Ice cubes

Sorry, no pictures with this post. It's just one of those cultural differences that has made me chuckle. It is no secret that the U.S. differs with Europe in its desire for cold drinks to have ice in them. We have laughed here in the library as my assistant, Eva, says she can tell who are Americans because they have to have ice in their drinks. One day when she mentioned this as one of our American patrons was entering the library with ice in one cup and a soft drink from McDonald's, I told her that at home I have a ice maker in my refrigerator. She just looked at me very curiously. I said not just ice cube trays but an ice maker. She doesn't understand that at all. I am very happy that my little refrigerator here does have ice cube trays and even a storage box for the ice cubes.

That brings me to my next thought. My niece, Erin, had decided that she could make iced coffee drinks at home and so that the coffee didn't get too diluted, she would make coffee ice cubes. Wow, I thought! What a great idea. So I made coffee ice cubes in my trays and it worked ok. Then I thought if I had an extra ice cube tray, I could use it for just coffee instead of trading off water or coffee. Now in the U.S., that's an easy remedy. Ice cube trays would be available in any housewares department. Not so easy in Hungary. I have been looking for a few weeks and imagine my surprise the other day when I stopped in a kitchen store, asked for an ice cube tray and they actually had one. I was excited at first and then I began looking at it and the price. It was a metal tray with 3 dividers across and the pull-up lever in the middle. I don't think I have seen an ice cube tray like that for more than 20 years. So as I am relating this to Merrill and some other friends, I happened to mention what the cost of it was. The original price would be equal to about $25 in the U.S. It was on sale....for only about $5. Our friends decided that it must be an antique model, and that accounts for the high price. I decided even $5 for an ice cube tray seemed a little out of line. So...... I found one for about $2 at the local discount store and now I have coffee ice cubes, for my homemade iced coffee. Pretty nice!