This might be a regional variation. Around here, diners and other casual restaurants will typically give you little vials of half-and-half, a mixture of cream and milk, or will give you milk if you ask for it. Slightly fancier restaurants will give you a small pitcher of cream or milk.
The powdered non-dairy creamer (what I assume you’re talking about) is rarely used in homes or restaurants here — but it is common in offices, where you don’t have to worry about it spoiling.
Of course in our office, people put milk and other things in the fridge and don’t worry about them spoiling either. They just forget about them entirely.
So the waitress asked, ‘Cream in your coffee?’
I said, ‘Not lately!’
Most places I’ve been to have little single-serving plastic cups of shelf-stable half-and-half at the tables. It used to be that there would be a miniature (say, three or four inches tall) steel pitcher (creamer) containing milk at the tables. There have been a few times, when I wanted milk in my tea or coffee, that I discovered too late that the milk had gone off. I assume that the shelf-stable product makes more business sense because it doesn’t spoil like milk, the staff don’t have to ensure that the milk in the creamers is fresh and they don’t have to spend time filling them, and they no longer have to wash the creamers. It’s better to spend a dime on a container of the shelf-stable stuff than to have annoyed customers and to pay the staff for extra work.
BTW I’d still llike to have a creamer in the shape of a puking cat.
The Fowler also hosts some nice pieces; currently there is a world arts exhibit hosting some positively gorgeous Olmec jades. Also, Royce Hall is a phenomenal concert venue. I had the privilege of seeing Diamanda Galas there during Fall Quarter. Positively stunning.
And if you’re a bibliophile, it’s fun to go to the YRL and go apeshit. Although since I have to do actual work there now, it’s not so fun as it was when I was a JC student with lending privileges.
The occasional movie or TV star wanders onto campus if you’re into that sort of thing. My husband works out on campus and played a round of basketball with Adam Sandler, which made for an amusing tale. We’re more known for the quality of our life science professors, though.
I don’t know that I’d recommend a trip to UCLA for an out-of-country visitor with limited time in LA, but it’s nice there. And I’d be more than happy to give a Doper an informal tour.
In any case, I’m glad you had a good DLand trip, Martini Enfield. Although that’s where I go to hone my misanthropy (I don’t hate it, just really burned out after 2 years of annual passes).
I often hear this from foreigners who’ve visited the US. While I agree that we’re a generally affable people, are we really more polite to tourists than natives from other parts of the world? If so, in what ways? Thanks.
Having visited a few restaurants in Southern California and the Southwest (understatement), I believe he’s talking about a liquid non-dairy creamer that comes in little plastic tubs about half an inch wide. Which is even more of a joke than the powdered stuff.
BTW, Martini Enfield, if you find yourself in LA again I may be able to get you (edit: plus your better half and a small handful of family members if you so desire) into a comedy show at the Hollywood Improv for free. Let me know in advance. I’d also love to show you guys my favorite haunts up there, which are admittedly few in number (specifically Tito’s Tacos and a little coffee shop called Curacao).
It’s hard to define, but there was definitely an attitude that people were glad we’d visited, rather than the usual “Oh, so you’re from out of town? That’s nice” that you usually get. Certainly, we were never treated as though our presence was annoying, inconvenient, or in some way troublesome. The closest I can get is the feeling we were being treated as guests (with the attendent implications that we enjoy ourselves and have a pleasant visit) rather than Random Customers, if that makes sense.
I have to admit I was getting really irritated with the way that sales tax isn’t always included in the price-you’d have “Widget $2.99 Sales Tax to be added”, which means the price you pay for the Widget is actually $3.49. Here in Australia, that’s called “False Advertising”. The advertised price must include all taxes, so to my mind when you see a sign advertising a Widget for $2.99, that’s all you should be paying. Talking to a couple of the shop assistants, most of them agreed that the price really should include the tax as well, but no-one could actually come up with a convincing reason for why the advertised price didn’t include the sales tax. OK, not a huge issue, but when you’ve spent 25 years wherein the advertised price is all you pay, mental alarm bells start ringing when the price you have to pay mysteriously changes because of a vaguely defined “tax”.
That’s the stuff. A foul Heresy indeed, and Blasphemy in the eyes of all right thinking people who know that coffee should be enjoyed with actual milk or cream. To be very fair, I never had any trouble getting coffee with actual milk- but a couple of times, the waitstaff seemed surprised that anyone would want to put milk in their coffee. Of course, it makes more sense that it’s an economic decision on the restaurant’s part and the strange looks from the waitstaff had more to do with them suddenly having an “unusual” request rather than an American bias against milk in hot caffeinated beverages.
I may just take you up on that… it’d be great to see more of LA than the usual tourist haunts, and there’s nothing like an evening of good Stand Up comedy and a couple of drinks!
Well, Tito’s has nostalgic significance to me–my old Boy Scout troop used to stop there whenever we camped out near L.A. I’m sure I wouldn’t go there much (or at all) if I lived in the area and it were nothing special to drop by. That said, I don’t know anything about other Mexican restaurants in L.A.
It helps that you were in one of the biggest tourist traps in a state famous for tourist traps. I’d wager that most of the people you met at Disneyland were from out of town or out of state. Although I think you’d have a similar reaction you’d get anywhere else in the US.
That said, a lot of San Diegans grouse about how irritating they think tourists are. But OTOH I haven’t heard this since the days when I lived a few miles from the beach. As for me, I was ecstatic to meet someone from somewhere else in those days. Back then my friends and I regularly grilled steaks and passed joints around at Ocean Beach and we were more than happy to bring an out-of-towner into the festivities.
Additionally, a number of us possess a fascinated curiosity about the English and the Australians, and many Americans can’t tell the difference from the accent alone. I’m sure I would have peppered you with questions if I’d met you at Disneyland without realizing who you are, to the point of getting irritating.
The reason you can’t get a straight answer about that from an American is that, to us, mentally adding the sales tax is as natural as driving on the right. The only place we expect taxes to be included is the gas station. FWIW, not all products are taxable. At the coffee shop where I work, we don’t tax anything except the non-edible retail (brewing equipment, etc.) and the most obviously pre-packaged impulse buys.
Most people I know don’t like the stuff but would rather deal with it than make waves. I imagine it’s hard to get a decent cup of coffee at those places anyway. The only place I can think of off the top of my head that gives you the good stuff without being asked is the Original Pancake House, and that’s also the only restaurant chain where I expect really good coffee.
Don’t let your expectations run too high–I hardly know LA at all, and have only been there a handful of times since I last hit up Universal Studios at age 15 or so. Other than the places I mentioned, the only place I’ve actually been to that jumps to mind is the Getty museum (but man oh man, what a sight!). But I do have a few “underground tour” spots I’d like to check out, and now that I think about it I have a friend who works for a famous Italian-American (in the most literal sense) director at Universal. How much good that will do remains to be seen, but hopefully I could parlay it into a slightly more extensive studio tour than the one you get at the theme park.
Anti-disclaimer: I’d be considerably more helpful here in San Diego, in terms of getting to a good number of places off the beaten path. For starters, Hodad’s on the aforementioned Ocean Beach is about as American as you can get at lunchtime, and local too. And North Park has a number of great local coffee shops like Rebecca’s, Caffe Colabria etc. There’s more, but we’ll have to save it 'til you’re here!
Edit: And while you’re in Ocean Beach, the Black is…a unique retail experience. We’ll leave it at that.
If you paid 16% sales tax in California, you were defrauded! I don’t know that there is a convincing reason why sales tax isn’t included in prices; it’s just the way it’s almost always done. Some stores do include tax on a regular basis – I think both Peet’s Coffee and Starbucks do. Some stores, such as OSH, a DIY chain, periodically run a “We pay the sales tax” sale.
I’d be interested to see more of San Diego, because I was so underwhelmed by it… but admittedly I didn’t see a lot of it (Harbour/Massive Bridge/San Ysidro/Otay Mesa), so I’d hardly say I’ve seen enough of it to form an opinion.
Just dropping in to clarify for our non-US Dopers that sales tax is a state issue in the US. There is no federal-level sales tax. Thus, the amount of the tax and what is taxable varies from state to state. The practice of not including sales tax in the price is standard throughout the country, though.
ETA - Some areas have special hotel/tourism taxes, which might result in rates as high as 16%. So if your $3.50 for a $2.99 item was a real example, not just throwing out some numbers, it might have been due to purchasing, for example, room service coffee. I don’t know if this is literally how California’s taxes work, just pointing out an additional form of taxes that tourists may encounter.
Very enlightening… thanks for that! The $2.99/$3.50 wasn’t a “real” example, just an illustrative one of the way the price on things seemed to jump noticeably because of “Sales Tax”.
I might start a GQ thread on the subject, actually, to avoid derailing this one.
Is it worth visiting Disneyworld in Florida if you’ve been to Disneyland in California? Most of the people I know have been to one or the other, but not both, and it’s hard to work out if it’s worth flying all the way across the US to see basically the same thing…
Not really. The one in Orlando is bigger and newer, but that’s about it.
Next time you are here, we will make sure you get to see the real California, not just the touristy stuff. Skip Palm Springs entirely, spend a few days in San Diego, drive up the coast to Frisco, explore the various wine countries, head on over to Las Vegas and visit the Gun Store, where you can fire full-auto weaponry. You know, the fun stuff!
Actually in California the sales tax varies from county to county. Or sometimes from city to city inside a county.
Anaheim for example is 7.75%, LA is 8.25%
Tourism taxes in my experience are on the room rate, not on products or services at the hotel / resort. Martini Next time you decide to fly over let us know first. A whole bunch of us are always looking for a good excuse to get together for a dinner.
We would be happy to show you the real LA.
I don’t know what “Harbour/Massive Bridge” means, but if it means Coronado, you literally did not see San Diego at all. San Ysidro and Otay Mesa are in Mexico as far as I’m concerned, and Coronado is a culture-free zone made up entirely of rich white people and sailors (some of whom are also rich white people!). There are some nice restaurants and a grand historic hotel with a super-clean beach down there, but it gives you a distorted view of San Diego and it’s a nightmare to get on and off the island anyway. The City of San Diego itself is a hodgepodge of subcultures, from La Jolla’s parent-subsidized revolutionaries to Pacific Beach’s stoner-surfer-barhoppers, from Rolando’s Chaldean hookah-smokers to Ocean Beach’s hippie ditchweed-smokers. Not to mention the gay pride of Hillcrest and the indie rocker baristas of North Park.
Disney World is a fair bit (10 years?) newer than Disneyland, and it’s (a lot?) bigger. I’ve never been, but it was a real special treat for my classmates who went when I lived on the East Coast. For an American, which one you go to pretty much depends on which one you live closer to. I wouldn’t imagine it’s different enough to justify the fact that you’ll be in Central Florida, America’s capital of invented culture.
That is most definitely true. My sister used to live in an apartment within walking distance of The Black. I have a few reminders of my visits there.
As far as other neat-o San Diego places, I was quite disappointed to learn (upon hearing about the same named establishment in Denver) that Hamburger Mary’s in Hillcrest is no more. I wonder if it’s the same atmospere with the new name (Mo’s I think) though. That was the best place on the face of the planet to party and people watch!
