The Foreign Neighbors Gave Me Something Strange and Wished Me a Pleasant Meal — It Looked Nothing Like Food at First

The foreign neighbors gave me this and wished me a pleasant appetite: but it’s something hard and not at all like food, more like an egg.

At first, I was even scared.

The neighbors are foreigners; we hardly communicate, we just greet each other in the elevator. And then one evening, there’s a knock at the door. They’re standing there, smiling, handing me a bag and saying in Russian with an accent:

Enjoy your meal!

I look inside — and there it is… this. Dark, hard, strange things, as if from a museum or a dinosaur movie. They don’t look edible at all. In my hands they’re cold, like stones. I even smelled them — almost no scent.

Is this… food? I asked cautiously.

They nodded, smiling even wider, and left.

I stood in the kitchen for a long time with that bag. Thoughts were spinning in my head: What if this isn’t meant to be eaten at all? What if it’s a joke? What if I’m missing something very important? Putting it in the fridge felt scary; throwing it away felt awkward.

In the end, I went online. I searched by photos, by description, by shape. And when I finally found it, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

It turned out to be a water chestnut.

It’s eaten. You peel it, boil it, and eat it raw as well. In some countries it’s a common food, almost a delicacy. I had simply never seen anything like it in my life.

The next day I met the neighbors and told them I had figured out what it was. They were happy, started explaining something quickly, showing with gestures how to peel it and eat it.

And I caught myself thinking how strange the world is: for some people it’s a frightening, incomprehensible thing, and for others it’s simply “enjoy your meal.”