Oh, The Bounty

I have spent the last three days sequestered behind closed doors in a senior manager strategy meeting behind pristine doors in a windowless conference room in the heart of Midtown. While fruitful and intensely useful in laying down the foundation of our business strategy, the days have been long and the evenings have been followed by dining out and talking with colleagues (hence, the lack of anything meaningful on this site for the past few days for which you have my most abject apology).

Today our meetings concluded and we all left the hallowed conference room with renewed purpose and a tangible roadmap for our future. That is an exhilarating feeling. However, I had to immediately switch gears; a client dinner was unfolding downtown with Ruebin and a duo of clients visiting from Canada. And so, here it was at last--the gastronomic showdown at The Old Homestead. I didn't even look at the menu--I left the ordering to Ruebin. I simply mouthed a request for a Bombay Sapphire martini and sat back to savour the show. He started with a tower of garlic and rosemary infused foccacia bread served settled in a Parmesan sauce. This was followed by a huge silver bowl topped by raw bluepoint oysters, fresh king crab meat, monstrous prawns and succulent mussels. Then a course of seared ahi tuna, paired with the most potent wasabi sauce I'd ever sampled. Then the real hoohaw began: the bone-in 20 oz. strip steak paired with a 10 oz. lobster tail: The ultimate surf and turf. Paired with fat chunks of asparagus in hollandaise, it was sublime. (Unfortunately, I was so stuffed full of the seafood appetizers that I could only manage a few mouthfuls of my entree so I carted the leftovers home). Pray grant me a night of digestion, both intellectually and physically. I should be right as rain tomorrow.