A. went to the eye doctor a couple of months ago and it was discovered his retina was in the process of detaching. They lasered it up for him and yesterday he had to go in for a check-up. It is healing OK.
Since we were already downtown, we decided to brave the last-minute shopping masses and check out cell phones. (Which in Germany are called “handys” and also what I am now calling them.) Because of the BMW-fiasco a month or so a go, we decided we needed one “in case of emergencies.” Well, we finally settled a phone and a provider, so yesterday we got it all set up and stuff. So, now it is official: I am no longer a handy-virgin!
The highlight of the day, however, was that we tried out a new restaurant. A student of A.’s had recommended a Persian restaurant to us and so last night as our “Christmas” dinner, we indulged in some very tasty mixed Persian kebabs and baklava. The atmosphere was exotic and inviting and the staff was very friendly.
We were having a good time and were almost finished when a couple sat down next to us. I could just tell by the look on the woman’s face that she would have rather have gone to the Brauhaus up the street. She ordered some tea to drink and then when the friendly waiter tried to take her order, she ordered some sort of tomato-based meat and vegetable dish. However, she requested that the dish have no meat and no garlic.
OK, I admit I am not a vegetarian in anyway shape or form, and though I don’t approve of it, I can understand asking the meat to be left out of something. After all, I have been known to ask that vegetables be left out of certain Chinese dishes.
What appalled me was that she didn’t want the GARLIC! In my opinion, garlic is one of nature’s most perfect substances and I have a hard time understanding why some people don’t like it. Also, I just felt there was something fundamentally wrong with wasting the opportunity to eat flavorful Persian food by asking that the garlic be left out.
While we thoroughly enjoyed our Persian meal and will no doubt be back, I suspect next time that woman will convince her companion to take her to the Brauhaus instead. That’s OK though, that just means more Persian food for me! 
Horst says:
It seems somehow odd to go to a Persian restaurant if you don’t like garlic. A bit like going to an Indian restaurant and not liking curries.
But then I was at this Japanese restaurant a while ago, and a woman at the table next to me ordered “the chili salmon, but not hot, please” (she used the German word for hot=very spicy, not hot=of high temperature).
I remember wondering whether she was a philosopher studying paradoxons or merely not thinking.
27 December 2004 at 15:41