Omg yes, I’m so happy you got a ticket!! I watched an original version (English-language touring production) of The Phantom of the Opera and it was soooo goood! I wasn’t necessarily a fan before, I knew some of the songs and stuff, but like, I was mind-blown The costumes and the staging and the music and everything… chef’s kiss
It inspired me to try and go to more live shows if I can I went to see Hades in London last summer, and it was sooooo gooood, but I was so tired from travelling and I was dozing off towards the end of it
Thank you! And yes, I was blown away by how amazing it was! I knew it was going to be good, but they far exceeded my expectations. Especially the introduction—the air was literally shaking as the thunder was flashing and the chandelier was rising one of my nitpicks with certain live performances, especially classical solo piano, is that the music feels too quiet. Like it’s not as loud as me listening on my noise-canceling headphones. It definitely wasn’t the case with The Phantom of the Opera—I felt everything around me vibrate, especially when they had the organ on!
Now I gotta ask, are you Team Phantom or Team Raoul? I’m personally a Raoul stan and love my somewhat reckless soft boy
That’s great! I feel the same way, though I know I won’t be able to for some time Are there any shows you’re planning to see next?
The people waiting in line around me were all gushing over how they’ve seen shows in New York and London and other places, and meanwhile I was just chilling and wishing I’d be able to go to my first show. When they found out, they all said, “we WILL get this girl to her first Broadway show!” and it happened! Say what you want about frosty big cities, but the warmth I experienced then was so touching
Oh, and not related to theater but related to food, there’s a restaurant I’m going to try that I want to tell you about! It’s a place called Ambar that specializes in all-you-can-eat Balkan food Since you’re from Romania, I was wondering if you’d be able to take a look at the menu here and tell me which dishes seem more authentic (and which ones look more Americanized and thus more skippable)? I don’t have a lot of experience with Balkan food. In fact, I think this might be my first
Unless I’m being ignorant and you don’t consider yourself Balkan, in which case my apologies
Depends who you ask Balkan is a very broad definition, and while Romania is not geographically Balkan, I feel like culturally we fit in.
That being said, I don’t really know most of the dishes there…and it seems like their definition of Balkan spreads to Greece and Turkey as well, which isn’t necessarily wrong, but to my mind Greek cuisine is more Mediterranean than Balkan.
I can tell you tho that mozzarella and hummus aren’t Balkan but the “white bean hummus”, which I assume to mean some sort of bean spread, sounds good. Jalapeños are decidedly not Balkan tho lol.
I’ve heard of Ajvar, I think it’s a Serbian dish. I would try that one. Beet has no business being in tzatziki imo. And Kajmak is apparently more of a dessert thing? It’s kinda like clotted cream according to Wikipedia.
Chef signature doesn’t sound very Balkan, unless you feel like getting experimental. I love halloumi tho, that one sounds good.
Balkan salad sounds good, essentially a Greek salad but I think a combination of vegetables that’s quite common across the region. I’d be curious about the veal soup, especially if it’s a family recipe.
The cheese pie sounds bomb (phyllo dough is kinda like pastry dough). And the Balkan kebab is a must try imo. The sarma is a good one, too, but the description is confusing…traditional sarma is sauerkraut/cabbage rolls stuffed with pork mince (mixed with rice I think), where do the “winter vegetables” come in?
Vegetables…meh. And of course the Atlantic salmon is the most Balkan thing on the menu I do like the sound of those mussels, tho idk how “Balkan” it really is
So, I’m not sure how big the portions are (it seems to be a special menu for restaurant week?) but if I were to order for myself, this is what I’d choose:
Ajvar
Veal soup (coz it’s cold out)
Cevapi
Cheese pie
If the portions are small, or I had someone to share with, I’d add white bean hummus and Balkan salad to the mix.
Maybe grilled halloumi just because I love it so much (tho you can probably get it at any Greek restaurant), and Kajmak because I’m curious what it really is/tastes like.
And, if I could clarify the question of how the sarma is made - are “winter vegetables” part of the stuffing or the side dish? - I’d get one of those, too. But maybe you can try one anyway, just because it’s such an iconic Balkan dish.
Uhhh…Raoul was the guy who didn’t live in the basement, right? I don’t remember the story too well, but Phantom guy gave me creepy stalker vibes lol.
I’m going to a Swan Lake production soon…I’m not huge on ballet, but I am working on a Swan Lake-inspired story at the moment, and there just happens to be a travelling troupe in town, heh. Not sure if the music will be live, tho…I hope so!
Thanks I am gonna look into tasting menus near me now!
And fusion food? Fried chicken and tacos sounds good. I wonder if we have that here… maybe if you look hard enough. I will have a look soon for something fusion/modern!
Ah, I see! I have a friend who’s Romanian-American; he actually lived in Romania for a few years in high school before moving back to America for university. He would sometimes talk about how things are in Romania and has said that they’re part of the Balkans, and I just assumed he was right.
Serbian, like Novak Djokovic!
Sorry, that was the tennis fan in me I’m more of a Federer fan, but my bro’s favorite tennis player is Djokovic. He even has a few shirts from Lacoste’s Djokovic line.
Noted! I’m somewhat relieved that none of the stuff you listed has seafood
The portions are definitely going to be small apparently it’s a chain of all-you-can-eat restaurants with branches in Washington D.C., and the style is they serve small portions of stuff on the menu and you have two hours to order as many things as you want. I’ll also be going with a friend, so that’ll totally work!
Your guess is as good as mine, because I come from a region where there’s no winter I happen to live in a place that’s undergoing winter right now, but I’m still a small fish in a big, foreign sea I’ll make sure to grab that as well!
OMG, thank you!!! Yes, Raoul is not the creepy basement guy he’s the childhood sweetheart of Christine, the female lead, who can be a little dumb but ultimately cares for her. The ending where he literally pleads to Christine to say no to the Phantom so that she could live freely, even if it’d mean that the Phantom would kill him like how could you not root for him?
I’d say the Phantom was creepier in the movie than the musical since in the movie, the Phantom first tutored Christine when she was a child and he was… already a grown man . I mean, he’s a tragic character, but at the same time I don’t want to ship my girl with a literal murderer ¯_(ツ)_/¯
OMG THAT’S SO COOL! I love the Swan Lake songs and have been wanting to watch the ballet for a while now, but haven’t gotten the opportunity. Hope you’ll have fun!
Oh, and the Swan Lake suite is also nice to listen to. I can’t remember which interpretation was my favorite, but you can’t really go wrong with any of the big European orchestras (especially Berlin, Vienna, London, and Paris).
I will warn you that some tasting menus can be rather pricey, which is why I’ve only had it about two times in my entire life (paid for by someone else) but they’re excellent for special occasions! And if you love seafood, you can look into omakase. It’s a Japanese style where the chef chooses what to serve you and it’s typically different kinds of sushi and maybe a few other things.
Fusion is anything that fuses two or more cuisines, so you’ve probably already been to one one of my favorite fusion places is this chain of restaurants called AWKitchen, by Akira Watanabe. He’s a Japanese chef who spent years learning culinary techniques in Italy, and his restaurants are basically Italian with a Japanese twist it serves my favorite pasta outside of Italy and I’ve never had a single bad meal from there. I’m lucky that there are branches in Jakarta, because as far as I’m aware, there are hardly any other branches outside of Japan.
When you eat not just to fuel up, but also to enjoy yourself
Imo seafood is not very Balkan although I guess it technically counts since Greece, Croatia etc are also coastal countries. But, again, to my mind that’s more Mediterranean The Balkans are poor and cold, we eat cheap meat and preserved vegetables
Even with the beef tartare I was like…no self-respecting Balkan is going to eat raw meat on purpose the only raw things we eat are vegetables and even those we find a way to pickle most of the time. Actually, we’re pretty good at preserving most things. Salting, smoking, curing, pickling, canning…if you can eat it we can probably preserve it!
Very Balkan of you
I couldn’t follow the storyline very well, because I didn’t know the music so when I wouldn’t understand lyrics I’d check the screens for the Romanian translation…but that wasn’t always on point, so it got jumbled up in my mind a bit. I don’t have a problem with a murderer for a love interest but the Phantom didn’t make much of an impression in that regard.
i am not a fan lmaooo i like my meat very heavily spiced, so that couchiness isn’t there, and these places aren’t it for me. i went to a north indian buffet once for such food and i only liked the vegetarian stuff. lol
ooofff my parents will accommodate us. i love seafood, so on the occasion that’s what’s being served in the house i’ll take my brother’s and when there’s red meat he’ll take mine heh
we’re polar opposites for that then XD i only liked cooked salmon (for now). i especially love it fried!
ooo wow the dedication XD the last time i waited in line for tickets was for the yeti rollercoaster in disneyland (three hours). i’m guessing rush tickets can’t be purchased online?
i don’t eat beef but the gyoza looks so good too! i love gyoza ahahah typically the ones i get here are pork/chicken + chives.
this is reminding me of school lunch XD i’ve always wanted to try panang chicken! the spicier the better tho in my house hehehe
It was already kinda eaten by this point, but they had a ton of flavor options to pick! I went with pistachio plus their “Black Forest cake” flavor, which essentially was chocolate with cherry bits and another flavor I couldn’t recognize (maybe the Kirsch part of the cake?)
The combination tasted amazing certainly worth all the walking and waiting in line. As you can imagine, the ice cream place and everywhere near it was packed from all the festivities. Overall, it was a fun time!
If the Balkans are poor and cold, Southeast Asia is poor and hot we compensate for the lack of protein with tons of rice to fill us up
we can swap meals! you can eat anything I won’t and vice versa
OMG DISNEYLAND QUEUES those are always insane
and yeah, they can’t be purchased online. You’ll have to show up and line up before the box office opens, and I’m glad I was able to do it earlier. It’s -15C right now and we’re projected to reach about -26C this weekend
the day I got the tickets, the people who were first in line got there at 9:30 a.m.—for context, the box office opens at noon on Thursdays
lol at home and in restaurants if we were sharing fried rice, we’d split it into two portions: a non-spicy one for me and my dad, and an extra spicy version for my mom and bro I wonder how my bro’s spice tolerance is holding up, tho. he’s in the UK for his studies and the Brits aren’t known for their spice at all
thank u! if it weren’t so cold and if I were less broke I might’ve lined up to watch again it was bonkers, in a good way
that looks so good! and fancy logo :0 lowkey the colors of the ice cream complement the pink and gold color scheme of the cup and tissue very well
glad u had fun and that it was worth it! I wonder if they sell it in grocery stores, or if u can only get it in ice cream parlors and whatnot I know what flavors to look out for next time if I get the chance!
are pistachio and black forest cake your default options for ice cream, or do you normally go for another flavor?
I realise this question was not for me lol but there is one local ice cream shop in town which I love (it’s called Vice Cream ), they make their own ice cream and I adore their coconut + white chocolate flavour, and they also do a rice pudding + cinnamon flavour! Which legitimately tastes like the traditional rice pudding we make at home (which I’ve recently learned is more or less of a tradition across the globe - Milchreis in German, and arroz con leche in Spanish. Basically rice cooked with milk and sweetened/flavoured).
I haven’t looked into whether they sell it in stores outside the parlor, but its worth looking into
Pistachio is one of my top 5 flavors, but my go-to’s are usually strawberry and chocolate
The black forest cake flavor was amazing, but I haven’t noticed if other parlors have this flavor. Definitely one I want to look out for tho!
Speaking of ice cream parlors, there’s this local place with a long history of homemade ice cream flavors, including some unusual ones (garlic, carrot, corn, rice & beans, etc.), and its on my bucket list to try someday
The rice pudding flavor sounds so intriguing! It also reminds me of the sticky rice and other rice-based desserts we have back in Asia. Now I wonder what an ice cream flavor based on bubur ketan hitam (Indonesian black rice pudding) will taste like
Excellent choices! I am a chocolate supremacist so I go for any flavor that’s chocolatey strawberry is my ex’s favorite ice cream flavor. When I found that out, I mentioned that he, my bro and I can evenly split a Banana Split, since my bro’s favorite is vanilla
Ooooh definitely share it here when you eventually get it!
I was about to say maybe in a few months when it’s warmer out, except I don’t know for sure if you’re living in an area undergoing winter atm
I’m back with another question for you guys! This one’s gonna be fun—or painful, depending on the person
How high is your country’s average spice tolerance (and how good is your spice tolerance relative to that average)?
I’ll go ahead and answer first, and since I’m from two countries, I’ll answer for both!
Indonesia has one of the highest average spice tolerances. If you’re familiar with Thai cuisine, I’d say we’re at a similar enough level. Some regions are more well-known for spice than others (cough Padang and Manado cough) but the average Indonesian can easily clear 99% of Americans. Hell, I’m considered weak by Indonesian standards and am afraid to touch anything spicy back home, but I’ve yet to eat a single thing in America that’s too spicy for me except for a portion of ayam geprek that I ordered through the Indonesian club on campus as part of their fundraiser. Yes, the only tongue-terrorizing food I’ve eaten in America is an Indonesian dish
The Philippines, on the complete opposite end, is horrible with spice what I consider not spicy at all, my relatives consider super spicy. One of my culture shocks there was related to spice: when ordering KFC in the Philippines, I asked for “crispy chicken” as we called it back in Indonesia, and was surprised when I found out that they called the exact same menu item “hot and spicy” over there the funnier thing is that Indonesian KFC had a third chicken flavor called “spicy” and it made me wonder how Filipinos would react to it. They’d probably cry a lot and finish jugs of water
Also, one of my friends went to Japan sometime ago, and he sent me a picture of a menu from this halal ramen restaurant he was eating at
Their religion bans hot drinks and beer but not soda or energy drinks. Even Muslims get to have hot tea. But when I when to Utah aka Mormonland, there were a bunch of really good Mexican places that aren’t afraid to use chilli powder.
The average Azkenazi Jew wouldn’t be able to handle level 1 spice, while many Mormons could go up to level 2 or 3. I’m firmly level 2.
I agree with the placement of Korea as well, but I wonder how Sichuan Chinese food measures up.
They’re chicken, sauteed mushrooms, onions, and peppers. My university has decent options for food.
I watched an original version (English-language touring production) of The Phantom of the Opera and it was soooo goood! I wasn’t necessarily a fan before, I knew some of the songs and stuff, but like, I was mind-blown 
The costumes and the staging and the music and everything… chef’s kiss 
I went to see Hades in London last summer, and it was sooooo gooood, but I was so tired from travelling and I was dozing off towards the end of it 
Are there any shows you’re planning to see next? 
Balkan is a very broad definition, and while Romania is not geographically Balkan, I feel like culturally we fit in.
but the “white bean hummus”, which I assume to mean some sort of bean spread, sounds good. Jalapeños are decidedly not Balkan tho lol.
I am gonna look into tasting menus near me now!
Food is my bestie, haha.
I’ll make sure to grab that as well!
it serves my favorite pasta outside of Italy and I’ve never had a single bad meal from there. I’m lucky that there are branches in Jakarta, because as far as I’m aware, there are hardly any other branches outside of Japan.
we compensate for the lack of protein with tons of rice to fill us up 
those are always insane
I know what flavors to look out for next time if I get the chance!
