The Blue Ginger

Have any of you seen Iron Chef? It's this hilarious, slightly campy food show that started out in Japan. Each week, one of the resident "Iron Chef" is pitted against a guest chef - they have 45 minutes to produce 4-5 dishes utilising the mystery ingredient - it could be lobster, beef, onion, cheese, whatever which is only unveiled a minute before cooking. The panel of judges decide who is the winner after eating the dishes - yeah, great job. Well, in the States, they've started "Iron Chef America" and on one episode, it was the previously unbeatable Iron Chef Bobby Flay vs. Ming Tsai. The mystery ingredient was duck. Ming Tsai does asian fusion - he owns a restaurant called The Blue Ginger in a Boston surburb - he made Chinese-style crispy Roast Duck in 45 mins!! Not surprisingly, he won the challenge.

So off we went to The Blue Ginger for our 6th wedding anniversary dinner. Pic shows the asian claypot with tea-smoked duck. The claypot was a highlight - the broth also had duck in it with daikon and sweet potato and vermicelli ("fun see"). The sliced duck on top was cooked medium (still a little pink in the centre).

Dessert was a five spice pumpkin bavarian (mousse-like) with gingerbread cookie and cranberry compote. As you can see from the pic, they knew it was our special occasion. To see the restaurant menu, go to www.ming.com/blueginger and start salivating.