What's the definition of a "frier"? Let me give you an example:
Two people go out for a lovely lunch. Person B cannot finish her lunch, so she saves half of it to possibly have for lunch the next day. She could have easily nibbled away at the remaining yummy bits, despite being full, but utilizing her willpower, she fights the temptation.
When the waitress comes to clear the table, Person B asks (in Hebrew) for the leftovers to be wrapped to take home. Person B even does "the gesture" indicating that she'd like the food "to go." The waitress responds, in what to Person B sounded like (in Hebrew), "to take with you?" Person B responds in the affirmative. Despite this, Person B has the sneaking suspicion that the waitress is not going to wrap up said leftover food. This suspicion grows when the waitress stacks up the other dirty dishes on top of the leftover salad.
The bill comes. The take-away bag does not. Person B waits for a few minutes, then finally asks the waitress where the salad is, saying that she had requested it to be wrapped. The waitress responds, in English, "I don't know about it."
Person B, due to a lack of the proper vocabulary to say, "That's not my problem. I specifically asked you to wrap up my leftovers. You answered me. I deliberately left food over. I paid for my food and you tossed it. Please either make me a new salad, or give me a discount, or let me see the manager," sighs and quietly says, "B'seder" ("okay").
Person B is a frier. Any questions?
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4 comments:
I have only one question: What's a "frier"?
It's used to mean "A sucker" or "a fool" (but in the sense of 'easily fooled', not 'stupid')
I've learnt to repeatedly ask for things, just to make sure. "You're going to prepare this for me to take home, right?" And then later, "You'll be packing this up for me to take with me, right?" Then as they clear the plates away, "You're wrapping that for me to take home, right?" Israelis often get annoyed at me for my persistence, but then I always get what I want.
The cure for being a "frier" is being a "nudge."
-- Natan
First of all, I like your blog and will be visiting again. Second, Thanks for posting photos of Treppenwitz. I was glued to his "spot" satellite for the trip.
An observation on the example you give about taking away food in a restaurant. I think this is one of the many things that "divides" the Brits from the Americans - our portion size. I would never DREAM of taking leftovers from a restaurant in the UK. But then there are hardly any because the portion size is always for one meal, not two. I nearly fainted when I saw how much food arrived on plates in US restaurants. I learned to ask for a child's portion. But then I suppose that made me look odd, as I am quite tall for a woman. Can't win:-)
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