"Well, got the first salary, go through the restaurants"? talking into the phone receiver cheerfully shouted Shir Ali.
"Why are you completely crazy" ?! was heard from the telephone.
"No! I didn't come down! There is a salary, I invite you to walk through two cafe-type cafes. You need to start getting gourmet sometime!" supporting a lively syllable, Shir Ali was promoting his line.
"How many"? was heard from the tube.
"How much"? not understanding what was at stake, Shir Ali answered.
"Fool, how much have you been given money, salaries, how much do you want to spend?" an angry voice was heard from the telephone.
"It's strange how much I invite you, I will pay for everything, and you are so angry!" perplexed Shir Ali.
"No, cousin, you're just an idiot! That's why I'm angry! Do you want to lower your entire salary for food? Become a foodie? Well, you give? !!" the evil voice has now become ironic.
"Enough, Dara, I invite you, and you behave ugly!"
"Salary worth 2,400,000 blackbucks!" it is a good salary!
"Laughing, it's only 120 US dollars and you want to spend it on two restaurants with not very tasty food?" surprised Dara.
"Why not so tasty"? Shir Ali was surprised.
"Because cooks in cheap restaurants have hands growing out of their asses!" came from the telephone.
"Well, restaurants are not cheap!" objected Shir Ali.
"Yeah, he's not cheap, but the cook is cheap" the voice from the phone did not stop.
"Well, what do you not want to go"? offended Shir Ali.
"Why? I want! I just feel sorry for you and your salary, you won't get what you expect for it!"
"Let's take a chance"? suggested with hope in the voice of Shir Ali.
"Well, wait, I'll be back in 25 minutes," came a voice from the telephone receiver.
"Waiting with great interest!" Shir Ali, smiled broadly.
What a fool! Just wasting money! In our capital, cafes cook well only the first months, and then they start to cook not very tasty. Use not very fresh and very high-quality products. Since our entrepreneurs at the level of self-awareness, they could not move from socialism to capitalism. They are stuck in feudalism.
I do not want to talk about politics or economics, but damn it, culinary is connected with it, voluntarily or involuntarily.
Restaurant managers begin to buy cheaper meat, chefs, cook without observing the technological process. Reduce the side dish in order to have time to serve the dish on time, fry over a large fire. They survive the potatoes and meat, thereby spoiling the taste and appearance. But since the complaints system does not work. There has not been a single precedent won in court. And cafes and restaurants belong to big people, ordinary citizens prefer not to quarrel with such people.
Thinking about this, Dara put on light beige sweatpants, put on light summer shoes on a barefoot, light gray, put on a white T-shirt, and a gray short-sleeved checkered shirt. All clothes were on Dara - from China. the factory in Beijing. And the shoes were
locally produced Small-An.
Throwing an electric scooter on his shoulder, Dara went out into the courtyard, opening the gate, and went out into the street.
The sun was breaking through the green foliage. Creating fancy patterns on the roadbed. On both sides of the street, there were cottages, one and two-story. In the entire quarter where Dara lived, there were only three three-story and one five-story private houses. But they were in another part of the block, closer to the shopping streets and private hotels.
Pleasant morning weather. The sun has not yet begun to bake with might and main, only +28 degrees Celsius. A cool breeze blew from the nearby mountains.
On both sides of the street, water was heard flowing in the city canals, fish splashed in them and under the bridge, which was next to the house of Dara's neighbor, a thick muskrat lived.
60 years ago, in 1970, in the capital in the very center of the old city, there were still large and deep ravines, with steep slopes. There were wolves and foxes, and sometimes flocks of wild boars also ran in.
In the center of the city, there were hunting shots, there was a hunt for wolves. But after 10 years, people began to explore the slopes of ravines and there was no place for wild animals.
As Baraz said, in the 50-60s, they say that old caves were found in the ravines and there were underground wells in them. As the old people said, at the bottom of these wells sometimes saw old iron doors, but could not open them. Since they were afraid that the clay well might collapse.
The hunters said that climbing to the very bottom of the ravine, one could see the dark necks of some dungeons in the thickets of thorny bushes.
As they said, these are the exits or entrances to the old city labyrinths, which stretch for tens of kilometers under the old city. But no one checked it.
City of mysteries. Throwing an electric scooter from his shoulder, Dara straightened the wheels, laid it on the ground, climbed onto it, and rolled it to the cousin's house.
There were few good cars, he rode inside the block, looked around on beautiful houses, and parked next to jeeps, audio, BMWs, Mercedes, Bentley luxury cars, Lexus cars, Maybachs.
And before, ordinary engineers lived here, workers from factories, workers from factories. Now their homes and plots were bought by wealthy people. But it's interesting how in a country where the average wage in the capital is $ 250, where stocks that generate good income are not sold on exchanges, you can build houses for $ 500,000 and up to $ 5 million. There were thousands of such houses in the capital.
It always shocked Dara. To which Shir Ali and his other friends simply smiled broadly ...
Reflecting on all this, Dara did not notice how he arrived at the gates of Shir Ali's house. And he sat on a bench in the form of a sawn tree. Rather, on an oak trunk. Previously, their quarter was buried in the greenery of trees. But over the past 20 years after gaining sovereignty, the former colony, for some reason, zealously began to cut trees in cities and villages.
Previously, 5000 old trees grew in the capital, whose age was from 150 to 350 years. Over 20 years, no more than 35 trees remained.
"Well, brother, let's go"? Shir Ali said yawning.
"Let's not go, but let's go," Dara answered with a question.
"Yeah, let's go, there's one interesting restaurant in about 30 minutes, it's Turkish, we'll take a pierzola * try it!"
"I found good reviews about the restaurant, though they're already 2-3 years old, the restaurant has changed names, cooks, but they are still preparing Turkish cuisine!" Shir Ali said with confidence in his voice.
"The main thing is that the pierzola is prepared in 20 minutes, so we will not wait long!"
"Yeah, and this is the only plus of this? You didn't think why the restaurant changed the chef and the name of the restaurant?" noted Dara with reproach.
"Well, that just doesn't happen!" Shir Ali was still cheerfully repeating.
"Well, well, you're an optimist! Most likely the name was changed due to the fact that the restaurant did not comply with the 100 percent franchise technology, so the name was changed," Dara shared his opinion skeptically.
"Well, why are you such a pessimist? You study at the university, why do you look cynically at the world?" not understanding the cousin said Shir Ali.
"Because we live, damn it, in a society where we are not used to working 100 percent constantly, from year to year. It's not profitable! We need to have time to get money and run away! Otherwise, they will run over and take away the business!" evil, almost shouting, Dara broke.
"Yes, that was the case during the time of the hurray, but now the times are different!" objected Shir Ali.
"Well, let's see who is right."
They walked and chatted on different topics. Dara was pessimistic, while Shir Ali glowed with happiness. One could say about Dara that when he saw a half-filled glass, he said with his whole expression "and the glass is half empty"!
Whereas Shir Ali thought "that the glass is half full"!
Dara, did not believe people. Shir Ali believed that they might display noble traits.
Each of them experienced its own level of political and clan repression. Everyone had their own experience. But Dara, embittered, became more greedy and thrifty. And Shir Ali became more open, he sought to believe in people, in their humanistic essence.
Who was right? Who was wrong? Only time could show!
30 minutes passed unnoticed.
And then two cousins stood in front of the restaurant entrance.
"Do you know how to determine that a restaurant in the East is good?" suddenly asked Dara, his older cousin.
"Well, see the reviews on the Internet" ?!
"Nah, you need to see if there is a big queue near the restaurant! If a lot of people eat, then they cook well, you need to ask taxi drivers about this restaurant, they know for sure!"
"Although, they may be interested in advertising covertly a restaurant, so the main thing is to have people waiting in line to eat," summed up Dara.
"Well, that makes sense," Shir Ali agreed with him.
"Now look at the decoration of the restaurant. It looks too catchy, it differs in architectural style from other buildings!"
"This is a minus, you are too blackened" That is shocking! What the hell are the visitors on the site in front of the restaurant greeted by two European lions, with their tongues hanging out "???
"Can you explain this to me" ??? Dara was unhappy with what he saw.
"Well ... hell knows why, okay, don't cling to details," Shir Ali tried to smooth the situation.
"No, well, look at the hell, monograms and gold stucco decorations are stuck on the building. Look at the neighboring building, it is strict, in a classic style, everything is clear, the facade plaster is light mango. Four floors. But look at the neighboring building .. again, what the hell! "
Shir Ali laughed, saw his eyes pulled out, cousin.
In front of them stood a seven-story building, all entwined with stucco molding, it was allucobond new material, but everything looked so tasteless, clumsy. And before the entrance to the building there were steps, on two sides of which stood elephants on their hind legs! And they had pearls in their mouths!
The color of the plastic - aluminum was white, and the windows were dark blue. Whereas the surrounding houses had a mango color palette. This building was out of tune.
"Yes! I have no words ... damn it, but somehow I really want to swear!" barely restrained Dara.
"Well, this is the old style, it was in fashion when people only got a lot of money, they wanted changes, the old style of minimalism, they wanted the baroque style."
"But what happened, probably a private bank?"
"Yes, look, so there is a bank!" "Dara, so don't swear."
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* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ZKPKwZNu8