Global Wild Card Tag

[RAGBrian]

Grabbed!



Missouri Region Offices. Close to my home and on my way for today's errands (on the bike, of course!)


New Tag:



A shop that caters to vacuum cleaners.

Had to stop here and pick up some needed bags.

[Finally]

Unable to get new tag so I''ll retract grab. Please continue...

[eepeqez]

A new post to bump the thread back into people's unread threads in case theymissed that we're still looking for a vacuum cleaner salesman or something.

8-)

[AllBlackPearl]

Originally Posted by eepeqez

A new post to bump the thread back into people's unread threads in case theymissed that we're still looking for a vacuum cleaner salesman or something.

8-)

Thanks! I DID miss that...
Anyway, I'll first get new tyres tomorrow! Yay.

[California]

GRAB! a "Vacuum" place





And the new tag is;

A market, or grocery store proclaiming a specific nationality or ethnicity on their sign, like this..

[eepeqez]

Originally Posted by California

And the new tag is; A market, or grocery store proclaiming a specific nationality or ethnicity on their sign, like this.

OK, this is probably the closest equivalent to your Italian market around here; run by Italians, unambiguously Italian and European in style, they have brilliant pork and fennel sausages, European chocolate biscuits, plantains (cooking bananas), a wide selection of cheese and salami...:





But I confess, the term "Continental Deli(catessan)" is the closest they come to declaring a nationality or ethnicity. Italians are simply so mainstream here that, well, why would you make a fuss?

So, moving right along, here's somewhere that does declare its nationality or ethnicity:





Japanese/Korean is relatively unusual here, but across the road was a generic Asian grocers and they're basically everywhere. In fact a Singaporean friend once told me how he'd had to tell his mother to stop sending him stuff because not only could he get everything he wanted here; he could get more variety; Vietnamese, Cambodian, Indonesian, Thai ingredients that were harder to find in Singapore. We reached a critical mass of Asian immigrants about 25 years ago; 12% of the Australian population now have Asian ancestry and they tend to cluster in Melbourne and Sydney.

Which reminds me of a little story...

When I lived in Cincinnati, after about a month or so I was getting rather homesick. Not so much for the wide open spaces of Australia, but the food. Cincinnati, for all that they claim to be "racially diverse", is basically 99% Americans; roughly half black and half white, with a tiny handful of (South Asian) Indians thrown in. Immigrants are few and far between.

Sure, I was developing a taste (which I still retain) for pork and corn, but I was seriously missing the familiar foods of home. Things like Singapore noodles, Vietnamese beef and lemon salad, Thai tom kha gai, and perhaps most of all, Malaysian beef Rendang. So I went looking for an "international grocer", something equivalent to the ubiquitous Asian groceries here.

Well, I found a scruffy looking place called "Colerain International Groceries", which has now gone. It was in a pretty dubious part of Cincinnati and looked pretty scruffy, but it turned out that "International" meant "Vietnamese and Mexican", a combination you'd never find in Australia!

Anyway, I was in heaven; I wandered around gathering up things my American girlfriend had never seen before, but of course I couldn't find the makings of a Malaysian beef Rendang (a rather special coconut curry, but not at all Vietnamese), so I took everything else up to the checkout and asked the elderly Asian woman behind the counter if they had any Rendang paste.

And she replied.
And several things went through my mind in rapid succession.

1. An Australian accent!!!
2. No silly, Vietnamese accents are the same everywhere!
3. She just said "I'm sorry I can't understand you"

So I turned to my girlfriend, assuming she'd understood what was going on, expecting her to repeat what I had just said in an American accent so the woman could understand.


Of course she just looked at me and said "don't look at me, I have no idea what she said"!


Three people, divided by a common language.

[eepeqez]

OK continuing the theme of ethnic diversity, the new tag is an ethnic restaurant or cafe, a place you can sit down and eat foreign food, prepared by people who really know what they are doing.

Not a generic noodle box shop run by caucasians and preferably not a dominant immigrant group in your area.

According to Wikipedia, about 0.5% of Australian residents (117,000 out of 23 million) are either American born or have American ancestry. American culture is very familiar via film and TV, but actual live Americans are quite rare here.



Misty's Diner is absolutely American. Not American like the local branch of Thank God It's Friday, run by locals; this is the real thing, run by Misty from Arizona.

And just to be absolutely clear, Outback Steakhouse will not cut it. When I went there, they didn't even spot my Australian accent!

[California]

Originally Posted by eepeqez

OK continuing the theme of ethnic diversity, the new tag is an ethnic restaurant or cafe, a place you can sit down and eat foreign food, prepared by people who really know what they are doing.

Not a generic noodle box shop run by caucasians and preferably not a dominant immigrant group in your area.

According to Wikipedia, about 0.5% of Australian residents (117,000 out of 23 million) are either American born or have American ancestry. American culture is very familiar via film and TV, but actual live Americans are quite rare here.



Misty's Diner is absolutely American. Not American like the local branch of Thank God It's Friday, run by locals; this is the real thing, run by Misty from Arizona.

And just to be absolutely clear, Outback Steakhouse will not cut it. When I went there, they didn't even spot my Australian accent!

Damn! I went to Misty's website and it seems pretty true to for, an American Bueger joint, but, I've got a question..

Are those price somewhat normal for Aus. or are they as friggin high as it seems to me, a simple, stupid Texan. With the exchange rate currently at 1.00Aus = 1.04US it seems to me that Misty's is pretty high priced?

[02TAC]

Grab

[02TAC]

Next, a place you can get WAFFLES! Must indicate waffles in the name or on the sign.

[eepeqez]

Originally Posted by California

Are those price somewhat normal for Aus. or are they as friggin high as it seems to me, a simple, stupid Texan. With the exchange rate currently at 1.00Aus = 1.04US it seems to me that Misty's is pretty high priced?

$16 for fish and chips or a burger on a plate with salad and chips for example is the sort of price you'd pay in a pub, the nearest equivalent to a diner here. At a fish and chip shop you'd be paying about $8 to $10 for fish and chips or a burger to take away.

[California]

GRAB! Waffle joint!



And the next tag is....

A Climbing, Rock Climbing, Rock Gym, like this...

[wb57]

Indoor rock climbing place.

[wb57]

A piano retailer.

[California]

Originally Posted by wb57

Indoor rock climbing place.

Is there such a thing as "horizontal" climbing? lol

TAG ON!