> If you’re an American eating at a restaurant in Europe and you order a glass of water, you may be surprised — and disappointed — to receive a glass of lukewarm water, or, even worse, a room temperature bottle of water.
As a European I would be surprised and disappointed to receive a glass of lukewarm water or a room temperature bottle.
The only time I can forgive it is if I’m at a cafe with a self serve water station. But that is only because water usually cost money, and when an establishment is kind enough to offer it for free, then beggars can’t be choosers.
Europe is a big place with very different restaurant cultures, but Paying for water is very common. Even places were water is “free”, you might be charged for the service of having a glass of water.
Water prices at restaurants can be surprisingly opaque. Like, you might get a glass of water free with a glass of wine, but not a glass of beer. And what about if you want a second glass of water with your glass of wine? Is that included in the wine price or is it full service charge?
It’s been a while since I’ve traveled Europe, but I’m pretty sure there are countries where water is always included.
A good reason to refuse ice cubes is hygiene: those things are health hazards on account of the icemakers rarely being defrosted and cleaned. It's licking public toilet seat level bad.
Oh well, I haven't got an upset stomach in the last few years so it can't be that bad :) And I take ice every day. Not making a habit out of kicking toilet seats though so I can't compare. Good for training the immune system.
Ps here in Barcelona 99% of the ice served comes in a big bag from a factory. You can tell because they're huge round cylinders with a hole in the middle.
Nobody makes their own ice here, neither at home nor restaurants and other hospitality locations. The only exception seems to be the fast food chains. I would assume that stuff is pretty clean as the factory specializes in it.
In the US just about every refrigerator sold now has an ice maker built-in. As someone who loves ice-cold beverages and crunching on ice cubes I’d have a hard time without it.
I have an ice maker and buy ice because refrigerator moon ice leaves a lot to be desired. Moon ice causes beverages to go flat much faster than single crystal ice. Moon ice is nicely chewable after half has melted.
There are two types of ice, directionally frozen and outsize in freezing. Outside in causes an ice shell to form and then water in the middle must freeze but there is nowhere for it to expand. This produces ice that has a cloudy center due to internal stress and the ice crackles.
Directionally frozen ice is a single crystal that always remains clear with a smooth surface. The smooth surface doesn’t provide a site for CO2 bubbles form, thus much better at retaining carbonation.
A lot of people think fountain soda tastes different from bottled soda poured into a glass of ice. The real difference is that home ice (either moon or tray ice) offers a completely different experience from single crystal ice from a commercial ice maker. It is the ice that is different, not the soda.
Moon ice is definitely the lowest rung of ice IMO.
Countertop pellet ice makers are available, and I’d absolutely love to get one but my wife has vetoed it - she jokes she’d have to leave me because of all the crunching.
I bought a countertop ice maker for my wife, because she is constantly running the fridge out, and she loves to chew ice. I made sure to get the type made for people who love to chew ice.
But it's upstairs, in the master bathroom. I won't have to listen to her chewing ice.
You know, my mom always told me that (crunching ice drove her crazy) but I figured it was an old wives’ tale. FWIW, my blood work has never shown any deficiency but interesting to know.
Here in Denmark, people are divided on the subject of beverage temperature, some prefer it ice-cold, others don't.
I'm firmly in the "don't care" group, unless I'm very thirsty, then I prefer less-cold (10-20 degrees) because it's more comfortable for me to chug than ice-cold.
I'm very much in the "don't care" group, I'll drink cola gone flat that's been sitting in my car in a hot summer day..
In my experience the more water someone drinks, the chance higher the chance they drink it at room temperature. It‘s just not comfortable to drink (very) cold water all day long.
I don’t think that’s it. It’s just what you’re used to.
Here in Mexico I have met many people who don’t like ice cold beverages, and I suspect the lack of ice culture stems from the lack of potable water lines in houses thus ice makers aren’t common. You just grow up drinking water from the lukewarm delivered water barrel.
Meanwhile I’m not sure I’ve met a single American who doesn’t like ice cold water (not to say you can’t find exceptional HNers). I think we’re just used to it.
> If you’re an American eating at a restaurant in Europe and you order a glass of water, you may be surprised — and disappointed — to receive a glass of lukewarm water, or, even worse, a room temperature bottle of water.
A glass of ice water, though customary in the United States, is seen as strange and unnecessary elsewhere.
As a European, what? This sounds like it’s written by an American who has never been to Europe or only been there once and ate at some roach motel restaurant. You always get water, sparkling or still, with ice in it.
I’ve been in a lot of places in Europe but have never gotten ice in my water. Sometimes a bottle that’s in a container with ice to stay cool while it’s on the table.
There will often be ice in soda though, which is something I’ve never understood as it dilutes the drink.
Cold water cuts down on the aromatics hitting your nose. Our water usually tastes pretty awful, or it's chlorinated. Making it cold masks those scents.
Americans also have a weird thing about ice in hotels/motels. I've also heard they fill urinals with ice? But pretty sure that can't be true, that's just too strange and wasteful.
> I've also heard they fill urinals with ice? But pretty sure that can't be true, that's just too strange and wasteful.
It IS true, but only really occurs in a specific context: old buildings with large icemaking capacity and trough-style urinals that are only plumbed into the sewer (i.e. no water flush capability.)
It's basically optimization for a very specific local minima of "I have to run my icemaker anyway, which always has a surplus of ice at the beginning of the day, and it would cost $XXXXX to change my urinals because it would require me to bring the toilets up to code - and my customers are going to complain about losing the atmosphere..."'
Admittedly, I've also occasionally seen this in places trying to fake an "old roadhouse" vibe, but those places don't tend to last. Not because they're bankrupted by the cost of ice, but because of a deeper inherent wackness.
They do this often at things like sporting events, concerts, bars and stadiims where you can't count on the beer drinking masses to flush the urinals and keep things decent. Putting ice in the urinals or pee troughs that older stadoums and bars have makes it so the urinal is "self flushing"
Also there are tiers of ice and if you've never consciously paid attention to the fact that restaurant ice is so much better than your freezer it's because they use a different process making it, it's called "nugget ice" and you can just buy one of the machines that makes it. I feel like it's weird saying it was a noticeable quality of life improvement but it really was. I munch on ice constantly now.
Do be prepared for the sticker shock, it comes in at "major appliance" prices because ... well it is.
Do we actually love ice water or is ice water just the default at restaurants? I only put ice in water when the weather is unbearably hot or a specific drink calls for it.
I forget who said this recently, but: New York is at the same latitude as Barcelona.
If you live, say, anywhere north of the Alps, your summers are much milder than the vast majority of the US. It's essentially the same story with air conditioning.
I’m convinced culture has at least a small effect. For example, Seattle is notoriously un-air conditioned, but when it gets too hot everyone still complains about the heat and laments their situation.
So why doesn’t anyone get central air conditioning? Because nobody else has it.
No, it’s because historically, Seattle only gets a handful of days over 90. Otherwise, installing central A/C is too expensive to be worth it.
Recently however I’ve discovered that heat pump mini splits can be had for about the same price as a window unit and have installed 2 in my home in the past year.
As a European I would be surprised and disappointed to receive a glass of lukewarm water or a room temperature bottle.
The only time I can forgive it is if I’m at a cafe with a self serve water station. But that is only because water usually cost money, and when an establishment is kind enough to offer it for free, then beggars can’t be choosers.