SUSHI... SUSHI, SUSHI, SUSHI. It was the one thing I complained I missed. The one thing that I said was missing from home. Guess what? OK, I'll just tell you. They opened up a Sushi Restaurant... right in Pablavok.
my fiance and I (that is the second piece of good news to share, i'm engaged!!!) went to the opening tonight. A good friend of ours opened up a Sushi Restaurant right inside Pablavok the jazz club. They have eel, salmon and the whole works...they are still missing a few things... arthur (fiance) frowned when they looked confused at his request for yellow tail... but an otherwise wonderful menu...and relatively CHEAP. am i tempting you with cheap sushi?... those who have been thinking about moving but needed that extra little push... here it is, cheap sushi. lol, kidding.
all you die hard armenians will think this shallow... and ... yes, i understand we are just talking about sushi... but it is a challenge living in an internationally food challenged country after living in the epi-center of multi-national cuisine. it is refreshing that i will have the option to eat unagi when i crave it. i think that's fair.
it is 6:00 in the morning and i am up because the mosquitos are once again eating me alive and i cannot deal with it anymore. after all night of scratching myself in a half awake dream that was too complicated to enjoy and boiling boiling boiling i decided to give up trying and just come to deal with the fact that tonight sucked and i will not be getting anymore sleep. (i hope it is not the sushi)
in an attempt to put a final end to my unwanted collection of mosquitos i went to shinararneri street (remond street) in hot pursuit of screens for my window. i would like to present to you... the conversation... although i do not know the young man's name i would like to call him hendul.
arthur: do you have screens
hendul: yes
arthur: how much are they?
hendul: 25 dollars a window!
arthur: is the netting made out of gold?
hendul: no
arthur: how much is the netting?
hendul: 300 dram a meter (50 cents a meter)
arthur: and what do you use to frame the screening?
hendul: plastic borders.
arthur: how much is that?
hendul: 200 drams a meter (33 cents)
arthur: so why did you say 25 dollars... looks like your overhead is less than a dollar
hendul: labor
arthur: 24 dollars labor?
hendul: yes
arthur: for putting a screen on a window?
hendul: sure
arthur: (now annoyed and just continuing the conversation for principles sake) so we have five windows, aper jan, how about doing it for 20 dollars a window?
hendul: che aper jan, i can't do that.
arthur: why are you being so ridiculous?
hendul: what can i do, we have no business?
arthur: can i give you a clue as to why you do not have any business......ahhhhhhhhhh
hendul sold us the raw materials. with 4000 dram worth of materials... we came home and in an hour had all five of our windows screened (we did it ourselves) for an average of 700 dram (a little over a dollar) each. this saved me over a hundred dollars in labor (an hour of labor)... and the screens are great. (you may be wondering why i am still being eaten alive, and i think it is because my current residents are still alive and feasting here at the mosquito inn).
as for the engaged part... i will share this, as it is cultural and interesting. following the armenian tradition... arthur's family came "uzelu" which means... they came a wantin...
from the window i could see them. in their hands a huge cognac, a huge box of chocolates, a huge bouquet of flowers and the entire "arthur klan". when we let them in... they walked to our dining room table and arthur's dad spoke. it was something like... we have come with the intentions of "wanting" your daughter... as he said this he put the cognac on the table. (a huge huge [like two feet tall] bottle); if my father agreed to the union he would have to put his own cognac on the table... making the cognac a pair. my dad did and that was followed by the opening of the cognacs and a night of celebration. although arthur was living in america for the past ten years (and he decided to return to armenia, so i guess he is a repatriate) his whole family is here and it is nice to have them here... and nice to follow some of these old armenian traditions. the night was special and beautiful and we are now working on remembering we are engaged... tonight at sushi was typical as we ran into friends that we introduced to one another the night was a repeat of... "hi --insert name-- this is my boyfr... rrrrrr.... fiance, arthur". will tell more when our plans develop but for now we are a smiling couple on our way towards building an armenian ojakh (an armenian home/family) and that feels great.
my fiance and I (that is the second piece of good news to share, i'm engaged!!!) went to the opening tonight. A good friend of ours opened up a Sushi Restaurant right inside Pablavok the jazz club. They have eel, salmon and the whole works...they are still missing a few things... arthur (fiance) frowned when they looked confused at his request for yellow tail... but an otherwise wonderful menu...and relatively CHEAP. am i tempting you with cheap sushi?... those who have been thinking about moving but needed that extra little push... here it is, cheap sushi. lol, kidding.
all you die hard armenians will think this shallow... and ... yes, i understand we are just talking about sushi... but it is a challenge living in an internationally food challenged country after living in the epi-center of multi-national cuisine. it is refreshing that i will have the option to eat unagi when i crave it. i think that's fair.
it is 6:00 in the morning and i am up because the mosquitos are once again eating me alive and i cannot deal with it anymore. after all night of scratching myself in a half awake dream that was too complicated to enjoy and boiling boiling boiling i decided to give up trying and just come to deal with the fact that tonight sucked and i will not be getting anymore sleep. (i hope it is not the sushi)
in an attempt to put a final end to my unwanted collection of mosquitos i went to shinararneri street (remond street) in hot pursuit of screens for my window. i would like to present to you... the conversation... although i do not know the young man's name i would like to call him hendul.
arthur: do you have screens
hendul: yes
arthur: how much are they?
hendul: 25 dollars a window!
arthur: is the netting made out of gold?
hendul: no
arthur: how much is the netting?
hendul: 300 dram a meter (50 cents a meter)
arthur: and what do you use to frame the screening?
hendul: plastic borders.
arthur: how much is that?
hendul: 200 drams a meter (33 cents)
arthur: so why did you say 25 dollars... looks like your overhead is less than a dollar
hendul: labor
arthur: 24 dollars labor?
hendul: yes
arthur: for putting a screen on a window?
hendul: sure
arthur: (now annoyed and just continuing the conversation for principles sake) so we have five windows, aper jan, how about doing it for 20 dollars a window?
hendul: che aper jan, i can't do that.
arthur: why are you being so ridiculous?
hendul: what can i do, we have no business?
arthur: can i give you a clue as to why you do not have any business......ahhhhhhhhhh
hendul sold us the raw materials. with 4000 dram worth of materials... we came home and in an hour had all five of our windows screened (we did it ourselves) for an average of 700 dram (a little over a dollar) each. this saved me over a hundred dollars in labor (an hour of labor)... and the screens are great. (you may be wondering why i am still being eaten alive, and i think it is because my current residents are still alive and feasting here at the mosquito inn).
as for the engaged part... i will share this, as it is cultural and interesting. following the armenian tradition... arthur's family came "uzelu" which means... they came a wantin...
from the window i could see them. in their hands a huge cognac, a huge box of chocolates, a huge bouquet of flowers and the entire "arthur klan". when we let them in... they walked to our dining room table and arthur's dad spoke. it was something like... we have come with the intentions of "wanting" your daughter... as he said this he put the cognac on the table. (a huge huge [like two feet tall] bottle); if my father agreed to the union he would have to put his own cognac on the table... making the cognac a pair. my dad did and that was followed by the opening of the cognacs and a night of celebration. although arthur was living in america for the past ten years (and he decided to return to armenia, so i guess he is a repatriate) his whole family is here and it is nice to have them here... and nice to follow some of these old armenian traditions. the night was special and beautiful and we are now working on remembering we are engaged... tonight at sushi was typical as we ran into friends that we introduced to one another the night was a repeat of... "hi --insert name-- this is my boyfr... rrrrrr.... fiance, arthur". will tell more when our plans develop but for now we are a smiling couple on our way towards building an armenian ojakh (an armenian home/family) and that feels great.
posted by Madlene at 6:35 AM
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