What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of NYC? I will say, based on no official research whatsoever, that most people would mention landmarks: The Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Times Square. Others would probably recount frequent NYC sites: mountains of garbage, bakeries that specialize in cupcakes, lots and lots of people. Maybe a few would even be more specific, relaying a memory of that single moment in Central Park, or describing a favorite Vietnamese Restaurant on Doyers Street or reciting, verbatim, the absurd and highly frequent subway announcements. For me, the answer to this question is simple: Nuts4Nuts.
Though these ubiquitous carts are mobile, they have nonetheless become a permanent fixture in the NYC streets and thus a permanent fixture on my mind. That particularly delicious scent emitted from these carts is like no other. It wafts throughout the streets, moving like one of those visible, odorous plumes that you see on cartoons. And then that plume enters my nostrils, and instantaneously, I am salivating like Pavlov's dogs. No matter the time, the place, the level of my hunger or complete lack thereof, when my olfactory sense identifies the source of this mouthwatering smell, I really want those nuts. In fact, you could say I do become a bit nuts for those nuts. (Speaking of that, why use 'four' instead of the grammatically correct 'for?'What does four have to do with nuts? Maybe there are four different flavors of succulently covered nuts? Or they use four different types of nuts? Maybe when this ingenious idea began, there were only four carts? I just don't understand the pun)
And yet, despite my raving, I have never actually sampled a nut from Nuts4Nuts. Why? I have absolutely no idea. When I began asking my fellow city dwellers their opinions of the nuts, I discovered that they too were in a similar position. Though none of them analyzed the oddity as much as I did, they could not tell my why they never tasted the nuts. How bizarre! Why do we, who all live within a 2 block radius of any given Nuts4Nuts cart, deprive ourselves of such a delectably fragrant snack?
After much thought, perhaps a bit too much, I have come to realize that, just like anything else in life, expectation and actuality are not always the same. I, and perhaps others, live in the idea that the Nuts4Nuts nuts must be the best tasting nuts in the world, simply because they smell like it. Though such a statement could be entirely false, these nuts could be nothing more than average, mediocre at best, I would rather forbid myself from ever trying them then risk the disappointment.
Besides, taste is 75% smell anyway
