English, Menus, & My Few Hours in Philly

<-- a picture of my brother Drew

I returned to St. Louis last Tuesday night at 11pm, or 6am in Madrid. Before arriving to St. Louis I had a 9 hour flight from Madrid and a 6 hour layover in Philadelphia.

Upon arriving to Philly, I met my brother and we went into town for dinner and a walk around town. Granted, I was a bit tired, but my first impressions of the States were of those in the airport and then those that walked by us as we walked around West Philly, not too far from U. Penn. I was surprised to be surrounded by English-speakers and it took me most of the night to figure out that they weren’t all foreign exchange students.

As we sat down to eat, the waiter came and gave of the specials of the evening and Drew (my brother) said that I looked at the waiter with a blank stare, as if I couldn’t fully process much of anything he said. Which is exactly what happened. I’m not quite sure if it’s the fact that I haven’t heard a waiter nor read a menu in English for about a year, or what, but I couldn’t process much of what the menu nor the man had said. So, I asked Drew what he wanted to get and we split a plate of grilled octopus, shrimp scampi, grilled veggies, an avocado and citrus salad, and some tasty red wine. One thing that has never let me down about Philadelphia is the great, gourmet food. And this nice little café lived up to the reputation of fine food, I’ve come to appreciate.