Despite precipitation, it's a very good day for me, I finally got the table and chairs and having them assembled just now! Delightful to be sitting in a proper chair, by the table! Hurrah!
....
There is a small inconvenience with this chair, but my tonight's guests are convinced that it will disappear within a month. 'Evaporate' may be more precise a word as it refers to... well... not exactly what one would call a fragrance, but - to call a spade a spade - a rather peculiar smell. My friends tried to console me that neither it is so off-putting nor will it last forever. The nature of the problem is is that the chair arrived in a sealed plastic bag and had spent a considerable amount of time suffocated in it, and therefore, quite understandably, it needs the time to 'breath'.
.....
Most luckily, we were eating out in the nearby Polish place, I think it is still called Cafe Magnolia, an Ealing magnet for the Polish food lovers. I enjoyed the soup known as Ukrainian borscht (also spelled: borsch, bortsch, borstch, borsh, borshch) for the reason being that beetroots, which give the soup a distinguishing colour and taste, are good for you. It's full of vaegetables and served with cream:
The bouquet was not part of the menu. My friends tried the soup and went for ever popular 'pierogi ruskie'. If you translate it word by word, you'd think this type of dumplings filled with savoury cottage cheese and mashed potato mixture originated in Russia, but that wouldn't be correct. The dish comes from Western Ukraine which used to be called Red Ruthenia, in Polish: Ruś Czerwona - Red Russia! You can catch a glimpse of my friend's dish in the top right corner of the picture. As to the soup above, it tasted just right, but I prefer when it contains a bigger variety of vegetables, but maybe the ladle made an unlucky dip when filling our bowls.
No comments:
Post a Comment