To commemorate the year of the black dragon, we held a wedding banquet feast prepared by superstar chef Susur Lee in collaboration with the master chefs at Shun Lee. Chinese cuisine will take center stage as our guests feast on a traditional wedding banquet with eight auspicious courses. Each dish is selected not only for its deliciousness but also to inspire long life and prosperity to the new bride and groom.

At this cabaret-style dinner, we were serenaded during dinner with musical performances from Broadway veterans and our evening’s “bride and groom” Dina Morishita (lead role in Disney’s Aladdin) and Welly Yang (lead role in Miss Saigon). The two talents met on stage while performing as lovers in Yang’s musical adaptation of Ang Lee’s Wedding Banquet and then went on to become actual bride and groom.

Presided over by celebrity chef and Top Chef master Susur Lee (Lee’s, Toronto; Chinois, Singapore; Zentan, Washington, D.C.) and the author of Susur: A Culinary Life, the banquet took place at the sumptuous Shun Lee Palace, often referred to as the best Chinese restaurant in the New York.

After the feast, we toasted the bride and groom as we usher in the year of the black dragon with premium cognac pairings by D’USSE.

Two Thai culinary masters devoted to faithful Thai cooking came together in a one-night-only collaborative dinner at Pok Pok NY, Brooklyn’s buzz-worthy new restaurant.

Michelin-starred Thai culinary master David Thompson (nahm, Sydney, London and Bangkok) and James Beard Award winning chef Andy Ricker (Pok Pok, Portland and New York) created a rustic Northern Thai meal that recreated what a Thai family would eat on a in Northern Thailand.

It was an epic night of Hawaiian Regional Cuisine at the 2012 LUCKYRICE Festival when several iconic Hawaiian chefs presented dishes like spicy lemongrass oxtail soup and Big Island ribeye to a packed house atop the Hotel Gansevoort. The names (drum roll): Alan Wong, Roy Yamaguchi, Chai Chaowasaree, Vikram Garg, along with world-acclaimed mixologist Julie Reiner.

They all made the journey in the name of sharing their local flavors. How local? Vikram Garg brought his own Hawaiian sea water for poaching his abalone dish. We caught up with all the chefs to ask them about their favorite New York City memories (food is involved), as well as their favorite Hawaiian island. (Hint: Everybody likes Kaua‘i a lot).

– Matt Rodbard

Julie Reiner of Lani Kai What is the difference between Hawaiian cocktails and tiki cocktails? People sometimes think they are they same thing… They are sort of intertwined . Both have a take on Hawaiian escapist culture and they use tropical fruit. It’s what people want to drink on the beach. Modern tropical cocktails, which I do at Lani Kai, sort of takes those tropical flavors, but incorporates Scotch or gin—instead of only rum. So it’s a little bit drier and sometimes done as a fizz. What is your favorite Hawaiian island? Kaua‘i. The north shore is beautiful. It’s a tropical rain forest. It’s lush and green. It’s what you think about when you think of Hawai‘i. It’s a very spiritual place.

Kicking off the LUCKYRICE festival 2012 was a Bombay gin-fueled bash at the Bowery Hotel featuring some of New York’s most creative chefs and mixologists who were asked to serve two cocktails and a dish that best represents them. Mission, accomplished.

The Cocktail Feast also showcased how Asian ingredients can be creatively incorporated into mixology, with citrus like yuzu and calamansi mingling with harsher herbs like galangal. We asked the mixologists—and chefs cooking the parings—about working with Asian ingredients, and for their craziest drinking story from a trip to Asia.

– Matt Rodbard

Pichet Ong How do you define an Asian style of cocktail? A lot of the tropical fruits lend themselves really well to mixology—calamansi, yuzu, mango, pineapple. You can even use some of the herbs like cilantro and galangal. You’re starting to see this style of mixology worldwide—I’ve seen them in Australia and Dubai. What was your craziest night of drinking in Asia? Whatever happens in Bangkok, stays in Bangkok. There are quite a few bars on Khao San Road that I’ve been to.

Dave Arnold, the fast-talking baby-faced mad scientist behind New York’s most exciting new cocktail bar BOOKER AND DAX, gets fired up just talking about hosting the LUCKYRICE Festival's kickoff event, the Epicurean Cocktail Feast featuring seven bars he hand selected for having stellar cocktail programs and equally excellent food menus.
 
“We didn’t pick anybody we didn’t think was great,” he says of the selection process that consisted of “sitting around at a bar with a bunch of bartenders  talking about the places we all like to go to.”

The final list of participating bars includes a diverse list of standouts: Acme, An Choi, JBird, Macao Trading Co., The Beagle and Madam Geneva. The party goes down on Tuesday, May 1 at the Bowery Hotel. Limited tickets are still available. (See sidebar for our ticket promotion – good for the first 50 tickets purchased until 5pm on April 5th only.)
 
LUCKYRICE asks each bar to serve two cocktails and a dish that best represents them. It also showcases how Asian ingredients can be creatively incorporated into mixology. Arnold, who runs the popular bar adjacent to Momofuku Ssäm Bar and has served as Director of Culinary Technology at the French Culinary Institute, jumps at the opportunity to concoct a drink using Asian produce and Bombay Sapphire EAST, which is sponsoring the event.

“I have somebody in California who can get me some crazy citrus,” he says before rattling off his ideas for incorporating bergamot or natsudaidai oranges. “Natsudaidai could be used to make something similar to a bitter lemon. We’d probably clarify it and carbonate it. We want it to be refreshing.”
 
The only thing is, brilliant as they may be, these are just fragments of ideas swirling around Arnold’s brain. He won’t know exactly what he’s making for weeks, partially due to the seasonality of produce and partially due to his creative process.  “It kind of freaks event planners out because I wait until the last second to decide. By May, we’re going to have some really cool things to work with. I just can’t commit now.”
 
Marshall Altier, Co-Beverage Director at Upper East Side lounge JBird,will not be waiting to see what the new season brings. He’s serving a variation of the gin martini (the classic Tuxedo #2 to be specific), adding absinthe, curacao, maraschino liqueur and bitters. “The drink is rounded out with the addition of Asian teas steeped into each ingredient. We call it the Silk Tuxedo,” he says.
 
Altier has traveled to Asia a number of times and excitedly describes the craft cocktail scene there as emerging. “It's vastly different from city to city—Japan's cocktail scene speaks for itself, but the real interest is in places like Hong Kong and Singapore that have grown exponentially and have a real desire for Western items like craft cocktails.”

Other drinks being served at the Epicurean Cocktail Feast include The Beagle’s complex Miso Honey (Bombay Sapphire East, honey, miso, fresh yuzu, hops bitters and Singha) and their cleverly named Ponzu Scheme (tequila, ponzu, curacao, Campari, curry powder and szechuan pepper).

Macao Trading Co. will serve the Drunken Dragon's Milk, a pan-Asian blend of green tea vodka, coconut puree, lime juice, pandam leaf syrup, Thai basil leaves and homemade Macao five spice bitters. By our count, that’s five cultural references in one glass.
 
And when Arnold figures out what he’s serving, LUCKYRICE will be sure to send it out on Twitter. We have full confidence in his abilities—and connections in the black market citrus trade.

–Matt Rodbard