Fili’s world

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Stomach was sending “don’t forget me signals” again - becoming annoyingly hard to ignore. “Are you up for dinner tonight?” I suggested. “Hmm… sure. I have an idea, I don’t know if you’d like it but you said you like to try new things”. Remembering back on my latest culinary attempts with Jessy has made me skeptical of how much I really enjoy ‘new things’. Every attempt was indeed interesting and at times even delicious but has always shaken my body up in shock. Korean, Malaysian Japanese and even Thai – which I thought I knew something about after 2 month in Thailand – were difficult for me to deal with, shooting hot spices up my throat to trigger my body’s “anti-fire auto-defense cooling down mechanism” which, I can only imagine, can not look good to the person eating with me. “It’s not Asian food. It’s from a country called Ipt, or maybe Irt. Something like that. You know it?”. I’ll be damned… “Egypt?” I try, remembering on some Vietnamese common mistakes, like how Jessy calls ‘Zoo’ ‘Roo” since Vietnamese pronounce Z as R and D as Y or Z. “Yeah, yeah, Ipt food. My friends don’t like, but it was good for me”.
Off we went to Dong Khoi area. Well, so much for “new things”. I’ve had my first Shwarma, Falafel and Pita with Homos since Pai, Thailand. How long has it been? 5 and a half month? I had no idea how much I’d miss the small Israeli pleasures. Waiter was actually quite impressed that I knew all the dishes names without looking at the menu and went on to unsuccessfully try to guess where I was from. When the food arrived, Jessy was left to watch me eat with the biggest smile I’ve had while eating in Vietnam. I didn’t care that the Homos was watery and that the Pita was more of a rice paper taste than bread. I was in bliss, savoring the moment with every bite, enjoying every circular hand move with the Pita on the Homus. She was staring at me, amazed - so while struggling to keep my Ash-Tanur in tact I mumbled - “Jessy…try to imagine that Homos and Falafel in my country are like noodle soup and rice in Vietnam. You see it EVERYWHERE. It’s more than food, it’s a cultural event”. No doubt that evening was a huge help for my “get fat diet”.

I’d make this a short one - I scored a 189 points in Diamond Plaza’s Bowling Center.

My top Vietnamese singers list:
Trinh Cong Son (AKA Vietnam’s Bob Dylan)
My Tam (AKA - The Queen)
Ung Hoang Phuc (AKA - The King)
Duy Manh (AKA - Lover boy)
Cam ly
Phi Nhung
Dan Truong

(First time it was an “experience”. Second time it was “more bad luck”. But now, that I’ve had yet another misfortune, in what turned to be a most eventful month, I don’t know what to think. No need to worry, it’s past me now, and I’ll spare us all the long story by summarizing that after being scared to death I feel like I’ve regained my life, no less. And no… I don’t want to talk about it; I’ve had enough of the whole thing. )

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