As I was walking home from my oral proficiency exam today, I happened to pass by a shawarma (or known as shaverma here in Petersburg) kiosk and its alluring, spicy meat smell enticed me to go closer and take a look. Shawarma is notorious in Russia, or at least in Petersburg, for being the perfect drunk food. It’s meaty, it’s somewhat spicy (I guess, I’ve never actually tried shawarma here), and it’s basically the only thing you can get at 4:30 in the morning — they’re usually sold in 24 hour “cafes” or kiosks.
yay food poisoning!
I was, in an understatement, hungry. I felt as if there was a black hole in my stomach and if a stray animal had walked by, I probably would have chased after it with a fork. However, after taking a close look at this particular kiosk’s offerings, I quickly decided to go with my better judgment and not eat the shawarma it had to sell. Call me an unadventurous bore, but the sight of a Central Asian man carving off hunks of pinkish-grey-brown meat from a shapeless skewer just doesn’t do it for me. I also have a phobia of tainted meat — my last run in with bad meat left me not only with my head hung over the toilet but also in terrible delirium (I seriously thought I had to build the Czech Republic from the ground up. I foggily remember crying to my host mom that I had to build the Czech Republic or else there would be no country. She thought I was going to die.)
Also, one of my friends pointed out something particularly disturbing/hilarious to me. While we were in Sochi, there were an obscene amount of stray cats, but not a lot of shawarma stands. However, in Moscow, there are absolutely no stray cats and a ton of shawarma stands. There is a definite correlation between stray cats and shawarma stands. Coincidence? I think not.
Shawarma -- a dangerous thing.
Edit:
Here’s a nice little tidbit for you all: last year, some homeless people sold body parts to a local kebab house. Russia doesn’t really care about consumer safety. As long as it’s somewhat tasty, right?
In St. Petersburg 