This did not happen in Europe but here in the US. When I was in college I worked at an Eckerd's (Drug Store). A lady with an English accent asked me where the napkins were. I went and got some paper dinner napkins from one of the aisles. I came back and gave them to her and she said "No I would like some napkins not serviettes". I said to her " Ma'am these are dinner napkins I do not know what you are wanting can you explain?" She explained and then I quickly understood that she was wanting a feminine product...

To Trying:<BR><BR>Sounds like what you ordered was "brandade de morue," a combination of salt cod and whipped potatoes.

In Madrid we stopped in a very small diner inhabited by all locals. We had looked at what the people at the next table had and it looked like tortellini. We pointed and asked the waiter for "questo" and he replied, "Si, champinons (sp?)." We ended up with mushrooms in scrambled eggs. (I think it was what the kitchen had on hand.) There had been no mention of huevos. M.

I, too, put salt in my coffee the first time I was in England. ugh.<BR><BR>Also, off the food subject... my husband was hospitalized in England for several days in 85. He had no more clean underwear to wear, so he asked me to take his clothes and do some laundry and he'd ask the nurse for a "johnny". Big surprise to find out it's called a dressing gown... and a johnny is a condom. Nurses very confused at "over sexed" american attached to lung machine.

In Paris, I ordered what I thought was a ham and chesse omlette, hoping for the scrambled egg combination with small bits of ham and chesse. Nope, I got a piece of what I would think of as canadian bacon with an egg "over-easy" style, (which, just my luck, i don't like). I'm sticking to deserts, can't go wrong there.

I'm flummoxed by the reference above to the poster buying cola concentrate in North Wales.I live in North Wales and I've never heard of this. I wonder if it was an own brand cola sold by some not too top quality supermarket.?<BR>Anyway, my experience was on my parents wedding anniversry in France when we decided to splash out and have a memorable meal.I was translating the menu for my Mum but got stuck with "cervelles d'agneau "I told her it was some part of a lamb and so she ordered it but the shape of it on her plate put her off and she was unable to eat it.I found out afterwards that it was brains.........

With the exception of the posts about Americans in the UK or Brits in America, all the posts on this thread are nothing but variations on the theme of "I don't speak the language, so I did not know what I was getting." What's so noteworthy about anecdotes highlighting one's ignorance?

...Because human foibles can be entertaining, xxx!

xxx: you are right, the problems tend to extend from not speaking the language. I guess we are secure enough to laugh at ourselves for our mistakes. We aren't blaming others.

xxx, go back to practicing your frown in the mirror and leave us to our fun!

But, by not understanding, you often end up with getting something that turns out much better than anticipated as well!<BR><BR>When stationed in Germany a few years ago, we went to a small Italian restaurant (we were tired of German food). I thought I ordered a pepperoni pizza -- turns out, it was a most delightful vegetarian pizza and what I thought was pepperoni was pepperonicini or peppers. I ordered the same thing many times after that when I went to that wonderful little Italian restaurant and to this day, frequently order vegetarian pizza in hopes of finding one half as good as that one.

<BR>Italy - ordered prosciutto was<BR>served bruschetta.