Mr. Israel hired Michelle Doll-Olson to do the baking, using some of Mr. Colson's recipes: pains au chocolat ($2 each); financiers, some topped with dark chocolate (75 cents and $1.50); chocolate mousse ($3.50); an almond-scented Belgian rice pudding tart ($3.50); and a folded brioche with raisins or chocolate ($2.50).
BEST DISHES -- Red beans and rice; jambalaya; pecan tart; lemon merengue pie; sweet potato pie.
Tart rice, seafood and other ingredients such as soy-simmered mushrooms are layered in a box-shaped mold (hako means box) about four inches by six inches and an inch and a half deep (a size called nisun rokubu).
My guest ordered anago bo-zushi ($21.70), soy-glazed lean eel, soy-simmered mushrooms and crisp slivers of cucumber wound up with tart rice in sheets of untoasted nori sliced into bite-size circles.
WHAT WE LIKE Any sushi, oyster fritters with aioli, Maine lobster salad, salt and pepper calamari, tenderloin beef salad, agedashi tofu, seared foie gras with carambola confit, lamb chop, steak and shiitake mushrooms, eel over rice, banana cream tart, chocolate cake with caramel ice cream, mango-lime crème brûlée, the tea selection.
Much better were the pan-roasted organic free-range chicken al Mattone ($16.75); the veal escalope ($19.75) in which the thin, white cutlet is made into an earthy, rustic dish by its robust, wild mushroom ragout; and the juicy, crisp-skinned roast Long Island duck with wild rice and a tart cherry sauce that harbors a goodly supply of the fruit.
Dessert for all followed: fruit tarts, rice treats and a chocolate mousse flower pot.
A standout dessert is the foludeh ($3.95), sweet and tart frozen rice noodles flavored with lime, saffron and rosewater.
Its tart tamarind rice and coconut sevai (noodles) are delightful too and take me right back to eating my way around Karanataka and Kerala.
Mr. Cowie suggests serving it with curried mussels in coconut milk broth, savory Basmati rice, an orange custard tart and Saketinis.
