Would you like ketchup with that?

With David and the older kids visiting friends back home in the U.S., I decided that the girls needed a shopping trip at the mall. We stopped by the toy store which has an interesting set up. You go through the doors, but then need to go up an escalator or elevator to get to the actual store area. It is interesting because the escalator drops you off in the middle of the store. So, keep a good eye on your little ones because one minute they're walking around, looking at a toy and the next, they're falling down the escalator. In fact, you can easily do this yourself if you're distracted. It's one of those instances where you find yourself saying, "This would never be allowed in an American toy store! The lawsuits!" I lost track of Rebecca for a few seconds this morning and my heart was pounding in my chest until I found her.


There are lots of familiar toys at the store. Barbie, Legos, Playmobil (which is actually German), Dora, Littlest Pet Shop, just to name a few. I only saw one little box of Fisher-Price Little People toys, which you see all over stores in America.

For lunch, we ate at a fast food place called Chicken&Chips. That was probably the closest we were going to get to Chick-fil-A....ah.... ....Chick-fil-A......but I digress.

I placed my order for the regular chicken and chips (french fries) meal and then got distracted by Rebecca. The fellow (who spoke perfect English, of course) asked if we would like ketchup with it and without looking up, I answered, "Yes, please." Imagine my surprise when he handed me our order in a paper cone, fries on the bottom, chicken bites on top -- absolutely saturated in ketchup. Not the fries mind you, rather the chicken. Hmmm, I sort of lost my appetite. I couldn't even really wipe the ketchup off, it was soaked into the chicken. So I ate the fries, dipping them in the chicken. As I did so, I pondered the situation. Did he do that because we are American and everyone assumes Americans put loads of ketchup on everything? Or would he have done the same thing to a German customer?

Our friends, the Aubers, spent three years in Germany years ago and told us a story about how they were invited to dinner at a German friend's house. The wife made a delicious roast beef and plunked a big bottle of ketchup on the table at the beginning of the meal. After they finished, Jim and Valerie couldn't resist but ask, "That was delicious, but what was the ketchup for?" Their hosts replied, "We thought American put ketchup on everything!" Jim replied, "Well, not everything."