Dinner at Le Bernardin

What a treat we had last night. We celebrated our eighth anniversary at Le Bernardin, a fantastic New York restaurant that was awarded four stars when it opened in 1986 and has never let go of them.

The service at a restaurant like that is almost as impressive as the food. I think there were as many people working the floor as there were dining and they were all in constant motion, like a choreographed dance recital.

As we were waiting to be seated I saw someone who looked familiar -- it was Arnaud Devulder, whom I once interviewed for a story I did on champagne glasses. He is now one of three sommeliers for the restaurant.

We opted for the 4-course prix fixe rather than one of the tasting menus. This includes two appetizers, an entree and a dessert. The appetizers were divided into 'almost raw' and 'barely touched'. From the 'almost raw' section, we had an amazing, amazing hamachi in vinaigrette that I am still thinking about and a thinly pounded tuna with toasted brioche and shaved foie gras.


Next we had one of the signature dishes, which was escolar (white tuna) poached in olive oil and served with a red wine bearnaise sauce. My husband had a langoustine dish that was sweet and incredible. For entrees we had black bass and mahi mahi. The bass was really, really good -- the mahi mahi was a bit of a disappointment but on balance everything else was so good that it didn't matter.

They gave us a comped dessert for making us wait, which was sort of like a mousse served in an egg shell with milk chocolate at the bottom. Can't explain it, but it was great. When dessert was coming I asked the waiter to send Arnaud over so we could say hello. We had a nice chat and he was really happy to see us and brought us some dessert wine. We mentioned it was our anniversary so next thing you know we had another comped dessert, in addition to the two we ordered from the menu, and a glass of calvados for me and cognac for my husband.

Then petit fours. Then MORE petit fours and the maitre d' came over to greet us. Then Arnaud introduced us to the head sommelier. By this time the whole restaurant seemed to be buzzing around our table. I think we ended up eating more sweets than fish! It was great. Too bad we couldn't meet Eric Ripert, but maybe next time...?

Live Blogging: Iron Chef Coconut Battle

9:59pm -- Wow, close score. Good exposure for Mehta, no doubt, but I think the Iron Chef deserved it based on his original ingredients. But I'll still take dinner at Nobu over dinner at Graffiti... Maybe it's just spite. Thanks for reading!

9:54pm -- Well, Jehangir seemed to have impressed them with his desserts, which is not surprising since he was a pastry chef. But was it enough to edge out the Iron Chef?

9:50pm -- Did I just hear "wedge-eh-tubbles"?

9:45pm -- Have just realized that my "live blog" is really lacking in insight and is just incessant rambling as the TV show is on... Sorry readers! My husband is away or I probably wouldn't have subjected you to this! He would have had to bear the brunt of my incessant rambling instead.

9:44pm -- Ponytails on men are pretty passé but I gotta say Morimoto rocks his.

9:43pm -- Look at Tiki struggling with his chopsticks! Get the man a fork please!

9:42pm -- Oooohhhh! The iceberg lettuce was on Morimoto's side? Hard to watch carefully AND write a blog! Sorry Jung-gear.

9:41pm -- Wouldn't cold coconut soup leave a film on the roof of your mouth?

9:40pm -- I don't think Mehta won too many points on originality.

9:38pm -- Oh come on! Pop Rocks?

9:37pm -- It's pretty ballsy to pick Morimoto as your opponent. Unless you have no intention of winning.

9:32pm -- Here's a Kopra Paak recipe that's pretty on-target, but I hate that they call it "Coconut Fudge Delight..."

9:29pm -- My favorite Parsi dessert is shredded coconut with sugar and butter. It's called Kopra Paak and my great-aunt makes the best!

9:29pm -- This is certainly not shaping up to be a particularly healthy meal for the judges. Coconuts are high in fat and cholesterol and there's lots of frying and sugar going on there.

9:27pm -- Coconut maki rolls!! Lovely idea.

9:26pm -- Harold McGee says that the word coconut "comes from the Portuguese coco, which means goblin or monkey."

9:17pm -- I love that Morimoto needs subtitles. And that he brought such a rare ingredient no one has ever seen it before, while Mehta brings out the iceberg lettuce...

9:14pm -- Fish poached in coconut milk... Yum!

9:10pm -- In the commercial break, I'll let you know which side of this battle I'm on. You might think I'd be rooting for my fellow Parsi, but not only am I a big fan of Morimoto, I'm NOT a big fan of Mehta. I once asked him for a donation for a fundraiser and he took the free ad we offered him but never provided the free prize he promised us. Like an elephant, I never forget.

9:09pm -- By way of explanation, I'm particularly interested in this Iron Chef episode because the challenger is a fellow "Parsi" -- a member of a small tribe of Indian Zoroastrians. We're usually fiercely proud of anyone who makes it big -- like Freddy Mercury and Zubin Mehta (no relation to Jehangir, by the way).

9:07pm -- Iron Chef Morimoto-san is such a rock star he just broke his hammer!

9:04pm -- First of all, Alton Brown called him "Juh-hanger May-duh" ... shouldn't Mehta's PR people have told the producers that his name is pronounced more like "Jung-gear Meh-tah?

How to Make Italian Taralli

Up close and very personal with the tomato blight

Martha Stewart has posted a slideshow on her blog that shows a detailed account of the late blight that has affected so many gardeners and farmers this year. The results are, sadly, not "a good thing."

Link: The tomato blight in my garden

When The Heat Is On, Soup Is The Thing

Summer has finally settled in to New York – with a vengeance. After a nice long period of cool temperatures and sunny, breezy days, we're now having the hot, humid weather we usually expect this time of year.

Soup may not be the first thing that comes to mind in this weather, but the truth is that it can be the perfect solution for a quick meal – even when the sun is shining. Warmer weather brings to mind the soups of Asia, like this hot and tangy coconut and lentil soup, which can be ready in about half an hour and doesn’t require much more than basic pantry staples.

One item not hanging around the typical kitchen is fresh lemongrass, which is widely used in South East Asian cuisine. Though available online and in most urban centers, cooks who can’t find it often improvise with lemon zest and fresh coriander. It’s not quite the same as lemongrass, but the simplicity of this recipe means you can be flexible with the ingredients.

To convert the metric measurements, try this site or use the following: ½ cup of shallots, 2 tablespoons of ginger, 1 cup of lentils, 2 cups of water.

Final Frontier for a Block of Cheese

Wallace and Gromit may have dreamt it, but it took a group of enterprising British cheesemakers to make space travel a reality for creatures of the curd kind. These are the same people who, in 2007, created the internet sensation that became known as 'Wedginald.' They focused a webcam on a 44-pound wheel of cheddar and thousands of people tuned in to watch it mature.

This year's stunt, marking the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing, involved launching a weather balloon 18 miles into the upper atmosphere attached to a capsule containing about a half a pound of Cheddar. Hours later, the GPS tracking system had stopped working, leaving the cheesemakers wondering where their cheese had gone.

Dom Lane, of Shepton Mallet's West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers group, told BBC Wiltshire: "We've been tracking the trajectory and the current prediction is that it could land anywhere from here in Wiltshire to Hemel Hempstead.

Luckily for them, a helpful Samaritan turned the cheddar in to the police the next day -- about 75 miles away.

"The whole exercise was a nice way to wave the flag for authentic Cheddar," Mr. Lane said.