Friday, June 28, 2013

Word Faux Pas

So this will be short post, but hopefully you get some good laughs out of it.

The first story I'd like to share is the first time Lauren and I went Christmas tree shopping. We wanted a legit Christmas tree, so we went to a little farm where folks cut the trees down in the mountains and brought them into town. We showed up and the fellow who ran the joint greeted us and asked if we knew what we were looking for/wanted. I assured him we'd be alright and could find a tree ourselves because we were from Oregon and knew what real Christmas trees should look like. He nodded his head and I asked him one final question before we set off to pick our tree. "So uh," I started, "Have you got any evergreens?" He kind of smirked and said, "Well, they're all evergreens." I sure felt like a dummy and Lauren slyly walked away chuckling under her breath so I wouldn't feel like too big of an idiot! Oh boy. That was round one.

Round two happened the other day when we went to try out a new place in town; Black Sheep Cafe. We heard the food was great and it's reputation of authentic Southwestern/Native American food sounded worth trying. We showed up and had a delicious appetizer, followed by a pork chop sandwich and green chile taco. The meal was great and we are glad we tried it out, but we probably won't go again anytime soon. A little expensive for mexican food if you ask me. Anyway, before the meal even started the waiter explained that the sous-chef was offering a new bison and duck entree. I must have heard him say "new" chef so I didn't think much of it and figured it would be super expensive because it wasn't on the menu.  But, at the end of the meal, the waiter asked if we were going to get desert and, again, stated what the sous chef was cookin' up in the kitchen. This time I heard him say sous chef and, seeing as how it was a native american restaurant, asked if the man cooking in the back was a sioux indian. Well, now I know one additional reason, other than price and general classy-ness, that Lauren and I don't frequent nice restaurants like Black Sheep very much. With a grin on his face and Lauren's face buried in her napkin, the waiter explained to me what a sous chef is and that, in fact, there were no native american chefs in the kitchen.

Just in case any of you less-cultured readers out there don't know what the sous-chef is, he's the guy second in command, right below the executive chef. Yeah....



So what I did might not qualify as a  "faux pas," but both experiences felt pretty socially clumsy!

Hope you enjoyed!

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