Last night was New Year’s and what a time!  Wendy and I went to dinner with her friend Jon and his wife Tanya @ Morimoto.  The place is called “Morimoto” after the last name of the chef: he used  to be one of Japan’s Iron Chefs; you can taste it in the food.

We had an incredible sushi sampler to begin; the spicy tuna roll was probably the highest quality fish I’ve ever had.  The flavour was incredibly subtle and it as so fresh that it just melted in your mouth.

I followed it up with “duck, duck, duck”-three types of duck.  You get a foie gras croissant, roast duck and soft duck egg, all served with a red miso sauce.  The flavour was so rich that I was savouring every bite.  Wen had an amazing dish: ishi yaki buri bop.  It was yellowtail on rice that was cooked in a stone bowl at our table.  The bowl was too hot to touch and the waiter simply placed pieces of fish on the bowl to sear it.  Incidentally, this is the dish that won Morimoto the Iron Chef title.

After the meal we went over the the Cabanas @ the Maritime Hotel to celebrate.  On the way, Jon’s wife was furious at him for smoking a cigarette and lost her engagement ring as she was shouting at him.  Panic ensued as it had fallen down a grate that had a truck parked over top.  Jon was frantically trying to figure out what to do: go and find someone to move the truck or just write it off and call insurance.  After five minutes of watching him suffer, Tanya told him that it wasn’t actually her engagement ring, but a different ring.  I don’t think he’ll ever forget that cigarette...

Anyways, the party at Cabanas wasn’t that great; the DJ had no idea what he was doing (50 Cent and Abba?), so we took off to Cielo.  Fortunately, the party there was off the wall and we ended up dancing to the beats of Tedd Patterson until about 3:00 in the morning.  We probably would have stayed until dawn if it wasn’t for improper footwear (Wen had heels and since BA still hasn’t found my bags I was wearing shoes one size too small).

FYI, Morimoto’s at 88 10th Ave; call (212) 989-8883.