Spicy Soup, Bad Communists & Fennel Seeds
So, these photos might not look like much, but like much of what gets posted on this page, they come with stories (long, rambling stories), for instance:
- the soup on the left (veg thupka) was super tasty, and also super spicy (the table's supply of napkins were finished before the food, on account of runny noses, and not by us)
- the person we were meeting (a local political science PhD student and Che Guevara aficionado) refused to let us pay the bill, regardless of how vocally we informed him that he was being a terrible Communist for not taking our filthy, ill-gotten* Yankee dollars (there was a small scene, onlookers may have posted video to their Snapchat - and yes, for some reason Snapchat is still a thing here)
- the bill (for 3 veg thupkas and 3 milk teas) came to a total of 495 rupees, or €3.67 (or $3.88 filthy Yankee dollars, which as a side note, we're happy to see losing value again, on account of most of our debt being in dollars - hello, old friend, student loans! - while most of our income is in euros)
- and, burying in the lede, the main story here is the photo on the right, which is mostly pure fennel seeds, and apparently something you just eat handfuls of when leaving Chinese restaurants in Nepal (FYI, it's been almost a week and we can still taste it, and not in a good way)....
*Note for any authorities reading this, the term 'ill-gotten' was used purely for artistic purposes - as all of our filthy Yankee dollars have been acquired through entirely legal means, duly declared to any and all competent authorities in various jurisdictions and all taxes, stamp duties, etc paid (to the best of our knowledge at this time), so definitely no need to inspect any of our accounts. Really, no need at all. It would simply be a waste of your incredibly important, valuable time....