Nobu -- NY

I have tasted perfection in New York City.  A quick bus trip up (yes, I said bus), found me at the Nobu in Tribeca.  The mood was as any trendy NY restaurant should be (after the baby left), but the menu had way too many choices.  So my friend Darryl and I opted for the Chef's choice tasting menu.  There were 3 options based on price... which determines the quality of ingredients.  We had our eyes on the high-quality flesh (Kobe beef) so we opted for the highest price option to ensure we got that.  Interesting part of that was of the 8 courses, the beef was my least favorite -- albeit amazing in its own right.  But the one course I can still taste a week later, I even took a picture for you... was the sashimi thin sliced red snapper, served raw.  It carried a dot of a red spicy sauce and a dot of black pepper.  Served with a mound of cilantro and floating in a lemon juice reduction.  The flavors in this were simply stunning. The other courses were, in order:  tuna garlic tartar, teriyaki oysters, the red snapper, ginger tuna salad, caramelized black cod, kobe beef, sushi with clam soup, green tea ice cream and flourless choc. cake.  I may very well remember this meal as being so good because of the sun-dried fig martini which had me on my ass three seconds after arriving... but oh, what flavors!