sunlore wrote:Gramsci wrote:
Wine with food is how a vast majority of Europeans drink. What you seem to be missing is that they aren't drinking for the "alcohol effect", they are drinking for taste. Matching the food and wine is a great pleasure for many people. I think the European way of drinking falls a little flat on most Americans and the English because they have very little in the way of a culture of food, certainly not in the same way as Italians or the Spanish.
You seem to only look at drinking an alcoholic drink for the purpose of the intoxicating effects. Think about a fine cheese, it is thought of in a very similar way to a good wine by many Europeans.
A good whine is enjoyed anywhere. It is however a fact that many southern europeans have a distaste for drinking only to get drunk. I always thought that it was because the southern folks are more "loose" of character, while "we" (n-w europeans I mean, and our canadian/north american counterparts) might need a drink or two to "loosen up", being "stuck in our head" as we are.
Alcohol and suicide rates may well suggest that there is tad more of the melancholy in the people of the grim germanic plains.
Don´t forget scandinavians. The biggest drinkers I ever witnessed. And the russians. By god, those russians.
Good point, the epic drinking of some of my Swedish friends boggles the mind... and then there is the English...
CORRECTION:
Please change "European" in my previous post to "Mediterranean".
But the point I'm making is some people/cultures don't drink alcohol for the effect but as a complement to food.
