One person's New York is another person's biking
Last night we checked out a restaurant in Pflugerville Steve has long been hearing rave reviews about: Hungarian House / European Bistro.
It was tasty and classy. I ordered dishes as far as possible removed from a normal American dining experience: duck liver with a beet salad and steamed red cabbage. I'm not a fan of cabbage, but the cooks at this place actually knew how to make cabbage tasty! That's no small feat. (So as not to scare away potential diners, I should mention they also have "normal" food like pork chops. :-)) And the beet salad was a total beauty, a round ball of shredded purple beet goodness garnished with purple cabbage leaves. And before that, I had cherry soup! Cherry soup! With real, plump cheries floating in it. Cold, slightly sweetish, based on yogurt or cream, it resembled a smoothie, but "cherry soup" sounds so much fancier than a smoothie. :-) Then there were crepes for dessert. Food was excellent, and the restaurant decor was supposed to radiate "Old World" class, the splendor of a bygone era. It was furnished with chairs that looked vaguely 19th century, and a big, antique(-inspired?), china cabinet. I'm not a fan of antiques, but if they have their place, this was definitely it.
After we've eaten, a woman who Steve thought was the owner of the restaurant, personally said good bye and thanks to us.
And then she asked me: "Are you going biking"?
"Uh, no," I couldn't think of anything else to say.
"You look like you're going biking", she said. I was wearing the same outfit that a woman at Fry's a couple of months ago called "very New York". I mentioned that incident in the last paragraph of this post. Umm, I thought, the biking comment may be right on the money: my black leggings, mock-Adidas-striped high-heeled sneaker-pumps and backpack may be screaming "a cyclist". :-) I guess one person's New York is another person's biking. :-) I realize that my fashion statements sometimes miss the boat, and I don't fault the restaurant owner for inadvertently pointing it out. It's just that it clashed a bit with the Old World atmosphere. :-) This remark she made is part of a phenomenon I see as uniquely American. It was only in the US that I've experienced strangers coming up to me and making "cute" comments that turn out unintentionally awkward. I have not experienced this in Europe. (At least not in my $home_country. And it's not like I've lived everywhere in Europe, much less everywhere in the world, so I really shouldn't make generalizations, but it's so tempting. :-)) On the other hand, outright rudeness... I've experienced quite a bit of it back there, and I can't say it's preferable. But this was different. This was one of those comments that are supposed to be cute, funny, or perceptive, but instead come out rather unflattering towards the recipient (like the comment made by the cashier in the same post I refer to above).
Another example: 10 years ago in Indiana, I was standing in line at a checkout in a grocery store. I had only two items in my basket: milk and broccoli. A guy behind me said: are you going wash that broccoli down with milk? (Not in those exact words, but to the same effect.) Part of me wanted to ask him, if I bought broccoli and Lysol, would he still ask me if I was going to wash broccoli down with Lysol? :-) Another part of me berated myself for doing something so "ridiculous" as buying broccoli and milk at the same time. (That part knows better now. :-)) As a result, I didn't say anything.
No, I'm not complaining and I'm not offended -- it would be rather petty to complain about such things, wouldn't it? So why am I mentioning this at all? Well, actually, I think pettiness can be a source of inspiration for a writer. :-) Really, I am determined to collect real-life anecdotes like this one, and work them into my stories one day. Because I can't make up things like that myself. Even though episodes like this would work much better in chick lit than science fiction, but... we'll see. So, yay pettiness! I shall now have an excuse to collect every awkward episode, every unintentional slight! :-)
It was tasty and classy. I ordered dishes as far as possible removed from a normal American dining experience: duck liver with a beet salad and steamed red cabbage. I'm not a fan of cabbage, but the cooks at this place actually knew how to make cabbage tasty! That's no small feat. (So as not to scare away potential diners, I should mention they also have "normal" food like pork chops. :-)) And the beet salad was a total beauty, a round ball of shredded purple beet goodness garnished with purple cabbage leaves. And before that, I had cherry soup! Cherry soup! With real, plump cheries floating in it. Cold, slightly sweetish, based on yogurt or cream, it resembled a smoothie, but "cherry soup" sounds so much fancier than a smoothie. :-) Then there were crepes for dessert. Food was excellent, and the restaurant decor was supposed to radiate "Old World" class, the splendor of a bygone era. It was furnished with chairs that looked vaguely 19th century, and a big, antique(-inspired?), china cabinet. I'm not a fan of antiques, but if they have their place, this was definitely it.
After we've eaten, a woman who Steve thought was the owner of the restaurant, personally said good bye and thanks to us.
And then she asked me: "Are you going biking"?
"Uh, no," I couldn't think of anything else to say.
"You look like you're going biking", she said. I was wearing the same outfit that a woman at Fry's a couple of months ago called "very New York". I mentioned that incident in the last paragraph of this post. Umm, I thought, the biking comment may be right on the money: my black leggings, mock-Adidas-striped high-heeled sneaker-pumps and backpack may be screaming "a cyclist". :-) I guess one person's New York is another person's biking. :-) I realize that my fashion statements sometimes miss the boat, and I don't fault the restaurant owner for inadvertently pointing it out. It's just that it clashed a bit with the Old World atmosphere. :-) This remark she made is part of a phenomenon I see as uniquely American. It was only in the US that I've experienced strangers coming up to me and making "cute" comments that turn out unintentionally awkward. I have not experienced this in Europe. (At least not in my $home_country. And it's not like I've lived everywhere in Europe, much less everywhere in the world, so I really shouldn't make generalizations, but it's so tempting. :-)) On the other hand, outright rudeness... I've experienced quite a bit of it back there, and I can't say it's preferable. But this was different. This was one of those comments that are supposed to be cute, funny, or perceptive, but instead come out rather unflattering towards the recipient (like the comment made by the cashier in the same post I refer to above).
Another example: 10 years ago in Indiana, I was standing in line at a checkout in a grocery store. I had only two items in my basket: milk and broccoli. A guy behind me said: are you going wash that broccoli down with milk? (Not in those exact words, but to the same effect.) Part of me wanted to ask him, if I bought broccoli and Lysol, would he still ask me if I was going to wash broccoli down with Lysol? :-) Another part of me berated myself for doing something so "ridiculous" as buying broccoli and milk at the same time. (That part knows better now. :-)) As a result, I didn't say anything.
No, I'm not complaining and I'm not offended -- it would be rather petty to complain about such things, wouldn't it? So why am I mentioning this at all? Well, actually, I think pettiness can be a source of inspiration for a writer. :-) Really, I am determined to collect real-life anecdotes like this one, and work them into my stories one day. Because I can't make up things like that myself. Even though episodes like this would work much better in chick lit than science fiction, but... we'll see. So, yay pettiness! I shall now have an excuse to collect every awkward episode, every unintentional slight! :-)