Mice salad
Telling the ingredients of a salad, he wanted to say there was corn (maize) in it, but unfortunately he used the Italian word mais which is pronouced exactly like 'mice'. So, the tourists might have been thinking that in Italy salads are not strictly for vegetarians ...
Sent by: Antonio
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I'm Italian. The first time I came to the UK I was a paying guest in the house of a very kind lady. Once we were talking about Italian products and I said to this lady that in Italy we don't use only olive oil to season the food, but also oil made from peanuts or from 'mice'. The lady was obviously distraught and disgusted by this last piece of information. Finally, with her help, I understood that I had mispronounced the word 'maize'. In Italian it is written mais and is pronounced exactly like the English word 'mice'. When I realized my big mistake, I assured her in Italy we don't produce or use anything like that! I will never forget the right pronunciation of 'maize' in my life again!
Some American friends of mine were visiting northern Italy and were offered polenta, which is made with cornmeal or maize, and topped with meat sauce. My friends liked it and said "This sure is good. What's it made of?" and our Italian host said "It's our specialty, made of mais", pronouncing it like "mice". "You mean you've given us mouse meat!" was the disgusted reaction. It took a while to sort out that they were talking about the polenta and not the meat sauce.
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