I head to the barn. In the back is a heavy-duty door with a light behind it. Stone steps lead down.

... and there is my friend waiting at the bottom of the steps.

He shows us into a comfortable looking room with a few tables

A friendly waitress with wine glasses says hello.

... and here come the vitroPearls!^tm®©

ooops ... let's try that again ... here come the vitroPearls!^tm®©

my portion ...

So what did it taste like? In the mouth pearls pop with just a bit of tongue pressure, then melt into a satifying meaty feeling, savourly salty. There is a faint flavor similar to wild boar? Ham? I ate my small portion mostly with the spoon, finishing the juices with the blini.

To top it off my friend surprised me with a bottle of Piesporter Treppchen, dry with a hint of sweetness. My Granma used to mention that one often so many years ago. Nice. The new and the old.

heading back home now into the City ...

The Bourgeois Pig

It's a comfortable decadent storefront wine bar in the Alphabets on a stormy evening. There are no other customers showing this early - just after six - until we finish barely an hour later when the first diners drift in. The decor includes ill-matched settees, arm chairs, and a red velvet sofa claimed by a friendly black pit bull, one of their regular customers the owner explains. Music is eclectic from the seventies?, the kind you would hear in an American expatriate hangout in Paris.

We opt for a recommended Chateau Saint Sulpice 2003 Bordeaux, smooth and having body. I would have preferred a Rhone with a bit of fruit I think. After-dinner research reveals that St. Sulpice was a son of wealthy parents who renounced the idea of marriage and devoted himself to good works at an early age, especially to care for the poor. A church in Paris named after him has recently experienced increased attendance since being mentioned in The Da Vinci Code ... none of which relates to our dinner in any way.

The food of choice is fondue, perfect for the wet Nor'easter blowing outside, though choice may be the wrong word. It goes a bit like that Monty Python spam skit; there is hearty fondue and sweet fondue, or we can have cheese boards, or perhaps cheese brochettes? The special is Bourgeois Pig Fondue with extra spicy cheese, a hearty herb seasoned fondue arriving with a surprisingly huge board of peppery frites, olives, gherkins, deadly butter-soaked bread, fresh strawberries, sliced perfect apples and oranges and shredded artichokes. We are stuffed in no time yet manage to clean the hot pot down to the last stringy globs of Gruyere sticking to the bottom.

It's still cats and dogs as we head back home, the short dash is barely enough exercise to make room for chocolate babka waiting in the wings.

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Park Avenue Corners - 42th to 34th Street

For thousands of years we had the most beautiful art, artists above and beyond... To what we have now, the ugliest art in history.