Sneering Their Way to Good Self-Esteem

Never mind the boozy mid-day meal on the way to being rude to co-workers, or the divinity of “slow food” argument (not the practice) which we're supposed to believe is a “movement”. Charles Bremner finds that they just KNOW what every last American is like. A ministry of Tourism brochure distributed to retaurants in time for the Rugby World Cup indicated that:

With all foreigners, French restaurateurs are advised to explain when a dish comes from offal or includes meat with blood still visible.  "Americans like their meat de-animalised," it says. "Its origin with a living animal must not be visible. Offal dishes, frogs' legs and snails disgust them.

As these dishes disgust most of the French, but that's beside the point. Pretending that their perpetually bland diets are noble and challenging, would they know what to do with a serving of Rocky Mountain Oysters? Methinks not.

Americans spend all day eating -- ingesting food on 20 different occasions -- and they are obsessed with not getting fat, the Ministry tells the restaurateurs.
But it advises them to forget their clichés about Americans being devoted to hamburgers and French fries. "American tourists in France come from a high social level and they like to visit and tour regions that are rich with history. They are very open and enthusiastic people who appreciate conviviality and personalised service."

Okay – got it! We'de like to hate the Americans we meet, but they aren't as bad as we hope, but take heart! The REAL ones are much, MUCH WORSE!