The movie left me starving. Well, probably not the movie, but the hodgepodge of food I had consumed during the day had provided all the energy it could and my stomach was telling me it was time for another meal. The only problem? I was not familiar with any of the restaurants near the Angelika.
After ruling out desert and appetizers as well as brunch and sushi, we decided on mexican.
“Hola, como estas?” the chips and salsa maitre d’ greeted us. We muttered the greeting back. Another quick flurry of syllables and I was lost. Apparently it meant “enjoy your meal,” but I only remember enough spanish to get me to the bano and to avoid dirty water. Even those phrases I tend to forget in between trips to spanish speaking lands.
The waiter approached and after ordering a margarita, I was feeling much more comfortable with the language.
Returning for dinner orders, I quickly realized I was the only person hungry. “I’ll have the #4,” a easy tex-mex mix of enchilada, taco and rice and beans. I have a theory about the comparison of makeup of all mexican dishes, but that’s another post.
“And for the ladies?”
Erika ordered tortillas, flour. This seemed to confused the waiter, but I think only because his tip wasn’t increasing dramatically enough.
“And for you?”
Sarah likes lemons. For her Diet Coke I suppose. Just a bowl. “Just a bowl of lemons,” she requested.
“What type of lemons?”
Quizically we glance at each other. Round? Sliced? Mexican? How exactly do you respond?
Seeing our confusion, the waiter clarified. “No, no. What color of lemon?”
Now we were completely lost and I was trying to not to let loose the hysterical laughter building up. Lemons are yellow. That’s it. Limes are green, Oranges are orange, Apples are….well, that’s a bad example, but Lemons are YELLOW.
Sarah quietly and politely responded, “Yellow.” I think there was a bit of trepidation, uncertainty and disbelief in that one word.
The waiter left and we released the barrage of absurdities that had entered our minds since we entered the restaraunt.
I guarantee they were talking about us in the kitchen.