The Guardian’s Eastern Europe reporter has sparked a lively discussion on Twitter by posting photo of a plate of borsch garnished with what he said was dill which he had specifically said he didn’t want in his soup.

Twitter is the go-to place for journalists to debate policies, gain followers and clash with opponents from other political camps. Some even use it to post epic-length threads outlining future books. But the microblogging service is also a good place to share little episodes that shape a person’s life experience in a foreign country.

Shaun Walker, who covers Eastern Europe for the British newspaper Guardian, shared such a tidbit on Sunday, complaining how his rest after a long day of reporting on the Ukrainian presidential election was undermined by a local restaurant. He posted a picture of a borsch served with dill despite opting out of it.

When at the end of a long workday in Kyiv you order borsch without dill, and they bring you this and say “I thought you’d like a little bit” pic.twitter.com/ieex3WCEHf — Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) April 21, 2019

The post sparked a lively discussion. Some commenters doubted Walker’s identification of the herb.

Looks like parsley 🤔 — Illya Kvas (@KvasIllya) April 21, 2019

Others called him out for the culinary heresy of asking for borsch without dill or asking why the obligatory addition of sour cream was missing.

Borsch w/o dill is a heresy. — J.A. Mayer (@manplanyen) April 22, 2019

Walker had a few harsh words for the doubters though.

Honestly don't know how anyone can mistake those spindly fronds for anything else. I'll stop tweeting about dill now. — Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) April 21, 2019

RT’s borsch expert panel has to agree with our British colleague. From what we can see, that was indeed a mixture of dill and parsley floating on his soup. After all, who is a better authority on the matter than a man who literally wrote a report on how dill can ruin any dish.

Meanwhile a small minority of commenters took issue not with Walker’s botanical knowledge but with his command of the English language.

They twisted your arms to write Kyiv, they will teach you to eat dill as well — Julian Hans (@juli_anh) April 22, 2019

Nationalist-minded Ukrainians may insist that the name of their capital should be spelled “Kyiv” mimicking how it sounds in Ukrainian. But last time we checked, the Oxford English Dictionary mentioned this spelling as a side note, not the primary variant.

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