Halloween feast ONCE more (with better pix)

Sometimes it seems as though I'm surrounded by generous and creative people.

First, I got to go to a ONCE dinner, which required some fabulously talented kitchen artists to spend days of cooking (and doubtless weeks of planning) to create a truly unique meal.

And now one of my fellow diners, who was wielding a far nicer camera than mine, has kindly allowed me to post some of his shots here.

So before I go further, an enormous THANK! YOU! to Benjamin Eckstein, director of photography, video editor, producer. Check out his site benjamineckstein.com, especially the gorgeous highlights reel.

And now: selections from ONCE Upon a Midnight Dreary, but better. Think of this as a blog post in HD.

The Thai tom yum soup. I think the silvery thing in the middle might be an eyeball.



The chicken feet that garnished the soup. Or, if you like, stood in it.



A lovely shot of JJ Gonson, our hostess:



The other kitchen magicians; unfortunately I don't know their names, though I suspect one of them is Jennifer, who has blogged about what went on before and during the dinner.



Some juicy skewered hearts (rabbit, I think):



And the lamb's tongue Reubens:



Both of the above are intended to give a sense of the scale of the dinner; there were some 40 guests, all of whom were served each course (more or less) simultaneously, from a kitchen the size of the average office cube.

Also, I neglected to mention last time that the Reuben included from-scratch sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing, made with from-scratch pickles. Yes.

The kidney fricassée in puff pastry was one of the best things I've had in a long time. Right up there with the deep-fried foie gras from PDC.



Giant water bugs, awaiting the fillet knife:



And lastly, a great angle on JJ finishing up dessert.



Thanks again to Benjamin — and also, of course, to the wonderful ONCE team!