Disha's perspective: This was the first picture I saw on Anthony's profile, and I thought "what a cute guy. Oh wait, the other guys look cute too. Wait a minute...they're all him!" Anthony seemed like a guy with some good creative humor, so I swiped right and we matched instantly!
Disha's perspective: To start a conversation, I chose to use a pre-written prompt about what flavor of ice cream is your favorite? This was fortunate because Anthony loves ice cream. He responded with a full paragraph about how ice cream can't be distilled to a single favorite flavor. This is a situational question with various answers depending on the mood. For example, vanilla can be seen as the ice cream aficionado's best flavor because it is the base flavor that the majority of ice cream flavors are based around. And Anthony loves chocolate, so any ice cream that incorporates chocolate gets bonus points. Nuts can add texture but if used poorly, they can add unwanted astringent flavors or grainy textures.
I was enthused by this sort of unexpected response and decided that I wanted to meet this guy who had such strong opinions on food - one of my passions!
Anthony's perspective: We met up for lunch at So Kong Dong, a Korean restaurant where we chatted over some tofu soup and vegetarian appetizers. As usual, I was pretty awkward at making conversation and the silent lulls were filled by us sipping on extremely hot tea. Despite the awkwardness, we learned quite a bit about each other and opted to try for a second date!
Anthony's perspective (Date #2): This date went much worse! In order to accommodate Disha's vegetarian diet, I picked a popular vegan spot in the heart of Atlanta, well-liked by the vegan/vegetarian community. Well, quite the opposite- all the food was “raw vegan” meaning nothing was cooked. We tried the "Mandingo Wrap," yeah, not good stuff. And to top it all, it started raining and there was nowhere else to go so we ended up at a thrift store where Disha had me try on Hawaiian shirts for fun! We tried to make the best of it!
Disha's perspective: (Date #3): I wasn’t ready to give up just yet and one Friday on a whim, I texted Anthony to meet up and we had dinner together at an Indian restaurant. Our conversation topics ranged from previous bad dates to human psychology to TV shows we like. I knew then that Anthony was highly intellectual, and I really enjoyed our talk. Afterwards, I drove Anthony back to the train station where he had parked his car, and Anthony still didn't make any moves. He later told me it was because he was looking for signs and didn't want to be too forward. I thought that was so cute and considerate for him, just respecting me and taking things slow. I wanted to keep seeing him!
Disha's Perspective (Date #4): I invited Anthony over to my apartment for some home-made food which he says he thoroughly enjoyed. We watched an episode of Black Mirror which was a little too much for him, but he was a trooper and sat through it all! Then he patiently listened to me talk about my career goals and we ended the night with a goodbye kiss. (Still no moves made!)
Anthony's perspective (Date #5): Disha asked to see what sort of cooking Anthony was capable of, so I invited her over for my famous boxed Kraft macaroni and cheese, since she had never had it before. I'm sure it was thoroughly disappointing, especially to a foodie like Disha, but Disha loved my bad jokes and striking good looks, so we decided to keep hanging out. I asked her out officially on Feb 8th 2020 and the rest is history!
We love to host our friends over to our house for food, drinks and a good time. We have a huge collection of board games, and we love to get competitive on the game table. Anthony bags the win most of the time, but Disha kicks his ass at Sushi Go. In a couple years, our plan is to take an extended sabbatical to travel the world together!
