Seascape Follow-up

Geez, I'm glad the wife and I never did stop at The Seascape in the past. Yikes. I would rather have dipped a sandwich in the sewer.

But think about this: at the end of the show we learn that the owner has sold the place. This is the guy who's dad owned the restaurant and who always looked down on his son for being a big fat loser. A lot of the show involved how the guy was trying to grow some balls, take control, and run the place right. To prove his father wrong.

And then we find out he sold the place? So much for showing up daddy, huh, tubby?

But besides that, the restaurant just got an hour of the best free advertising (and a free makeover) that any place could hope for. And he goes and sells the f*cking thing? I was all set to book my reservation until the last 30 seconds of the show. I'm sure as hell not going now. Who knows what it's like under the new owners?

The Seascape is a Kitchen Nightmare...

Bitch. Tonight's episode of Kitchen Nightmares hits The Seascape Restaurant on Main Street in good, ol' Islip. Last week Ramsay was in Bellmore in Nassau County.

I had no idea the series (at least the first season) was going to feature so many Long Island restaurants. I guess Ramsay wanted to stay close to, and keep an eye on, his new place in NYC. It looks like these shows were all filmed last winter or spring.

I've passed The Seascape a thousand times. The wife and I have talked about going there for years, but we've never been sure if it's even open. It always looks deserted. Anyway, this is a can't miss episode for moi. I'll have to watch Ghost Hunters at 11.

The New Art of Japanese Cooking

This is the title of the first cookbook by Masaharu Morimoto, and it's great. Of course, we all fell in love with the pudgy Japenese chef, decked out in his earring and shiny silver cooking outfit, with American flags all over it, on the original Iron Chef series.

It was on that show where we were first exposed to Morimoto's culinary vision: Japanese cooking meets global flavors-or global flavors get the Japanese treatment. The same is true in the book.

The book is enormous and has beautiful, lush photographs of the food. We also get a primer in proper sushi eating and a short but informative bio on the chef. His life is interesting. It's been a struggle for him, and he's really a self-made man. The book is well worth the yen.