That would be why people call me dopey

[liv]

Today I:

Forgot entirely that most museums here are closed on Monday and only remembered in the middle of Manhattan at midday. By which time I couldn't be bothered to return chez blackherring and use Google to devise a plan for touristy things I could still do.

Tried to console myself by buying icecream, but thoroughly confused the icecream seller by asking whether what they were selling was icecream or sorbet. I'm not sure whether this is because the seller didn't speak English or because I don't speak American; is non-dairy frozen fruit juice-based dessert called sherbert instead of sorbet here?

Tried to buy stamps in a grocer's, having forgotten that all those lovely Americans who gave me advice do not mean the same kind of shop that I mean when I say grocery. This shop only sold vegetables. The checkout person was friendly but didn't really have enough English to deal with my asking for stamps when she was expecting me to ask for vegetables. Happily, an anglophone guy was in the queue line behind me and directed me to a funny little cornershop thingy that did in fact sell stamps.

I now have stamps, hooray! If anyone would like me to use some of my stamps to send them a postcard, please email your address to me. That includes if you think I already know your address, cos I probably don't have access to the information from here.

Accidentally walked straight into the Empire State Building. I wasn't looking for it as I'm not really in New York for the famous buildings. I was trying to do errands in Penn Station and I completely forgot it was there. Coming upon it accidentally was bad enough, but physically walking into it... I belong in a farce.

*sigh* Oh well, I'm back at J's with tea and LJ, so things could be worse.

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Just a note: my server is down at the moment, so my journal may be taking a long time to load or even not load at all, and will be ugly when it does finally show up. Adding ?style=mine to the ends of URLs that point to bits of my journal should bypass this problem.

Comments

Re: That would be why people call me dopey

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

is non-dairy frozen fruit juice-based dessert called sherbert instead of sorbet here?

no, it's not quite so easy. sherbe(r)t can contain dairy, and IME usually does.

officially what you want is most often called gelato over here, despite sorbet being an official word in north american dictionaries. it's just that few people seem to know the term. mind, few people also know the term gelato. usually you need to go into a more fancy store to get gelato/sorbet, unless you're in an italian neighborhood, where they will all know it, and have good one to boot.

Re: That would be why people call me dopey

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

following up to myself, since a little research goes a long way. :)

"Sherbet is a frozen dessert made from iced sweetened fruit juice or puree. Sherbets usually have more ingredients, such as milk, egg whites, or gelatin, than sorbets. Sherbet in the United States must have a milkfat content between 1% and 2%, and a slightly higher sweetener content than ice cream; else, it must be sold as ice cream if the fat content is higher or sweetener content lower, ice milk if milk or sweetener content is lower, or as sorbet if no milk is present at all. US sherbet has a minimum density of 6 lb/gal (720 g/L) and is flavored either with fruit or other ingredients."

from http://www.answers.com/sherbert&r=67, which was educational.

Re: That would be why people call me dopey

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

ew, why do people have to go putting gelatine in weird things?

frozen desserts

[liv]

I'm confused partly cos leora told me that gelato isn't kosher, and if it's the same thing as sorbet it would have no reason not to be kosher. And the cafe I was in seemed relatively fancy; I guess the problem was we were working in about four languages, which makes it hard to communicate about very specific things like the names of dishes.

Re: frozen desserts

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

and apparently i am confused as well. gelato isn't the same as sorbet, it's the same as sherbet in the US. out here people apparently view that differently; all the gelatos i checked had no milk, egg whites, or gelatin in them. *gah*!

[darcydodo]

Sherbet/sherbert and sorbet are not actually the same thing, but random ice-cream shop X in the States is a lot more likely to have sherbet than sorbet. It's basically sorbet plus milk or egg.

[liv]

Which means that it's possibly liable to have gelatine in, which is a pain. And if what I want is icecream, how should I ask for it? Because icecream seems to be both a specific thing and a generic thing.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Next time you walk into a building, use the door. ;^b

[liv]

Yes well. This would rely on my actually noticing that a whacking great skyscraper is there in the first place.

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

I know you're not in NY for the buildings, but I hope you rode the elevator to the observation deck on the top of the Empire State Building. The view is magnificent.

[liv]

I didn't actually think of going up to the top of the building; I was so flustered by that point. I should definitely try to go up to the top of some tall New York building at some point, and if that one is open to the public it might be the best one to try. Thanks for the suggestion!