Cultural Gap

[beenee]

This has always bugged me - why do British people wash their dishes like they do - in a tub of soapy water without any clean running water. Surely the water gets dirty after the first or second dish.

I can imagine why they must've done this when large amounts of clean water were hard to come by. It makes no hygiene sense to me. Can someone explain?

[ipek]

Ah, so the wastrels who use dishwashers are OK, are they? Do you know how a dishwasher works? If you think it just bathes the dishes in gallons of free flowing sparkling-clean water that runs all the muck away, then boy are you in for a surprise! First it squirts hot water all over the dishes and redistributes the gunk evenly over the entire load. Then you add the chemicals (not just plain soap either) and repeat, then hours (and gallons of water) later you eventually get them hosed down and dried.

I guess it is habit and culture, this washing-up thing - my parents had no alternative to a bowl of soapy water and I still use the same method. Like earlier answers, the old glasses-first-pots-last system has stood me in good stead for all my life. Then I rinse them in running hot water (to get rid of the soap) and leave them to drain (mainly through idleness rather than a mistrust of drying cloths).

While there is a need to be aware of basic hygiene I really do believe this society has become over-zealous with the anti-bacterial stuff. There is a firm argument for exposure to a degree of bacteria in order to build up the body's natural defences'.and judging by the whiff that comes from the dishwasher at work, I'm not convinced they are particularly hygienic! Personally (as you may have gathered) I think dishwashers are very wasteful of water and electricity, are encouraging the use of more harmful chemicals and generally a BAD idea''and I wouldn't have one if you paid me.

Oh, and having spent many years visiting Turkey, I do understand the eastern thing with running water - but my Hubby still takes a plug along so he can shave in the bathroom sink! But then again, the locals don't shave at home.......what's that all about? ;-) Vive la difference!!