For our last dinner, we went to a small restaurant called Splendido with another of Jennifer and Mark’s friends — a girl our age named Dani (not sure if I spelled that right) who works at USAID with Mark.  Like the crew I met the other night, she seemed like a fun person; the sort you’d want to have in your expat circle of friends.

The food was good but struck me as not quite as good as the other places we’d eaten.  The best was a bowl of fresh peas that came with my chicken.  The dessert parfait, on the other hand, was practically inedible once I got past the layer of whipped cream and vanilla ice cream — it was full of these awful little wafers and artificial strawberry syrop that made me want to gag.  As far as I’m concerned, when it comes to food there’s nothing more disappointing than thinking you’re ordering fresh fruit (because that’s what the waiter says you’ll be getting) and getting artificial syrop instead.  Boo.