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Economic Times

Local cultures, or booby traps?

CUCCIOLO, DON'T LOOK, BUT THEY'RE HAVING CAPPUCCINO NOW, AT MIDDAY! Bunny and I are in Torino and are mindful not to offend local sensibilities. The name of the city means 'little bull' - an affectionate diminutive given concrete shape in the small taurine-shaped fountains that dot the city and afford crystal-clear, refreshingly cold water to quench the thirst of it's not water, but another potation that is a matter of concern. The Torinese, like all Italians, are passionate about coffee in all its manifestations and have strict dos and don'ts about when it is to be imbibed. Years ago in Delhi, an Italian diplomat friend narrated a cautionary tale about an Indian guest she'd invited to dinner at a restaurant in Italy. When the meal, including the dolce - the dessert course - was over, the hostess asked the guest if he'd like coffee. 'Yes, please. I'll have a cappuccino,' said the invitee, much to the consternation of both hostess and waiter. 'And to make matters worse, he asked for a second cup,' confided my friend, repressing a shudder of remembered horror. In Italy, to ask for a cappuccino after 11 a.m. is deemed, if not exactly sacrilegious, at the very least a solecism bordering on the barbaric. Because to drink such a milk-laden beverage later in the day is considered uncivilised for all except small and I, being bullish about Torino - as indeed about all of Italy - don't want to blot our copybook (kapi book?) by committing such a grievous faux pas. We are careful to get our daily fix of cappuccino - never to be called 'cappucicinos'! - before the clock has struck the taboo stroke of 11 ante however, is not quite as simple as it might sound. In Italy, time has relative elasticity, which could well baffle an Einstein. From midnight onwards, the correct form of salutation is 'Buongiorno' or 'Good day'. So far, so good - or so buono. But at some unspecified moment, Buongiorno is transformed into 'Buonasera', or 'Good evening'. Visitors who proffer a Buongiorno, at say, 3 p.m., could well be met with a corrective Buonasera in confound temporal confusion, there's also a 'Buon pomeriggio', or 'Good afternoon'. But reliable information has it that only pedants and pernickety types would say 'Buon pomeriggio'. All in all, it's enough to say 'Buona notte', 'Good night', and call it a Anglo-Saxon England, as distinct from multiculti Britain, table manners are dictated by cutlery, or what Americans call flatware. For the fish course, the fish knife, with its mysterious notch below the rounded tip, must be deployed.I've asked several people, English and otherwise, who are well-versed in matters epicurean, what the strange notch is for. I am yet to receive an answer that conveys certitude. My suspicion is that the design serves no useful purpose whatsoever, other than to confuse the uninitiated, who reveal themselves as such by displaying their ignorance before assembled one is eating soup - soup is always eaten, never drunk, not even when it's a watery consomme - the dish must be tilted away from you to spoon up, using the soup spoon, never the dessert spoon, the last of the helping. When eating porridge, on the other hand - or the other spoon - the bowl must be tilted towards you. Those who thumb their noses at such pettifoggery could take recourse to the recusant rhyme: 'I eat my peas with honey/ I've done it all my life/ It makes the peas taste funny/ But it keeps them on the knife.'A cautionary tale about culinary contretemps recounts how a Delhi entrepreneur would invite his Shanghai business associate to a Chinese restaurant to make the visitor feel at home. After repeated meals, the guest vouchsafed to his host that, business apart, he loved coming to Delhi to eat 'all that wonderful Indian food at that restaurant you keep taking me to'. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of Elevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea. The answer to companies not incurring capex may lie in stock markets We are already a global airline, carry the national name and are set to order more planes: Air India CEO How Uber came back from the brink to dislodge Ola Banks are investing in these funds instead of lending the money. Why? Sebi, governing markets for 3 decades, in search of governance rules for itself F&O Radar | Deploy Short Strangle in Nifty to benefit from volatility, Theta Stock picks of the week: 5 stocks with consistent score improvement and return potential of more than 28% in 1 year These large- and mid-cap stocks can give more than 30% return in 1 year, according to analysts