Dinner with Colin Firth......

Saturday, December 2

Well, not really dinner with him... but near him. Isn't that enough??? I was at one of my favourite Japanese restaurants in NYC called Omen (113 Thompson Street between Prince and Spring). It's a beautiful and cosy restaurant hidden in the heart of Soho that has only a few seasonal and beautiful menus from the chef. More on that later and now back to Colin. Well, as I was heading to the back of the restaurant with the waitress, I noticed him with friends and it had to be him. I had my friend check, doing the washroom bit where you pretend you are looking for the washroom and taking peaks of him, and it was confirmed. 100 % Colin Firth or Darcy or Mark Darcy, live in person. Our table was right behind him so I saw the back of his head and neck all night... you take what you can get. I noticed other people in the restaurant looking natural and then noticing him all of a sudden and sneaking in peaks too, so I felt I was in good company with other people star struck as well. So my friend and I agreed that he looks exactly like he does in the movies. All I could find out about him is that he likes drinking sake and eating Japanese food, and he was dressed very casually with jeans, black turtleneck and cordoroy jacket. Well, sorry guys, but that's all I could find out, unless I drank too much sake, went up to him to disturb his dinner and make a fool of myself. I was just glad I had a friend there to make sure I wasn't imagining things and could share in the star struck excitement. Apparently Colin is in town filming a new movie called The Accidental Husband with Uma Thurman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Denis from Grey's Anatomy), and others. I think he was sitting across from Sam Shepard who is also in the movie. They were with two women with them and I couldn't place them. When you tell people in NYC about this encounter, they will often have their own stories of celebs they have recently spotted, like sitting behind Michael York in a movie theatre or seeing George Clooney at the UN.

So now about the restaurant. Omen is a macrobiotic restaurant, meaning that the restaurant follows macrobiotic principles, started in Japan, so the meals are well balanced and healthy. The presentation of every course is very beautiful with different colours, textures and tastes on lovely Japanese pottery. There are only a few seasonal menus that are presented by the chef, the basic menu each time but one with fish, one with meat and one with sashimi, which is what I took. I chose brown rice with chiso (persilla or beef stake leaves that are often seen with Japanese food and I love), clear soup and homemade pickles to accompany my meal and a dessert of green tea ice cream, adzuki beans and small moochi cakes to end it. There is also an extensive sake list with sakes from different parts of Japan. I chose a cold brown rice sake that was lovely. So I was quite the happy camper as you can imagine!!! Omen has one location in NY and two locations in Kyoto.

In the afternoon, I did some Christmas shopping at the indoor Christmas market at Grand Central Terminal, which was lovely. The weather has turned cold all of a sudden (about 20 - 30 degress F lower than yesterday) so it was nice to spend it indoors. The terminal has a complete program in December to encourage visitors to stay and shop there. In particular, they have a lovely holiday light show that starts every half hour throughout the day and evening that is called Kaleidoscope with light projections of designs shown across the monumental walls and pillars, synchronized to classical music. Many people were just standing or sitting down in the terminal watching the show. Afterwards, when touring the terminal, I didn't realize that they have a very large food market with fresh produce and take away dishes for commuters, some restaurants and bars on all levels, a lower concourse with numerous take-out counters and eating areas, and over 100 high-end shops. Also, I didn't know that upstairs in the terminal there is a 13th century palace with Renaissance antiques and it is now a bar. It was formerly the private apartment of a business tycoon and is called The Campbell Apartment. http://www.grandcentralterminal.com/pages/getpage.aspx?id=37FBE0FE-9D55-4103-B002-79B615E06CAF Also, do you know that over 700,000 peole pass through Grand Central Terminal everyday? That's quite amazing, like the population of Ottawa. I've passed through the terminal several times but didn't truly appreciate all its lovely architecture, designs and details and what the public can experience, mostly for free. For more info on the terminal visit www.grandcentralterminal.com