for easy no-contact card swiping.
Japan does a lot of things awesomely.
Namely, everything to do with convenience stores:
-they are always open, you are never more than 20 minutes away from one
-you can pay all of your bills at them
-you can have packages delivered to the nearest one to your apartment and pick it up there so you dont have to worry about missing the delivery man
-you can pay cash on delivery for said convenience store packages
-most of them have actually pretty good food
-like fried scallops at Lawsons this spring
-seriously
-instead of getting IDd for booze you just press a button saying that you are legal
-they also have those little condiment packets and the soysauce fish
I’ll stop now and say there is ONE THING that I would trade ALL OF THIS for
-No convenience stores in Japan are gas stations, and almost no gas stations (at least where i live) are open past 9pm, this is sometimes the worst thing.
Now THAT is a CONVENIENCE store.
NAILED IT!
Food! The Uk has:
Over 600 different kinds of regional cheeses. Some of thses are very interesting. CHeck out the delis and farmers markets wherever you go. (at the last one I sambles a soft cheese made with lavender and it was glorious)
A long and proud tradition of real ale. When going to a british pub, keep an eye on what’s on special – it may be a real ale from a local small company. You will never get to try them all.
– Every region ahs their own specialist meats, and rare-breed meat to try. In Norfolk, you can get some of the best turkey and pork.
Other local delicacies: Incomprehensible, rarely served Samphire, a kind of marsh weed, can be found for around three months every year in norfolk and suffolk and eating it is like eating the sea itself,
Samphire. Let’s just talk about samphire, and how beautiful and perfect and salty it is. And so simple! Bowl of raw samphire. Boiling water poured over. When the water’s cool enough to touch, the samphire is done. Two chopped red chillies. NNNGG.
I am so sad that it’s out of season it almost takes away my joy that mussels will be back next month.
I always like the simple way of serving it with fresh lemon juice and butter. With fish, obvs.
So good, and best bought in big bunches from little side-of-the-road stalls near the coast and eaten that day.
Oh, Samphire.
But yes! Next month, mussels! And if you’re into game birds, pheasant season starts soon.
Grouse season started on Monday (Glorious Twelfth!), pheasants soon, mussels soon, huitres soon, apples everywhere, oh I love it I love it I JUST LOVE FOOD. and autumn. Summer is rubbish- give me a good Harvest Festival and the fields being ploughed up.
The UK also gets props for: an excellent assortment of weird/delicious potato chips/crisps, Cornish pasties, sandwiches EVERYWHERE and most are delicious and reasonably priced, and most importantly of all YOU CAN GET A DECENT CUP OF TEA AT A CAFE (not at every cafe, obviously, but your odds of finding a good cuppa out and about are far higher than they are in the US).
Also, on the subject of British cafes – I spent a lot of time as a kid in England and Ireland visiting family and I loved how every department store had a cafe. It just seemed so civilized, so smart. Do some shopping, have a break for a snack, do more shopping. Obviously that’s kind of what a food court at the mall does, but the store cafes felt fancier to me. Is that still a thing, department store cafes?
Oh, and on the subject of department stores: MARKS AND SPENCER. MAN do I wish they’d expand across the Atlantic.
CRISPS.
Whenever I go to the UK I am in crisps heaven. So many flavors! (flavours?) I’m still a sucker for prawn cocktail and smuggle oodles of bags back home with me.
We really do do crisps/chips very oddly. Chicken tikka crisps, Thai Chilli crisps, Pickled Onion Monster Munch, NikNaks, Wotsits…
And M&S for life.
it’s funny, though, because there’s been a massive rise in real ale sales and availability just in the past five years in the UK – even in places like norfolk with a strong real ale tradition, the dominance of big lager and major breweries since the 80s/90s had seemed very set. Whereas now you get some quite complicated beers on guest pumps, and a plethora of new local breweries, and medium-sized local breweries like adnams doing small-batch production of very interesting hoppy stuff, and a lot of that’s been in echo of the US’ craft beer movement.
Like, real ale’s a long and storied British tradition but I really think we have the US to thank for the current renaissance – ten years ago i’d regularly find myself in pubs with only one cask beer, poorly kept with dirty pipes. (and now one finds several on— and they’re all light beers that have been hopped to buggery in the american style).
Norfolk Black bacon, mmm.
Yes yes yes! It makes me so mad when people assume British food is bland and starchy and unpleasant. We can do more than just over-boil vegetables!
So many places in East Asia are, like, lightyears ahead of the U.S. on so many levels BUT I think one of my favorites is elevators in South Korea – if you press the wrong button, you can just press it agan and it won’t stop at that floor. I have yet to see that in the U.S.
I was just thinking yesterday that this would be a great feature to have!
One advantage East Asia and other recently developed countries have is that all their infrastructure is brand new. You don’t find a lot of 80-year-old elevators in Seoul skyscrapers so modern technology/design is much more common.
Oh and another South Korea one (and perhaps other places in the region) is that when you order takeout, instead of bringing it in styrofoam that is going to go to waste, they often bring it in metal bowls and with metal chopsticks. When you’re done, you leave it outside your door, and the delivery person comes back later in the day to collect it.
Does it discourage people from mashing the button aggressively?
Yes! Exactly. Unless you’re egging someone on to just aggressively mash it right back.
My workplace has elevators like that! (I’m in California.) I think it might be one of the reasons I chose to work here.
Sitting over here doing my “I love South Korea” dance: biometric dormitory keys and universal scan cards for paying fares on subways, buses, AND taxis. None of that scrambling in your wallet for the right bill combo (cough especially while intoxicated cough). Also, the Gwangjung market in Seoul sells enormous dumplings the size of grapefruit and THEY ARE DELICIOUS.
Yes, I want my T-Money card back! The one in Hong Kong is great, too, the Octopus card. You just put money on and can use it not only on all transportation but also convenience stores, some restaurants, etc.
“universal scan cards for paying fares on subways, buses, AND taxis”
That’s amazing! Like an even better Oyster card. Transport can be one of the only things that needs change these days, it’s such a pain because I’m just used to all shops taking cards.
Yes! When I was in South Korea 8 years ago, my cousin would just pass her wallet or purse over the scanners while walking, and I would look at her wide-eyed and think what is this wizardy. It’s SO quick and efficient.
Also, I haven’t been to Spain but my understanding is that over there tapas are FREE apps handed out in bars to keep you drinking, rather than overpriced semi-entrees designed to pump up profits at “small plates” restaurants.
And maybe everyone else knew this but dim sum are supposed to be for breakfast/brunch?
Yes, and that’s only partly because the best dim sum is hungover dim sum. My god, the bao I have eaten.
Yeah I got schooled recently when I tried to order dumplings at dinner in Shanghai.
This is true for aperitif at a lot of places in Italy, so probably the same for Spain.
At least in Barcelona, Bilbao and Madrid, no. You pay for the tapas, on a kind of semi-honor system. Everything has a toothpick in it, and when you pay you just get all your toothpicks counted up. Some places have different colored toothpicks for different prices, other places just have a set price for all toothpicks.
I’m going to be the downer who talks about something done far worse elsewhere. What is with the UK and not having a single tap to mix hot and cold water? Why must I either scald my hands under the hot tap or freeze under the cold? Maybe someone who was born there could explain this to me…
I am in the UK and I have one!
I think it’s only in older buildings. Probably dates to when hot running water was a new thing, and also maybe to help people control their gas usage. My middle-class English friends were also baffled by this “feature” in our house. (We also used to keep our hot water heater turned off unless someone needed a shower.)
Aren’t your water heaters usually in the bathroom, too? In the US we typically have tanks located outside, in a closet or under a kitchen counter. Tankless heaters are probably only used in 15% of buildings, mainly new construction.
http://www.heinzketchup.com/dip-and-squeeze/locat…
Heinz also has the condiment game down, I just haven’t seen these anywhere.
They’re great! Chick-fil-A has them, but I don’t eat there anymore so I don’t get to enjoy them.
One of the benefits of living in Heinzburgh is that these are everywhere. You can even buy a box at the grocery to use at home.
How about digital displays with the exact time the next bus(es) will be arriving at EVERY SINGLE LAST BUS STOP in Île-de-France region?
My wife adds “having bakeries everywhere” but that’s a little too cliche perhaps?
Unpasteurized cheese.
I’d just settle for buses that arrived at a time vaguely resembling the schedule, rather than at random.
I remember that bus stops in Stockholm even had those displays in the late 20th century, long before Paris.
And while I’m at it, another cool Swedish thing: you can return library books at ANY library within the same system.
The library thing is widespread in the US too! Check with your library next time you go–if they don’t already do it, nag them about it.
Portland, Oregon does this.
Ooh what about countries that don’t have insane and prudish liquor laws? Like just buy & drink whatever booze you want wherever you want at whatever time you want, without ID.
That’s pretty much France.
I get ID’d buying wine at the grocery store here sometimes which is hilarious because to buy wine you have to be 16 and I’m 28.
Things done better by almost all 1st world countries than the US: healthcare, vacation, transit, education, public assistance, law enforcement.
Germany does recycling well. Every bin has multiple holes for the different materials, and it’s just taken for granted that you will recycle. My friends live in a block which has its own generator and biofuel unit attached, so everyone puts their waste in and then the whole block can go off the grid and even sell electricity back to the grid if need be. It might also have a grey water system but I’m not sure. These systems aren’t even uncommon. It just takes a degree of trust in your neighbours.
In Estonia, you don’t need to fill out any paperwork for doing your taxes. You just log in with your government-issued ID-card, check the data all your employers have sent over to the system, check the appointed slot and voila! In three weeks you’re a whole lot richer. I’m obviously no expert in taxation but I always find it puzzling how much time and effort the Americans seem to spend on doing their taxes (my experience being limited to movies/TV/the Internet).
yeah, people with salaried jobs in the US seem to spend the kind of time on their taxes I’ve only associated with freelancers in Europe — the odd thing is, they use Pay As You Earn in the US too? But somehow it ends up being more approximate and needing to be double-checked.
Kinda like the French system, then. You also log in, check the info your employers have sent the government, and click OK. Boom – the year’s taxes, done in 2 minutes.
Same in Japan – most people don’t have to do taxes – they just calculate the correct amount to come out of your check, there are no forms to fill out. At least for full time workers.
Germany does recycling really well, and makes composting easily available alongside the rrash and recycling bins behind apartments. Although as a kid I loathed takin trash to the bio bin because the inside was always covered in maggots.
Germany also does pedestrian areas really well, like the Zeil. I also love how the sales assistants don’t harass you the moment you enter a shop and you’re not expected to smile at everyone on the street.
I also love how in Bangkok to ride the bts (an above ground subway) you could get a plastic card that you put money on and refill whenever and just tap to go in. I know DC has that too but most cities in the US that Ive visited had flimsy paper cards.
UK: Towel warmers, which sound like a luxury but are amazing in frosty weather.
Also, when I was in Scotland, I experienced a very convenient bathroom arrangement. Instead of having one room with everything in it, there were two smaller rooms. One had the shower/bath and a sink and the other had a toilet and sink. This makes so much sense! No more being forced to wait to use the toilet because someone is taking a bath.
Mobile phones were much more convenient in Europe. You don’t have to get locked into contracts if you want a mobile and you could easily top up your phone at convenience stores and newsstands.
The two separate bathrooms are very common in Estonia, especially in older buildings and you’re right, it’s very comfortable when you have to share. Newer buildings – post-Soviet times – tend to have one big bathroom, though. Don’t know what the deal is in Scotland but maybe it was also an older building?
The little room for just the toilet is becoming a more common feature in US new construction. I will admit that hubby and I call them pooping nooks.
I’m from Vancouver BC and the house I grew up in had this (built in the 1920s) as well as other older houses I’ve been in. I don’t know why this style went away— so handy when someone is having a bath or shower and you have to pee.
In Scotland, every hole-in-the-wall crap pub will sell you a steaming-hot baked potato, wrapped in foil, with your choice of sauce/topping poured over it (from a list; different pubs have different lists, but almost all of them have at least a curry and a cheese-and-bacon option). SO GOOD! And if you’re wandering about in the no-man’s-land between 12:30 and 4PM, when no restaurants are open at all, you can still not die of starvation.
Also one pub we went into on the Royal Mile had a bookshelf older than MY COUNTRY, just sitting there by my elbow with take-a-book,-leave-a-book books on it. Jawdrop. (there was a plaque on it commemorating its gift by whoever, in 1762, to replace one destroyed in a barfight)
Hot baked potatoes sound like the BEST bar/drankin food ever.
“Little Fish” is the name of a brilliant movie starring Cate Blanchett as a recovering heroin addict – the title of the film comes from the fact that soy sauce fish are used to package heroin. Sad!
In addition to condiments, efficient money, electric teakettles and several other things mentioned here, Australia also has flaps on pillowcases to keep the pillow from coming out. And, the locks on public toilet doors show vacant or engaged, depending on whether they’re locked.
OTHER PLACES DO NOT HAVE THESE THINGS?! That’s barbaric!
They… do!
When I was in Northern Thailand you could buy a miniature pineapple cut into quarters, so that each quarter could be eaten like an apple slice. The best!
That is brilliant.
I know that Germany boasts about not having nuclear reactors, but don't they just import power from countries with reactors, like France?
Also love the juice/bubble tea stands everywhere, at least in the big cities!
It has more to do with garam masala being delicious.