"No thanks, I've had more caviar than I can possibly eat."

[rivka]

I've only ever said that twice. I hope to live long enough, and be fortunate enough, to say it many more times. Knowing Ben seems to help.

Every once in a while, he visits his brother in New York and goes to the Russian grocery stores there. Twice now, he's served me a dinner of Russian delicacies: pilmenyi, tiny whole fish, pickled green tomatoes, different kinds of vinegary sauerkraut, assorted Russian candies and pastries (particularly the chocolates called Mishka, of course, because of Misha), Georgian wines and brandies... and caviar. Huge tubs of caviar. I'm used to seeing caviar doled out by the tiny spoonful, and there's something overwhelming, and yet marvelous, about being provided with caviar by the cupful.

This isn't the tiny black Beluga caviar, of course - teaching for Sun pays well, but not that well. Tonight we had one tub of salmon caviar and another of smaller, less defined, more intensely fishy-flavored orange caviar for which Ben couldn't remember the English name. He cut slices of crusty French bread, buttered them thickly, and piled the caviar on with abandon. It was marvelous. I'm not quite sure, but I think I might have had four or five slices. More caviar than I could possibly eat. And I got to take the leftovers home.

I also made an odd discovery. We were talking about diminutives of Russian names - for example, Mishka is the friendly form of the name Misha, and Mishinka would be the diminutive - not what your friends would call you, but what perhaps your grandmother would call you. And in the process of the conversation, I discovered that "Ben" isn't his real name - it's an Anglicization of the name he was given in Russia, Vinya. His brother (the only family member he still sees) calls him Vinya even today. I was left blinking and saying "But I thought I knew your name."

I don't know why this feels so disorienting. I mean, there are plenty of people who just know me as "Rivka" and don't even know that my legal name is something different. And I knew, for example, that he'd changed his middle name from Abramovitch to Abram. But it's very strange to think that he grew up having a first name that I had never heard before tonight. Vinya. I think I'll still call him Ben.

Comments

[lcohen]

if you're ever in chicago and springing for a wonderful, expensive meal, a restaurant called Tru has this caviar staircase. 8 levels, four with different types of caviar (yes, small amounts, alas)--i remember one was wasabi-infused, and four levels with stuff to put on your caviar as you eat it on the toast points that accompany the staircase--capers, onion maybe?, egg i think, and something else--anyway, not enough that you'll be stuffed, but dramatic and delicious.