My foreign neighbors gave me this and wished me bon appétit, but it’s something hard and doesn’t look like food at all, more like an egg 😱🤔
At first I was even scared.
Our neighbors are foreigners, and we barely communicate, except to say hello in the elevator. Then one evening there’s a knock on the door. They’re standing there, smiling, holding out a package, and speaking in accented Russian:
– Bon appetit!
I look inside—and there it is… this. Dark, hard, strange things, like something out of a museum or a dinosaur movie. They don’t look like anything edible. They’re cold as stones in my hands. I even sniffed them—there was almost no scent.
“Is this…food?” I asked carefully.
They nodded, smiling even wider, and left.
I stood in the kitchen for a long time with this bag. My mind was racing with thoughts like, “What if this isn’t for eating at all? What if it’s a joke? What if I’m missing something really important?” I’m afraid to put it in the refrigerator, and throwing it away is embarrassing.
So I went online. I searched by photo, by description, by shape. And when I finally found it, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
It turned out to be a water chestnut.
They eat it. They peel it, boil it, eat it raw. In some countries, it’s a common food, almost a delicacy. I’ve just never seen anything like it in my life.
The next day, I met my neighbors and told them I’d found out what it was. They were delighted and started quickly explaining, gesturing to them how to peel and eat it.
And I caught myself thinking about how strange the world is: for some it’s a frightening, incomprehensible thing, but for others it’s “bon appétit.”
