(Home-Cooked) Dinner in Chinatown

The windy, neon-lit streets of Chinatown - slick and glowing beneath sheets of driving rain as we recently made our way to Christine Hart's (who you've met on these pages before) charming home - cast an exotic spell after sundown. On the fourth floor of a blue-tiled apartment building, straight out of a Wong Kar Wai Hong Kong production, lay our destination. Clean white walls highlighted with bursts of primary pop colors is an apt description of Cafe Christine, but the metaphor could be stretched and adapted to describe her brand of Southeast Asian-kissed culinaria. The meal began with tropical passion fruit and rum cocktails, nearly as addictive as the gnosh bowl of assorted rice crackers and spiced nuts. First up was a twist on the standard pumpkin soup, here given a wee bit of bite and loads of cheek with an unexpected Thai flavor profile. Refreshing the palate was a salad of frisee, red onions and orange slices, dressed in a light sesame vinegarette. The entree was a stunner of flawlessly prepared broiled salmon (glazed with honey and miso), steamed Chinese greens and rich wasabi mashed potatoes. We went home highly satisfied by the additional perks of the great company (see photos above of Octavio F. and Christine's pal Lisa), raspberry sorbet and espresso for dessert and the delight of friendly, three-legged house mascot, Roni (see above as well). We asked for the recipe for the marvelous soup that so captivated us at the meal's start, and Ms. Hart was kind enough to oblige. The recipe - in her own words - is below.

THAI SPICED PUMPKIN SOUP

1 small pumpkin (or any squash acorn, butternut) /1 can coconut milk /2-3 cups of water or light vegetable stock ( i used water) /4-6 teaspoons red curry paste /1 tblsp palm sugar / 1-2 tblspns fish sauce /4-6 kaffir lime leaves / sea salt /olive oil /cilantro for garnish

1. Clean, slice and drizzle the pumpkin with a small amount of olive oil and salt. Bake in the over for about an hour at 350 degrees until tender.
2. Scrape out of the skin and into a food processor, add the coconut milk and puree.
3. Put into a sauce pan over low heat and stir in the curry paste.
4. Add the palm sugar, fish sauce and tear the lime leaves into the pan. slowly add water and adjust seasoning to taste.
5. Simmer for about 15 min over low heat; remove the lime leaves.
6. Serve with cilantro loosely chopped.

Editor's Note: Don't treat the cilantro garnish as optional; the subtle flavor adds yet another dimension to this complex soup. And for those in the area, Christine alerted us to a great new find - a Thai grocery store on Mosco Street, Bangkok Center Market, that makes its own in-house, fresh curry paste mixtures.