Dinner at Suns

I would normally fix supper for myself and eat in on a week day, but I didn’t feel like it… so I found myself at Suns, a little “Latvian take on American food” restaurant in the shopping center in which I live. I ordered the nachos grande and an iced tea and sat back to contemplate. I contemplated the fact that my brother missed his connection and is stuck in Milan until Saturday. (At least it is the sort of situation that will be enjoyable in retrospect. :)) *shrugs* It really shouldn’t change plans much. I’ll just take my time off on Monday and Tuesday instead. I simply hope he finds something to entertain himself with in the day and a half he’ll spend there.

Coming to the end of that train of thought, I scanned the news playing at the bar to get an update on the bombings in London, a story which first broke here about the time I went down to the cafeteria to acquire some lunch. At least it looks like the death toll will remain relatively low… particularly compared to what it could have been. (Ever marveled at that phenomenon? How we said, when the WTC collapsed, that there should have been about 10,000 people working there, but less than 3,000 were killed? How these attacks at morning rush hour could have killed as many but the current death toll is only 33?)

Having gotten the update I desired, my thoughts turned to the current discussion between Carolyn, Ben, and Jonathan about conformity and individualism. I almost considered joining with a post on my views on/issues with “authority,” but decided on second thought that I didn’t feel the need to wade into that mess, particularly when I have the feeling I may be the lone defender of my controversial views :). Though I have no way of knowing for sure, because I don’t think that many of you know what those views are… though Josh, Em, and Nathan (in particular) have had the pleasure of suffering through them ;). Anyway, it’s a thing best left for dinner back on campus…

My attention then turned to the large-ish gathering of people gathered in the courtyard outside the restaurant. From what I could tell, they were all there for the unveiling of a fountain. The people were all dressed on the casual side of dressy and were sipping wine and eating fancy little hors d’oeuvres, with Handel’s water music playing in the background. The fountain, on the other hand, was a rather whimsical and ungainly-looking piece of metalwork and I think it had been “veiled” in wrapping paper. It seemed rather out of place at its own party.

By then I’d almost finished my meal and began to contemplate the food itself. It’s definitely not American. The chips weren’t the homemade kind you can get back home – just the bagged kind of the rather cheap variety. And instead of the normal pieces of chicken or beef, they had bean and ground beef chili… really weird chili that was both sweet and spicy. Not much cheese… or tomatoes… but there was plenty of lettuce and sour cream. The iced tea was garnished and very liberally flavored with orange, not lemon. Having eaten all the chips (and still left with a mound of toppings), I downed the orange slice garnish – along with a couple pieces of the ice, just to remind myself that it was an “American” restaurant :).

I wasn’t hungry then, but figured I might like some dessert later, so I walked a block and bit to get some of my favorite ice cream from a street vendor. There was one left. I was very gratified as I walked back to my apartment and placed it in the freezer.