Our First Place

For our first month in California were we given a furnished apartment while we sorted out a place of our own. It was great to have a whole month to do this however with Hugo’s imminent trip to China and mine to the UK a little later we actually only had one week with us both in the country to find somewhere to live. Our relocation consultants’ first available slot was on the 26th October but given that we had to vacate on the 28th October we declined this kind offer and started ploughing through a list of possibles ourselves as soon as we arrived.

In the meantime the furnished apartment did give me an insight into Californian culture. The kitchen was fully equipped including a fancy electric tin opener but amazingly (to me anyway) with no kettle!

Now I like to think of myself as a moderately practical kinda girl but I don’t think I am particularly unique in having the ability to operate a manual tin opener. Boiling water in my hands however is definitely a step beyond me. There was one of those coffee filter things you find in diners but this is no good for tea. So we boiled water in pan (of which just 2 pretty old ones were provided) hastily washed between meals to remove any traces of bolognese sauce until we had a chance to buy our own kettle. Lovely.

This leads me to believe that people here don’t really cook very much. This view is strengthened by the position of the microwave and the lack of development in the ergonomics of the American cooker. In most of the kitchens I’ve seen so far a huge microwave is situated directly above the cooker where the fan should be. Some cookers even have the microwave built in, dominating the cooker and just about allowing a pan to squeeze onto the ring. There is absolutely no way you can stop the inevitable steam and splashes which you will have if you actually use you kitchen to cook rather than simply reheat food. If we saw an apartment which included the words “European Style kitchen” it always got a second look.

I can understand why reheating food is so popular though. We went out for a curry to a restaurant we hadn’t been to before and despite not falling for the usual error of ordering a starter (Huh! We're not amateurs!), we were both fit to burst after barely impacting on our meal. Taking the rest to go is positively encouraged and seems to be the standard reply to asking for the bill. The remainder lasted us 2 more days! It would have been longer but couldn’t take the same meal 4 days in a row and so reluctantly I threw the remainder away.

Now this throws up another cultural (age) difference. I find throwing away a perfectly good meal really difficult. Maybe it's being brought up by parents who really did have a very limited diet both during and after WW2, but to leave anything on your plate just seems wrong. Of course there are many cultures where not leaving a small amount of food on your plate is a sign that you feel your host has failed to provide enough sustenance, however I think having to leave 75% of the food is probably a little more than is strictly necessary to show you've had a good meal.

Still, it gives us an excuse to eat out lot more under the guise of investigating which restaurants to find those which serve a sensible amount of good quality food rather than vast amounts of cheap food.