We've been taking it easy and chilling here in all sorts of ways. On Wednesday, I was with rk13, Katerina, Yura and the partying terminator-robot Valerychat Twingo pica. I liked the pizza there; I ate a creation called Mexico – with a mountain of little onions. The price, though, isn't exactly humane – 6 LS ($12), and by large pizza, they mean more like a medium. But it's worth the money. Anyway, we got kicked out of Twingo because they only work until 9. We went to Vesma (more on that below), but they kicked us out of there at 10. We had to trudge to rk13's place, where his dad treated us to roe deer sausage, while rk13 absolutely refused to believe me about various facts (maybe out of beer-fueled stubbornness, or maybe he was just trolling IRL). For instance, about how New Year's in Russia only started being celebrated on December 31st starting from the era of Peter the Great, and that the MacOS operating system kernel called Darwin – is FreeBSD, and definitely not Linux. And while I'm not entirely right about Darwin being FreeBSD, regarding New Year's everything is correct practically 100%.
And today, my colleagues Knyaz Mosala and Ezhi and I went for a special lunch at Dima's, who is into Indian spiritual practices. Because of this, I call him either a yogi or a cultist, but I hope I'll stay alive, since these same practices do not welcome violence. Anyway, this time Dima acted only as an assistant to a chef named Katya in preparing traditional Indian dishes. (I hope I didn't get the name wrong, otherwise I constantly have this fear that I'll mess it up). Obviously, India is huge, the traditions there are diverse, but what we tried was not spicy, but actually quite the opposite, quite mild. I asked what the dishes were made of, but I was too shy to record the answer on video, and I still haven't bought a smartphone.
The only thing that can be said with certainty is that there were 7 dishes, which Dima specifically repeated to us a couple of times, just for reliability (that is if you count everything separately, as is customary). One of the viands was based on potatoes, another on rice – everything with spices, but not spicy, as I already mentioned. The rice came with a special homemade tomato sauce, also mild and pleasant, not as harsh as the Heinz so beloved by Americans. Then there was also a cucumber salad, a drink based on fatty kefir (usually made with yogurt) and a dessert in the form of dried fruit balls. I almost forgot the coarse flour flatbreads with bran, only the photos saved me.
Everything listed above was without those animal-derived components that can be considered “taken” from animals, meaning meat and eggs. At work, they jokingly call it “kosher.” Basically, the concept is the same (just like with Islamic halal), it's just that the choice of products is dictated by Indian tradition, or rather one of them. Dairy is also popular, while alcohol is strictly forbidden, especially on holidays.
This food is called “blissful” and is supposed to bring about an elevated state of spirit. To our ears, such an ideology and philosophy sounds quite naive and romantic, but it's much better than the misanthropic logic of LiveJournal drama queens, trolls, and Dvach users. (See the meanings of these words on lurkmore, I'll write more about it later). At least, that's what I think at this current moment in time.
Mosala, aka Knyaz, looks like a real spiritual guru in the photo, and as always, I have a weird smirk. On the left is Ezhi, who is quiet today for some reason. Why we are all wearing black, I cannot explain. It must be karma.
We didn't stay at Dima's for long, because that's how it was planned – just lunch, not an evening hangout. I somehow didn't think about it, but I don't care – it turned out great anyway. We all liked the food – I love exotic stuff, Ezhi also doesn't mind trying all sorts of interesting things, and Knyaz is calm by nature and usually likes everything. That's probably why he's so good at playing an Indian guru – he's constantly in satori anyway.
Anyway, we directed our steps to the Vesma bistro-bar, the most banal place ever, but with huge fish in an aquarium and a wide selection of tea. We called up some more people and sat for an hour or two engaged in an unhurried tea conversation.
Fancy tea at Vesma is poured into an interesting teapot, the bottom part of which sits inside a mug. Because of this, it can be carried with one hand, and the mug gets warm because the teapot sits in it. Plus, it's huge, just the way I like it.
