119. Champagne on a Budget

Day 119

Location 21: Skopje, North Macedonia

Feb. 27, 2023

Today I arrived in Skopje (pronounced "Sko-pyuh"). This marks the second straight destination where, as of one month ago, I had no idea the place even existed.

While in my Skopje Airbnb listening to Cocoa Butter, a hip-hop song by Action Bronson, my ears perked up at the lyrics:

Go visit fam with no problems - on some normal shit. Straight from Skopje, Macedonia, the floral lit.

I'd heard the song countless times, but my brain had never registered that particular line until I'd visited Skopje.

This is a classic instance of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (i.e. frequency bias); like how right after the first time you watch a movie, you'll start noticing references to that movie everywhere. For example, imagine you just watched Jaws for the first time, and now you keep noticing people making variations of the joke "we're gonna need a bigger bowl" while making a salad or something, which makes you want to drown those people...like you're the shark from Jaws.

It turns out that Action's family, who is Albanian, lives here in Skopje. Thus, his mention of the Balkan city.

A quick story: While growing up, my grandparents would often take me to Roll-N-Roaster, a fast-food joint in Brooklyn. The spot is renowned for their $6.45 roast beef sandwich and slogan "cheez on anything you pleez." Upon each visit, we'd re-discover the restaurant's menu anomoly: a $59.95 bottle of Moet champagne, which would invariably beg the same two questions: (1) who the hell is ordering a bottle of Moet champagne here?! and (2) do they really think a person exists that's eager enough to splurge on a $59.95 bottle of champagne, but too fiscally responsible to shell out the extra .05¢ for a $60.00 bottle?

Thanks to Action Bronson's food documentary tv show, Fuck, That's Delicious, we now at least have an answer to question #1. Watch below to see the rapper formerly known as Arian Asllanni visit the famed Roll-N-Roaster and drink multiple bottles of their not-so-famed champagne while listing New York City scenarios that warrant celebrating with some bubbly.

Also, after digging through the archives, I uncovered this video of my grandma absolutely devouring a roast beef sandwich along with a poll I posted to Instagram on whether or not we should try the champagne.