While you and I have been struggling to finish our taxes, the Australians and the New Zealanders have been continuing the fight over which nation invented  pavlova, the graceful, light, and airy dessert created in honor of Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova’s visit to Oceania in the ’20s or ’30s.

It’s the sort of argument that never goes away, much like the one you may remember from an innocent visit to Belgium, when you may have been cornered, and forced to eat frites, and been the recipient of a highly defensive lecture whose thesis statement was that frites are not, in fact, an invention of the scheming, bald-faced liars to the South.

Travel and the associated arguments may be tiring, but pavlova is perfect.

The first time I had it was when a New Zealander friend of my sister’s came to stay with our family when I was still in high school. Kesia brought her a bright smile, her beguiling accent, and a desire to share her country’s national dessert with our family, who is always up for more national desserts.

I’ll eat anything with meringue — baked alaska, lemon meringue pie, etc. — but I know that to some people, meringue doesn’t seem such a transcendant concept.

Those might also be the people who also hate Peeps.

“Will your parents eat a dessert that is not chocolate?,” I queried of my husband, on the occasion of their most recent trip.

“Why would we bother to find that out?” he wondered.

I decided to do some scientific inquiry.

Pavlova is a meringue topped by cream, strawberries, kiwis, and whatever else you might desire in the fruit world. The meringue is altered by the slight presence of vinegar. Wow! That sounds creepy but it’s exactly the sort of aspect that makes a perfect and pure substance, such as meringue, actually interesting.

I tried this recipe, copied from the Food Network and originally appearing in Gale Gand’s book Butter Sugar Flour Eggs. I followed it “to a ‘t,'”,though I forgot to have the egg whites at room temperature, and used dark brown sugar rather than light. I also used blackberries in addition to other fruit. I’m not going to say that the meringue didn’t shatter a bit. It did, but all was forgiven when we tasted it.

The answer to my question was “yes, the in-laws eat desserts that aren’t chocolate when they are presented with desserts that are not chocolate.”

And it was even better the next day.

PAVLOVA

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup egg whites, at room temperature (from about 4 eggs)
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar or red wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
• 2 kiwi fruits, peeled and thinly sliced or 1 cup of another ripe fruit, such as peaches or nectarines
• 10 strawberries, green parts trimmed off, thinly sliced or other berries, such as raspberries or blackberries

Directions