This week’s Chocolate Corner is short and sweet. I recently re-tried Trader Joe’s French Truffles, which come 24 in a box and cost next to nothing. I think they go for $2.99 a box, but don’t quote me on it, as my brain has been compromised by their incredible taste and texture.

OK, so taste: imagine a field of gooey fudge, where sugar cane has been planted all around and cinnamon stick trees - hum… do those exists? - grow wild. That should get you acquainted with the taste.

Texture: lets see… There is a lovely first surprise of softness, which can be adjusted by placing the truffles in the fridge, a must during the humidity of a NYC summer. But the great surprise is the actual crunch of the sugar, cane sugar, which accompanies you until the very last bite, or suck - if you eat chocolate the proper and legal way it should be enjoyed.

I suggest checking out your local TJ for some of those heavenly truffles. But don’t wait for the weekend… They tend to run out, at their ridiculously low price!

Image courtesy of Vox

I cannot complain about the hot weather we have been having in NYC. It’s been too humid, too hot, too this and too that, OK, but it beats cold snow and single digit temps any day of the week for me! The warmth is fantastic for enjoying the city and all it has to offer, so come along with me for a couple of fun adventures.

First and foremost, check out the film opening this Friday - July 25th - “Mission Istaanbul”! It’s hot, it’s rocking and full of action and handsome testosterone. Check out my piece about it on Chic Today, which will help you celebrate the opening weekend with all things Turkish around NYC.

Catch the film “Daughters of Wisdom” at the Rubin Museum of Art, every Wednesday evening at 7, through the end of August. The nuns of this monastery in Tibet are the perfect Happily Unmarried Ever After women, so it’s worth checking out the film hoping that some of their wonderful attitudes towards life in general will rub off. If you want to know more, well, check out my piece on Chic Today, again…

Yet another film, but truly worth catching on the big screen, is “Mamma Mia”. Again, I am always game for great women acting mature and fabulous and this film has got a collection of them. It’s currently playing at the Ziegfeld Cinema in Midtown, which is a great place to catch all the music and action on the extra large screen. Make it a point to get there ahead of time and sit by the fountains out in front for a while… And dinner at Italian great Osteria del Circo is a must, after the movie.

I am usually not a great Mexican food fanatic, especially during the summer when the heaviness of the sauces tend to make me feel sluggish and nauseous. But I had been in the mood for a great Margarita for several days when my friend and I decided to eat at Rosa Mexicano on the Upper East Side. Well, actually, we wanted to eat at the one in the Flatiron district last Friday night, but a wait time of nearly an hour at 10 o’clock at night changed our minds. Anyway, the place is sublime and if you are a vegetarian, there are plentiful choices to be had. The Margarita was everything I wanted it to be and my Chiles Rellenos with spinach, pine nuts and raisins was to die for!

Speaking of latin fare, I love Pimientos del Padrón, the small green peppers that are served sautéed and sprinkled with coarse sea salt at Spanish Tapas restaurants. Well, I have discovered the source for getting them fresh in NYC - they are rarely on the menus here - and making a batch is as easy as one, two, three. Buy yours from the Farmers’ Market in Union Square on Saturdays. About a quarter pound will go a long way. Then, heat up a small amount of olive oil in a skillet, toss the rinsed and dried peppers in there for about one minute, drain them of excess oil on a paper towel and serve sprinkled with kosher salt. It’s a fun game, the little Russian Roulette you get to play with those things, since the usually mild peppers have a fiery one every once in a while… N-joy!

If you crave Turkey in NYC, there is always Sunnyside, a neighborhood in Queens, where you can find a couple of Turkish groceries, with most of what you need to eat Turkish. Take the 7 train to 46th Street, and once you get out of the station, you can stop at the local Starbucks for a lovely - albeit not Turkish - coffee. Then proceed on 46th, walking north, and two blocks later you will find yourself on Skillman Avenue. To the right, and across the street, is Turkiyam Market, which has Halva, yogurt from Turkey and even some freshly prepared savory pastry filled with cheese or veggies. One block south, on 43rd Avenue, and 45th Street, is Sunny Grocery, which has fantastic freshly baked Pide bread and tahini paste in small containers, always guaranteed to be fresh. I also found their prices better than Turkiyam, but they do have different products. For travel directions go to the MTA homepage.

OK, so my suggestions for great Turkish food have expanded a bit. On top of Beyoglu on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, I now have some other authentic suggestions, thanks to Basak Taspinar Degim. who kindly contacted me about this topic. Another, more pricey choice but very good, is Pera, on Madison near 42nd Street. For brunch, Turkish Kitchen has a prix fix for 21.95 all you can eat. WOW! I am trying that one soon. And Ali Baba is also very traditional and tasty. Try them all, I suggest, since one can never have too much good food. Click on the following links for more info. PERA, ALI BABA, TURKISH KITCHEN and BEYOGLU’s menu.

Once you get into that Turkish mood, you must read Istanbul-born author Orhan Pamuk. I recently was lucky enough to hear him speak and was touched by his simplicity and sharp sense of humor. He is a great man, on top of being an amazing writer, which was proven when he received the Nobel prize for Literature in 2006. Begin by reading “Istanbul” and then move on to “Snow” and even his latest “Other Colors: Essays and a Story”. All available at Amazon.

For Turkish music, I am not your girl. I still have to explore and will update you all when I find something great. Promise. But I do have a recommendation for a track that became my Istanbul anthem. The song is “Mayya” from the soundtrack of Mani Ratman’s film “Guru” and it is composed by A. R. Rahman. I wish I could say it was on ITunes, but in my opinion they are still lacking a large Bollywood repertoire. Anyway, get it instead through you local Hindi film and music supplier. And watch the film if you haven’t seen it. The Hero starts out in Istanbul, in the 30s. The photography is amazing. Guaranteed. A teaser follows…

Onto something a bit different, still Middle-Eastern in flavor, but this time from Morocco, check out the East Village shop Timbuktu. You are going to be blown away by their assortment of Berber and Tuareg jewelry, as well as their clothing and home furnishing departments. They are located at 45 Second Avenue, between Second and Third streets. For exact business hours call them at (212) 473-4955.

Turkish flag image courtesy of www.learntoquestion.com 

THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM!

I am re-posting this adventure through the Turkish capital on the occasion of the impending release - on July 25th - of the greatly awaited Hindi film “Mission Istaanbul”, directed by Apoorva Lakhia and starring Vivek Oberoi, Zayed Khan and Sunil Shetty. It’s going to be the blockbuster of the summer! Why? Because no one can film mistery and glamour into a city the way Mr. Lakhia does. If you need proof, go ahead and rent “Ek Ajnabee” on Italkies and see what he did for Bangkok. Simply breathtaking. Or what he did for Bombay in “Shootout at Lokhandwala”. In Shootout, he captured the soul of the Maximum City… Anyway, the trailers to MI are already available online at YouTube and they are truly worth checking out!

More later on the mysterious title and all my efforts to finally get to visit this amazing city…

HOW TO GET THERE
Continental Airlines connects through both Paris CDG or Amsterdam and then flies into Istanbul using either Air France and KLM, respectively. Both Orbitz and Expedia have packages, though at the time I went, those did not include the hotel I wanted, so I booked the trip on my own. More on the hotel I chose later, and why. The price for mid November, which is the latest one should go before winter sets in, is around $1600, flight only from Newark, using Continental. It is anything between $900 and $1500 for six nights with the hotel and flight included in the package, through Orbitz. OK, so you do the math! Turkish Airlines has the only non-stop flight from NYC, and cheap at $424 round trip, although I have never flown with them and therefore cannot recommend them. I recommend Istanbul as a side trip as well, say if you find yourself in the UK or Italy, you can take a couple of days to explore this magical place. Most European airlines fly direct.
From the moment one steps off the plane and into Istanbul’s international airport, it is clear this is a city like no other. OK, so Ataturk Airport may look eerily like Rome’s Fiumicino but that is where any and all similarities end. Once you clear customs - just getting your passport stamped if you have a EU one, or US citizens require a visa, which is given at the point of entry itself and costs around $20 - and find yourself inside the arrivals hall, you can get some Turkish Lire at one of the ATM machines to either sides of the exit doors. Don’t bother changing money inside the terminal, as the banks there charge a commission, just trust in the ATMs on the other side of the thick glass doors. Then, from the airport I suggest taking a fairly pleasant taxi ride - along the coastal road - to your hotel in the Old City, for 25 Lire which equals roughly $19. Taxis should run by meter, insist on it being turned on.

WHERE TO STAY
Saying that there are plenty of hotels in Istanbul is an understatement. Most of those located in the Old City, even the way cheaper ones, aren’t bad at all. I was very happy with my choice of the Best Western’s President Hotel, right across from the Grand Bazaar. The room was tiny yet tidy and clean, the staff quite lovely, the breakfast buffet a feast and their rooftop restaurant, absolutely positively an Istanbul must-see! Never mind that the menu wasn’t the most imaginative, even by Turkish food standards (you might just end up having one too many Meze vegetarian plates while in Istanbul!) but the view and the 8 o’clock cacophony of the calls to prayer from the half dozen mosques within six city blocks made the little hairs on my arms stand on ends. Still does simply thinking about it! The hotel is also incredibly convenient to almost all sights and simply perfect for shopping, as one of the entrances to the Grand Bazaar is literally one short hop - madly dashing through traffic nonetheless - across the street. In the summer, tourist high season, the room was $200 a night, with the scrumptious buffet breakfast included. It’s the high Euro/Dollar exchange that messes us up, I tell you. The President is a simple, convenient tourist hotel with a lot of visitors traffic. If you wish to have four to five stars hotels - with all the amenities those kinds of places usually offer - these are usually closer to the airport. Although,I do not recommend staying too far from town, as taxis will begin to add up, and the atmosphere just won’t the same. You will be very pampered and comfortable - in your plush hotel robe and slippers - but you won’t be getting a taste of the real Istanbul.

WHAT TO DO
Let me preface this part with a few of my thoughts. I never totally understood what to expect from Istanbul, even after reading countless guide books and watching travel shows like “Globe Trekker” on public television. I usually can get an overall feel for a place from tasting their food (which reminds me, check out “The List” this week for a Turkish culinary adventure) meeting people who hail from that land, reading books by local authors or even just seeing the arts and crafts of a region. I remember not being surprised by India, the very first time I went. I had some things all wrong, but the overall feel of the place was exactly as I had imagined. But Istanbul, I just did not see it coming, to say the least! In the guide books and TV programs, no one ever mentions the incredibly dense concentration of mosques, which is an amazing contradiction for such a secularly run country. And all the mosques have their own calls to prayer, five times a day, making for some lovely sounds to awaken to at dawn, to dine to at sunset and, I am not ashamed to write, to fall asleep to at night. There is just so much to do, I did end up in bed by nine most nights, happily exhausted. No one mentions the sea of crowds moving organically up and down the main arteries, never bothering, never talking loudly, never pushing or tailgating, just walking. No one talks about the fact that every single corner of Istanbul is a photograph waiting to be captured, a postcard waiting to be mailed. And no one mentions the great wideness of the city, the sprawling metropolis aspect of it. I know I wasn’t prepared to wear down my sneakers simply walking back to the hotel from the Spice Bazaar! So, I am being fair to this city when I say, leave all your preconceptions at home! Simply go to Istanbul prepared to be totally awed and surprised. Now that you have been warned, arm yourself with some Lire, which you should either get from the ATMs on the main roads or exchange at your hotel - exchange bureaus are NOT advised, as I also personally discourage the use of the tram to get around, as the otherwise polite Turks become the poster children of aggressive behavior there - then put on your most comfortable shoes, and I mean ones that grip the pavement too for all those hilly streets and steep climbs.

FIRST STOP: THE GRAND BAZAAR AND THE SPICE MARKET

I warn you that it will take you longer than a day to see all of the Grand Bazaar. Arm yourself with patience, and enter through the Beyazit Gate. This simply made sense to me, as I knew that I would have to come out at Mahmut Pasa Gate to have made it clear across the market, the widest way possible. Hence, not missing out on most of the goodies that are for sale there. I read in one of the guidebooks that it is useful to haggle with the merchants when looking to purchase their wares, but I found it to be totally useless, even being Italian and practically born to bargain. Globalization has taught everyone that someone somewhere has enough money to pay for something, and that kind of mentality has changed the way the local merchants do business. But if you truly like something, think about it, get a business card and if it lives in your thoughts after sleeping on it, get it. Life is one, and the memories that will come with the piece are priceless. Of course, as with anything, there are always exceptions to the rule, so you can try to get a discount, graciously, ’cause it never hurts to ask. Anyway, once inside the Bazaar, when coming in from Beyazit, you could continue on Fesciler Caddesi- ask when in doubt, everyone is VERY helpful - up to the Sark Kahvesi, a popular restaurant/cafe which is quite atmospheric. Right across from the cafe are a few souvenir shops which sell the traditional glass eyes jewelry, to ward off the bad wishes of people who do not like you, but pretend to! My favorite is the stand Niko Gift, which had the best prices and was the most honest. After stocking up on eyes, you can move through the maze of streets and enjoy all that the market has to offer. Most stalls are closed on Sunday, but otherwise, it’s a shopper’s paradise there every day! Do not miss the Turkmen wares from Afghanistan, being sold around the area of Yorgancilar Caddesi. You’ll know when you have found them as you will be surrounded by beads, colorful embroidered textiles and baskets filled with silver jewelry. And come away from the Bazaar with at least one piece of traditional pottery, even if it is only an ashtray. Once you cross the Bazaar and end out of the Mahmut Pasa Gate, I suggest continuing forward to the Spice Bazaar, known as the Misir Carsisi (Egyptian Market) in Turkish. Ask continuously for directions as the streets are small and the names invisible. But everyone tries to help and if you ask for the Misir Carsisi, they will point you in the right direction. The Spice Bazaar can be an afternoon on its own, so it’s up to you whether you decide to do it all in one day, combined with your morning at the Grand Bazaar, or independently. Once inside the Spice Bazaar, there is absolutely no way you can miss anything, but make sure to go out into the courtyard, to view the live animals and herbs being sold there. It’s also where the bathrooms are, which is the sign of a great civilization in my eyes, a place where restrooms - albeit paid ones - never lack! Inside the Spice Bazaar, I have three personal favorites. The most wonderful shop is Ozer, the one stop for antique Turkish towels, modern embroidered shawls and traditional ethnic textiles. You should not miss it and my one regret is that I didn’t buy more scarves from them! Another great place for shawls is GNHN47 - silly name, great shop - which is a bit more pricey but full of things you won’t find anywhere else. And lastly, I had to buy a porcelain fob/keychain with the Turkish flag, to hang on my purse back in NYC, from Kismet Jewellery, a lovely shop run by two cute men. Once finished with the Spice Bazaar, if you come out on the side of the New Mosque - AKA the Yeni Mosque - you will find yourself right smack at Eminonu Port. If you are hungry, make sure to stop at Pandeli, a well renowned restaurant always crowded and lively, at the exit of the market. Hopefully, they will have a table for you, as they usually require a reservation. A good idea would be to have the hotel concierge make one in the morning, and then plan your day accordingly. When you are ready to go back to the hotel, ignore the taxis that longingly await the dumb tourists on the near side of the street, as those will cost you twice as much as a regular one, but instead use the underpass to cross over to the ferry terminal and catch an honest taxi there. If, after returning to the haven of your hotel and having rested from the sensory overload a bit, you still hunger for more, I suggest a good meal on the rooftop, at one of the many hotel restaurants around Istanbul. The President - for the reasons mentioned before - and the Armada are my favorites.

DAY TWO: BLUE MOSQUE, AYASOFYA, THE MUSEUM OF TURKISH AND ISLAMIC ART AND TOPKAPI PALACE

Let it go on the record that I actually went sightseeing - I can hear the gasps from all of you readers out there! - in Istanbul. AND, I had my picture taken in front of the Blue Mosque, inside Ayasofya, at the restaurant in Topkapi Palace, on the boat ride on the Bosphorus, seriously… nearly everywhere! It is just that kind of a city, one that will make a sightseer out of me. But it is too beautiful to miss out on, and I even regret not having done more, as I still find sights that went unseen. Anyway, start your day with a full breakfast, as it will be a while before you eat again. Put on your heavy duty walking shoes, cover your arms and legs - here is my one bit of being judgmental but I DESPISE tourists who walk around conservative countries with their fat legs and miscellaneous business hanging out of their “daisy dukes” - bring a shawl to cover your head while in the Mosque and head out the door, onto the main road, the one the dreaded tram travels on. It is called Ordu Caddesi or Yeniceriler Caddesi or even Divanyolu Caddesi depending on the spot, and if you turn right on it, it will take you towards the main sightseeing spots. On the way, be sure to stop in the sweets shops and buy some pistachio marzipan, some helva or even a box of Turkish Delights. Keep walking and you will start to go down a hill. Pass the tram token stand on the right, and make a right where there are some steps. You will find yourself surrounded by ruins and trees, keep walking right and that’s where the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art is. For 5 Lire, you will see wonderful embroidered cloths, the recreated interiors of traditional homes and even some jewelry and costumes from different areas of Turkey. It’s very instructional and if you are lucky - as I was - you can tag along with an English-speaking guide who is taking some American tourists for a visit. Not a big museum, but a must-see on the way to the other sights. Once out of the museum, let the high minarets of the Blue Mosque be your guide. Follow the directions once inside, and don’t forget to take off your shoes and use your shawl to cover your head, out of respect for Islam and its followers. Notice the typical multicolor Isnik tiles. Once out of the Mosque, you will see Haghia Sophia right across the street. Make your way across tourist busses, taxis and stray tourists and in through the gates of this church, pay your entrance fee and then once inside the structure, look to the right of the big wooden doors. You will find a little platform made out of wood, where you can sit for a few minutes and drink in the atmosphere. I found it a welcomed respite and most others around me were very envious of my spot. I made sure to rub on the glass eyes pin from the market pinned inside my bra. Once finished with all the beauty of Aya Sofya, exit through the same gate you came in, and make a left onto the road. Follow it around the bend and pass the tourist shops on the left, most selling cheap Indian scarves and Chinese-made goods. Up the hill, you will see the gate to Topkapi Palace, go through and cross the wonderfully green grounds, to find the ticket counter on the right. Once inside the palace, it is interesting to walk around and check out the ancient stables, the Harem and kitchens, but perhaps your stomach will be growling so loudly that you might need to pay attention to it, before going further on your mission. That’s what happened to me, but no worry. Go through the arch to the opposite side of where you came in from and then down the steps to the right, you will find the Konyali Restaurant, where you have a choice to eat a la carte, with waiter service, or simply order something quick at their counter and eat it cafeteria-style. I chose the latter, since the restaurant had the same Meze I had been eating nightly at the hotel but for about three times the price. I enjoyed my Turkish coffee and traditional rice pudding, infused with lemon, baked and chilled to perfection. Pricey, but worth it for my tummy and the view from the place is yet another Istanbul postcard jumping out at you! When you are finished with Topkapi, you can find taxis outside the main gates, or you can just walk back the way you came. But there is nothing wrong in wandering and getting lost, as that is how I discovered an amazing kebab place where the tables and chairs were parked alongside the cars, at the curb. I would not be able to go back again, but the food was fantastic. Once back at the hotel, you can gather up your last bit of strength for a good meal of Meze - various appetizers with cheeses and bread - Kofte - small grilled meatballs - and Raki - an anise flavored liquor which is similar to the Greek Oozo.

DAY THREE: A BOAT TRIP ON THE BOSPHORUS
No one should be allowed to leave Istanbul without taking a scenic ride on the Bosphorus first. I have to admit I was not looking forward to it, in the heat of mid-August and on a Sunday, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Not only is it a photographer’s paradise, with more shots than one can focus on, but I ended up making friends with the Captain and the crew of the Istanbul 9 - a gracious ferry boat that gets a makeover every March - and rode all the while in the Captain’s cabin, with the best view of all. OK, I know what you’re thinking, but get your minds OUT of the gutter and be assured that there was no funny business going on whatsoever. Just a lovely journey which lasted, between breaks and lunch, around 6 hours. There are three ferries daily, at 10.30, 12.00 and 1.30 to go up, which then return respectively at 3.00, 4.15 and 5.00. The ferries leave from the Eminonu harbor, terminal 3. The signs actually reads “Bogazi Hafti 3″ and you get your ticket, ask for round trip of course, right before boarding. I decided to take the first ferry in the morning, to avoid the crowds. It was conveniently waiting for us at around 10 a.m. and we boarded immediately. Upon asking a member of the crew where the best place to sit and see it all was, we were invited in the Captain’s cabin, which made sense considering our question but was not what we actually meant. It was the BEST viewing spot but I had to make repeated use of my Turkish glass eyes jewelry, because of the high number of stink-eyes I got from the other passengers. The ferry stops in six places and ends up on a lunch break in Anadolu Kavagi, a sleepy village which only comes alive during these runs. The whole place is filled to the rim with restaurants, probably one per capita of the overall population, and fish cooked any way you can possibly imagine is pretty much your choice for lunch. I would not recommend salads and most other items. although a place in the middle of the main square, where the car park is, seemed to make a great Kebab. Then you catch the ferry again on the way back, the same boat or a different one if you need more time - although the queue to board starts an hour prior to departure, so most would agree with me that there isn’t much to do in Anadolu Kavagi. You can even decide to get off in Kanlica (pronounced Kanlija) for a half hour, to taste their famous yogurt. Truly heavenly, I got to taste some because of the kindness of Semih, one of the sailors of the Istanbul 9, who jumped off and got us some while the passengers stood by and waited. The yogurt in Turkey is traditionally eaten with powdered sugar on top, which slowly mixes in while you eat. A treat that you can easily repeat by stopping in Kanlica, taking a rest at the Ismail Aga Cafe and catching the next ferry back into Istanbul. The approach into Istanbul by boat is breathtaking, with the famous outline of the New Mosque looming over the city. If you don’t believe me, rent the Bollywood hit “Guru” by Mani Ratman and watch the “Mayya” song and dance sequence, where Abhishek Bachchan leaves Istanbul by boat to return to India. It is that beautiful and dramatic, even in real life. Once off the boat, you can easily find a taxi at the docks. After your Bosphorus trip you can do as they usually write on tour brochures, “evening at leisure”.

Now, all that is left is for me to explain is the riddle in the title of this column. It has taken me three tries to finally see beautiful Istanbul. But I wrote a piece about that on the great MissMakeaMovie blog, so you’ll have to go there for the answer to the mystery. N-joy!

I swear I am not making this up! I received an email newsletter this afternoon and just HAD to share it with you. Even when I am not looking for answers to my questions, they keep coming. Master Coelho has always been a god, in my book. His work makes sense at age 13 and continues to make sense at age 30, and way, way beyond. I have met men - and women - who still swear by him in their sixties… Anyway, this was too magical not to share it, and to someone like me - who does not need any more reasons to love the opposite sex - simply like a laundry list of life’s answers. N-joy!

Image courtesy of Paulo Coelho Blog online

WHY WE LOVE MEN
by Paulo Coelho

A friend of mine, Julia, sent me the text below. When I tried to get in touch with her to ask if she herself had written it, she had already left on a trip and I don’t know exactly when she will be coming back.

I checked on the Internet and guess what I discovered? That there are many discussion groups on this subject! In other words, nowadays women are looking for reasons to fall in love with the opposite sex. As a man who agrees with some of these reasons, I made a list based on what they say:

We love men because they can’t fake an orgasm, even if they wanted to.

Because they will never understand us, yet even so they go on trying.

Because they still manage to see our beauty, even when we ourselves no longer believe it.

Because they understand equations, politics, maths and economics, but not the feminine heart.

Because they are lovers who only rest when we have had (or pretend to have had) pleasure.

Because they manage to raise sport to something bordering on religion.

Because they are never afraid of the dark.

Because they insist on fixing things that are beyond their capacity, and dedicate themselves to this with the same enthusiasm as an adolescent, and get frustrated when they don’t succeed.

Because they are like pomegranates: most of them is impossible to digest, but the seeds are delicious.

Because they never comment on what the neighbors might think.

Because we always know what they are thinking, and when they open their mouth they say exactly what we imagined they would.

Because they never dreamed of torturing themselves wearing high heels.

Because they love to explore our body and conquer our soul.

Because a 14-year-old girl can leave them speechless, and a 25-year-old woman can tame them quite effortlessly.

Because they are always attracted by extremes: the opulent or the ascetic, warriors or monks, artists or generals.

Because they do absolutely everything possible to try to hide their weaknesses.

Because a man’s biggest fear is not being a man (it never crosses a woman’s mind not to be a woman).

Because they always eat everything on their plate, and don’t feel guilty about it.

Because they take great delight in completely uninteresting matters, such as what happened at work, or different makes of automobiles.

Because they have shoulders where we can rest our heads and sleep without much effort.

Because they are at peace with their bodies, except for small, insignificant things like growing bald and getting fat.

Because they are incredibly courageous in front of insects.

Because they never lie about their age.

Because despite everything they try to demonstrate, they can’t live without a woman.

Because when we tell one of them “I love you”, they always ask us to explain exactly how.

One reader, Kristen, claims that we know absolutely nothing about feminine nature, and sends us the following list:

1 – We women are born detectives. In our eyes, all men are suspect and their adventures will end up being discovered – it’s just a matter of time.

2 – Even if we are not in love with you, hearing “I love you” is a balm to our souls. And if you don’t say it, we will notice and become sad.

3 – The same thing happens with “you are beautiful”. It takes less than two seconds to say these three magical words, which can change our nightmares into real fairy tales.

4 – If we ask what clothes we should wear, don’t be annoyed if we put on exactly the opposite of what you chose – that’s part of our nature.

5 – At a party we are capable of scanning the whole room in less than a minute to find out what interests us. Just watch.

6 – We think of sex with the same compulsion as men - or maybe even more so. The only difference is that we don’t show it.

7 – If we don’t accept immediately an invitation to dinner or a first date, don’t worry – we just need a few days to lose the extra kilos that we always feel are ruining our lives.

8 – Women always remember everything. If you ask when we met, none of us will say: “at a party”. We will say: “it was a Tuesday, right after a dinner where they served salad and chicken broth, and you were wearing a black blazer and designer shoes, and so on.

9 – However much love we are capable of giving, there are seven days when we want to be far from everything and everybody. You have two options: tie yourself to a lamp-post and wait till the storm is over, or else go the nearest jeweler’s and buy a present. We recommend the second option.

10 – We have as much power of reasoning as men do. But we don’t need to make this evident, otherwise you will feel insecure. Women who do that end up alone.

11 – We love all kinds of hair on the male body, although waxing is our favorite torture.

12 – We hate making love when we don’t feel like it, but we do it anyway, and you will never be able to notice the difference.

13 – Play with our pets and our children, and we will play with you. Ignore them, and we will ignore you too.

14 – Women are equipped with X-ray vision. We can look at hard, dark eyes and discover the child hiding behind them. We can stare at angel-blue eyes and discover the demon that lies there. We know when men are pretending to be sleeping from tiredness or – more obviously – when they are pretending not to be sleeping with someone else.

15 – Not all women want marriage and children. Many just want orgasms and pets.

16 – When delicateness is genuine, it can melt our hardened hearts.

17 - If we have some problem to discuss with you, don’t try to give us the solution, we already have one. It’s just a pretext to prevent the relationship ending in boredom.

This week’s adventure is a little activity I stumbled upon accidentally, on a lazy summer weekend day in NYC. Of course, as all good girls, I have seen the film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” with Audrey Hepburn millions of times and even read its much darker counterpart, the story by the same name, written by American great Truman Capote. But as much as I adore the terms “Mean Reds” and “Super Rats”, I have not really identified with the character of Holly Golightly, or even stunningly classy Audrey Hepburn. AND, I have never thought of eating a bagel in front of Tiffany’s on Fifth.

But this past Saturday, I took a detour into the infamous shop and leisurely strolled through its first floor aisles, stopping only in front of the biggest and brightest diamonds. My soul felt reassured and my mind felt at ease, among the beauty of this amazingly hard stone - the diamond. There must be something to it if everyone wants it, men spend multiple paychecks to give them to their women, and women dream about the hunk who will kneel for them sporting one. It’s a magical stone, hiding in its brightness the long history of its past.

Anyway, I walked out without a purchase, or the coveted blue box, but simply full of enthusiasm for a world where such beauty is still so easily accessible. And the lovely sales staff made me feel welcomed and revered, even holding the door for me on the way in, and out. I know, I know, they do that for everyone, but that’s just it, you see… A shop where one doesn’t have to sport loads to money to get service, yet a place where only the priciest things are sold, is my idea of a mystical place. And after my tour of this toyshop for girls, I had breakfast… At Mangia’s!