GRGR(6): English Candy & American Root Beer

[Lorentzen / Nicklaus]

 On the English Candy Drill (p. 116ff.):

 
 Some English Candy might taste strange. But Fisherman's Friends don't belong to 
 it. The best thing to eat after smoking. Especially bongsmoking.
 This English  Candy Drill episode, in its 'oversea culinaric idiosyncrasy', 
 always reminds me of my first taste of American Root Beer. Northern  
 California, summer 1980. The  other kids were buying it in the supermarket.  
 Wanted to get Coca-Cola, but then I changed my mind. Why not something new?  
 Jesus, it was hard... All the others were drinking it & pretending that   
 everything was alright. But it wasn't! This melted toothpaste with synthetic   
 imitations of herbs is the most terrible thing I ever tasted: Felt so sick &   
 dizzy! But in Rome you gotta do what the Roman man does. So I finished my can  
 bravely. You know, I have eaten really strange things in Spain, - but nothing  
 in my whole culinaric experience is comparable to that American Root Beer  
 Drill. In a letter home I wrote: "The Americans are kind of weird when it comes 
 to the way things taste, Mom. They aren't like us. It might be the climate. 
 They go for things we would never dream of. Sometimes it's enough to turn your 
 stomach, boy". Years later I tried to try it again but couldn't get beyond the 
 first sip. I guess, to enjoy it you have to be socialized in an US-American 
 cultural context.
  
                      Prost! Kai ///::: PS: Egg Cream is terrible too!