Happy New Year!

We went to Margaret Kuo's restaurant last night for a Chinese New Year feast. It was really good. I would say it was better than Cin Cin, or even Susanna Foo. There were seven courses. Somehow they were supposed to be specially complementary to 4706, the Year of the Rat, although luckily the honored animal did not make an appearance  in any way,  except for the cute logo on the menu, which you can see. Here are the courses:

• Chef's Tri-Happiness Hors d'oeuves Platter (beef, asparagus and spicy shrimp)
• Steamed Crabmeat and Pork Bun Shanghai Style
• Royal Peking Duck
• Mandarin Cold Water Lobster Tail
• Grass-fed Beef Filet in Chinese Rice Wine Sauce
• Pine Nut Sea Bass (this was our favorite)
• Propitious Sweet Rice with Eight Treasures

Fortunately, the first four courses were pretty small. We were able to soldier on up to about half way through the beef and sea bass, but then we hit the wall, and had to ask them to pack the rest up for us to take home.  Margaret is going to be cooking some of these at the James Beard Foundation next week in New York , but we got to eat it first!
Pet update: Olive's First Prey of 2008 has been identified as a meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) which emerged from hibernation at just the wrong time, at least from its point of view. Well, technically, this was her first prey not counting the decorative ears of corn she's been dragging around the dining room. We also heard some meowing from Olive this morning while she was perched on the window sill. This turned out to be due to an invasion by Gray Kitty, a neighbor cat  who has been encroaching on Whitey and Olive's territory.