Today you get an image from inside dear Grand Central Terminal as a wink to my friend Abbie Strassler, who lives in New York and has the enviable title of General Manager for the national tour of "Spring Awakening." I have a lot of catching up to do with Abbie; we were young lasses in classes in the "golden age" of life in Connecticut (the men went off to Manhattan every day; the women ran the town). Abbie and I are coming up on our "ahem" high school reunion in a few weeks, and I want to know how she made it to Broadway. To whet my appetite, she told me a funny story involving food and manners.
"Back in 1983, I was the company manager for "The King and I" starring Yul Brynner. He and his new young wife invited me out for dinner - Japanese food. Remember it was 1983 - sushi was just getting its foot in the door. I had been getting lessons on chopsticks from the kids in the show but was nowhere near proficient nor well versed in what to eat. So his wife asked me to try Uni (sea urchin), which I now have learned is an acquired taste. Just swallowing was an effort. Next on the menu was Sabu Sabu, the brothy soup where you sort of cook the meat in the broth, and it has the longest noodles I've ever seen. So when I was asked if I wanted noodles (all I could think of was, how do you eat them with chopsticks?), I said I didn't eat noodles. Imagine someone who didn't eat noodles!"
Yes Abbie, food does have that way of leveling us at times when we're trying to be gracious and gastronomically suave. Have you ever dropped a crab cake and the entire pile of slaw it was nesting on into your dinner napkin - while being interviewed for a high-profile job? I have. My strategy? Keep talking. Nobody saw you flip the meal into your lap.
Did I get the job? If the crab cake escaped my grasp, imagine how skillfully the opportunity brushed by.
See you at the reunion, Abbie. I'll be the one in the red pillbox hat. I will not be eating.
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