The cloudy-eyed heads of the fish were stoically averted from the bare fronds of their ribs. The baby octopus wasn't moving, but the few he'd seen looked perfect, purple and white beneath a yellow haystack of frizzled ginger.

A steaming plate appeared in front of Lex- the crab wontons, nestled in a lettuce leaf. Blond deep-fried dumplings.Maybe she'd walk out without braining George...Another waiter swept past their table holding two platters of Crustaceans' signature entree. Rich, briny crab. Nutty brown butter.

Wow, look at him go! I've never seen anyone fillet a whole salmon that quickly!""You looked pretty impressive when you butchered that monkfish, y'know.""W-what?! B-but I could never do it that fast. And Kurokiba isn't just fast... there's no hesitation or waste in any of his movements. He's gotten even better since I faced him in the Fall Classic!

Tadokoro, what's your favorite kind of bowl?""Um, I-I don't know if it's a bowl, per se, and I know it's not made with meat...... but at home we'd grill scallops on a hibachi grill. When the shell popped open, we'd put a little butter and soy sauce inside...and then we'd put it all over fresh, hot white rice. It was really yummy!

Chef had made paella, studded with linguica and chunks of lobster meat and fresh clams,

The first course arrives, a riff on bouillabaisse, with a deep-fried mussel-stuffed zucchini blossom, a small square of seared rockfish, a crouton topped with rouille, that garlicky red pepper-infused aioli that is the traditional topping, all in a small puddle of saffron-infused fish broth. And we are off to the races.

Kokoda isn't actually sushi, it's fish cooked in lime juice. Ceviche, which is made in Central and South America, is prepared in the same way. It's a chemical process, the citric acid denatures the proteins in the flesh of the fish so the molecules change their structure

Four hours later, Gus, Carmen, and Oliver shared a celebratory bottle to toast the best meal they had ever cooked on the fly: plates of paella-inspired risotto with clams, salt-crusted trout with fennel, thinly sliced Wagyu beef with thyme butter, and a trio of cream puffs flavored with ginger, green tea, and chocolate-chili, among other dishes.

Not to mention the endless Saturday afternoon lunches with the entire family, savoring calamares, gazpacho, pescaito frito, flounder seviche, solomillo al queso, a fillet in blue cheese sauce, and arroz con leche.

Camille didn't know how to cook, so she had stopped in at Goubetzkoï's and bought an assortment of tarama, salmon, marinated fish and onion chutneys. They filled all the great-uncle's little bowls with painstaking care, and to reheat the blinis on the hot plate they fashioned an ingenious sort of toaster from an old lid and some tinfoil.