An Afternoon Tea Chapter

I find it quite ironic that after spending just over a decade living in Britain, it is here in NYC that I have had my first experiences of the supremely British tradition of taking afternoon tea. This tradition suits me so well, and warms me up (not just in the literal sense) so much that I want to share my experiences with all you so-rushed-off-your-feet-that-you-may-be-looking-for-a-way-to-rediscover-tranquility-without-going-to-yoga New Yorkers, and all you British who have only experienced tea in the "good ole cuppa" format. I adore both yoga and a cuppa, but let me tell you, taking afternoon tea is my new novelty past-time -- not to be confused with high tea, which is a different ceremony altogether.

I first googled afternoon tea when my sister told me that she and my parents had taken high tea in London and enjoyed it enormously. (Just a little aside regarding googling -- yelp.com is a new brilliant discovery for me!) At the time, I was looking for something unique and romantic to do for the man that I am dating. His birthday was coming up, and I really wanted to introduce him to something he wouldn't yet have done in NYC, and I thought that having some sort of tea ceremony (he loves tea) may be the ticket. As I researched, I found many interesting tea places, but nothing quite fit the bill. They were either too cutesy, or didn't serve enough food, or served enough food but didn't have a large enough tea selection, or were totally out of the way (my second surprise was a murder mystery scavenger hunt at the Metropolitan Museum in the evening and I didn't want to venture out too far from the area. The scavenger hunt was so awesome, I may need to write a blog about it). I am a notorious stickler when it comes to making plans, and if I was going to experience afternoon tea and treat my beau to it properly, it was going to be exactly what I wanted, dammit. I have tendency to stray from the mainstream, and as I looked at menu after menu of traditional afternoon tea, I wasn't quite sold, and felt as if there was just a little something lacking. Thanks to yelp.com, I eventually found a place right in midtown Manhattan called Radiance Tea House. It is not an old-fashioned English tea shop, but a contemporary Chinese tea house, and their afternoon tea menu is an Asian take on a British tradition: dumplings instead of finger sandwiches, mochi instead of cake, and edamame instead of clotted cream! WOW! My date and I both love Asian dining, and so this looked just perfect, with the right amount of uniqueness, AND the tea menu was HUGE.

I booked us into afternoon tea a month in advance (I told you, I am a freak when plans have to be made) and decided to give Radiance a test run one day when I was not on a schedule and in the mood to enjoy my book over a nice pot of luxurious tea. Author C.S. Lewis said, "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me," and he expresses my sentiments on books and tea precisely. It had been awhile since I'd had the time (and attention-span) to get lost in a good book in between perfect sips of tea, and I was so excited to return to that inner-nook of comfort and solitude. My experience at Radiance was absolutely delightful. I walked out of the noisy, determined city into a room where the pressures of time and agendas were forgotten, or, at least, temporarily ignored, and was immediately greeted by a waitress whose smile was as genuine as it was broad. I ordered a pot of Taiwanese Oolong tea called Golden Lily, which they served with a little green tea digestive biscuit for me to munch on while I was waiting for my food. The tea is sipped from these adorable little glass cups, and they give you enough tea leaves for as many brews as you like, though even I, who can consume copious amounts, only needed one pot during my meal. To eat, instead of having the afternoon tea menu, I ordered a la carte and had a rice box, which came with your choice of 3 different rice balls. I chose wasabi shrimp (what a kick!), spicy salmon (wrapped in soy paper, yum!), and sour plum (wrapped in nori seaweed and absolutely gorgeous). The box also included a side salad that came with HOMEMADE FROM SCRATCH dressing which was delicious. Yum yum yum!!! Every bite and sip was like discovering a whole new joy each time! For dessert, I ordered the mochi platter which came with your choice of 5 different flavors, and I picked honeydew, lychee (which had actual lychee bits inside!), taro, black sesame, and green tea, the last being my favorite and one of the most intense and unique tastes I've ever experienced. The mochi was also made from scratch, and I daresay it was the best mochi I've ever had, and I've had alot of mochi in my day!

I was absolutely stuffed after dessert. I was full of rice and tea and joy and niceties and homemade goodness. Gosh, was I CONTENT. I absolutely couldn't wait to come back for my afternoon tea date (so obviously I went back TWO MORE TIMES before my date and keeping my discovery a secret from him was a challenge!) and walked out of my little oasis not with a bounce in my step, but rather a sway in my stride -- and a halftime sway at that. I felt a physical manifestation of "inner-peace;" that feeling that you have in your muscles after a great massage is what I felt on the inside and for the rest of the day I just sort of floated around in my little glowing bubble of harmony.

"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea," (Henry James, "Portrait of a Lady") so if you find an hour or so when you have some time to relax, or you are looking for an excuse to catch up with a good friend, or even just catch up with yourself, then I hope my musings will inspire you to treat yourself to take afternoon tea. Okakura, Japanese scholar and author of "The Book of Tea," said, "Tea is a religion of the art of life," and don't we all deserve a bit of time to ourselves to indulge and worship our own personal art? I say, YES! Let's sip!

copyright (c) 2010-2011 Celia Mei Rubin

What's a Nib?

As the reader may or may not be aware, this author works in a chocolate shop called Pure Dark. As is the case in any job within customer service, it requires patience, a good nature, and great social skills. At Pure Dark, an ability to stifle your giggles should also be a pre-requisite; awkward questions/situations arise frequently.

For the enjoyment of the reader, this author will now recount some Pure Dark employee/customer exchanges that occur on a regular basis:

Pure Dark employee: Hello, and welcome to Pure Dark. We are a chocolate shop that specializes purely in dark chocolate.
Customer: Do you sell white chocolate?

Pure Dark employee (pointing to the ingredients board): Please try our mix of the day, which has all the ingredients written on this board.
Customer (staring straight at the ingredients board): What's in the mix of the day?

Customer (after having been told that we are a dark chocolate shop and then sampled some of our chocolate): I hate dark chocolate.

Pure Dark employee: If you'd like to buy our chocolate, we sell it by the ounce for $2.75 per ounce.
Customer: So, how do you sell it? By the pound?

Pure Dark employee: In this case we have our slabs, which are thick bars of chocolate, and barks, which are flat pieces of chocolate with fruit and nut toppings.
Customer: What's the difference between a slab and a bark?

Pure Dark employee: This mix includes nibs, almonds, chocolate covered almonds, and chocolate covered cherries.
Customer (pointing to a chocolate covered almond): What's this chocolate almond shaped thing.?
Pure Dark employee:...a chocolate covered almond...

Lastly, the one that is asked every hour of every day without fail:
Pure Dark employee: Please try a sample of our chocolate that has caramelized and roasted nibs, which are the crushed up cacao beans.
Customer: What's a nib?

Do people just not listen? Do they listen but not understand? It is truly baffling! There are signs all over the shop that explain what we are and what we sell, are people just impatient and not taking the time to look, really look, and listen, really listen? (Fellow actors, please excuse that lame eluding to acting-methods).

This author would like the reader to know that, however baffled she is by some questions and comments, she really does enjoy interacting with all the diverse people that walk through our doors. 99% of customers are so friendly and a pleasure to serve. There is that 1% that this author cannot quite get her head around...to help the reader understand, she will leave the reader to contemplate the following incident which occurred today:

After having tried a chocolate covered dried cherry, a woman, so besotted with it, pulled her friend over (a woman in her late 60s I presume) to taste it. The friend put the cherry in her mouth and then proceeded to make a face like a 9-year old eating brussel sprouts and said with venom, "I don't like eating dead fruits." When this author and her colleague (both dumfounded) asked her to explain what she meant, she told them that as far as she was concerned, dried fruit is dead fruit, which is disgusting. She then proceeded to tell the Pure Dark employees that she doesn't ever mix her fruits, because if God had wanted us to eat mixed fruit, he would have made mixed fruit trees. The reader may be proud to hear that, this author, who is both agnostic and highly opinionated, managed to keep her mouth shut and let the customer walk away in all her ignorant glory. Boy, did the Pure Dark employees have a great topic of conversation for the rest of the day!

Visit us at Pure Dark (W10th and Bleecker) for more hilarious antics, and, of course, delicious PURELY DARK chocolate.

copyright (c) 2010-2011 Celia Mei Rubin

Awake and Musing in the City That Never Sleeps

I recently updated my blog at www.celiameirubin.com (which is temporarily down due to domain issues, but we should be back up and running in a day or so, please check it out), and it reminded me that I haven't written a note on here in a very long time. With everyone in London wanting to know what I have been getting up to since I moved to NYC, I am inspired to write another one of my musings.

I'm going to start by quoting a couple of my dearest, Robyn North, and Jo Kirkland, who both gave me beautiful diaries as leaving presents in which I could write all the exciting things that I would experience in my time of change. (Jo has also been saying for awhile now that one day I should publish my memoirs with all these notes that I write on here. Memoirs of a Chinese-Jew is most definitely a future project!) Both ladies had left a beautiful inscription in the front cover.

Robyn wrote, "I will miss you, but I will always be inspired by how it wouldn't occur to you to do anything other than follow your heart."

Jo wrote, "I hate seeing you leave, but I love watching you LIVE!"

Don't I have such eloquent friends? Now, in all honesty, those diaries haven't been opened since I landed in NY, until tonight, when I decided to take a bit of "me" time and muse and reflect and share. Re-reading those inscriptions made me glow ever so slightly, as I thought back on a few months ago, when the notion of moving by myself away from home was completely daunting and frightening, and yet something I knew I had to do. Both Robyn and Jo hit the nail on the head (of course, as dear friends would) -- I couldn't not follow my heart even if I ripped it out of my soul and stomped on it, and I am certainly LIVING!!!! When I boarded the plane from London to New York, TERRIFIED (to add to the fear of going out on my own, I have a big phobia of flying), I took on a huge challenge that I had given myself. I am my own harshest critic, and though I take pride in what I do, I am not in the habit of congratulating myself. HOWEVER, I will say now that I am proud to be sitting here in my Chelsea apartment and looking out at the Empire State building. Though I'm still at the very beginning of my life's biggest challenge thus far, I haven't fallen flat on my face just yet, and that is something to be proud about. Hooray!

All I ever wanted to do was be on stage, so I have made a surprising self-discovery that, regardless of the fact that I am a struggling actress and not onstage, I am happy! When I was in England doing 8 shows a week for 5 years, I was always aware that there was something else more for me out there. The only time I was truly truly content was during the PARADE days -- those were, without a doubt, the happiest days of my life. Except for PARADE, however, nothing could relieve me from the feeling that I was missing out on something. Then I get to NYC, and am not doing what I'm "supposed" to be doing (8 shows a week), but in the past few months, I've had such wonderful experiences that I've had to stop, take it all in, and say to myself, "THIS is what I have been missing!" -- I have talked about sex with Alan Cumming, auditioned and gotten called back for Broadway shows, danced semi-naked for Broadway Bares, had my headshots taken at Lincoln Center (tomorrow I'm actually dancing at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall!!!), seen Anne Hathaway and Audra Mcdonald in all their Shakespearian glory in Central Park, watched Chita Rivera strut her stuff 5 feet away from me at Birdland, sold chocolate to Susan Sarandon and Willem Dafoe, watched my friends perform in midtown venues (I get to perform in a great show in December!), gone on amazing dates, jogged past the Statue of Liberty, walked home from Midtown to the Upper West Side along Central Park West, EATEN REMARKABLE FOOD (this city has the best food on earth!), taken ballet class at Alvin Ailey, met Billy Porter, celebrated my birthday on the Hudson river.

Whew! So, guys, THAT'S what I've been up to. These things may sound inconsequential to most people, but they matter alot to me, and as someone who believes that we control our own happiness, if they matter to me, then that's all that counts. Yes, it's all still a novelty for me to be living here, but I just cannot imagine a day when I'm not blown away by the sight of the Statue of Liberty as I jog past it, or not being tremendously excited to dance at Lincoln Center. These really are the things all my dreams were made of, and every day, there is so much to smile about and be grateful for. My one regret is that I cannot share these experiences with everyone in London. I just want to pick up the phone every day and call people and say "GUESS WHAT????!!!!" But I am lucky to have great support from people an ocean away. Not even an ocean can keep us all apart!!!

As I began with quotes from friends, I will end with a quote from another of my dearest. Sally Whitehead gave me one of my most cherished gifts when I left London -- a personalised newspaper article about my big move. The headline said: "Celia, my little Chinese friend leaves London in pursuit of her true happiness in the Big Apple!" For now, I am happy, maybe not truly happy (does true happiness exist?), but if I was ever truly happy, I'd stop reaching for the stars, and I never ever want to stop reaching for the stars. Reaching for the stars brought me to this great city after all...

copyright (c) 2010-2011 Celia Mei Rubin

In the Beginning...

This is my first blog for my new website (www.celiameiubin.com -- which is not technically up and running just yet, but I want to have this blog already posted when we finally enter the ether-world) so I suppose I should say welcome, and thanks for taking the time to have a look around at a little piece of me. I'm writing this at the end of a loooooooong but inspiring couple of days and though I'm tired and ready to crawl under my duvet, I'm pleasantly warm inside, filled with gratitude and peace. It has certainly been an incredibly challenging 4 months since my move from London to Manhattan. I won't lie -- at times it has been very lonely and overwhelming, and I have shed many a tear. To move your life from one place to another is hard enough...to move your life across and ocean completely by yourself...WELL!! Thank goodness I am filled with an unbending desire to realise my dreams, or I never would have taken that leap. But it was a leap, a leap of faith, and my feet are ever so slowly coming back towards the ground to safety. I have a feeling that they won't land for awhile yet, but I'm happy to be free falling. What a ride! Here I am in NYC, an actual struggling actress, going from dance calls to singing calls, from the Upper West Side to the Lower East Side, eating sushi, hot pastrami sandwiches, pho, and everything else in between. Pretty fantastic! So, over the last couple of days, I have auditioned for a Broadway show and gotten really positive feedback from the casting director (hallelujah!), gotten a callback for the leading role in a show that I went to an open dance call for (more on that, should it go further for me), attended Alan Cumming's debut album release (what an INSPIRATION of a man), and had a rehearsal for a lovely pas de deux I am dancing in (gorgeous MGM-style). I'm exhausted, but smiling and happy. It's a time of new beginnings, and I'm so looking forward to seeing where these beginnings will eventually lead me. But, for tonight, I am going to put my dreams to rest and snuggle up with Alan Cumming's CD. It is certainly lovely to be right here, right now.

copyright (c) 2010-2011 Celia Mei Rubin

Simple Are The Ways We Say Goodbye

I have just booked my plane ticket to NYC. And so a chapter closes. And so a new dream begins.

I am excited, terrified, 100% sure of who I am and what I am meant to do. London has been good to me the past 10 years. I will miss my family and our Sunday get togethers. I will miss having my friends on the other end of the phone at any time. I will miss the friendly kebab shop owner down the street and eating the greasy takeaway when I'm feeling naughty. I will miss jogging in Hyde Park and watching the leaves turn brown. I will miss jogging in Hyde Park and watching the cherry blossoms bloom. I will miss the comfort of going to sleep at night next door to my sister. I will miss noodle dates. I will miss going to the cinema 5 minutes away from my flat. I will miss my flat. I will really really really miss my flat. I will miss sharing a day on High Street Kensington with my sister. I will miss the almost daily phonecalls from my parents. I will miss my huge Dopey Dwarf doll. I will miss my huge Mickey Mouse statue. I will miss walking past the Donmar Warehouse. I will miss walking along Embankment. I will miss Borough Market. I will miss Cafe Nero's Milano hot chocolate. I will miss M&S. I will miss H&M. I will miss Waitrose. I will miss spending an entire day cooking a Waitrose recipie for my family. I will really really really miss my family. I will miss sunbathing on my couch on a really sunny day. I will miss working at the bridal shop in Richmond. I will miss Richmond. I will miss the hour and a half walk from my flat to Piccadilly Circus. I will miss walking past Les Miserables and smiling because my best friend is in it. I will miss saying "I'll meet you at Charing Cross." I will miss meeting outside the tube station at Covent Garden. I will miss having a funny accent. I will miss driving to Italy via France and Switzerland. I will miss cocktails at The Hospital bar. I will miss being able to get discount tickets for almost any musical because I have friends in them. I will miss an English fry up. I will miss Guiness and black. I will miss Allsaints. I will miss being the only Jew. I will miss being around people that know me inside out. I will miss being around people that put up with me even though they know me inside out. I will miss you.

Friends forever. Sisters forever. Families forever. I am always here for you. Y'all better get SKYPE!!!! I'm off to do everything I need to do to become everything I know I can be...

Goodbye, good luck, and all good things.

"I am a part of all that I have met." -- Lord Alfred Tennyson

"Each forward step we take, we leave some Phantom of ourselves behind." -- John Lancaster Spalding

"No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place." -- Zen saying

"To know the height of a mountain, one must climb it." -- Julius Charles Hare

"A stumble may prevent a fall." -- English proverb

"My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers." Tom Stoppard

copyright (c) 2010-2011 Celia Mei Rubin