Random Culture Thread

[Bubulus]

From an Indian perspective, it's pretty weird how much Turks (maybe not just Turks) seem to love yogurt. I mean, we eat yogurt, too, but mostly as something to help cool us down while we're eating otherwise very hot, spicy food.

Many people here in Vancouver, so probably North American cities as a whole, eat very sweet yogurt with granola and fruit for breakfast. In El Salvador, yogurt is sold in supermarkets but is a strange thing.

[linguoboy]

Many people here in Vancouver, so probably North American cities as a whole, eat very sweet yogurt with granola and fruit for breakfast.

That is literally what I had for breakfast yesterday.

(I try to seek out less sweet yoghurt when I can. There is an "Icelandic-style" brand called Siggi's which is good in that respect. A lot of yoghurt sold in the USA has no sour taste at all and that's just plain weird.)

[vijayjohn]

Indians eat lightly sweetened yogurt for dessert, too (in fact, for most of us, it is probably the closest thing we ever have to dessert, unless perhaps you count holiday foods. When I eat yogurt, I seem to eat it with less sugar than most Indians, if not less than most people I know just in general). And of course we have mango lassis and such.

One time, my brother took me to a Turkish cafe or something in the Bay Area where he was living at the time. I got mantih, and I think he got İskender kebap. What I ended up getting was what appeared to be small pasta shells with some kind of butter injected inside them, and what he ended up getting was basically mincemeat or meatballs or something in tomato sauce...but both of our dishes were swimming in yogurt. Not yogurt with any particular flavoring, just plain yogurt. I tried eating my mantih, but I found it so unbearably bland with all that yogurt that I finally took up my brother's offer to switch dishes with him. Even after doing that, I grabbed the pepper shaker and shook out as much black pepper as I possibly could, wishing I had access to crushed red pepper at that moment. I don't remember whether I managed to get enough pepper out of that shaker for my taste, but it seems unlikely. At least it was edible then, though. I had no idea wtf to do with so much yogurt!

[Saim]

I love plain yoghurt and have several times accidentally bought sweet yoghurt insteas because I didn't check the label properly.

One of the few things I miss about Australia is that you could buy plain yoghurt in big tubs, it was really convenient...

[vijayjohn]

My parents make their own plain yogurt all the time. (Then we end up using most of it for this, so they make more).

[linguoboy]

My parents make their own plain yogurt all the time. (Then we end up using most of it for this, so they make more).

My dad made yoghurt for a time when we were growing up. I don't remember him cooking with it really, we just mixed in fruit jam and ate it for breakfast.

Has the "Greek yoghurt" craze reached other countries (apart from those where it's just the normal kind of yoghurt to begin with)? It's been going strong here for a decade.

[Aurinĭa]

It's reached Belgium, though I don't know how long that type of yoghurt has been popular or even present here. I always just buy a big bottle of plain yoghurt, or we make our own.

[Prowler]

My parents make their own plain yogurt all the time. (Then we end up using most of it for this, so they make more).

My dad made yoghurt for a time when we were growing up. I don't remember him cooking with it really, we just mixed in fruit jam and ate it for breakfast.

Has the "Greek yoghurt" craze reached other countries (apart from those where it's just the normal kind of yoghurt to begin with)? It's been going strong here for a decade.

[Naava]

We have Greek yoghurt in Finland but I'm not sure if I've ever tried it. There's also Turkish yoghut, but imo it tastes just the same as what I see as "normal" yoghurt, except that it's twice as thick. My dad loves it.

[md0]

Now I am curious to try what is called Greek/Turkish yoghurt in other countries
The one Prowler posted is so far from the archetypical yoghurt that I would consider it an ice cream or something.

Btw, recently I discovered that yoghurt goes very well with green beans yahni.
A new world of yoghurt and tomato sauce based combination has been revealed to me.

PS. Yes, I do like yoghurt. But I like hummus more.

[Naava]

Just some random picture I managed to find but it seems like Greek yoghurt isn't quite as thick as Turkish yoghurt. It also doesn't look like Prowler's... yoghurt. Is that even yoghurt? Why does it say 'mousse' on the package? And if it's mousse, what makes it Greek? (Not judging Prowler btw, I'm judging Nestle. )

PS. Yes, I do like yoghurt. But I like hummus more.

Yoghurt is ok, but I prefer viili.

Which reminds me of dipping sauces for crisps. Everyone I know uses "cream viili" or fermented cream to make dips but I doubt it can be found outside of Finland and Scandinavia. What do you guys use for dipping sauces?

[linguoboy]

Which reminds me of dipping sauces for crisps. Everyone I know uses "cream viili" or fermented cream to make dips but I doubt it can be found outside of Finland and Scandinavia. What do you guys use for dipping sauces?

For dairy-based dips, you'd use sour cream, which the corresponding Finnish wikipedia article calls "hapankerma". Viili looks a lot runnier than American sour cream and sounds closer to kefir. We don't make dips from kefir, we just drink it (either by itself or in smoothies).

The most popular dip for chips in the USA is tomato salsa (a.k.a. salsa fresca). Guacamole, based on mashed avocados, is also very popular, as are hummus and "queso" (and Americanised version of chile con queso).

[Naava]

You can use viili for dips in emergency. The taste's okay but the texture is too stretchy and slippery to get it on a crisp easily. (You can see for yourself here.) Cream viili is thicker. You can scoop it on a spoon and it'll keep its shape.

I don't know how I didn't even think of sour cream. Lol. Of course, the taste is pretty close to cream viili so I should've known it could be used for dips! You know, when you're used to doing something in a certain way, you can't see any alternatives...

[suruvaippa]

Kermaviili and American-style sour cream taste exactly the same to me.

[Prowler]

So... I said to an Italian Monica Bellucci was the most famous living Italian actress and then he reminded me of Sophia Loren. Well, in my defense, it's easy to forget or overlook the fact Sophia Loren is Italian, since her last name(yes, I know she uses a pseudonym) isn't exactly Italian-sounding. But now I feel like I've insulted the legendary Sophia Loren. Also, I noticed Claudia Cardinale is still alive.

Monica is big, though. But I wouldn't call her a great actress.

[mōdgethanc]

>Culture Thread

>yoghurt

lol

I tried eating my mantih, but I found it so unbearably bland with all that yogurt that I finally took up my brother's offer to switch dishes with him. Even after doing that, I grabbed the pepper shaker and shook out as much black pepper as I possibly could, wishing I had access to crushed red pepper at that moment.

In emergencies when there is no hot sauce and food is too bland, I've also resorted to vast quantities of black pepper, since it's the only spice that White Folks always have on hand.

[vijayjohn]

>Culture Thread

>yoghurt

lol

Heheh. That was all me.

[md0]

So, after some deliberation, I am asking the question here (and not in the English forum, or the Random Language thread).

Do you have an established "happy new month" wish in your region and/or language variety?

I was replying to an email sent to our undergrad conference (hinthint) and I was a bit stuck. If the email was in Greek, I would definitely start it with "Dear So-and-So, good month". That's very common in Cyprus at least - you use it in your first communication (online or offline) with someone between 1st and 3rd of each month (maybe until the 4th, but it's a stretch).

I couldn't find it used in English outside Facebook-greeting-card-generators. In French, "bon mois de X" seems to be used as a greeting. In Turkish, "iyi aylar" shows up in search results in the context of discussing/explaining the Greek greeting.

yunanistan'da her ayin birinci gununde, istisnasiz herkesin birbirine gunaydinla birlikte diledigi ..dilek? "kalo mina" diye soylenir.

Yunanistan`da her ayın başında herkes "iyi aylar" yani (καλό μήνα - kalo mina) dileklerinde bulunuyor. Ben hala alışmış değilim buna.

Couldn't find it in German.

[Dormouse559]

Do you have an established "happy new month" wish in your region and/or language variety?

[…]

I couldn't find it used in English outside Facebook-greeting-card-generators.

I don't have a quick way of expressing this in English, but I do have ways:

Beginning of the month: Hope your [month] has gotten off to a good start.
Anytime later: Hope you're having a good [month] (so far). / Hope your [month] is going well.
Final days of the month: Hope you've had a good [month]. / Hope your [month] has gone well.

Noticed I pro-drop "hope" in all of these. You can say these phrases with "I hope" in a formal situation, but most of the time, they sound most natural without the subject pronoun.

[md0]

Would you expect to hear that as a greeting at, lets say, your workplace on December 3rd when you return?
Or are they strictly written greetings?