Dad being a black-Irishman with Spanish shipwreck roots (don't worry, I am adopted German with blond hair and red whiskers) liked to ask me as a young child if I wanted to see "A dirty Irishman's trick". Of course I said yes, and he simply removed the boiling hot spoon from his coffee and pressed it to the back of my hand.

Instances like these were my early introduction to foreign cultures.