The Fruit Salad, the Wine Glasses and the Three Minute Egg

A friend of mine who is known for her perspicacity and sharp wit told me a story that is meant too illustrate the validity of first impressions.

Her third ex-husband initially showed a lot of promise, but within the first weeks of her marriage, she feels now that she should have known that the relationship was doomed to fail. They'd decided to celebrate the beginning of their married life with a dinner party. He offered to prepare the dessert. "Good", she replied, "but keep it simple. People like something simple to end the evening meal". She suggested a fruit salad. He readily agreed.

Later to her horror and amazement she saw him, banana and knife in hand, looking up a recipe book.... As she now relates, she should have known way back then that this man was not for her.

I had a similar experience. Some years ago, at the start of a brand new relationship, we were at the local Ikea buying items for a brand new apartment. As a matter of course, when pushing the trolley through the glassware section, I picked up two wine glasses without further thought. "What are those for?" my new lover asked. Like my friend, I should have known way back then...

Yet another friend was pleased when her new husband offered to cook breakfast. After he spent 40 minutes cooking a three minute egg, she called me in tears to report her horrified discovery about her newly-wed man.

The fruit salad, the wine glasses, the three minute egg - they all illustrate the fact that early impressions should be taken more note of and not dismissed because of the weird misguided beliefs that women typically have in tradition, fairness and loyalty and the transient importance of imagined love.

So what's this got to do with New York?

When I first visited New York in November 1993 I was enchanted with the place. Coming from several month spent in the corn-drenched Mid West I'd despaired of finding anywhere in America that felt like home. New York reminded me of Melbourne - a larger-than-life Melbourne on speed.

I remember wandering down Broadway and into Little Italy, amazed to find restaurants that resembled those back home. After months in the Mid West, even New York coffee was acceptable. I was enchanted with the ethnic diversity, the crowds, the buzz, the stores and the ambience in general.

The years and daily drudge of life take their toll. It is easy to become jaded here and to accept as normal what one once found enchanting. Many of the things I first liked about New York became annoyances. Crowds of people jamming entrances to subways, the constant buzz seeming to allow no peace, the rush and quest for money unsettling the soul which yearned for the tranquility and raggedness of the Australian bush and coastline.

Now, long break away and a return to Manhattan has allowed me to revisit my first impressions. Once again I find New York enchanting and exhilarating. Sure, it can be annoying, but I have to say it is one of my kind of towns.

I knew way back when what this city had to offer, and I was right.

Ho Hum

With the approach of the Sydney Olympics Australia is the rage here. Last week PBS screened four evenings of Robert Hughes' series - "The Fatal Shore".

Like Clive James and Germaine Greer, Hughes appears to have lost touch with his native land, and sees Australia in the context of the Australia he knew 35 years ago. Having been away from the country for three and a half decades he takes simplistic approach of regarding Australia as a collection of fifties-thinking white Anglo Saxon stereotypes.

Many Australians were not even alive when Hughes left his native land many years ago, yet all are judged in light of his limited experiences. Hughes portrays Australia as a land of wowsers - people who dislike other people having fun, a land of bigots, and a land of narrow minded monarchists with little concern for the indigenous people or immigrants.

By giving viewing time to the likes of Bruce Ruxton and Pauline Hanson he does little credit to his own credibility, and in any case we've heard it all before. Your average Australian has been complaining about closed wowserish attitudes for decades. We don't need Hughes, any more than we need Hanson or Ruxton, to unabashedly and unfairly embarrass us in the eyes of the world.

Cultural Diversity

I'd never been to Brooklyn, so it was somewhat of an experienced when we stepped out of the subway at 9:00 PM at Sheepshead Bay. With the white stretch limos on the road and the homeless on the sidewalk, I felt as though the mob was just around the corner, and it was with some trepidation that I entered the Russian nightclub Rasputin, situated on Avenue X.

I should not have worried. We were in for a most enjoyable evening's entertainment, I recommend Rasputin, especially for its Cabaret. The evening we were there, the show was "The Faces of the World" - a light-hearted cabaret taking off the different dress and icons of the peoples of a number of different cultures. In between blankets of darkness, the strobe lights would shine on half a dozen or so heavily and artistically costumed dancers cleverly mimicking the people of the different cities and countries. I particularly liked the London act. The lights were still off when a BBC-sounding announcer read, "The forecast in London today is rain". This was followed by six sixties-looking dancers dressed in silver plastic umbrellas, shiny little black boots and little else, frantically tap-dancing to the song, "I'm Singing in the Rain". There was a French routine danced to Piaf, and New York, backgrounded with Sinatra; the Japanese with literally branches of cherry blossom jammed in the back of kimonos, and the Navaho nymphets; Austrian beer drinkers and white fur-clad Moscovites, and more.

Sitting in the Rasputin, watching the cabaret I thought of my two cities - New York and Melbourne, and how culturally diverse they are. Not only within, but between themselves.

In Australia, we soul-search and question our attitude and treatment of different ethnic groups. How can we facilitate the integration of people from afar into Australia and at the same time ensure they retain their culture?

In New York there's little of this questioning. People come here to make a buck. They are here and that's it. There's no time or inclination worry about the issues of assimilation and integration. Multiculturalism is more or less accepted without thought or rationalization.

But back to the Rasputin - it is well worth the 45 minute subway trek from Manhattan. Like Eight Mile Creek there were mistakes made by staff. One of the party completely missed out on her main course. The dish she'd ordered was not available, but the waiter didn't bother or forgot to tell her so that she could not reorder in time to eat another dish of her choice with the rest of us. Another guest's "main" arrived with the other "starters". But the entertainment more than made up for these errors, and the night was not spoiled by the mealtime mess-ups.

A promo given out the door gives notice of "a new season with sensational masterpiece of all times, featuring 'Whatever'"

Whatever!

New York
September 10th 2000

Your Questions and Comments

David an Australian living in New York emailed:

I liked your Australian taxi stories, and it made me think of one of my own. I caught a lot of cabs last time I went home to Adelaide. I was surprised that so many of the taxi drivers were very cold, not the chatty cabbies that I remembered from when I lived there. I found out what I was doing to offend them when one cab driver told me off for sitting in the back seat, with the words "so I'm not good enough to sit next to." As a man catching a cab by myself, to sit in the back was giving myself airs and graces, in effect treating the cabbie as a servant, instead of a fellow bloke to have yarn with. I was forgiven when I told him I'd been liven in America for some time, it being agreed if you stayed over there too long you were bound to pick up some bad habits.

If you're going to Eight Mile Creek you might be interested in the following article, which compares the restaurant to that chain horror Outback Steakhouse. The Soho restaurant comes off the better in comparison, despite the lack of Bloomin' Onions. - http://www.salon.com/travel/food/feature/2000/02/25/aussie/index.html

I highly recommend the place. I've been there a couple of times, and the food was very good. Far better than you'd expect for a restaurant run by a couple of brothers from Whyalla, which is perhaps the least gourmet town I can think of.

Your taxi story reminds me of a police story. I'm told, that unlike in Australia, where it is considered good manners, it is threatening here, and not done at all, to get out of the car and stand next to the police officer, if pulled up. - Another example of the blatant egalitarianism of Australian society. Re Eight Mile Creek - you no doubt now have read my review in last week's issue.

Allan an Australian living in Las Vegas emailed:

I am an Aussie working for a casino company in Las Vegas. I recently took my American wife with me on a trip home to Australia and we ate lots of Aussie sausages and meat pies. Now we are both craving them and we can't get them here. Do you know of somewhere we can purchase them or get recipes to make them?

I dont know of anywhere in Las Vegas, Allan. You could try the various Australian online stores - see Australians Abroad Shopping. And maybe some other readers will write in with suggestions.

"Puzzled" emailed:

Last week I had occasion to take the Shelter Island ferry "out east" as they say in New York. I was very surprised to see that the ferry was named, "The Southern Cross".Does this have anything to do with the presence of Robert Hughes on the island?

I do not know, Puzzled. Maybe a reader can write in with an answer.

CT from NJ emailed:

I had to write and tell you how much I enjoyed the taxicab/wm story. Started off my day just right!

Thanks CT. Positive feedback always appreciated!