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Is this true....????

Austina

Ideal_Rock
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We used to have a washing up bowl in the sink, but haven’t had one for years. Just about everything goes in the dishwasher, and if it doesn’t, DH washes up. That’s the deal, I cook, he cleans up.
 

asscherisme

Ideal_Rock
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I've just read that most Americans don't use/own kettles. Is this true?
If it is true, how do you make a cup of tea?

I have an electric kettle, does that count? It heats the water to boiling so fast. I like tea, but my son is obsessed with it so much that I bought him an electric kettle when he moved into the dorm for college.
 

asscherisme

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I knew the grits would be mentioned!! I'm from the south and they're ground corn oddly enough. Down south we put butter and salt in them with cheese at times but up north they put sugar in them. Super american food I guess. I'm in Colorado now and natives are clueless about grits.
That said, I'll look into an electric kettle! My coffee maker is a Moccamaster and I cannot recommend them enough!! Add a burr grinder and it's the best dang coffee ever.

Oh, I love grits! Have not had them in forever, now I need to put on my grocery list! Sugar on grits? Nooooooo. Butter and salt for me. Occasionally melted cheddar too!
 

MrsBlue

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Love this thread. UK here. A kettle is very culturally important. We have a hot water tap but IMO it doesn’t taste the same. Got to have it from the kettle.

Has anyone mentioned washing up bowls yet? My friend (from Alabama but has lived in UK for 15 years) thinks they are the strangest things ever. Personally I cannot imagine not having one. Now is that just her or are they not a thing either?

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The washing up bowl is not a thing in America lol! I have one because it's handy for when I use my good teacups and want to keep them safe but mostly we use the bare sink. We've also never had cute vacuum cleaners with faces on them. It's always a Shark or a Dirt Devil or something unnecessarily aggressive like that.

Coffee is generally more popular than tea in the US but stovetop and electric kettles are popular with immigrant families. My area has lots of people from Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe so there's a nice variety of tea available in local shops. Still, Yorkshire gold in the UK (for example) is better than Yorkshire gold here because ours has probably been sitting on the shelf for months. Picky tea drinkers are better off ordering from an online specialty shop.

My heart goes out to the poor girl who couldn't figure out the concept of a clothesline. Lots of people still line-dry clothes in the US and apartment dwellers sometimes have small racks for drying small clothing items. I wouldn't dream of putting a good bra through a drying cycle.

You know what else we don't have? Toilet stall dividers that go from floor to ceiling. Ours are short so it feels like you're in a saloon. Or a barn. Uncivilized!
 

GeorgieQ

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I have an electric kettle, does that count? It heats the water to boiling so fast. I like tea, but my son is obsessed with it so much that I bought him an electric kettle when he moved into the dorm for college.

Yes it absolutely counts! Kettles (mostly electric) are an integral part of most Aussie households, we just can't imagine a home without one. So it was quite an eye opener to know that so many of our American cousins just don't have a kettle. I can guarantee our US friends that if they ever come to an Aussies house during the day (unless it's for a bbq), the first thing we'll say is 'Would you like a cup of tea, I'll pop the kettle on.' =)2
 

GoldenTouch

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The stiff clothes and scratchy towels is what I remember from hanging clothes with Grandma. I was starting to wonder if it was just bad water causing that or something. It was awful! I mean, there was something sort of fun about hanging clothes and being out with the fruit trees... Just the scratchy results were a disappointment.

I love scratchy towels when I get out of the shower.

I iron everything so clothes are not scratchy after that.

I only use the dryer in emergencies & big things (Sheets/towels) if I can’t use the line.

Where I live many people use “clothes horses” inside in cold/wet weather. I iron my clothes while wet & hang them up until dry. I do get sick of it by the time the weather improves!! But even if it hasn’t rained in winter your items are cold & damp if you are not home early enough to get them in.
 
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Not American but reading the replies reminded me that while I do own a kettle, I rarely use it to make tea! I’ll use it when I just want to sip on a mug of hot water, but if I want to make tea (because I almost always have milk and spices in my tea) I make it the old-fashioned way, in a pot on the stove.
 

RunningwithScissors

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I have an electric kettle. I use it all day long! Couldn't live without tea! I can't even imagine making coffee without my kettle and French press!

I'm an American citizen, born to American parents. However, I'm only culturally half American. I was born in continental Europe and both my parents and I have lived there on and off for much of our lives. So there are a lot of American things I don't really "get" like iced water and people's love of fast food. And some Euro things that seem equally odd. For example, I can't live without an American-style shower! And I've gotten used to American king-sized beds which make escaping from my husband's snoring easier, and larger refrigerators!

Never heard of a washing-up bowl, but I've not spent any time in the UK or Australia.
 
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Austina

Ideal_Rock
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:lol: @MrsBlue I‘ve given my Henry a surname, he‘s Henry Von Vacuum
 

Yimmers

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Oh, if electric kettles count, then I do have one. We use it often to heat water for instant oatmeal, coffee, or hot tea.

Now, how many of us have/had the Zojirushi hot water dispenser?? :mrgreen2:

We treasure our dishwasher, since we run it every other day between the 3 of us and 2 dogs. But I guess that just means we actually cook and eat at home. Growing up however, while we had a dishwasher, my mom would never run it. We just used it to air dry dishes. I recall my friend just looking super confused when I stopped them from putting a used glass into the dishwasher. "Oh, we don't put any dirty dishes in there. Just clean ones to dry." I still laugh about the Asian dishwasher.
 

Lookinagain

Ideal_Rock
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I'm American. I don't have a kettle. I used to, but it was rarely used, so was just taking up space and I gave it away. I don't miss it at all. I rarely drink hot tea, unless I'm sick with a sore throat and then drink it with honey and lemon. I drink coffee every morning but use a Nespresso. Sometimes at night I'll make an espresso as well. I also make cold brew but use that only for iced coffee. If I want to make some iced tea, I make "sun tea" which doesn't use hot water. I see some folks say that they keep their kettle going for various hot water uses during the day, like cleaning, or getting something greasy down the sink, which kind of surprised me. When I need hot water for anything but drinking, i get it from the faucet. It's very hot.
If I wanted to make tea, I would probably just heat some water in the cup in the microwave and drop in a tea bag.

I also don't have a "washing up" bowl but I do vaguely remember that they existed somewhere in my past.
 

pearlsngems

Ideal_Rock
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It's called a dish pan (or dishpan) here, rather than a "washing up bowl". Rubbermaid, Sterlite etc. make them and they are widely available at Walmart and other stores that sell kitchen stuff, Amazon etc.
 

Mreader

Ideal_Rock
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I have an electric kettle. I use it all day long! Couldn't live without tea! I can't even imagine making coffee without my kettle and French press!

I'm an American citizen, born to American parents. However, I'm only culturally half American. I was born in continental Europe and both my parents and I have lived there on and off for much of our lives. So there are a lot of American things I don't really "get" like iced water and people's love of fast food. And some Euro things that seem equally odd. For example, I can't live without an American-style shower! And I've gotten used to American king-sized beds which make escaping from my husband's snoring easier, and larger refrigerators!

Never heard of a washing-up bowl, but I've not spent any time in the UK or Australia.

A bit of a deviation from this thread but I love those funny twitter feeds about weird differences between Americans and Europeans. I've spent lots of time in both areas too. I have to have my ice though! I hate getting one ice cube in a drink when I'm abroad. When my French friends came to visit me in the US, they were spooning out the ice from their glasses :lol: . They were also weirded out by free refills, turning right on red, too much A/C, and sales tax added after the fact. In Europe I hate those weird Cylinder pillows. Just why??? But no I don't have a kettle because coffee is my drink of choice so I have an espresso machine :)
 

seaurchin

Ideal_Rock
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Okay, I realize that I am very dumb lol but I do not understand what the difference is if you heat water in a kettle (which takes a whole lot longer) or just zap it in the microwave. Hot water is hot water. Right? **ducks**
 

Matata

Ideal_Rock
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seaurchin

Ideal_Rock
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Apparently not. I had no idea, learned something new today.


Wow! Mystery solved. So maybe this is why I've always thought I didn't care for black tea lol. I was probably drinking it too hot or too cold for the best flavor.
 
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Matata

Ideal_Rock
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So maybe this is why I've always thought I didn't care for black tea lol. I was probably drinking it too hot or too cold for the best flavor.

The flavor is also affected by how long you steep the tea. I was steeping my green tea too long and it made it bitter. For lighter teas, steep 1-3 minutes. For black teas, steep no longer than 5 minutes.
 
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