The One with the Thoughts of Frans

Fries Red White

I’ve been reading a lot of notalwaysright.com over the past few days. It reminded me of the following experience I had while working at a fast food restaurant when I was 17 years old. The conversation took place in German.


Me
How can I serve you?
Customer
I’ll have fries red white.
Me
Do you mean mayonnaise and ketchup, madam?
Customer
No, I mean those red and white condiments that people always have with fries. This looks sarcastic on paper, but trust me: it wasn’t.
Me
I’m sorry, we don’t have any white condiments other than mayonnaise. Could I get you mayonnaise and curry sauce, perhaps?
Customer
No, not mayonnaise and whatever else you said! Fries red white!

I figured I’d just take a gamble and I gave her fries with mayonnaise and ketchup.

Customer
There, was that so hard?

For the record, no other German customer has ever ordered their fries red, white or in any other color; all other Germans ordered fries with a condiment, such as mayonnaise or ketchup.

2 Comments

  1. Heh.
    Actually for some reason a lot of ppl do order “Pommes rot-weiß” if they want mayonnaise and ketchup. Maybe because it’s shorter? No clue. But normal ppl do know what the colour code stands for and would have simply answered your question with a “Yes”.

    April 21, 2010 @ 17:46Permalink
    Melantrys

  2. I assumed she wouldn’t have said it if it weren’t used at least somewhere in Germany. I do wonder about the ignorance though. This was a woman in her 30s or 40s.

    April 21, 2010 @ 21:50Permalink
    Frans

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