Last night was a great night. I went to a friend's house and made sushi and sashimi. We then devoured our creations as we got pleasantly inebriated, first with gin & cranberry and then on wine, and watched 3 or 4 episodes of the Iron Chef, possibly the best television show ever conceived by mankind. Chaiman Kaga is, indeed, a mad genius.

For those of who are familiar with this program, you know what I am talking about. For those of you who are not, all I can say is, get the Food Network and get watching. You surely won't regret it.

The premise behind Iron Chef is that a insanely wealthy and eccentric gourmet (portrayed by Chaiman Kaga Takeshi) lives in his castle with a army of fine chefs. He delights in staging food battles between his honored Iron Chefs and premiere chefs of the culinary world.

It's that eccentric nature of Kaga's character that accounts for the sequined and Liberace-esque wardrobe that he sports. That's the word on the street, anyway.

Kaga is actually the only actor on the show. The rest of the people are actual chefs, food critics, sports commentators, what have you. If you think you've seen Kaga before, it may have been in a PBS special with the international cast of Les Miserables; Kaga was Jean Valjean in Japan's 1994 production. He was also the first Japanese Tony in West Side Story (1977) as well as the first Japanese Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar (1976).

The highlight of the night was the "Japanese Lobster Battle" between Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto and American restauranteur/chef Bobby Flay from the Mesa Grill in NYC and host of Food Nation on the Food Network.

This was a rematch of an earlier "battle" between the two that took place in New York City. That one was taken by Morimoto, so there was something of a revenge factor here.

The audience was pumped. They were going wild. Signs, costumes, the whole works. It was something like a cross between American Gladiators and WWF wrestling. Here are the dishes:

Challenger's Dishes:
Spicy marinated lobster with coconut milk and avocado
Lobster fruit salad with hot sauce
Mexican style lobster
Butterfly, mango and carrot sauce
Surf and Turf

Iron Chef's Dishes:
Drunken Lobster, served with Japanese lime and salt
Lobster appetizers
Sushi roll, fried and served with cheese sauce
Lobster shabu shabu

Results: 4 to 1 in favor of challenger Bobby Flay

Judges' Scores Total
Flay17 18 20 17 17 89
Morimoto18 17 19 14 15 83

My top 5 favorite shows on the Food Network:
Iron Chef
A Cook's Tour
Good Eats
The Naked Chef
Emeril Live