New York Home Sweet Home ❤️

The 4th annual Valentine’s Day feast by a southerner – the inspiration has been accumulating all year long! This year, we continued with the seafood extravaganza, but the chef outdid himself with new heights. We even made our own wine pairings and desserts. 🌟 🥃 Da Hong Pao Washed Whiskey Sour Da Hong Pao tea was soaked in Yamazaki whiskey for 45 minutes. After a dry shake with egg white, simple syrup, and lemon juice, the whiskey was added and shaken again. Those college bartender skills are still in top form! 🥃 🐟 Chirashi Bowl This bowl was packed with goodness: huge scallops from Hokkaido auctions, Kamatoro that was booked way in advance, ancient kelp-cured golden-eye snapper, homemade salmon roe, and red-yolk eggs from chickens raised on urchins and kelp at a sea urchin farm. 🦑 The king of rolls didn’t stop there. There was also a soup made from langoustine and golden-eye snapper, incredibly fresh and sweet, which was added to rice to create a “tea”-soaked rice dish. 🍲 🥒 Appetizer: East Meets West Two cold dishes combined. The presentation wasn’t perfect due to lack of proper tools, but the creativity was on point. One side was a Lao crispy rice and cucumber salad, and the other was a classic combination inspired by Zen: pesto Hokkaido scallops. 🥗 🐠 Fried Golden-eye Snapper The scales turned golden when fried – absolutely delicious! 🍖 🦞 Slow-Roasted Langoustine and Rutabaga The langoustine was slow-roasted for four hours with a sweet rutabaga, cooked in a water bath. 🍲 🍰 Dessert: Matcha Burnt Cheesecake No round baking pan meant the appearance wasn’t perfect, but it was packed with high-quality ingredients. A whole bottle of freshly ground Setsugekka matcha was added – it couldn’t be bad! 🍰 #NewYork 🌃🌟