Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Men Like to Hunt: the Cachet of Hidden Kitchen

A brief mention in a post three weeks ago that I had been to Hidden Kitchen garnered ten or so hungry emails:

How was it?
Can you get me in?
Oh my oh my oh my god! (etc.)
The panty-throwing reaction prompted me to write about it for Gridskipper. Not only about the food (here), but also the chefs' favorite places to shop around the city (here).

There were more undies in my in-box this morning, and a whole pile of them waiting on the electronic doorstep of Hidden Kitchen.

And every wet knicker reminds me of one of the cardinal rules of dating: RUN AWAY.

When I moved out of my marriage bed and into a shared apartment, my roommate Kate had a bookshelf stacked with (plenty of high-quality literature and some) classic dating tomes. And so I spent those first nights, when I wasn't hyper-ventilating, turning the pages of He's Just Not That Into You.

This of course brought on more hyper-ventilating.

Surely, I thought to myself, I have more to offer than "not answering the phone."

"Utter rubbish," declared Catherine, who read the book as soon as I'd finished it. Along with Kate, we decided that while some girls might need gimmicks - hiding themselves and cultivating mystery - we were interesting enough to be exempt from the rules.

Months later I sat across from a man who told me "Men like to hunt."

He then advised me to be "more like a gazelle."


I stopped inviting him to free concerts after that.

Who among you will wager on whether he's booked at Hidden Kitchen?

8 comments:

Parisienne said...

Ouch. Your roommate has one dating book. That she inherited from her former roommate. And she has some mystery I hope ;) Although if you should happen upon any tricks and gimmicks that do not involve members of the antelope species, I am all ears...

Le Meg said...

Alright, alright... it's true that I am prone to exaggeration.

See correction above :)

Anonymous said...

Oh he is so setting himself up to answers like : And women like their men worshiping them in adoration and silence.

Le Meg said...

I think my snappy comeback consisted of a puzzled look and the muttering of "buhhhhhh?"

Then again, expecting worship from men is just as silly as wanting women to be mysterious, non?

Anonymous said...

You know what? You're great...
Till now I used to think sadly he's just not that into me... but from now, I'll think Is that f-----g a-----e that lazy?.
I feel better. Thanx lemeg.


About playing Hide&Seek with dates: at first you thinks it's very clever, then you realize that most of the times, you hide so well that nobody ever seek.

Anonymous said...

That "men like to hunt" thing? THAT is rubbish as well. Where are all these men who want to pursue me? How come I keep meeting men who seem to be waiting for ME to make the first move? What's up with THAT?

I have to say, as silly as He's Just Not That Into You is on many levels, there's more than a grain of truth in it, once you get past the kitsch. It helped me get over an Aussie in April in RECORD time because I was able to refer back to the HJNTIY line of thought, and thus NOT waste any time agonizing over why he pulled a sudden disappearing act... without so much as an uncomfortable texto or email saying "it's not you, it's me". In the past I'd have blamed myself and spent weeks wondering what I could have done differently. Not this time. Wish I'd had that damn book 25 years ago. I could have saved myself a near nervous breakdown and years of therapy and other self-help trash.

Anonymous said...

Sexiest gazelle ever!

Le Meg said...

Update!

My sources at Hidden Kitchen tell me that the Hunter dined there last week.

Did they serve game, I wonder?