Marathon Dinner at MEGU

05/05/05

I had a friend visiting from Boston last night. He is one of my good friends who is very fortunate to have a job that he can travel all over the world.

It’s been 4 years that I have known him. After I moved to New York City, we did not have a chance to meet each other that much even though he came to the city quite often. Last night it was the first time I met him for almost a year.

We talk to each other a lot lately. He knows I am going through all kinds of heartbreak now. Therefore, he invited me to have dinner with him when he arrived at the city. After he landed, he gave me a call and told me that he had made a reservation at 9 PM at a very trendy Japanese restaurant named MEGU.

We arrived at MEGU a little bit before our reservation. We hung out at the bar in the restaurant. I was so impressed with the interior design. The traditional Asian colors- red and gold drove this place to the edge of Asian contemporary art. On the wall, hundreds of rolls of all colorful fabrics are put together like a wall paper. On the ceiling, those unfolded fabrics become part of the bar decoration.

Since I cannot handle too much of alcohol, my friend asked a beautiful bartender to create something special for me. It is still a mystery what kinds of fruity cocktails I had last night but it tasted so good. I still ended up a little drunk anyway.

At the bar, the live band was playing Jazz music. Personally, I love live music; in particular, this time when it went together with the magnificent atmosphere, good friend, and a glass of cocktail, what did I ask for more?

We hung out at the bar for a while, and then a host led us to the restaurant area downstairs.

The restaurant area design is even more impressive. At the heart of the restaurant, there was a gigantic Japanese bell floating over the ice-carved Buddha statue.

We were seated at a four person table in the back. Then, a waiter brought us menus. The menu was at least 12 pages long with all food glossaries in the back. There were too many choices for us to make; everything sounded good. Therefore, we decided to try everything by ordering two special sets.

The food presentation here was great! All dishes came with a small portion but beautifully decorated. Before we could taste each dish, we were explained by a waiter about the ingredients, how it was called and how special it was.

The food was heavenly delicious. My friend almost reached an orgasmic pleasure when he tasted the egg with coconut, fresh oyster and Anamamei soup.

One by one, food was continuously brought up. I believe we might have at least ten different dishes. My favorite was everything that was put in the egg shell. I could not help but think that how difficult it was to handle those delicate egg shells, particularly, when they had to stuff something in it.

Our full course dinner took us three hours. We started around 9.30 pm and it was over at 12.30 am. It was the longest dinner I’d ever had.

It was a great night, three hours past by so quickly. We enjoyed great food, great conversation and magnificent atmosphere. We were the last table who left the restaurant.

We were billed $550 for two persons.

At the end of the night, we kissed each other goodbye. I might see him again this weekend in Boston.

Tae Athikomvittaya