Compliments of the Chef

Tuesday we took a nap, then woke up and took a walk to find a place to eat. We came upon a fancy restaurant that had their menu posted in English also, a very small unique place, so we decided it would be our one splurge. I will post a picture of the place. Gary ordered duck, and I ordered chestnut soup and a pasta that had cheese, sundried tomatoes and this round ball type things that were mooshy and tasted like wine. It was all very good, Gary's came with a sauce and also a roasted chestnut and some sort of of applesauce type thing that had lavendar in it I think. But the really funny part is after we ordered the waitress walks up with the fanciest clam appetizer I've ever seen, I was a HUGE clam on a bed of sea salt, with the clam still in the shell, but with some sort of special sauce. She puts it in from of Gary and says "Compliments" I could tell she was very proud to present it to him. He smiled and thanked her in Russian, but I could tell he was terrified, he hates to eat anything like that. So the waitress walks across the room, which is not far at all, to watch, which is not unusual. In Russia they sort of watch you to see if you ask for anything, but they don't approach your table so much. I tasted the sauce and told him it was yummy, and that he had to eat it. I mean it would be bad manners not to. So he's trying to get up the nerve to eat it, and she starts walking across the room to the table near us, and I whisper, in my best ventriliquest way-"She is walking this way, just eat it." So he took the fancy little fork then lifted up the clam, which was HUGE, and sucks it down, oh the look on his face, I told him that watching him eat that clam was worth the money we spent on the meals.