Now and Zen

I tried to be better behaved on my next visit, this time with Bob and Debbie along for the meal. Once again, Bob ordered that day's special, which he'd seen printed on a board at the front of the restaurant: a salad of grilled beef, marinated in lime and chiles, lolling on a bed of curly endive with chopped tomatoes and purple onion.

"You know, I don't even like this kind of food, and I love this place," said Bob, a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy.

Debbie, who now lives in Australia, is a more adventurous diner and considered one of the six vegetarian choices before finally choosing a dish of mussels, shrimp and cherrystone clams in a punchy red curry. "It's delicious," she said. "This is the kind of restaurant we have all over Australia. A combination of Asian cuisines all melded together."

My dish was distinctly cross-cultural: Kansas beef -- flank steak -- marinated in green papaya, scallions, ginger, and garlic, then perfectly grilled and served on a mound of mashed potatoes flavored, ever so delicately, with wasabi. It was zensational, I must say.

After those head-clearing spices, we were ready for something cold and creamy to cool our palates. The menu boasts green-tea ice cream and a trio of tropical sorbets, but the true Zen experience is a silken coconut flan drenched in a soothing caramel sauce. Baby, I felt like Siddhartha after my second spoonful of that heavenly confection. Bob, always the rebel, ordered the dessert spring roll, a sheath of phyllo pastry wrapped around fresh bananas, cashews and chocolate, then deep-fried and served with vanilla ice cream. The banana becomes like baked custard inside the hot, crispy coating. After stealing a bite from his plate, I could understand his post-dessert nirvana.

OK, so maybe we all didn't reach a state of divine enlightenment after experiencing Zen Zero, but we did discover a treasure trove of pan-Asian fare. Maybe it was the seductive qualities of the ginger, but I get zentimental just thinking about the place.