One of the best dining experiences I've ever had took place last night.

I've eaten at Kali's quite a few times in the past. Each has been wonderfully memorable, but none had been as exquisit as my visit last night. We started off with a tasty bottle of bubbles, and the wine kept coming, so that may have played a part in my enjoyment!

We had a great table outside in the garden and were treated to an amouse bouche of seared scallop over diced cuccumber with a soy reduction that served its purpose in making us all hungry for more. We followed that with two orders of the Paddlefish caviar (there WERE six of us), which was equally enjoyed by the veterans as well as the novices. Nice and silky smooth with the slightest bit of brininess.

For the first courses, we had the fennel steamed clams (they were out of mussels and made a substitution), crab and artichoke phyllos, tuna tartar, and possibly the best foie gras I've ever had, by far my favorite part of the meal. The foie was seared perfectly and served over a walnut-olive French toast with apricots in a Grand Marnier gastrique...YUM.

The second course consisted of a couple orders of duck and mushroom flatbread (delish), a sweet corn bisque with chopped lobster, and two salads that I didn't even get to try, because apparently they were so good that they were devoured in seconds!

For the main course, my mother-in-law and I each got the bouliabaise, which was so full of shellfish and halibut that I thought I'd need a wheelbarrow to get me out of there. My father-in-law had the seared tuna that was so delicate and prepared so well that it melted in your mouth. Missi had the whole bronzini...braving the fact that she'd have to look her dinner in the eye...the skin was crispy and just salty enough over the flaky flesh. Mike, my brother-in-law, had the ginormous pork chop stuffed with figs and stuff. Somehow he managed to finish the entire thing (with a little help from his wife and I). The sixth entree...let me just say that normally I hate, no DESPISE salmon unless it's raw with rice and wasabi, but this made me reconsider my stance. Carla, Mike's wife, had the most perfectly cooked, slightly sweetly glazed filet of salmon that I never knew was possible.

As if you can't tell already, we were feeling a bit gluttonous last night, so we ended up with one of each desert, my favorite of which had to be the custard, phyllo, pistacchio thingy...AWESOME.

Cheers to Darin and Vasili for once again proving why I'll keep coming back to Kali's again and again.