The American Way Part I: Pizza

 It was a rainy Saturday evening and four of us were crammed into our cold kitchen, trying to come up with a grocery list.  I was the lucky one chosen to go out in the rain to procure the necessities for our dinner that evening - homemade pizzas.  

Ticking off ingredients in three different languages, we finally assembled a rough list.  

"So I need to buy cheese, mushrooms, tomato sauce and onions?" I asked for the third time.  

"No, we have onions," replied Maya.

"Okay cool, and I have plenty of garlic so don't need to buy that," I said.

When I looked up from the list I was holding, I was met with three blank stares.  

"Garlic?" said Maya, her voice dripping with disgust and disbelief.  "You put garlic on your pizza?"  

"Of course... what?  Is that weird? Do you guys not put garlic on pizza?" 

The Argentine and the two French men shook their heads no.  It was hard to believe - my friends and I back in Carrboro have made homemade pizzas every week for the past year and they always include a heaping pile of freshly chopped garlic.  But even outside my small circle, don't most delivery pizzas in the U.S. come with garlic dipping sauce?  

I finally conceded that it must be yet another "American thing" and ducked out into the rain to buy the other ingredients.  After living in Chile for almost a month with roommates from France, Chile, Australia and Argentina, I have become accustomed to laughs, questionable looks, and eye-rolling following seemingly random things I say or do.  Food often triggers it - my roommate from Australia found it hilarious that I put peanut butter (that I brought from home) on my banana.  I received a similar response when I ate apples with cheese.  Are American eating habits really that odd?  I would never have considered myself eccentric for eating peanut butter or garlic before I came here but now I just have to roll with the punches.

To Maya's credit, the pizzas turned out great, even without the garlic.