funny how
lost in the cake station
A literal translation of the conversation that took place between me and the gorgeous dark-eyed Turkish boy working in the Turkish deli just now:
Me: Hi! Can we have two pieces of that, please, to take-with?
Gorgeous dark-eyed Turkish boy: Sure! Rightfully to take-with or simply for underway?
Me: Oh, just for underway please. We can take it on the hand.
Gorgeous dark-eyed Turkish boy: So not packed-in. Does it reach, like this?
Shows me two paper napkins and stands the slices of cake on them.
Me: Yes, that reaches well, thank you beautifully.
Gorgeous dark-eyed Turkish boy: Two Euros please!
Me: Beautiful thank you, little bye-bye!
Gorgeous dark-eyed Turkish boy: Little bye-bye! A beautiful day still!
Elaborate German courtesy plus cultured Turkish hospitality. It’s like a match made in Heaven, if Heaven were an 80s cruise ship with lairy pure wool carpets and a big band.
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Why does that little story sound so deliciously suggestive? “Oh, just for underway please. We can take it on the hand.”
It’s so lovely how they describe it, isn’t it. “Auf die Hand” means “on the hand”, meaning we will eat it as we go… otherwise they pack it most fearsomely and non-biodegradably in endlessly generous layers of paper and tinfoil. I guess cos it is often cold enough that otherwise your food would freeze solid before you got home.
Little bye-bye… ????
So good, isn’t it. Apparently that’s Berlinese, though I may be the only one to label it thus. Instead of Tschüss you say, Tschüssi! “Byebyeling, byebyekins!” Some people funk it up to “Tschüsskovski.” So now I like to say, “Ciaokovski,” too.
A little Heavenly
It was a particularly scrumptious cake. But his sweetness made the cake almost superfluous.