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"Foodie Weekend, Backwards" posted April 26, 2004 at 12:41 PM

Shall I give you a run-down of my food-intensive weekend? Shall we go through it backward?

Last night I ate a take-out burrito. But great food for the soul was consumed by watching both Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris and Truffaut's The Last Metro. Both were terrific. Last Metro is so rich and emotional. It shows a very normal way of dealing with a very extraordinary situation. Catherine Deneuve is so beautiful in it it's ridiculous. And i never really understood why Gerard Depardieu is considered such a big deal--but now I do. He's a big, lumbering, fierce presence in this movie. His character is alternately hot-headed and sweet, passionate and quiet.

As for Last Tango in Paris, I enjoyed it twice as much as I expected to. Marlon Brando is fucking weird (pun intended)--as overbearing and sullen as he was when he was a young man, but now middle aged and the romance has soured to cynicism. And the girl--Maria Schneider--so pouty and sexy and misbehaved--just like a 20-year-old oughta be. The music in the film rises out of nowhere to sweep you along between scenes, but then in the scenes of awkward dialogue between the various couples (there are almost no ensemble scenes) there is silence. Fantastic. Must rent more Bertolucci right away.

Yesterday brunch was with Stephanie and Joe (who were in town for a short long weekend), and Stephanie and Josh and my friend Lesh. We went to Pylos in my neighborhood and everyone was as impressed with it as I was the first time I went. I ate a delicious frittata, and we ate roasted beets, drank champagne, and had weird and wonderful honey-based desserts. Yum. (No squid was consumed).

Saturday night we all ate dinner at a little Italian place up by Josh & Steph's apartment in East Harlem. A sweet place called Piatto d'Oro (that is, Plate of Gold). We had mussels in marinara to start, then i had a small salad and spaghetti with squid in a marinara sauce. It was very good--the squid was tasty and not rubbery. I had ricotta cheesecake for dessert, but also tried everyone else's dessert (tiramisu, chocolate mousse cake, cannoli, almond cake). Mine was the best.

More food for the soul: Earlier on Saturday I met my Stephanie at the Metropolitan Museum. We saw the huge Byzantium show which just opened, which I must go back and look at more closely. I have never seen mosaics like that--tiny shiny pictures made up of even tinier chips of color--gold, red, blue, white. Also saw the Christo show about the nonsense they're going to do in Central Park next year. We also just strolled through the 20th Century collection, laughing. It was fun to spend a couple hours alone together.

Friday night we ate dinner at Stephanie & Josh's place (no squid). They have a new apartment in East Harlem--a huge open loft with a long exposed brick wall. It sure is a beautiful place, and in a much more neighborhoody neighborhood than they were in before. And their kitchen skillz keep getting better and better. They always cook up a storm, and this time they made a delicious pork chop meal, complete with heavenly mushroom appetizers, wine pairings for each course (ask my sister how great the wine was!), and homemade ice cream for dessert. Wow! It was all very fancy and very tasty. After dinner Josh played the piano for us. It was lovely, and Stephanie B. and I danced together and had fun.

But wait, let's go back one more step to Friday lunch. I took my favorite client to her favorite restaurant: Nobu. What a feast! To start, we had black cod with miso and then broccoli tempura and squid tempura (more squid!). For my main dish I had the ("market-priced") negi toro donburi--a box of rice covered with raw toro (toro is the fatty belly of the tuna). It was the most succulent fish I ever ate in my life. It was also the most expensive entree--lunch or dinner--I ever ate: $60 (eek). We drank two bottles of sake (oops). Total cost for lunch: priceless.


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