Pickles and pistachios

I was really surprised by a couple of Australian food habits.

The first thing was when I got a pickle from the PX and started eating it at work. They were all amazed by this -- first by the size, second by the way I could just *eat* it alone. I found out they don't typically like pickles, even on their hamburgers -- they prefer beets.

My boss, the one who used to live in the U.S., said yeah -- they don't even eat pickles with club sandwiches and "chips" (fries). I thought that was weird, especially since the malt vinegar thing is so big. What's the big difference between having malt vinegar with your fries versus a vinegar-y pickle?

The second thing was about opening pistachios. As I was eating some that my family had sent me, one of my office mates asked me what I do with the ones that are barely open.

In response, I handed him a half-shell from one I'd already eaten and told him to lever it open -- a simple little trick that my mom taught me when I was very little. My coworker had this look in his face that was priceless. Here he was, a 50 year-old guy, eating pistachios since forever, messing up his fingernails I don't know how many times, and this was something completely new.

I thought it might have just been him, but when I related the story to my boss, he said he didn't know that either -- that I had just revolutionized the way he'll eat pistachios for the rest of his life.

I was dumbfounded myself -- it was one of those things I thought everybody knew. I tell you what, though: it made me think my mom was a genius.